Trent Stone and Drake Winters are best friends, brothers-in-arms, and career mercenaries. After a particularly dangerous job, they head to an isolated space station for a bit of rest and relaxation. But their vacation gets cut short as a mysterious man in a business suit and a hulking woman in body armor show up, offering them the job of a lifetime.
The pay is incredible. They'll have access to whatever they guns, gear, armor. The only catch is that their job will take them, and a team of highly trained mercenaries, to the edge of known space, to a frozen world housing a mysterious research outpost.
What will they do when they get there? The man hiring them refuses to say. But something is waiting for them, out there in the darkness, something of ancient, immense power...
Contains BLOOD & TEARS, a companion short to The Shadow Wars.
Lusher’s “Absolute Zero” is book four of the “Shadow Wars” series, but it can easily be a stand-alone, or entry point, into the set. That said, I recommend going back and reading the first three in the series to better understand the back-story of Dark Operations, the Cyr (advance, ancient race), and how corporations pull the strings of space.
In this tale, we are introduced to Trent and Drake – best friends and partners; mercenaries for hire. They are approached for a secretive mission on the edge of space and find themselves in a hellish environment with little to no information. I found “Absolute Zero” entertaining, but not as gripping as the previous works. However if the characters in this story (those that survive) are brought back for more – that would be a good thing.
What I find refreshing with Lusher is that he is never afraid to kill characters. You just don’t know who is going to make it out alive. His work is formulaic in the sense that he introduces characters, places them in dangerous environments where they must navigate the situation, kill loads of monsters, and try to survive.
To compare it to gaming: Think Resident Evil with all the chapters sewn together with action and dialogue. The characters must shoot to kill, completing objectives to win or accomplish the ultimate goal. These are fun, quick horror reads. I have book five and six ready and waiting.