Shadow of a Dead Star
Brainycat's 5 "B"s:blood: 3
boobs:2
bombs:3
bondage: 2
blasphemy: 3
I bought this book based on the reader reviews here at GR. In retrospect, I agree with most of the points that John Peters wrote on 27 April 2012. However, I would have liked to see a lot more sex and violence. I'm just that kind of reader.
My biggest problems with the book are twofold. First, there's nothing in this storyline that's uniquely what I consider cyberpunk. You could take this same plot with the same characters and retool the setting and vocabulary into in any industrialized backdrop. It's a straight-up classic noir story, featuring a loner protagonist with a heart of gold and a dark secret, a revolving collection of femme fatales (most of whom do double duty as Mary Sues)and an oppressive jocular institution making life difficult.
My second problem with the book was the finale; the book ends in a monologue with the arch enemy ("No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die...") and cut to black. At no point in the story was the enemy given enough room to develop, I felt like I was being taken for granted and expected to not like the antagonists simply because the lead character didn't like them. I found myself much more interested in the antagonists, actually, and somewhat sympathetic to their cause even before the big (yawn) reveal.
Other reviewers have said the finale was too abrupt. When it finally happened, I was glad I could finally move on to another book. Usually, I give up on books that aren't engaging me, but for some reason I wanted to stick with this one and finish it. I believe I just wanted to see if there was some sort twist coming up that made the whole thing worth all the good ratings I'd seen. But the further I got into the book, I found myself reading it just to see how accurate my predictions were. Unfortunately, the plot twists I expected nearly all happened right on cue.
It's an easy book to read, the digital edition I purchased had no noticeable typos or formatting errors and the author is in command of his language but doesn't stretch the reader's ability to parse any grammar or vocabulary.
