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coolcurrybooks's review against another edition
3.0
Addict wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was a fairly decent read.
Cassie Tam is a PI in New Hopeland, a city built to be a shining light of technological progress. A woman named Lori Redwood comes to Cassie, wanting to hire her to investigate the death of her brother, Eddie Redwood. The police say it’s an open and shut case: Eddie, an virtual reality addict, overdosed on VR drugs. But Lori insists that while Eddie was a VR addict, he never used the drugs. Cassie’s dubious, but a job is a job. When Cassie starts digging, she finds that Lori may be right and that Eddie’s death was a murder.
In a lot of ways, Addict reminded me of a certain type of urban fantasy novel. You probably know what I mean. There’s a tough as nails female protagonist who investigates a mystery and finds romance along the way. In this case, the love interest is a Tech Shifter, not a werewolf or some other sort of supernatural shape shifter. Lori uses a mechanical suit that interfaces with her neural implants to role play as Ink, a black panther. I did sort of wonder about the application of Tech Shifting. Cassie mentions it’s used by fetishists and furries, but she also mentions that the police have a special unit of Tech Shifters — how does it give any benefits that you wouldn’t get from a human shaped mecha suit? Oh well.
As you might suspect from the above paragraph, Lori is Cassie’s love interest. I think Cassie identifies as a lesbian, although the word isn’t specifically used (I guess she could still turn out to be bi or pan). Lori is part of the kink community, and there’s some discussion of that, role play, and BDSM. That said, Addict is relatively non-sexual. While there might be discussions relating to sex, there’s no actual sex scenes.
My most specific criticism of Addict relates to the characterization of our potential murder victim, Eddie. Murder mysteries usually need to delve fairly deeply into the psychology of the people involved, including the victim. I don’t think Addict does this adequately. There were some reveals about Eddie that came completely out of left field and challenged my suspension of belief. I have a hard time believing that Lori couldn’t have known some of this about her brother.
Otherwise, my criticisms of Addict are more vague. There’s a lot of stories that follow this general format, and Addict doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself, be it through plot, world building or characterization. I would have liked for all characters involved to be more developed, although I didn’t think they were thin exactly. I would just have liked more depth to the book in general.
However, if you’re looking for some light entertainment with a f/f romance subplot, Addict might very well work for you.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.
Cassie Tam is a PI in New Hopeland, a city built to be a shining light of technological progress. A woman named Lori Redwood comes to Cassie, wanting to hire her to investigate the death of her brother, Eddie Redwood. The police say it’s an open and shut case: Eddie, an virtual reality addict, overdosed on VR drugs. But Lori insists that while Eddie was a VR addict, he never used the drugs. Cassie’s dubious, but a job is a job. When Cassie starts digging, she finds that Lori may be right and that Eddie’s death was a murder.
In a lot of ways, Addict reminded me of a certain type of urban fantasy novel. You probably know what I mean. There’s a tough as nails female protagonist who investigates a mystery and finds romance along the way. In this case, the love interest is a Tech Shifter, not a werewolf or some other sort of supernatural shape shifter. Lori uses a mechanical suit that interfaces with her neural implants to role play as Ink, a black panther. I did sort of wonder about the application of Tech Shifting. Cassie mentions it’s used by fetishists and furries, but she also mentions that the police have a special unit of Tech Shifters — how does it give any benefits that you wouldn’t get from a human shaped mecha suit? Oh well.
As you might suspect from the above paragraph, Lori is Cassie’s love interest. I think Cassie identifies as a lesbian, although the word isn’t specifically used (I guess she could still turn out to be bi or pan). Lori is part of the kink community, and there’s some discussion of that, role play, and BDSM. That said, Addict is relatively non-sexual. While there might be discussions relating to sex, there’s no actual sex scenes.
My most specific criticism of Addict relates to the characterization of our potential murder victim, Eddie. Murder mysteries usually need to delve fairly deeply into the psychology of the people involved, including the victim. I don’t think Addict does this adequately. There were some reveals about Eddie that came completely out of left field and challenged my suspension of belief. I have a hard time believing that Lori couldn’t have known some of this about her brother.
Otherwise, my criticisms of Addict are more vague. There’s a lot of stories that follow this general format, and Addict doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself, be it through plot, world building or characterization. I would have liked for all characters involved to be more developed, although I didn’t think they were thin exactly. I would just have liked more depth to the book in general.
However, if you’re looking for some light entertainment with a f/f romance subplot, Addict might very well work for you.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.
stephbookshine's review against another edition
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Addict is right up my street, crossing two of my favourite genres: sci-fi and mystery, with a flavour of urban fantasy style that reminded of Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison if they were crossed with Sue Grafton and Tony Bertauski.
The detective plot is tight and well-paced, with an interesting range of suspects and motives, and the futuristic technology is seeded nicely throughout the action in order to give just enough detail without slowing things down.
The central character, Cassie Tam, is a PI who uses a mixture of the available tech (such as her robotic gargoyle security-pet Bert) and old-school policing methods (knocking on doors and asking the questions). Her personal life and history are fed in, again, throughout the plot, with just enough to be intriguing and promising without distracting too much from the main storyline.
I love the whole idea of Tech Shifters of various kinds, and Virtual Reality Junkies (Pro and Addict). In fact the whole setup of the society Matt Doyle has created here has me hooked and I am excited to follow Cassie further and find out more about the corrupt hierarchy she is forced to work within and around, and what more can be done with the AI technological advances.
This is definitely one for my personal wishlist and I would recommend it to anyone who likes urban fantasy but with a sci-fi focus and murder-mystery plot (me, me and me!).
For legal purposes, I’m registered as a private investigator. The law of the land means that’s enough to get me certain dispensations for my work, providing I follow procedure and fill out reams of digital paperwork before I go doing anything stupid. Sometimes, I don’t bother.
– Matt Doyle, Addict
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/addict-matt-doyle/
Addict is right up my street, crossing two of my favourite genres: sci-fi and mystery, with a flavour of urban fantasy style that reminded of Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison if they were crossed with Sue Grafton and Tony Bertauski.
The detective plot is tight and well-paced, with an interesting range of suspects and motives, and the futuristic technology is seeded nicely throughout the action in order to give just enough detail without slowing things down.
The central character, Cassie Tam, is a PI who uses a mixture of the available tech (such as her robotic gargoyle security-pet Bert) and old-school policing methods (knocking on doors and asking the questions). Her personal life and history are fed in, again, throughout the plot, with just enough to be intriguing and promising without distracting too much from the main storyline.
I love the whole idea of Tech Shifters of various kinds, and Virtual Reality Junkies (Pro and Addict). In fact the whole setup of the society Matt Doyle has created here has me hooked and I am excited to follow Cassie further and find out more about the corrupt hierarchy she is forced to work within and around, and what more can be done with the AI technological advances.
This is definitely one for my personal wishlist and I would recommend it to anyone who likes urban fantasy but with a sci-fi focus and murder-mystery plot (me, me and me!).
For legal purposes, I’m registered as a private investigator. The law of the land means that’s enough to get me certain dispensations for my work, providing I follow procedure and fill out reams of digital paperwork before I go doing anything stupid. Sometimes, I don’t bother.
– Matt Doyle, Addict
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/addict-matt-doyle/
jpjackson's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this story. Cassie the PI was owlie and rough, yet you knew deep down she had a tender heart, and of course by the end of the book that shows through.
I also loved the depth of world building and creative use of technology, and kudos to the author for creating advances in tech that I would never have been able to come up with.
I LOVED Bert. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to include any spoilers. But I will say, I want one!
But then I also want an Ink too. Ha! Sound intriguing? You'll have to read it to find out more!
My only criticism would be that the story is very heavy on exposition and sometimes verges on the dreaded info-dump. I would have liked to seen more details of the story played out through clever dialogue, of which the author was entirely capable as seen with lines like: “I sit back into the chair at the head of my work table and take a big grimace-inducing mouthful of sadly milk-free wake-up juice.”
Excerpt From: Doyle, Matt. “Addict.” NineStar Press, LLC, 2017. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
I also wanted to know more about Devin, the shirtless, buff, cowboy assassin. Who doesn't want to know more about THAT!
I also loved the depth of world building and creative use of technology, and kudos to the author for creating advances in tech that I would never have been able to come up with.
I LOVED Bert. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to include any spoilers. But I will say, I want one!
But then I also want an Ink too. Ha! Sound intriguing? You'll have to read it to find out more!
My only criticism would be that the story is very heavy on exposition and sometimes verges on the dreaded info-dump. I would have liked to seen more details of the story played out through clever dialogue, of which the author was entirely capable as seen with lines like: “I sit back into the chair at the head of my work table and take a big grimace-inducing mouthful of sadly milk-free wake-up juice.”
Excerpt From: Doyle, Matt. “Addict.” NineStar Press, LLC, 2017. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
I also wanted to know more about Devin, the shirtless, buff, cowboy assassin. Who doesn't want to know more about THAT!
stephbookshine's review
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Addict is right up my street, crossing two of my favourite genres: sci-fi and mystery, with a flavour of urban fantasy style that reminded of Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison if they were crossed with Sue Grafton and Tony Bertauski.
The detective plot is tight and well-paced, with an interesting range of suspects and motives, and the futuristic technology is seeded nicely throughout the action in order to give just enough detail without slowing things down.
The central character, Cassie Tam, is a PI who uses a mixture of the available tech (such as her robotic gargoyle security-pet Bert) and old-school policing methods (knocking on doors and asking the questions). Her personal life and history are fed in, again, throughout the plot, with just enough to be intriguing and promising without distracting too much from the main storyline.
I love the whole idea of Tech Shifters of various kinds, and Virtual Reality Junkies (Pro and Addict). In fact the whole setup of the society Matt Doyle has created here has me hooked and I am excited to follow Cassie further and find out more about the corrupt hierarchy she is forced to work within and around, and what more can be done with the AI technological advances.
This is definitely one for my personal wishlist and I would recommend it to anyone who likes urban fantasy but with a sci-fi focus and murder-mystery plot (me, me and me!).
For legal purposes, I’m registered as a private investigator. The law of the land means that’s enough to get me certain dispensations for my work, providing I follow procedure and fill out reams of digital paperwork before I go doing anything stupid. Sometimes, I don’t bother.
– Matt Doyle, Addict
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/addict-matt-doyle/
Addict is right up my street, crossing two of my favourite genres: sci-fi and mystery, with a flavour of urban fantasy style that reminded of Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison if they were crossed with Sue Grafton and Tony Bertauski.
The detective plot is tight and well-paced, with an interesting range of suspects and motives, and the futuristic technology is seeded nicely throughout the action in order to give just enough detail without slowing things down.
The central character, Cassie Tam, is a PI who uses a mixture of the available tech (such as her robotic gargoyle security-pet Bert) and old-school policing methods (knocking on doors and asking the questions). Her personal life and history are fed in, again, throughout the plot, with just enough to be intriguing and promising without distracting too much from the main storyline.
I love the whole idea of Tech Shifters of various kinds, and Virtual Reality Junkies (Pro and Addict). In fact the whole setup of the society Matt Doyle has created here has me hooked and I am excited to follow Cassie further and find out more about the corrupt hierarchy she is forced to work within and around, and what more can be done with the AI technological advances.
This is definitely one for my personal wishlist and I would recommend it to anyone who likes urban fantasy but with a sci-fi focus and murder-mystery plot (me, me and me!).
For legal purposes, I’m registered as a private investigator. The law of the land means that’s enough to get me certain dispensations for my work, providing I follow procedure and fill out reams of digital paperwork before I go doing anything stupid. Sometimes, I don’t bother.
– Matt Doyle, Addict
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/addict-matt-doyle/
clacksee's review
4.0
A quick, easy read. Caz and Lori are interesting characters and I really enjoyed the little touch of Bert’s personality too. I can’t envision much about the setting, but that’s a minor niggle.
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