Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

Shades of Gray #1

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

**Revised 2013 Edition with glossary**<br><br>Noir was a mega-city plagued by a sun blocking mass called Dry Clouds that had mysteriously appeared three decades earlier. The Dry Clouds covered half the planet and forced those living under them to exist in endless night. On this world, corporations were in charge and breaking your contract with them could mean the termination of your life.<br><br>Kimberly Griffin, a Life Closer (legal assassin) existed in a world of death. She Closed people for a living. It was a lonely demeaning existence, though she wouldn't admit it. There was nothing to drive her in the bleak reality until one day she ran into Kat.<br><br>Kat, also known as the Pandora Project, was hunted by bio-mechas called Un-Men. She was an experiment of the Sphinx Corporation, and they were testing her to see if she could be the ultimate weapon. Kat refused to be a killer and tried to discover the truth behind her existence. Could she be a new form of bio-mecha?<br><br>Kim discovered someone close to her had been murdered. Is Kat the key to finding out who did it? Or will her association with Kat only cause her more grief?<br><br>Pandora of ancient times opened a box and let all good escape. Would Pandora be the hope the planet needed? Or would she destroy the world?<br><br> **Shades of Gray Series**<br><br>(STARTING POINT QUADRILOGY)<br>1. Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness<br>2. From Moscow, With Love<br>3. Cerberus Versus Pandora<br>4. Sisters<br><br>(ZOMBIE TWILIGHT QUADRILOGY)<br>5. Night Of The Twilight- The Chimera Strain<br>6. Dawn Of The Twilight- Outbreak<br>7. Day Of The Twilight- Patient Zero<br>8. Land Of The Twilight- Closing of Days<br><br>(MYTHS AND DESPAIR QUADRILOGY)<br>9. Rise of the Gorgons<br>10. Woe To The Watcher<br>11. Woe To The One Who Has Held His Heart's Tongue<br>12. Woe To The One Who Thought They Could Only Hurt

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Amazon, Mystery

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

You are only limited by your imagination...

I would like to introduce all of you to my new series, Tales From The Cryptkeeper William Shakespeare #1 Romeo Dracula And Juliet Van Helsing. Dark horror comedy full of fun and mishaps.

My other series includes Shades of Gray, AabiLynn's Dragon Rite, AabiLynn's Test of Dragons, Ronin: Have Sword-Will Travel Mysteries, Beauty of the Beast (a twist on Beauty and the Beast), AaBack's Grimm, and Monster of Monsters.

Reviews

[Jay S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm 8% through - I'm not sure if I will finish this. It is science fiction/thriller/espionage, written like some sci-fi in the 1950's where a future was imagined.

Writing is disjointed; "Kat" is mentioned pages before it is made clear the character is the same as the "Pandora Project". It seems as if the author had started out the character as "Kat", then later decided to start the character as the "Pandora Project" and did not bother to make sure the transition was smooth.

Many mentions to what happened before - why can't it be read chronologically? Did the author realize things were missing and just enter them as things that happened before rather than change what she had written previously?

Cusing is introduced. "Didn't I tell you to shut the puck up" is an example. I entertain the notion this may have been planned as a comedy.

I do not expect to read other books in this series. I may not be able to finish this one book. It is too disjointed for me. If I am allowed a two hour block without interruptions I normally finish most books. I read some of this book and willingly put it aside for something else.

If I read more and change my opinion I will revise this. Right now my rating is barely one star - I'm sorry I started reading this book.

About one quarter of the way through I gave up. The book had injections of liquid oxygen as an aid for someon to breathe. Liquid oxygen is about -118 Celsius, or -297 Fahrenheit. IF you could inject it, it would freeze cells inside the body.

Just too many things wrong to continue reading this book, even as a book of fantasy.

[Mayhem-RW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of this book as published in SOG0,1,2

She awakes and has no memory of who she is, but she knows other things around her, like the composer and name of the song that plays from the little music box. What she doesn’t know is why the music calms her so. There is a note with a name on it, “Katharine.” The name does not sound familiar, but it is signed by an R. G. There is a business card with a flaming bird on one side and a barcode on the other. A lamp and a metal box are the only other objects left on the small table next to the cot she woke upon. Her heart began to beat harder. Then the lamp shattered, and she knew she was being shot at. How she knew, she did not know, but as she took cover behind the small table where the lamp once stood, the metal box fell to the floor and clattered open, and its contents spilled out. It was a gun, and by the way she picked it up, inserted the magazine, and loaded a round, she knew she was practiced at it. She now wondered if she was a cold-blooded killer and feared the worse when she killed two of the men who had entered the warehouse she was in. But when she inspected the bodies, they were leaking a black liquid, and their eyes were not human but mechanical. Her heart still beat hard in her chest, and she knew there were more of these Un-men outside, but this time, she knew where they were.

This is an interesting dystopian society the author has created for us. At first, as with the short prequel, I was not sure I liked the way the perspectives changed. However, I got used to it before the end of this book. How does that saying go? Once, shame on you, twice, shame on me. But that is for fooling; betraying, on the other hand, should only happen once, but how many times? The physical world-building gives you enough to go by, but sometimes you long for more. The ethereal world-building is focused on the character of who the reader is reading about. The character’s background is referred to many times. The main character’s interactions are like two only children forced to play nice with each other.

I like this world, but it sort of reminds me of a modern-day AD&D scenario. I guess my biggest qualm with this setting is assassins are legal. I don’t know whether a politician or a CEO would legalize murder as they could become the target of such an organization. Imagine police and security guards surrounding a target, and someone walks up and kills the target. Is the police not to do anything before the trigger is pulled or the security guards? Are they to stop what they are doing just because someone pulled out a business card? I don’t know. Assassination is a real thing, and if you believe the movies, it is usually done for profit or zealous beliefs. I give this read three stars out of five stars.

[sharon davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author shows promise

Sort of a 'lite' Shadow run type book, the characters could use more color. Kat in particular wallows in an existential angst that is borderline pathological, with little sign of development. The apparently random use of italics to accentuate certain descriptors reminds me of a grade school exercise to underline all words that evoke sensory images. The effect is not unlike that of potholes on an Interstate highway. The author needs to recognize that autocorrect and spell checkers are not a satisfactory substitute for a proofreader. The malapropisms (such as 'vile' for 'vial' and 'endanger' for 'in danger') are almost inevitable, and seriously disrupt the flow of the story. While I can appreciate a good cliffhanger as well as anyone, it would have been more satisfying if the end of book #1 had at least resolved a single major plot device.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

Novel novel. What if? Characters one can get into. A tion.
Obvious use of some word processing but that doesn't complete the edits. What good are correctly spelled words when they are the wrong word? When it means verbs of the wrong tense? When punctuation is missing and it changes the meaning?
Still, the story keeps the reader going.

[Barry Edstene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Higgins has a winner, what a great start to a series.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook. It was a good story and I enjoyed it. I think most people might like it, if they like science fiction.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternate world

A rather long and free introduction to a new series by the prolific kristie Lynn Higgins. A lot of robots , few people?

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am having a great deal of difficulty rating this book. I know it is one of Ms Higgins earliest published books and it was a freebie on Google Books.

The idea of what Earth is like in another dimension is the concept used by many authors to tell their story, and it is easy to understand. This story is one such novel.

Originality of story line = 4.0

Staying consistent with the author's established rules = 4.0

Consistent character IQ levels = 1.0 Ex: Main Action Sequence. In a gun battle with a dozen opponants, Kit and Kat (Please, I had nothing to do with naming the two main protagonists) manage to defeat them all and run to escape with only one bullet. The dozen opponants each had an AK-47 with multiple, full, reload clips on their bodies - only to run into 25 more opponants as they try to get to their van and escape. Well, duh! (OK, I know it is ... so.. 1990's, but).

Spelling and Grammar = 1.0. I shutter tothink any one in their rightmind ever had Grammar Check installed for the ir MS WORD.

Slog Rating = 2.0. Places in the book where action or writing style s l. o. w. e. d the reader down to stall speed.

What Pisces me off is that I really LIKED the story.

Finally, I am a firm believer that one never gets a second chance for a first impression.

If the author has improved her writing in the 20+ books she has written after this book, why would she leave this out for Free to entice readers to pay for more recent books she has written?

This is an average of 2.4 - now you know how I got there.

[Gary O'Brien · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Could not finish it.

Author used an unusual style of writing with an introduction to explain (not really needed).

Then the other books/series by the author were put before the story where I, for one, am not at all interested because I don't know if the story is good enough for me to be interested yet.

Other authors seem to understand that introducing their other works belongs at the end of the book where we will be looking if we find the current story any good.

Then a prologue which is nothing more than background information that should have been written into the story.

Then to the story itself which starts with boring, detailed descriptions of where people are sitting, what they are wearing, hair color, even a short descriptive of what a supervisor does (we are apparently too stupid to know that already).

The characters are flat, one dimensional caricatures.

Every time the story almost starts to make sense the scene is changed.

The writing style is very immature.

I manage to finish most stories I start even if they are badly written, if they are interesting and can hold my attention.

This one did not meet my minimum criteria.

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good book, I downloaded it for free and was amazed on how good of a read it was.
It took me a while to get into the book, but once I got into it I did not want to put it down. The one thing I think that bothered me a bit is that the women kept talking to their selves. The action in the book was great, and I started feeling bad for Pandora. I can not wait to read book 2 in this series, to see what happens to Kim and Kat. If Kim will find out who killed her mother and if Kat will get caught by the new project that has been unleashed.

I say give this book a try you may enjoy it. This book is mostly about a girl whose name is Kat, but also known as Pandora. She wakes up and has no memory of who she is. She only has a note, a card with a Phoenix and a music box. She fights for her life against un-man which are robots, and eventually go rogue. She then meets Kim and since Kim is a Life Closer (assassin) Kim knows Kat must not live since she has seen Kim's face. What happens next I do not want to spoil, so you just have to read. :D

[Jakeisthecoolest · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is clearly an ambitious and complex story that the author has spent a great deal of time on, not just on the narrative, but also on trying to create a believable dystopian world in which to set her story. Unfortunately this world is so complex the author spends much of her time explaining what is going on or how the world works, this in turn drags the reader out of the moment. The characters are potentially interesting, but again there is far too much introspection as the characters constantly question events and explain their feelings.
A novel like this is undoubtedly incredibly difficult to write, and i doubt I could do any better, however, this author needs to work on honing her story-telling skills (she may well have done so in her later novels, I will never know).
The ideas are interesting with obvious shades of Blade Runner, but ultimately the writing is so laborious to get through that any interest in the story soon dwindles.
I admire anyone who has the dedication to write a novel, it Is a shame this feels so incomplete, it could have done with a few more drafts.

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first of four books about robots and people co existing under a black cloud in the city of Noir. Kim, an assassin and Kat, also known as Pandora is an organic mecha trying to fight off other robots and learn the truth as to who murdered Kim's mother. This is a story that jumps from one group of people telling their story to another, giving little hints along the way. Until the author finally decides to focus on Kim and Kat. Everyone has secrets, everyone is trying to kill someone else and the Rogue robot is finding the secrets that Kim and Kat need to save themselves and the city. This is not an easy book to read, nor does it make you want to read the other three in the series. Anyone who enjoys Science fiction may give it a try but its not worth the time.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am torn between two stars and three. There are some interesting ideas and characters in this book, but the writing is very sub-par. In short, it's a decent story, but I would not be surprised to see that it was written by an eighth grader.

[Crystal Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

well I started with the first of the book ,hey i figured why not since at the time it was a freebie for kindle.(did I mention I love my kindle?) anyways, i read the first one and was intruiged and followed all the books up now im just waiting on the next one due next year.

[Leo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was OK. Starts off really well, but then gets kind of bogged down. Instead of cursing, the characters walk around making ridiculous exclamations like "hades!" and "for Ares' sake!". It's contrived and stupid.

[Bonnie]

Great concept ... did not want to stop reading. A wonderful idea of how people view their own lives and how each person lives for different reasons. Don't think I would ever want the world to be like this in the future.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally awkward writing distracted from the story at times, but the story was good and usually provided pleasant and entertaining light reading.
I don't know that I would go as far as purchasing the next installment of the series though.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faced paced sci-fi with creative future world. It took me a while to get used to the writing style though. What the characters are thinking is also in quotes, so had to reread often to confirm conversation or thinking. And like the main characters are heroines.

[Jeff Hatzenbuehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot is amazing, very creative. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the constant changing point of view. But, I definitely recommend the read. Very action packed story. I will be starting Book 2 in a few minutes.

[Frank Shedd · Rating 4 out of 5]

crazy sci fi with characters who are unlikeable
but very well written

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the characters a bit contrived and unlikeable and the use of language for swearing (Puck, Ascii and Hades) disengaged the reader rather than drawing you in.

[Kassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing style is not my normal fare, but the story content made up for it. I really want to read the next one!

[Pat Welte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about robots, not robots?

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit difficult to read, but enjoyable nonetheless. A first time for this author, but not the last