The Cestus Concern

Weir Codex #1

by Mat Nastos

WHO IS MALCOLM WEIR?
Waking up in an operating room, much to the surprise of the attending surgeons, Malcolm Weir frantically fights his way out of a secret government installation, located in downtown Los Angeles. Battling through a mass of armed guards and meta-gene operatives, the cyborg warrior realizes he has no memory of how he got there.

The past 11 months are gone.

With a hole in his mind, Weir must retrace his steps for the past year, fighting his way through the nearly endless horde of super powered mercenaries and assassins the government sends after him.

Travel along with Weir, facing some of the most intense action ever put to paper, along with a body count of ridiculous proportions, as he tracks down the secrets trapped in his head.

In the end, Weir must stand alone against a former friend and a squad of the deadliest killers ever created, all to learn the terrifying truth behind Project: Hardwired.

Fans of films like "Bourne Identity" or "Smoking Aces," or the comics of Deadpool and Wolverine, will love the over-the-top science fiction action of "The Cestus Concern" by Mat Nastos.

Genres: Science Fiction, Action, Military Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Ebooks

201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 28, 2012

About the author

Mat Nastos has been a film/tv artist, director and writer since the early 1990s. His work has been published by Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Warp Graphics, Playboy and Highlights for Kids, and has been seen everywhere from the SyFy Channel to Cinemax.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. It kept me hooked from the start. I loved the humourous interaction between Mal and his best friend Zuz.

Mal wakes up to find he's a cyborg and has no memory of the past 11 months of his life. In his quest to find out the truth he has to battle many government agents and man-made adversaries. It's a rollercoaster ride from page 1 with scene after scene of action packed adventure.

It's a must read for sci-fi fans. The author has a gift for describing the action so that the reader is fully engaged throughout. Even though much of the book contains violent encounters, there's no gratuitous violence, just what was required for realism.

I liked the ending and thought it was very fitting.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is how to kick off a series! Nastos' prose is fast, funny and the action is furious and Nissan Cube Flingingly Frantic at one turn, yet he doesn't skimp on character development and human drama.
Human Drama with GIANT FREAKING FINGERBLADES RENDING SHADOWY CYBERAGENTS OF A GOVERNMENT GONE BERSERK!
You can't beat that.

While the style is quick, The Cestus Concern really impressed me in that it doesn't rush through an all to brief page count and really is a solid read that builds to a satisfying conclusion and while it is serial in nature, you'll be looking forward to what comes next without feeling that you have only seen the stage being set for the next purchase.

Highly recommended!

[Halhefner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mat Nastos has become someone to follow in 2013. I just read this action packed novel that felt like a big budget roller coaster of a movie. It's got everything you could want in a book and had a kind of Terminator meets Wolverine vibe to it. It was an easy read with a sense of humor and it felt very good in that it moved at a good pace. Highly recommend this book from Nastos, especially if you love action, action movies and flawed heroes who kick ass.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malcolm Weir hits the ground running, and the action doesn't stop. His search for answers turns into a search for retribution, as the people who stole his life must pay.

You won't want to stop reading until you get to the end!

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

in need of some editing. Book is about cyborg, part human part machines. It was okay. I did finish it.

[Percival Constantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking at Mat Nastos’ biography is enough to give you feelings of inadequacy. If you want to talk about making the most of your creative career, he’s definitely one guy who has done that, as an artist for comics/film/TV, director, writer, and now, he can add novelist to that long list of accomplishments. He’s a self-proclaimed Super Genius, and after reading some of his excellent articles on marketing over at his website, I can say that’s a title he’s definitely earned.

The Cestus Concern is Nastos’ first novel, as well as the first book in the Weir Codex series (Book 2 is due out this year). The story centers on Malcolm Weir, a soldier who awakens in an operating room to find cybernetic arms have been grafted to his body and a computer installed in his mind. Fighting his way out, Weir discovers that he has no memory of the past eleven months and seeks to discover what what done to him. With the help of his old college buddy (and conspiracy theorist) David “Zuz” Zuzelo, Weir tries to discover what transpired in the lost year of his life, all while fighting off super-powered mercenaries and assassins dispatched by the government’s mysterious Project: Hardwired, which is also responsible for Weir’s present condition.

The Cestus Concern is some of the best New Pulp out there. Like any good action movie, it’s a roller-coaster ride that grabs hold of you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the last.

I know from my own personal experience that one of the most difficult things to write in a novel is an action scene, because the reader has only your words to visualize it, and sometimes what you see in your head can be difficult to put into words. Nastos has experience with crafting scenes through his work as an artist and director, but being able to translate that into prose is very different. Fortunately, Nastos is able to transition seamlessly into this new medium he finds himself working in, and his action scenes are so vibrant and perfectly and succinctly described that he gives you just enough to let you know what’s happening, but avoids dragging down the narrative with too much description. These scenes move with such speed, that you feel as if you are watching an action movie play out in your head.

Of course, action can only get you so far. You can craft the best action scenes in human history, but it won’t mean a thing unless you’ve got characters for the reader to care about. Fortunately, we’ve got that. Malcolm Weir is a battle-hardened soldier, but when the bullets aren’t flying, he’s a relatable, down-to-earth and funny guy, the kind of guy you could see yourself tossing back a few beers with as you watch a movie or play a video game. We care about Mal as he goes through his predicament, and we feel for him as things go from bad to worse. Also added into the mix is Zuz, who serves a role both as light-hearted comedy relief, but also provides some much-needed narrative explanation. Although there are times when his conspiracy theorist lifestyle borders on providing a bit too much convenience for the story, for the most part he’s an entertaining supporting character that gives our hero someone to play off, rather than being an irritating nuisance like his type of character usually becomes in some of the poorer action fare out there.

Nastos makes no secret of his influences on this book—in fact, he states them in the book’s description: “Fans of films like Bourne Identity or Smoking Aces, or the comics of Deadpool and Wolverine, will love the over-the-top science fiction action of The Cestus Concern.” There are elements of all those in here, and more—it’s an unapologetic hodgepodge of everything you love about over-the-top action movies and comics, and it’s a whole lot of fun to get lost in.

You can pick up The Cestus Concern from Amazon in either print or digital formats. Check out Mat Nastos’ website for more information on not only this book, but his other work.

[James Pratt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story is an example of the importance of editors. The book basically follows the script of most “super-soldier turning on his creators” origin stories. There are some good ideas here though it should be noted that the main character seems to be based on Warblade, a superhero whose main power is pointy fingers. Unfortunately, those ideas are overshadowed by numerous grammatical errors, odd semantic choices, and strange plot points a good editor would have caught. The plot moves quickly and there’s plenty of action, but not much time for characterization and, in some cases, simple logic. Based on this story, I’m not sure I’d be willing to spend more money on the author’s work.

*** SPOILER ALERTS ***

Here are some examples of plot issues in the form of questions I had while reading the story. Why did a super-secret government research group locate their facility in the middle of a city instead of in a more private, secluded area? The entire plot is contingent on the main character regaining his memory yet the story clearly indicates the research group that gave him his powers has the ability to completely eradicate their test subjects’ memories of their former lives. Why didn’t they do this to the main character as well? Why does a top-secret research group have helicopters emblazoned with their logo? That seems counter-productive from a “top-secret” perspective. The main character’s archenemy has magnetic powers. Why didn’t he use them on the main character’s metal prosthetics? There’s nothing in the main character’s sidekick’s background to indicate combat training or straight-up murder. When the bad guys show up at his hideout, how does the sidekick seamlessly switch from comic relief to gleefully and efficiently killing anything that moves? Why did the head bad guy transform the main character’s ex-fiancé into a mind-controlled assassin in advance unless he somehow knew the main character would regain his memory? The cyborg characters’ internal computers are often accessed via cables. Wouldn’t an advanced research group have gone wireless by now? On pp. 156-157, the main character arrives at a military base. Without showing any identification or even stating his purpose, he demands to see the base commander. Rather than being shot or taken into custody, his request is granted. Um…why? The main character’s sidekick is shot several times, including in major organs. When the main character goes to check on his friend a few hours later: “A quick scan of the attending physician’s charts revealed the wounded man could be out of the hospital in as little as a week.” (p. 257). That’s quite a recovery.

The biggest distraction for me was the numerous semantic and grammatical issues that a competent editor or average reader would easily catch. The most common issues I found: Word repetition within the same sentence. Odd or improper punctuation. Confusion about when to use a comma or ‘and’ versus when to use a period and start a new sentence. Proper verb tense. Odd, unnecessary, or repetitive explanations and details. Using “and” repeatedly where commas or some other sentence structure would be more appropriate. Odd sentence structures (sentence fragments, etc.). Sometimes the characters’ thoughts are put in quotation marks and sometimes they’re not.

[Dave Suiter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Cestus Concern is intense, adrenaline powered action that never slows down from the first to the last page. From the destruction of warehouses, helicopters crashing in downtown Los Angeles to a platoon of death-dealing cyborgs chasing the hero through Century City, author Matt Nastos writes a testosterone driven adventure that reads like a big summer blockbuster movie.

Army Ranger Malcom Weir wakes up in a lab he has never seen before. Strange sensations fill his body. Weir finds he is now known as Designate Cestus and his arms have been replaced by cybernetic limbs that shape and morph into just about any sharp weapon he can imagine.

In a desperate gambit to find out what happened to him, Weir goes on the run through the greater Los Angeles area to answer the questions that are racing through his computer enhanced brain. Before he can solve his problems he must face a seemingly endless squad of unstoppable cyborgs armed to the teeth with the most advanced weaponry and a vicious hatred for Cestus.

Nastos makes no secret where his passions lie in this book. The bullets, blood and blades he mentions in the afterword are something he can’t get enough of and are recurring elements to the story. He writes with genuine enthusiasm using every weapon conceivable against Cestus.

The intricate descriptions Nastos adds to each fight scene are uncanny. The words he chooses pace out the battle in such detail that you can feel the energy as Cestus' hand morphs into a blade or the pain this one man army unleashes on the less fortunate cyborgs and anything else that tries to stop him. It is big budget special effects in a page turning adventure.

Nastos gives the story heart as Weir must come to grips with the changes in his life. The people he cared most about in the world thought he was dead. His return in the state he is in leaves them disheartened and confused. The emotion of the character comes across as he has to sort through the mess his life has become.

The Cestus Concern, book one of the Weir Codex series, is full of unrelenting action. The story moves at a brisk pace to cover the cyborg, Cestus’, run from his creators at Project: Hardwired. With too close for comfort getaways and explosive action you will be stunned by what happens next.

[Christopher Kellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cestus Concern starts off in a place which might be familiar to fans of the genre. A metal table, wires and tubes protruding everywhere, a sense of confusion and strangeness as the consciousness slowly returns after some sort of terrible accident. Unfortunately for Malcom Weir, things are only going to get worse.

This book is sheer, unmitigated, balls-to-the-wall fun that plays like a movie in your head. It’s impossible not to visualize the amazing special effects (and mind-blowing budget requirements) of this AAA sci-fi thriller. It’s action-film-in-a-book, filled to bursting with sickeningly-bloody violence, amazing mental picturescapes and a healthy dose of good humor to top all of it off.

Honestly, my only quibbles were minor and editing related; I had no problem at all with the characterization, plot or other important parts. I found a few places where words seemed to be missing, or when the obviously-intended word was replaced with another (I had an unintentional snort of laughter when someone’s hair was described as perfectly ‘quaffed’ — I assume it was supposed to be ‘coiffed’ but I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how you’re supposed to drink hair…) The important part here is that the story was so engaging that my mind only made minor notes of these quibbles before hungrily moving on to the next word, the next paragraph, the next page.

There is no doubt about it: I loved this book, and would recommend it to any fans of action-thrillers, sci-fi, super soldier projects, or just awesome books.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book opens as our MC Malcolm Weir, an Army Ranger, is waking up in an operating room, he disoriented and when the surgeons in the room realize it, they try and give him a shut down code.

But he's human, at least he used to be, and it doesn't work because he's more human than they want him to be now. He gets angry and literally PULVERIZES the poor woman doctor who was working on him. He then bursts through a glass wall, head butts another woman, all while being shot. Of course, he’s half metal and he’s got an ‘autoheal’ feature. He gets in a fight with a guy with more rage than you can shake a stick at and explodes out of a secret government installation.

He has no idea how he got where he is, how he got how he is, and all that jazz. But he’s going to fight, oh yes. Through almost every page there is super powered mercenaries and assassins the government sends after him. Not a very nice way to treat a veteran. *tsk tsk*

This is like a really bad action movie (think Punisher: War Zone), all adrenaline fueled and testosterone laden. HIGH body count, lots of blood, lots of fights, etc... The story was itself was weak, imho, but if you just think of it as pure entertainment, it might be something you could enjoy. If this was a movie, I’d probably watch it again. After all, there was never a dull moment and I read it in one sitting.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is quite literately a slug-fest from beginning to end. Malcolm Weir wakes up on an operating table with a big hole in his memory and the horrifying discovery that he has been the recipient of the governments latest (successful) attempt to create a super-soldier.

The book quickly moves from one fight scene to another throughout its length. I would say this is well written but I don't think the characters had the depth they needed or much in the way of interaction outside destroying one obstacle after another.

While I am happy to read the next book in this series I do hope it adds some more background to the government super-solider projects and adds some more depth to the characters in the book. We know Mal can kick A* like nobody else now we need to see if he has the smarts to outwit those after him and not just destroy them.

[David Harriss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Violent, Predictable, and Pointless

If it were at its best, this book might rate a four / five. It would need some character development, a few surprises, and perfect editing. Lacking all three, it is flat and predictable.
Malcolm Weir is a character with no development. He is the same on page one as he is on the last page, despite a plethora of life altering events, and a triple digit body count. Much the same can be said for all the other characters.

The editing is really, really bad. A few scenes have had the corrections they need, but most of the book makes no sense unless you are good at imagining what is supposed to be on the page. It averaged three major errors per page, plus random extra words.

Recommended for fans of mindless violence, who don't care about mangled language.

[Wade Hanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish. The constant pop culture references to offer description was more than I could take. The tone of the narrative was very judgmental about current classes of people and/or lifestyles based on income. These references did nothing to further the story and were more about authors opinions.

Dislike being so negative about the story, but guess it was just not for me. Premise was cool and had potential, I just couldn't relate to authors style.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read the book as I listened to the unabridged audiobook version. I wasn't sure if this book was going to be up my alley, however, this book surprised me with it's lovely background story. Further, this book had nice twist turns to keep you wanting more until the end.
The book presents the evil side of the government on how they mess with human lives, by creating cyborgs and when it fails try to eliminate their failures to stay clean. I would say this is a must read.

[Norma Reasor · Rating 4 out of 5]

science fiction reads like a comic book

This book was written as a "hard core action story" full of "bullets, blood and blades". I don't think it is supposed to be funny (maybe I'm wrong), but just a few pages in I started laughing and continued throughout the book! I don't think I've ever read a book that made me laugh so much. Yes it is full of cliches and lots of errors, but I was laughing so hard I just skimmed past them. Loved it!

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The state of publishing is pretty sorry indeed when a supposedly "world-class" thriller is so riddled with transposed and missing letters. I know, it's picky - but if you're going to publish something, selling it to people, surely those little niggles are important?

The story was as over-the-top comic book action as you could want, true to form and exactly what I expected.

[Dantegideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The action scenes are pretty good, if a little unnecessarily ghoulish. The characters and storyline are absolute drivel. Fortunately the author seems to know this and spends as much time as possible describing increasingly ludicrous cyborg battles. Two and a half really. I might try the next one, but not one after another. I think it'd make me ill.

[Geert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combination between a John Scalzi book and the movie Iron Man - over the top action, totally unbelievable fighting scenes which spin out of control but all in all still a good read, liked it till the end.

[Commentary · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just, no. Gratuitous gore, cliched writing, cliched characters. Not even a shred of credibility in the tech or the plot. NO editing whatsoever. Couldn't get past the first thirty pages and I only read that far to see if it really was as bad as I thought. It was.

[Clayton · Rating 1 out of 5]

No likey. The book actually started not badly, but just went downhill. Cartoonish and juvenile, and those characteristics seemed to become stronger as I read on until I could go no further. Give up = one star.

[David Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Action, violence laden, weak plot.

Non stop action but no depth to the hero of this book which reeks of sequels to come. Not a bad read but not one I would recommend unless the reader has a desire for Gore and bloodlust.

[Samantha Françoise Dark Regions Press Proofreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this literary piece and had the pleasure of working on it with Crossroads Press. A must read! I have also read the following, which is wonderful to add to your collection: "The Cestus Contract".

[Sais Aramis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about action, and it does it well. I loved the ironic quote partway through, "I never could stomach action movies - too much excitement for me."

[Bill Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should be rated X for too much gratuitous violence!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want action, then this is the book. It is nonstop.

[Stéphane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Action packed, yes, but incoherence packed too. This short book without much surprise could have benefited a coherence mistake proof reading.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. All violence to help power a limping story.

[Kenya Wise]

Awesome

this book was amazing I couldn't but it down so
such blood and Gore I loved it about to read book two can't wait.

[Shawn Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of action.

A good easy read. The villain director of project hardwired is very easy to dislike. a good intro for a new hero: Cestus.

[Henrik Rostoft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the top action with cyborgs and more cyborgs.