/lit/ - Literature

>>14701622
Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson

Yet another investigation novella.
Two disgraced officers are investigating a crime in a snapshot, which is supposedly an exact recreation of an area on a certain day. It's unclear on how exactly it works, but it seems to be more augmented reality than virtual reality. Everyone else is a "dupe" (NPC) who they can basically take control of by flashing their badges at them. Everything they interact with has the effects as if it were real, including what can be done to them by the "dupes". The protagonist's partner really likes that he can whatever to the "dupes" and there's no lasting consequences. Maybe I haven't read enough Sanderson, but it certainly different tone from I remember of what I have read. They become bored and stumble upon a mass murder and decide to track down a serial killer. They figure the fastest way is to go to the police HQ and mind control everyone with the badge and end up murdering their boss, because why not? Various other "we can do anything because consequences" don't matter sort of stuff happens. Eventually they catch the serial killer and he's killed. The protagonist then tells his partner that he's going to kill him now. Why? Well, in the language of certain anons on 4chan, because the protagonist is a soiboi betacuck who was cucked by based bull chad which made him blackpilled about his thot wife so he's become the supreme gentleman. Which is to say his partner not only has been having sex with his wife every time they are in a snapshot, he's had sex with her in IRL as well, which is what they call it. He doesn't go through with it though, much to the disappointment of the FBI, because this is a snapshot of a snapshot, snapception, and they wanted to catch him in the act, because he had actually murdered his partner. Then they reveal that they use these two for PR reasons while the black ops teams do all sorts of stuff all in the time in secret in snapshots. The FBI then uses the badges on them, kills one of them, and ends the simulation. The End.
So while the general idea is fine, I didn't like how it was done. I didn't like much about it overall in general, but I don't outright dislike it.
Rating: 2/5 (rounded up)