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trevert's review
4.0
Short, sharp, and loads of fun. It's on the short side, somewhere between novella and novel (To audiobook readers, it's a 4.5 hour book), but the length works in its favor in keeping the pace fast and frenetic. The feel is pure, glorious pulp, sort of like a modern, grungy, post-apocalyptic Edgar Rice Burroughs with a story that grabs you and barrels ahead without waiting to put on the seatbelts.
Diesel is a young woman born into the crackle-mad world of fractured Nevadaland, the landscape of weirdos and monsters (human and otherwise) that has sprung up in the wake of the collapse of the USA. Due to a clerical error reminiscent of the movie Brazil, she ends up forced to compete in the Games as a male, putting her in direct competition with scores of hardened & trained fighters along with multi-armed mutants and more. The out-of-place Diesel must quickly learn to adapt and survive or get squashed like a bug.
Diesel's personality is a big part of why I enjoyed this book. Having been raised by the state, she's a unique combination of fit, naive, savvy, and innocent, and it's fun watching her reactions as she navigates this bizarro world of gladiators that she's dropped into upon turning "of age". A lot of books with female leads annoy me because they have an unfortunate tendency to skew towards the "chick-lit" genre with a heroine who spends the book mooning over shoes and the perfect guy, but Diesel is entertainingly no-nonsense.
I really only have two demerits for the book, and one is strictly for the audiobook version. The author has an authorial stylistic tic of including a lot of sound effects in her writing - "SPLOOOSH!", "KRACCAKRBOOM!", etc - which one glides over seamlessly in written print but which sound a bit silly in spoken word, when a lot of them happen at once (and this is a book filled with a lot of things going BOOM). Sometimes the transition from written word to audio produces unexpected side effects, this is one of them.
My only other "complaint" is that it's too short! This first book is essentially set-up - You meet the world, you meet the players, and you meet Diesel. There is action, yes, and the backgrounds of each player are loads of fun (The train story in particular could be a horror novel unto itself) but just as you're getting really into it, bam, it's over and time for the next book. Thankfully the next one is already published and they seem to be rolling out on a speedy timeframe, again in keeping with the old-school pulp feel of the story... No doorstopper brick novels here, just quick, punchy adventures that make you grab and hang on.
If you enjoyed The Running Man, ERB's Mars books, TV series Blood Drive, Escape from New York, or any number of other "Shoot it in the face!" grindhouse adventures, you'll probably get a kick out of this, possibly right in your nethers. Recommended!
Diesel is a young woman born into the crackle-mad world of fractured Nevadaland, the landscape of weirdos and monsters (human and otherwise) that has sprung up in the wake of the collapse of the USA. Due to a clerical error reminiscent of the movie Brazil, she ends up forced to compete in the Games as a male, putting her in direct competition with scores of hardened & trained fighters along with multi-armed mutants and more. The out-of-place Diesel must quickly learn to adapt and survive or get squashed like a bug.
Diesel's personality is a big part of why I enjoyed this book. Having been raised by the state, she's a unique combination of fit, naive, savvy, and innocent, and it's fun watching her reactions as she navigates this bizarro world of gladiators that she's dropped into upon turning "of age". A lot of books with female leads annoy me because they have an unfortunate tendency to skew towards the "chick-lit" genre with a heroine who spends the book mooning over shoes and the perfect guy, but Diesel is entertainingly no-nonsense.
I really only have two demerits for the book, and one is strictly for the audiobook version. The author has an authorial stylistic tic of including a lot of sound effects in her writing - "SPLOOOSH!", "KRACCAKRBOOM!", etc - which one glides over seamlessly in written print but which sound a bit silly in spoken word, when a lot of them happen at once (and this is a book filled with a lot of things going BOOM). Sometimes the transition from written word to audio produces unexpected side effects, this is one of them.
My only other "complaint" is that it's too short! This first book is essentially set-up - You meet the world, you meet the players, and you meet Diesel. There is action, yes, and the backgrounds of each player are loads of fun (The train story in particular could be a horror novel unto itself) but just as you're getting really into it, bam, it's over and time for the next book. Thankfully the next one is already published and they seem to be rolling out on a speedy timeframe, again in keeping with the old-school pulp feel of the story... No doorstopper brick novels here, just quick, punchy adventures that make you grab and hang on.
If you enjoyed The Running Man, ERB's Mars books, TV series Blood Drive, Escape from New York, or any number of other "Shoot it in the face!" grindhouse adventures, you'll probably get a kick out of this, possibly right in your nethers. Recommended!
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