Review: Meat Market Mayhem
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 15, 2014
The Meat Market (Jonathan Harkon Adventures, #1) by James Chalk is a brilliantly gritty cyberpunk tale of sex and violence set in a future where mankind is ruled by Religious Fanatics. With extreme ease, the author describes a space station, leaving very little to the imagination. It is at a station we find exiled Jonny Harkon working in a bikini bar as a bouncer. Everything is intense first person with expletives galore to show us Jonny's feelings as he witnesses degradation at the hands of so-called Bishops and their underlings.Once Jonny switches into detective-killer mode the story races along at a fantastic speed in pure noir style only red being the predominant colour. I especially loved his cat Baihu. What a gem.The author also explains the future with great prose and sharp dialogue and revels in martial art-style combat. He also is adept at keeping secrets, only for them to slip out sporadically throughout this awesome scifi novella. The only thing that prevented 5 stars were some proofing problems, but that never prevented this reader from enjoying what could be the next big cyberpunk series. I look forward to the next instalment.This is a FOUR STAR cyberpunk novella begging to be a fiver and I highly recommend this to all who enjoy hard core scifi.