Brett Patton

Surprisingly slightly better than the previous book in the series.

Matt is now a secret Hero of the Union and gets to go on lots of undercover missions with his massive Demon class biomechanical robot hybrid soldier toy. One of these includes eliminating a cology of HuMax, Union's arch enemy of genemodded super 'humans'. Matt realises they are in fact "just people" living simple lives on their own, and rebels, joining the Union's other foe, the Cluster. Which he soon realises are also "just show more people". And so begins his next quest in life - to convert the Union into seeing everyone as people rather than enemies.

If it sounds somewhat simplisitic and beat-you-over-your-head moralisitic that's because it is. But it is, in places, also quite good fun. there isn't enough banter between the characters, or indeed much dialogue at all, adn whatt ehre is comes across stilted, but there's plenty of action. The plot is predictable with the outcome that you'd expect, but how we get there is mostly entertaining. The capabilitie sof the various robot types continue to be forgettable, but we've lost the vast scale problems - apart from one very bad example at the end: where does Matt's body go when he "shards" his demon?

With a bit more characterisation both for Matt and for all the people around him, this could be a good book, but as it stands it is light entertainment at best. show less

I'm not sure why I picked up this book in Barnes and Noble. Probably because I've been playing too much Battletech. Anyhoo, the first bit is a little boring, and I probably would have stopped reading if it first portion didn't take place in Florida, Cape Canaveral, where I grew up. But as I keep reading, the story got better - so much so that I was eager to finish the book, to see what happened. The world building was clever and enjoyable, a little heavy on the revenge angst, but overall - a show more fine novel. I very much enjoyed the Mecha, thhe idea and design behind these machines. Being a Demonrider sounds awesome! In the end, I liked it enough I purchased the second and would recommend to anyone looking for a fun sci-fi read. show less

I enjoyed this book more then the first. Matt's character is challenged and expanded, and faces real conflict. He's forced to confront the truth about the main belief that drives him. Not that this made the story suddenly deep and full of moral questions. It's still your basic action story - lots of grabbling mecha, explosions and dire situations only the hero can resolve. And that is why I like it. Enjoyable, fun, fast paced - and there were even a few surprises. I recommend this book to show more people who enjoy action style sci-fi. show less

Sort of works. ish. just about. Transformers based mil-SF. Not actually part of hte transformers universe, and definetly readable without knowing what the word means! but nevertheless the influence is strongly felt.

Matt is just a poor boy from a poor colony. But thanks to his genemod inheritance from his father (retroactive? we don't know) he has achieved that which all young boys aspire too - and invite to Mecha Corps. The Union's premier fighting force. "Biometallic" robots able to show more interface with a human through a neural feedback mechanism. Matt aces his initial tests and sucessfully manages the scary interface . Now he's ready to go out and do his part for the Union and at the same time seek his revenge on the HuMax (illegla genetic manipulation unlike his) who killedhs father.

And that in a nutshell tells you all the faults with the book - the somewhat unbelivable technology, the straightforward plot, and the pig boy hero who doesn't get wounded let alone killed no matter how outgunned he is. At least he doesn't have evey beautiful woman falling at his feet, although it gets close a few times. The otehr issue that really bugged me was that of scale, these things are supposed to be 10-30m tall. House sized. Yet they perform manouvers like a human. Technology can't alter physics - mass and momentum matter!

It isn't all poor. The actual writing is quite good in places. the plot zips along with plenty of action, the characters are just about sustainable enough, although a few more could do with some fleshing out - the mecha interface flashback memories don't really provide enough. Matt needs to actually talk to them. Likewise the baddies are just about clever enough, but again it isn't really clear what their motive is.

I have the 2nd in hte series as a gift so I'll be reading it, but otherwsie I doubt I'd have bothered. Probably OK if you like mil-SF but this isn't even the best in that limited genre. show less