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Killdozer
Corruption runs deep in Hank's town. Every local bureaucrat is in someone's pocket. The obvious Turn a bulldozer into an unstoppable killing machine. Little does Hank know he isn't alone in this universe. A police force that patrols... well everything, is looking for new recruits and Hank fits their bill. These space cops call themselves the Arbiters and every Arbiter gets to chose their service weapon. Hank chooses the Killdozer. Follow Hank on his journey of righteous revenge, bulging muscles, alien alliances, and bedding beautiful women.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2018
21 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 25, 2020
I was given a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.
This book is not without its charm, but overall isn't as fun or snappy as it could/should be.
The early part of the book seems modeled after the real life killdozer from the early 2000's, where a guy (in real life) modified a dozer and went on a rampage before taking his life. This is never referenced in this book, so I assume in this books universe this never happened. Like it is taken heavily, small business owner feels screwed by city council modifies a dozer with armor and goes on a mission to right the wrongs done to him. There are differences, of course, in this book he wants to live after and in real life the dozer was a tomb, real life dozer took months to build in the book it was done in a couple days, but it's all very similar.
The story goes in a completely different way, however, with aliens and demons and space Jesus and all. I won't go into any of that in detail, other than to offer the section on space Jesus and the religion of it was about 45 minutes long, or at least it felt like that. It also was unimportant to the story. It never really comes up again and feels like it was just added for time. It didn't make me feel anymore connected to the story, didn't help me understand better, it was just redundant.
Most of this book is in third person present tense, which is odd as the book starts in past tense. I had to go back and check after the switch. I have to say I didn't like the switch, it served no purpose. It didn't feel like a story was being told and then we caught up to it and moved on, it seemed more like the author forgot how he was writing and the editor didn't catch it.
This goes into my biggest complaint of the book, it didn't seem as the author was taking it seriously. I don't mean to say that it wasn't a serious book, it wasn't and I didn't expect it to be, but the author didn't seem to spend the effort to really write the book well. It felt, to me, like the author thought "its a bit of a silly book, so I don't need to spend too much time on it". Maybe I have the expectation that an author will put their all into every book they write, but I was disappointed in the quality of the story. Too much needless exposition, characters were all very 1 dimensional, tech was bland and the antagonists were completely unrelatable.
However, as simplistic as the story was, it wasn't bad. It was cheezy and predictable, it slowed down to a crawl for one character to long windedly explain simple concepts or space history to another character, but over all it was OK. There wasn't bad it just wasn't good either. I was bored but not upset listening to the book.
Narration by Eric Bryan Moore was, same as the story, not bad just not great. He has a limited range of voices in the book, his female voices are better than some I've heard but could use work.
All in all, an OK book, with an OK story with an OK narration. This is a neat concept, (it's been done before though) but isn't really given the time and effort to develop it into a great work. I likely won't continue the series.
***spoilers***
I just want to mention about the bad guys explanation of why he needs to be bad. I get the yin-yang idea, and how there's no good without evil, etc. However, his example of the fire break makes no sense in the book. He says everyone would be upset if a fire break was cut in a forest and it would be done for the greater good. Which no, most people would be happy with a fire break. If California, which has a lot of forest fires in the last number of years, cut fire breaks people would definitely be cool with it. Also, they attack a random town in America. How is that a fire break, or the greater good? If they wiped out a town in a densely populated country, like one of the 2 countries with over a billion people, then I could say, "OK they are trying to reduce population to, idk, help reduce global warming, or sanitation, or something". If they wiped out some hospitals, then it could be maybe it was to reduce the resources used to save dieing people, etc. But instead they just go wipe out a town in America. This is what I mean when I said the author doesn't take the book seriously. He presents an argument, with lots of examples, then just writes something else rather than develop the concept. The story has potential, but it is wasted.
This book is not without its charm, but overall isn't as fun or snappy as it could/should be.
The early part of the book seems modeled after the real life killdozer from the early 2000's, where a guy (in real life) modified a dozer and went on a rampage before taking his life. This is never referenced in this book, so I assume in this books universe this never happened. Like it is taken heavily, small business owner feels screwed by city council modifies a dozer with armor and goes on a mission to right the wrongs done to him. There are differences, of course, in this book he wants to live after and in real life the dozer was a tomb, real life dozer took months to build in the book it was done in a couple days, but it's all very similar.
The story goes in a completely different way, however, with aliens and demons and space Jesus and all. I won't go into any of that in detail, other than to offer the section on space Jesus and the religion of it was about 45 minutes long, or at least it felt like that. It also was unimportant to the story. It never really comes up again and feels like it was just added for time. It didn't make me feel anymore connected to the story, didn't help me understand better, it was just redundant.
Most of this book is in third person present tense, which is odd as the book starts in past tense. I had to go back and check after the switch. I have to say I didn't like the switch, it served no purpose. It didn't feel like a story was being told and then we caught up to it and moved on, it seemed more like the author forgot how he was writing and the editor didn't catch it.
This goes into my biggest complaint of the book, it didn't seem as the author was taking it seriously. I don't mean to say that it wasn't a serious book, it wasn't and I didn't expect it to be, but the author didn't seem to spend the effort to really write the book well. It felt, to me, like the author thought "its a bit of a silly book, so I don't need to spend too much time on it". Maybe I have the expectation that an author will put their all into every book they write, but I was disappointed in the quality of the story. Too much needless exposition, characters were all very 1 dimensional, tech was bland and the antagonists were completely unrelatable.
However, as simplistic as the story was, it wasn't bad. It was cheezy and predictable, it slowed down to a crawl for one character to long windedly explain simple concepts or space history to another character, but over all it was OK. There wasn't bad it just wasn't good either. I was bored but not upset listening to the book.
Narration by Eric Bryan Moore was, same as the story, not bad just not great. He has a limited range of voices in the book, his female voices are better than some I've heard but could use work.
All in all, an OK book, with an OK story with an OK narration. This is a neat concept, (it's been done before though) but isn't really given the time and effort to develop it into a great work. I likely won't continue the series.
***spoilers***
I just want to mention about the bad guys explanation of why he needs to be bad. I get the yin-yang idea, and how there's no good without evil, etc. However, his example of the fire break makes no sense in the book. He says everyone would be upset if a fire break was cut in a forest and it would be done for the greater good. Which no, most people would be happy with a fire break. If California, which has a lot of forest fires in the last number of years, cut fire breaks people would definitely be cool with it. Also, they attack a random town in America. How is that a fire break, or the greater good? If they wiped out a town in a densely populated country, like one of the 2 countries with over a billion people, then I could say, "OK they are trying to reduce population to, idk, help reduce global warming, or sanitation, or something". If they wiped out some hospitals, then it could be maybe it was to reduce the resources used to save dieing people, etc. But instead they just go wipe out a town in America. This is what I mean when I said the author doesn't take the book seriously. He presents an argument, with lots of examples, then just writes something else rather than develop the concept. The story has potential, but it is wasted.
October 20, 2020
Ever thought about going after the bad guys in a bulldozer? I hadn’t, but the premise looked to me to provide a nice twist on the traditional shoot them up novel—and it does. Hank is a very uncomplicated guy who sees things in black and white, good and evil. When an evil man uses his wealth and power to steal Hank’s livelihood out from under him, he decides to go after him in his bulldozer, which he soups up into a killdozer. That’s when things get just a little bit complicated.
Aliens from an intergalactic police force arrive and tell Hank that his straightforward sense of right and wrong qualifies him for their force—and with enlistment comes souped up super powers that includes enhancing the weapon of his choice. You guessed it! Hank chooses his kill dozer. These alien police officers are hunting demons (who enlist people into their ranks the same way the good guys do). The more bad guys Hank kills the stronger he will become. (The more good guys the bad guys kill, the stronger they will become.) You can imagine the rest. It’s a lot of fun and involves no heavy thinking.
I received this book free from Free Audiobook Codes.com in exchange for an honest review.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Aliens from an intergalactic police force arrive and tell Hank that his straightforward sense of right and wrong qualifies him for their force—and with enlistment comes souped up super powers that includes enhancing the weapon of his choice. You guessed it! Hank chooses his kill dozer. These alien police officers are hunting demons (who enlist people into their ranks the same way the good guys do). The more bad guys Hank kills the stronger he will become. (The more good guys the bad guys kill, the stronger they will become.) You can imagine the rest. It’s a lot of fun and involves no heavy thinking.
I received this book free from Free Audiobook Codes.com in exchange for an honest review.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
September 24, 2018
Book one
Mistakes: I only found five. I hope this means that the author talked with his editing people and they are now doing their jobs.
Plot: This book makes me think of a movie from the scy/fi channel, over the top, kinda stupid, goofy as hell, and kinda fun.
Characters: the FBI buddy was the only one that seemed realistic to me. The others had no real depth.
6.5/10 I'd get the next in this series.
Mistakes: I only found five. I hope this means that the author talked with his editing people and they are now doing their jobs.
Plot: This book makes me think of a movie from the scy/fi channel, over the top, kinda stupid, goofy as hell, and kinda fun.
Characters: the FBI buddy was the only one that seemed realistic to me. The others had no real depth.
6.5/10 I'd get the next in this series.
March 23, 2022
I picked this book based on its cover. It started out interesting like a B movie, but went off the rails when the aliens arrived. It had some cool moments, but it did not deliver for me. It also had very few elements of LitRPG. They felt tacked on without much impact on the story.
October 3, 2018
Fun read
A fun romp. Channeling the news about the Midwestern killdozer this book quickly takes a turn into LitRPG territory, an all-around fun time.
A fun romp. Channeling the news about the Midwestern killdozer this book quickly takes a turn into LitRPG territory, an all-around fun time.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews