Titanborn, by Rhett C. Bruno
Book Review by SJ Higbee
I'm a sucker for a good scifi adventure and when I saw the cover for this one, I was on my way to requesting this one from NetGalley before I got halfway through the rather chatty blurb...
Malcolm Graves lives by two rules: finish the job, and get paid. After thirty years as a collector, chasing bounties and extinguishing rebellions throughout the solar system, Malcolm does what he's told, takes what he's earned, and leaves the questions to someone else -- especially when it comes to the affairs of off-worlders. Heading into hostile territory, Malcolm will have to use everything he's learned to stay alive. But he soon realizes that the situation on the ground is much more complex than he anticipated . . . and much more personal.
For starters, don't pay too much attention to the Prologue -- written in omniscient POV, it is a dry-as-dust info dump that gives no indication of Bruno's writing ability and as all the world-building is perfectly adequately explained within the story, I'm not even sure why it's there. Feel free to skip it. Because once we get to the beginning of the story in Malcolm's viewpoint, his character pings off the page.
Basically, he's a bounty hunter that is paid to tidy up the flotsam that runaway capitalism produces and he's been on the job for the past thirty years. He's arrogant, greedy, judgemental and selfish -- oh and sexist. And I really cared about him. Bruno has written a blinding anti-hero, here. It takes a degree of skill to successfully depict someone with quite so many flaws as a credible protagonist, but Bruno has triumphantly succeeded in this gritty, thought-provoking critique on where our subjection to mega-corporations could lead. Especially if we choose that path to fund our way into space.
Which manages to make this book sound like some long-winded treatise on society's flaws -- and it's nothing of the sort. It's a full-on adventure-driven tale, where Malcolm and his new, very unwelcome partner are trying to stop a gang of desperate terrorists from attacking Earth and oust his employers from Titan. There are shoot-outs, chases with plenty of death and mayhem, all filtered through Malcolm's dry, slightly cynical viewpoint.
I loved it and found I was reading faaar into the early morning to discover what happened at the end -- although I reckoned I had a pretty good idea where it was headed... Until I didn't. Until something else entirely different occurred, leaving me winded and a little shaken. Did it work? Oh yes, it did. I'm not going to forget this one in a hurry. It comes very highly recommended and reminded me all over again why THIS is my favourite genre of all.
I received a NetGalley arc of Titanborn from the publishers in return for an honest review.SJ's Brainfluff
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