Reading a novel by Dean C. Moore is a bit like reading Douglas Adams’ entire Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series – from the inside. When you open the first page, the author hits the stylistic warp drive, leaving you gasping for breath as plots, characters, subplots, manic scientific devices, parallel plots, and much, much more streak by you at hypersonic speed. How does he do that?
The performance is all the more remarkable, given how prolific Moore is: I count 18 books in several series at his author page on Amazon, each of which has been published since 2014. If Born F.R.E.E. is indicative of his style, I can’t imagine where such a fire hose of information, plot twists, and bizarrely creative plays on science can rise from.
And I really can’t imagine what it must be like to be inside this author’s head. Presumably his endless stream of books evidences a survival skill, providing a safety valve absent which Moore might suffer the type of unfortunate, explosive fate that so many of his characters seem to experience.
For example. Born F.R.E.E. begins with the central character removing the face of one of those hapless characters from, well, let’s see, it appears to be the oven. Yes. That’s right. Unfortunately, Mr. Portman’s visage is still a bit underdone, leading Ray Cunningham, a cheerful and resourceful detective/serial killer to return his evening’s entre for a bit more finishing.
This sets the tone for a lightning-paced romp involving sentient robots, buildings and sentient just about anything else, 12 step serial killer therapy groups where everyone is really quite jolly, and no one really wants to be cured. Also chip-implanted humans, rampant bionics and…the hell with it, the list is endless. And four short epilogues, because, well because why not?
There’s also a lot of sex. That is, in the sense that the usual body parts do their usual interlocking thing. But again, the pace and the actions, not to mention a bewildering array of supporting paraphernalia, fly by in a physics-defying display that suggests super-hero athletics more than eroticism. The resulting effect is closer to an out of control video game cranked up to an advanced speed than anything actually sensual.
If this is enough to pique your interest (and it should), all of Moore’s books are priced between $0.99 and $4.99 (most are at the low end of that range). And if you’re part of the Kindle Unlimited program, they’re all free. If you’re feeling up to the challenge of reading Born F.R.E.E. or letting Moore take you on board one of his other books, I suggest you hold on tight.
You’re in for one hell of a ride.
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