Life is a Beautiful Thing, Book One

Life is a Beautiful Thing #1

by Harmon Cooper

Hallucinatory cyberpunk. Meta sci-fi satire. The future is futile.

2083. A pollute-addicted therapist named Meme battles his way through his mind and LA at the seat of his pants alongside a beautiful android escort with a surprising secret. With the Federal Corporate Government hunting him, will he make it to safety in time? The hunt is on.

Part techno thriller, part dystopian science fiction, Life is a Beautiful Thing is a series that questions what it means to be human; a collection of novels that offers a shocking glimpse into a dark future fueled by corporate deceit and high-end intoxicants.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Amazon, Fiction

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 24, 2015

About the author

Harmon Cooper is the author of over sixty fantasy works. His bestselling series include Pilgrim, War Priest, Cowboy Necromancer, and Tokens and Towers.

His series, The Feedback Loop, is one of the earlier GameLit works first published in 2015. An earphone award winner for the series Death's Mantle, Harmon won the LitRPG/GameLit Audiobook of the Year award for Sacred Cat Island, narrated by Legends and Lattes author Travis Baldree.

Harmon write progression fantasy, cultivation fantasy, and LitRPG/GameLit.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's entertaining in a weird and trippy way. There's a vocabulary lesson bit, but the writing is good, and his descriptions of experience are awesome. The story starts out strange, and I had some doubts at first, but, eventually, I found the right wave length, and things resonated better.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The future is full of possibilities yet the quest to understand what makes you human remains in Harmon Cooper’s Life is a Beautiful Thing (Volume 1).

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

Meme Lamar is a therapist for Humandroids in 2083 and he has an addiction to pollutes. While parting at a pollution club, Meme meets an android escort, who is beautiful and exhibits quirks that hint at the secrets she keeps, and he manages to hurt a powerful man with government connections, which draws him into the center of focus to be hunted down and eliminated. Eluding capture and escaping with his life will take some elaborate planning and a bit of luck, if Meme can manage it and keep his mind clear for long enough.

Addressing an intriguing premise of a future rife with technology, including incredibly realistic androids, and classic societal issues around corporation and governmental corruption, this story presents ideas that resonate easily and keep you engaged with the drug-addled world presented but feel underdeveloped for the scope of the world they inhabit and the limited information offered about that world’s development. Though there were efforts to create plausible mash ups of companies and products that might (and very likely will) exist in the not-so-distant-future, there were references to more contemporary things and people, which were perhaps meant to be clever and help anchor current readers but pulled me out of the story as being too anachronistic for the time. While jarring in its infrequency throughout the text, there was some meta commentary and a character addressing the reader that was entertaining to encounter as it makes you part of this wild and oddly engrossing story.

[Nore · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a few months out, which usually means my memory is incredibly unreliable. However - and this is a testament to how much this book struck me - I do still remember a good chunk of this book. The twin sex robots (both of whom I loved as characters). The pregnant woman who liked to body-hop. Meme, the tall black man who likes to body-hop. The ridiculous turn of events that led to the end: Meme is now permanently in the body of the pregnant woman, as his own body, which he lent to his sour, jealous coworker on the grounds that he'd take his coworker's body and show his wife a good time, was killed; as was his coworker's body, which the pregnant woman hopped into. Look, see, I almost never remember so much about a book four months out!

Oh, there are problems with it - the way Meme is presented very much fetishizes him as a black man. Everyone is a bad person. The concept of "pollutes" never really resonated with me. Sometimes, the writing drags. But I really enjoyed this, and I would like to read the rest of the series.

[Joe Pettegrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be kind of a review across the 4 books currently out right now. At least ONE more book is scheduled to be released in 2018 so says Cooper in a paragraph at the end of Book 4. Here's to hoping we get more though, as Life is a Beautiful Thing has been an incredibly fun read and I found myself finishing all 4 books in about 5 days.

If you're even remotely interested in Cyberpunk fiction, give this first book a whirl. The story telling is excellent. The main character "Meme Lamar" is a pollute addicted humandroid therapist that finds himself on the run from a major corporation whose CEO he punched in a bar. In the world Cooper has created, body switching tech is uncommon but not rare activity, and some of the switches that happen in the 4 LiaBT books can be rather hilarious. I laughed as I read several pages over again to make sure I actually read what I had thought I just read.

Characters (Throughout the 4 books) that you liked in the beginning, may get on your bad side or slightly annoy, and characters that you didn't like from their introduction may grow on you.

Many of the perspectives in this book (Set in 2083) have a quite a bit of relevance to us currently in 2018. We are on track to falling right into many of the situations, laws, and opinions presented in this book.

Give it a read, seriously. They're fun book.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindle Unlimited, This writer has serious 'issues', reviews are reader's way of saying ya need help sparky, just wait and write some more first.

Life is a Beautiful Thing (4-Book Box Set)
Life is a Beautiful Thing: (Book One) (Cyberpunk Sci-Fi Series) - Life is a Beautiful Thing: (Book Two) (Cyberpunk Science Fiction Series) - Life is a Beautiful Thing: (Book Three) (Cyberpunk Science Fiction Series) - Life is a Beautiful Thing: (Book Four) (Cyberpunk Science Fiction Series)

The Feedback Loop: (Book One) (Sci-Fi LitRPG Series) - Steampunk is Dead: (Book Two) (Sci-Fi LitRPG Series) (The Feedback Loop 2) - High Fantasy: (Book Three) (Sci-Fi LitRPG Series) (The Feedback Loop 3
The Feedback Loop (3-Book Box Set): (Scifi LitRPG Series)
Reapers and Repercussions: (Book Four) (Sci-Fi LitRPG Series) (The Feedback Loop 4) - The Mechanical Heart: (Book Five) (Sci-Fi LitRPG Series) (The Feedback Loop 5) - Cyber Noir Redux: (Book Six) (The Feedback Loop 6)

Dear NSA: A Collection of Politically Incorrect Short Stories
Zombie Lolita: (A Collection of Short Stories)
Tokyo Stirs {Short Stories}
Boy versus Self

[Raul R Caban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story and have purchased and will read the next book in the series. Overall, a good read, pretty much kept me engaged and I have the attention span of a squirrel. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but (and don't laugh, it' my attention span again) I liked the fact that the chapters were short.

[Ciayrra The Scorpion Flower · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite part of the story was the idea of body switch. In theory that would be cool, but like everything that sounds amazing there’s consequences. The narrator did a great job in bringing the story to life!

[katie kenwud · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this book. its been years since i read it, but i remember it being good, and now that AI is a thing id love to re-read it for some prompt inspiration.
ive looked all over and cant seem to find anywhere to read book 2 - 4 etc. if anyone can find it let me know please.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just couldn't get into this one. A hallucinogenic window into a drug-addled future world.

[Callie · Rating 5 out of 5]

O-mazing

This book was my jam! Only downside is the series isn't completed yet. Not sure how invested I want to get.

[Liquid Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strangely thrilling; imaginative and depressingly fresh, Cooper introduces a freakishly diverse cast of characters in a futuristic setting that is, sadly, a feasible reality in which to devolve.

This is one of the strangest books, let alone an intro to a series, that I have yet to read. Cyberpunk, depressingly sad dystopian future amid leaps in technology and drug addiction, makes for an interesting story. The first half, getting used to the narrative and the world in which the characters live, takes some attention on the reader's side.

Once the book gets into a groove, it almost reminds of an old detective/crime novel. Yes, there are criminals. No, there are no detectives. But the scenes in the future cry out a feeling of the old. There is no other way I'm able to describe the overall mood.

There isn't much pause in the action. There is also no room for the Politically Correct, unless you want to get offended by words, foul language, and certain terms. Luckily, I'm not PC and enjoyed the story.

The year: 2083. The setting: Los Angeles. The Federal Corporate Government and chipped humans, varied levels of HumanDroids, Artificial Intelligence; emotion or lack thereof, and questions about "What is Human" all run the show. The cast - some LadyBoys, a pair of therapists, high-ranking power holders, mercenaries, and an unborn child.

WARNING: I was giving the head's up - so I'm passing it along: This is Part One of a series and does end in a cliffhanger. I don't dole out 5-Stars on books too often. I hope Volume 2 is as interesting!

Advance review copy supplied by author for unbiased review.

[Ann Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first of this kind that I have read. It took a bit for me to get into it but once I did I discovered a different and engaging world. Mr.Cooper calls the series Cyberpunk Science Fiction and I can see where it comes from.

We start out in the end of the 21st Century with a man who loves to party hearty. So hearty that one wonders how he earns a living. And the story goes down hill from there. Well, not so much down hill as the roller coaster ride starts there. The ups and downs are combined with twists and turns that make you wonder where it will end. It is a fun ride and as soon as I finished this book I started the second.

This is the first of three books and I am planning on reading all three.

If you are wondering if getting into this series is worth reading I would suggest give it a shot. I wasn't sure I would like the style but I do. In fact I like both of the books I have read that are written by Harmon Cooper. I think he is an author that will be one of the ones I will always consider worth reading.

[Ariane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that I love a good cyberpunk book. I don't mind character caricatures, nor do I mind meta-fiction or hallucinatory passages.
The book is decently well written, the tempo fast, the plot line captivating enough that I wanted to finish this book. Yet at times, I couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed with it.

In certain parts the writer goes into recital mode and ends up with one or more paragraphs of what is essentially a list of things, which I personally find incredibly boring to read. For a book set in the future the number of references in it to our current time period were to numerous. In 20 years from now this will most likely make this book feel incredibly dated and not nearly as comprehensible.
The plot line was very linear and straightforward as well. The book tries to be clever at times but ends up just a bit lacking.

All in all it was a decent enough book, with some interesting features in it.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What an absolutely cracking start to a series. What a stunning, extreme mind Harmon Cooper has. This is the first book I have read by the author, and it will not be the last.

In the future, humandroid escorts, body switching, designer bars with masks to inhale drugs called pollutes named after...well, you personally will need to find that out. I loved the names of the drugs, and especially the name of the main character - Meme. After a few minutes of reading it all comes together and the reader is drawn into and completely immersed in this world.

This will probably be like Marmite for readers - I loved it - and can only urge you to try the experience for yourself!

[Charles Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meme is a human therapist for androids. He’s also a pollution addict. These two things come together when he meets a beautiful android and falls for her, and then finds himself in the crosshairs of a corporate executive who wants him dead.
Harmon Cooper’s Life is a Beautiful Thing is cyberpunk fiction at its grungy best. Part dystopian fiction, part science fiction, and part rant, it will keep you reading and scratching your head. Be warned, though, this book contains strong language and graphic gender groping. If you’re not the overly sensitive type, it will definitely help you get your grove on.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

[Eva Ruff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sci-fi-ish story that is a bit new and different even though the basic plot is the common mob/underworld stuff. (Yes, I know this is satire and Cooper has nailed it!) I liked Cooper's speed of moving along. The hallucinatory descriptions are very good and enhance the characters. This is a fun, silly read for someone that wants a new angle to the pulp fiction of old.

I will be looking for the next book.

[Misterg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. What can I say? Definitely cyberpunk (William Gibson meets Phillip K Dick) with a side order of Clockwork Orange sums it up. The narrative style takes a bit to get used to, as do the scenes where the protagonist is under the influence of "pollutes". The story is fine, although the ending is abrupt ... more like a breather before book 2.

[Dean · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get very far into the book and abandoned it. Not something I do often...

[Zeinab Dh · Rating 5 out of 5]

got this in exchange of an honest review and it was a very interesting book to read very well written enjoyed the characters the flow of event and I hope to see more of this

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. A little short. Maybe I expected more because the Kindle book ended when it said it was only around 70% complete. The rest is a preview of book 2.

[Kellidenise · Rating 3 out of 5]

About halfway through I found myself trying to figure out if this was the stupidest thing i'd ever read or the most awesome. In the end I couldn't put it down so I guess that answers my question.

[Necalli Calavera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could of been something great. I think what was missing was more story telling instead of “showing and telling” if that makes any sense.

Not bad of a read though!