Review: A futuristic thriller with a vampire assassin and his ex-lover on the run
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
A futuristic world with corporate monsters in their ivory towers suppressing the working masses in the gutter below (literally), cyborg technology, and vampires living openly among the humans?  Yum, sign me up!  I have come to really enjoy these dark and dingy dystopian worlds that are created especially when there is 'run for your lives' intrigue and hot heroes tossed in to make it even better.This story opens when a vampire mercenary contract killer, Liam, who lives now down in the Gutter with all the slogging poor and starving working class humans, gets hired to take out a human in the Sky world of the wealthy above.  The irony is that it is the hated ex-lover human who caused him to become ostracized, lose everything he once had, and to be forced to scrounge to survive in the desperate world below.Not all is as it seems and when he confronts Daniel to kill him, Liam learns that he may have to ally with Daniel so they'll both survive and expose a huge plot.The world building was good and chillingly realistic in some ways.  The wealthy people live above all the pollution and poor living conditions on street level in the clean air being outfitted with cyborg-like modifications (mods) that the poor people down below manufacture.  It reminds me of the plastic surgery craze we have these days.  Those who hold the plans and patents for all this mod technology are the super wealthy.The plot is basic in some ways with it ultimately being about a greedy man protecting his source of wealth even if it means killing and destroying countless others to do so.  But the plot is also about two estranged men getting a second chance if they can bridge their gap with forgiveness, trust and understanding (all while trying to stay one step ahead of aforementioned greedy guy).There wasn't a lot of time for character development, but nonetheless I found myself liking both Liam and Daniel and their wry humor with each other.This first book was more of an introduction and the first skirmish in the battle so to speak.  I look forward to reading the next part in the series.I recommend this one for those who enjoy a blend of futuristic dystopian with the paranormal romance.Thank you to Riptide publishing for providing this copy for review purposes.