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Memory Puzzles: Resurrected in the morgue...as a wanted criminal!
In the eerie silence of a hospital morgue, a young man awakens with a mind blanketed in amnesia. With only a driver's license bearing his face, Roger Price embarks on a desperate quest to unearth the shards of his lost identity. His hope? That assembling the puzzle of his past will illuminate the path to his true self.
Yet, his escape from the hospital thrusts him into a world fraught with peril. Roger soon discovers that he is not only a man with no memory but also a wanted criminal – the prime suspect in the abduction of a wealthy businessman. As he peels back the layers of his past, Roger's journey becomes a whirlwind of revelations and conspiracies. Roger soon reconnects with his beautiful girlfriend and is taken in by the very family who should hate him the most, but still, nobody can seem to provide the answers to his biggest questions. Who am I? What have I done?
As Roger delves deeper into his quest, he unwittingly stumbles into a larger, more sinister enigma. A malevolent force, lurking in the shadows for centuries, prepares to unleash its maleficence upon the world. A rebellion forms, promising to counter this menace, but are their motives as righteous as they claim? How far will a person go for the sake of their selfish desires?
Amid this turmoil, can Roger solve his Memory Puzzle in time to thwart a catastrophic destiny and save humanity itself?
Yet, his escape from the hospital thrusts him into a world fraught with peril. Roger soon discovers that he is not only a man with no memory but also a wanted criminal – the prime suspect in the abduction of a wealthy businessman. As he peels back the layers of his past, Roger's journey becomes a whirlwind of revelations and conspiracies. Roger soon reconnects with his beautiful girlfriend and is taken in by the very family who should hate him the most, but still, nobody can seem to provide the answers to his biggest questions. Who am I? What have I done?
As Roger delves deeper into his quest, he unwittingly stumbles into a larger, more sinister enigma. A malevolent force, lurking in the shadows for centuries, prepares to unleash its maleficence upon the world. A rebellion forms, promising to counter this menace, but are their motives as righteous as they claim? How far will a person go for the sake of their selfish desires?
Amid this turmoil, can Roger solve his Memory Puzzle in time to thwart a catastrophic destiny and save humanity itself?
457 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 23, 2024
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 31, 2024
The premise is upfront and in your face: a man wakes up in a morgue as a wanted criminal. But where it goes from there is wild. Some books try to keep a lot of balls in the air, juggling disparate storylines, but this one just introduces new complications over and over. Whenever you think you’ve got a handle on the direction of things, it pivots and heads off in a crazy new one.
Best of all, no plot line is left hanging. Even as you’re staring at the plot pile-up and wondering how things will be resolved, it starts slamming plots back like shots at the bar, resolving them so quickly that it’s shocking. And that should result in a poor deus ex, but it doesn’t. Every plot is treated respectfully, and everything is wrapped up neatly. Chekov’s gun isn’t just fired, it’s cleaned and returned to the shelf.
And the themes! It starts out a whodunnit mystery sci-fi story and takes detours through social commentary, action, guerilla warfare, and even brief glimpses of slice of life. But make no mistake: this is a horror novel. The mystery and sci-fi are there to lure you in, but the dystopian elements aren’t just there for set dressing. The author plumbs the depths of the horror of dystopia, and when he hits bottom, he pulls out a pick-axe and keeps going.
Tragedy is another big theme. No spoilers, but if you’re rooting for a character, no you aren’t. You will be left feeling scoured at the end between the betrayals and the body count. I read this in two sittings because I had to keep putting it down to stare into the distance and come to terms with yet another violent twist or death.
The one drawback, admittedly explained, is how men and women interact here. The gender disparities and the depictions of how men and women interact do function as social commentary, and misogyny is never defended. The issue is that the main character is presented as catnip for all the unspeakably hot women around him, although again, that is at least explained, as is the reason all the women in his life are hot. Normally, I’d put a book down on seeing such a blunt approach to gender relations and the classic trope of “every girl is hot and into the main guy,” but in this instance, I do encourage you to push through to the explanation. It’s not one big reveal, just a series of little ones, but with each one, it does drive the horror elements in harder.
The world is unique, the mechanisms inventive, and the sci-fi is top-notch. I rarely pick up a dystopian novel and find a world that isn’t a half-step to the left take on someone else’s world. There’s no one model used here: cyberpunk is one of the main themes, but at no point is it the only one.
Characters with fewer means live in something closer to the real world, and the richer you are, the crazier the tech gets, making it a nice analogue for the real world, but with some superscience bits incorporated.
There is, of course, some technobabble and some handwaved technology, but it ain’t hard sci-fi, and it isn’t trying to be. Most of the technologies, however, are functional extensions of today’s. The main conceit the novel is based on (again, no spoilers!) is at least somewhat plausible, making it easier to fall into the world and follow things to their conclusion.
This book will make you fall in love, or hate, with every character and then rip your heart open again and again. It keeps you guessing right up to the last and piles on horror after horror after horror, never letting up.
Do yourself a favor and pick this book up today. You won’t regret a single page.
Best of all, no plot line is left hanging. Even as you’re staring at the plot pile-up and wondering how things will be resolved, it starts slamming plots back like shots at the bar, resolving them so quickly that it’s shocking. And that should result in a poor deus ex, but it doesn’t. Every plot is treated respectfully, and everything is wrapped up neatly. Chekov’s gun isn’t just fired, it’s cleaned and returned to the shelf.
And the themes! It starts out a whodunnit mystery sci-fi story and takes detours through social commentary, action, guerilla warfare, and even brief glimpses of slice of life. But make no mistake: this is a horror novel. The mystery and sci-fi are there to lure you in, but the dystopian elements aren’t just there for set dressing. The author plumbs the depths of the horror of dystopia, and when he hits bottom, he pulls out a pick-axe and keeps going.
Tragedy is another big theme. No spoilers, but if you’re rooting for a character, no you aren’t. You will be left feeling scoured at the end between the betrayals and the body count. I read this in two sittings because I had to keep putting it down to stare into the distance and come to terms with yet another violent twist or death.
The one drawback, admittedly explained, is how men and women interact here. The gender disparities and the depictions of how men and women interact do function as social commentary, and misogyny is never defended. The issue is that the main character is presented as catnip for all the unspeakably hot women around him, although again, that is at least explained, as is the reason all the women in his life are hot. Normally, I’d put a book down on seeing such a blunt approach to gender relations and the classic trope of “every girl is hot and into the main guy,” but in this instance, I do encourage you to push through to the explanation. It’s not one big reveal, just a series of little ones, but with each one, it does drive the horror elements in harder.
The world is unique, the mechanisms inventive, and the sci-fi is top-notch. I rarely pick up a dystopian novel and find a world that isn’t a half-step to the left take on someone else’s world. There’s no one model used here: cyberpunk is one of the main themes, but at no point is it the only one.
Characters with fewer means live in something closer to the real world, and the richer you are, the crazier the tech gets, making it a nice analogue for the real world, but with some superscience bits incorporated.
There is, of course, some technobabble and some handwaved technology, but it ain’t hard sci-fi, and it isn’t trying to be. Most of the technologies, however, are functional extensions of today’s. The main conceit the novel is based on (again, no spoilers!) is at least somewhat plausible, making it easier to fall into the world and follow things to their conclusion.
This book will make you fall in love, or hate, with every character and then rip your heart open again and again. It keeps you guessing right up to the last and piles on horror after horror after horror, never letting up.
Do yourself a favor and pick this book up today. You won’t regret a single page.
Displaying 1 of 1 review