Review: Not for Me, But I'd Still Like to Try Some of His Other Works
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2014
The near-future setting of Portland in The Forever Man is bleak indeed.  The city almost seems to be a miniature replica of the entire world complete with areas of third-world status and other areas for the insanely rich. Crime is rampant in most areas except for the gated communities where the very wealthy live.Lane Anslow is no stranger to life on the streets of Portland. He's a contract cop, struggling to make ends meet -- and watch out for his brilliant medical researcher brother who suffers from bipolar disorder. Johnny disappears after calling Lane and telling him he's found the answer that will solve all the problems and make them very rich. It's up to Lane to find him.I found the first half of the book very difficult to get into as there were so many different characters in so many different places that didn't seem to really be connected that I couldn't easily keep track of them. It did become clear eventually in the second half of the book how they fit into the story, but did make the first half hard to maintain my interest.The author writes with clear, concise language that easily allows the reader to visualize  the scenery and action that is taking place. I found that the action started to pick up in the second half of the book when Lane started looking for his brother and the man that Johnny was working for started to put his plan into action.The profanity and sexual language in The Forever Man puts this book in the Adult only category on my blog.The Forever Man was one of the very few book where I didn't have any strong feelings one way or the other for any of the characters. To be honest, I could have put the book down and not lost any sleep over how it turned out. I hope there are  other readers who will pick up this book and feel differently!While this book was meant to fit into the genre of suspense, I did not find it very suspenseful. The author told his story, but the story did not evoke any emotional response in me at all.My personal opinion of The Forever Man leaves me with no choice but to give it 1 star out of 5. Please remember that my review of this book is my personal opinion. You and others may feel very differently about this book.Thank you to the publishers via NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.This review was published on my blog Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/07/book-review-forever-man-near-future.html