May 10 #BookReview Luck and Death at the Edge of the World by Nas Hedron a first person sci-fi mystery #books #amreading
Luck and Death at the Edge of the World
by Nas Hedron
4 out of 5 Black Cats
Luck and Death At The Edge Of The World by Nas Hedron is a first person sci-fi mystery about Gat Burroughs, a security specialist for hire who is employed by Max Prince, a paranoid, washed up superstar, to improve his security and find out who tried to kill him. The attack seems impossible with the high tech security system Max owns, and every clue Gat uncovers only leads to more questions. With people trying to murder Gat and no evidence pointing to a suspect, Gat must make choices that put his life in danger. Will he find his killer or will he end up on the slab with the other victims.
I’d like to start with my first impression of the book before reading anything other than the description. I liked the plug for the book; it made the book sound interesting. I’m not really into mystery books, but it was set in the future in an interesting sci-fi world, so I thought that might keep me interested. The cover didn’t appeal to me. After reading the book, I can see how it relates to the story, but I still don’t like it. It doesn’t give me a professional impression and I worried that might reflect in the writing. There is a lot of advertising at the beginning of the book. I would have preferred it at the end. I don’t care about this authors work yet. I haven’t read anything by him yet. I just wanted to get to the story. By the end of the book, I would be interested in seeing all that because the author told a good story. I would take the time then to go through it, not at the beginning. I skipped through it to start reading. The author sent me a PDF so I downloaded the free sample to see how the kindle formatting was handled. I wasn’t bad. My only gripe is that it’s formatted for non-fiction not fiction. The paragraphs are not indented and there are spaces between paragraphs, nonfiction style.
I wasn’t sure if I’d like this story, not being into mystery. I read the prolog and thought, well that was different, and became a bit more enthusiastic. A few chapters in and I was satisfied. The main character was interesting and the writing style clean and easy to follow. The descriptions and development of the world were well written and thought out. A lot of work went into the world. Once or twice, I thought the world descriptions went on a bit too long, but never enough to make me want to stop reading or start skipping parts. I worried a bit when the first chapter started with a dream since this is cliche, but the Tijuana dreams figure into the characters development prominently so I can accept this beginning.
The other characters are super described in refreshing ways compared to other works I’ve been reading. This was a nice treat for me, as a writer. I found the part about the spider and the gang who cares for her especially interesting, and wished it had been a bigger part of the book. I hope future books in this world use the spider more. I really liked the idea behind the luck stealing as well, and hope to see more of that in future books.
The mystery plot the book is based around isn’t complicated or full of twists like I’d expect in a mystery, but it does work and the world Gat lives in keeps you interested.
My only complaint with the story is a part where Gat is interrogating a guy who works at the shell factory (human shell, you’ll have to read the book to find out what that means). We fall into the point of view of the sales guy going into his past and how he was bullied. This is a first person book; Gat couldn’t possibly know that information about a guy he has never met. The author broke point of view for a paragraph or two. Shame, shame. The rest of the book was written so well with only maybe on copy editing issue per chapter, I can overlook one mess up.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and am glad I got to read it. I definitely recommend trying it.