“Snapshot” by Brandon Sanderson
Snapshot is a near-future science fiction novella set in a world where an entire city can be recreated virtually so that detectives can investigate crimes (kind of like the movie Source Code.) We follow Anthony Davis and his partner Chaz as they investigate a murder and stumble onto a larger crime than the one they were originally assigned.
I’m usually a big fan of Brandon Sanderson’s work, but I didn’t think Snapshot was that good. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it didn’t pull me in like most of his other work. I was intrigued by the premise, but I wasn’t quite able to connect with the characters, and since the story depends entirely on the relationship between Davis and Chaz, I wasn’t invested in the outcome. The book seemed to be going for a gritty tone, and I don’t think that is the author’s forte – I usually associate his worldbuilding with a lot of detail, but this book seemed very shallow somehow.
I think Snapshot would work better as a movie (not something I say very often), and it’s actually been optioned by MGM, so I’m hoping something comes out of that.