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bonzabar's review against another edition
3.0
I've been meaning to read this book for years now, so I leapt at the chance when I was offered a free review copy.
I was worried going into it that I wouldn't remember enough of "Shadow of a dying star" to be able to enjoy this book, but luckily "Redeye" made an effort to get me up to speed.
The book itself started as an enjoyable cyberpunk thriller, ending up in a strange conspiracy theory place. This book borrows heavily from the work of other cyberpunk authors, with out adding too much new. This isn't exactly a complaint, since it makes the world quickly seem familiar, but it doesn't contain any truly far out mind bending or challenging concepts. Shean does do a good job of world building, and his characters are interesting, though they never really feel truly engaging. And unfortunately, I have to say the ending felt a little anticlimactic. Rather than an epic show down, the book sort of fizzles out, doing more to promote the next book in the cycle than providing a satisfying conclusion..
My other, and perhaps bigger, complaint is about the number of spelling and grammatical errors this book contains. While I'm usually pretty forgiving of this sort of thing, the fact it was published by a publishing company, and not self published, in addition to the amount of errors, eroded allot of my good will.
In conclusion, I feel this book is an enjoyable read. If you're looking for some pulp cyber punk, this book will fill that need. It won't be the greatest book you've ever read, but it probably won't disappoint. That being said, I'm not sure I would pay more than $3 for this book.
I was worried going into it that I wouldn't remember enough of "Shadow of a dying star" to be able to enjoy this book, but luckily "Redeye" made an effort to get me up to speed.
The book itself started as an enjoyable cyberpunk thriller, ending up in a strange conspiracy theory place. This book borrows heavily from the work of other cyberpunk authors, with out adding too much new. This isn't exactly a complaint, since it makes the world quickly seem familiar, but it doesn't contain any truly far out mind bending or challenging concepts. Shean does do a good job of world building, and his characters are interesting, though they never really feel truly engaging. And unfortunately, I have to say the ending felt a little anticlimactic. Rather than an epic show down, the book sort of fizzles out, doing more to promote the next book in the cycle than providing a satisfying conclusion..
My other, and perhaps bigger, complaint is about the number of spelling and grammatical errors this book contains. While I'm usually pretty forgiving of this sort of thing, the fact it was published by a publishing company, and not self published, in addition to the amount of errors, eroded allot of my good will.
In conclusion, I feel this book is an enjoyable read. If you're looking for some pulp cyber punk, this book will fill that need. It won't be the greatest book you've ever read, but it probably won't disappoint. That being said, I'm not sure I would pay more than $3 for this book.
wilovebooks's review against another edition
5.0
First of all, if you haven't read Shadow of a Dead Star, do it. You'll thank me. It is book 1 in the Wonderland series. I was blown away by the ending and was left wanting the next book. I was not disappointed. Redeye follows Bobbi January, who was my favorite character from the first book. It is a whole new perspective. She has some hacking skills that come in very handy as she attempts to figure out just what is going on and follows the trail that she finds. As dark, gritty, and gory as the first, this book is full of action, and twists that keep you guessing. And again, I want the next book right now!
whalleyrulz's review
4.0
Redeye, by Michael Shean, is one of those rare new-writer-sequel-novels that just expands upon everything, in a really good way. It's so much better than the first, to my own tastes, that it almost feels like a different story. It's well worth reading the first to get to this, but at the same time, almost makes me want to say skip Shadow of a Dead Star and go on to this. Definitely don't - this is a followup, and Shadow of a Dead Star was a great read, but man, Redeye just really stuck right.
Comparisons between the two novels are inevitable, so I'll rip that band-aid right off. Shadow is, through and through, a really dark, hateful, vengeance-filled cyberpunk noir story. Redeye is a dark science fiction thriller. There's a difference in tone that made Redeye just resonate so much stronger with me. I fully admit my bias: I've never been a fan of noir. I like my protagonists to be searching for answers without the benefit of being a trained detective. I like my whiskey to be a juxtaposition, not an inherent character trait. I like my leads to have friends.
The protagonists, in case you can't tell, are different people. Without going into spoilers as to why, but Bobbi, the love interest/friend of Tom in the first book, is the protagonist here. Along with a few friends she's made along the way, she's searching out answers for what happened in the first book, along with some brand new questions that serve as serious shocks. She's much more "fun" than Tom was - this isn't a light book, Bobbi isn't comic relief, it's just that Bobbi can manage to take a step back from her seriousness to breathe.
It's refreshing, and so important, because things are messed up in this book.
Redeye isn't a lighter book than Shadow. All of that grime, corruption, and corporate oppression that existed in Shadow of a Dead Star is here, and then some. The body horror is back in spades. The world is jacked. up. I don't feel uncomfortable reading very often, but the scene where Bobbi escapes into the church in what is, essentially, an American version of the Kowloon Walled City was tense and terrifying. The supporting cast is much more varied and interesting... but that's not necessarily a good thing - Shean positively GRRM'ed at least one of my favorite people in these pages.
He managed to write futuristic hacking scenes that, amazingly, weren't terrible. At all. There's at least one fight scene that is literally "Bobbi versus the AI" that was just as tense and visceral as anything involving guns and reshaped flesh monsters. It's incredible.
I'm beyond sold for the third book in this series. With the sheer jump in quality from Shadow to Redeye, the third and final book of this trilogy is bound to be incredible.
Comparisons between the two novels are inevitable, so I'll rip that band-aid right off. Shadow is, through and through, a really dark, hateful, vengeance-filled cyberpunk noir story. Redeye is a dark science fiction thriller. There's a difference in tone that made Redeye just resonate so much stronger with me. I fully admit my bias: I've never been a fan of noir. I like my protagonists to be searching for answers without the benefit of being a trained detective. I like my whiskey to be a juxtaposition, not an inherent character trait. I like my leads to have friends.
The protagonists, in case you can't tell, are different people. Without going into spoilers as to why, but Bobbi, the love interest/friend of Tom in the first book, is the protagonist here. Along with a few friends she's made along the way, she's searching out answers for what happened in the first book, along with some brand new questions that serve as serious shocks. She's much more "fun" than Tom was - this isn't a light book, Bobbi isn't comic relief, it's just that Bobbi can manage to take a step back from her seriousness to breathe.
It's refreshing, and so important, because things are messed up in this book.
Redeye isn't a lighter book than Shadow. All of that grime, corruption, and corporate oppression that existed in Shadow of a Dead Star is here, and then some. The body horror is back in spades. The world is jacked. up. I don't feel uncomfortable reading very often, but the scene where Bobbi escapes into the church in what is, essentially, an American version of the Kowloon Walled City was tense and terrifying. The supporting cast is much more varied and interesting... but that's not necessarily a good thing - Shean positively GRRM'ed at least one of my favorite people in these pages.
He managed to write futuristic hacking scenes that, amazingly, weren't terrible. At all. There's at least one fight scene that is literally "Bobbi versus the AI" that was just as tense and visceral as anything involving guns and reshaped flesh monsters. It's incredible.
I'm beyond sold for the third book in this series. With the sheer jump in quality from Shadow to Redeye, the third and final book of this trilogy is bound to be incredible.
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