Monday, March 11, 2013

Review: The Cestus Concern by Mat Nastos

Synopsis: WHO IS MALCOLM WEIR? Waking up in an operating room, much to the surprise of the attending surgeons, Malcolm Weir frantically fights his way out of a secret government installation, located in downtown Los Angeles. Battling through a mass of armed guards and meta-gene operatives, the cyborg warrior realizes he has no memory of how he got there.

The past 11 months are gone.

With a hole in his mind, Weir must retrace his steps for the past year, fighting his way through the nearly endless horde of super powered mercenaries and assassins the government sends after him.

Travel along with Weir, facing some of the most intense action ever put to paper, along with a body count of ridiculous proportions, as he tracks down the secrets trapped in his head.

In the end, Weir must stand alone against a former friend and a squad of the deadliest killers ever created, all to learn the terrifying truth behind Project: Hardwired. (from the online description)

Review:
Read this book. Here’s why:
I picked it up with an attitude of “well, I got it for free, so I better read it and review it”. By page 2, I’d scoffed at least twice and made a snide comment about the rehashed opening (man wakes up in mysterious government facility, not quite human anymore? Please). By chapter 2, I’d commented to the Husband at least 3 times about the prose doused in clichéd phrase (green with envy, again?). By chapter 5, I’d laughed out loud once, gasped in surprise twice and tried to guess the mystery by staring off into space for a solid 5 minutes. By chapter 9, I’d sighed over another rehashed plot point, felt bad for the main character (dude could not get a break), found a typo and refused to put the book down long enough to pee (if you can take a phone to the potty, you can take a kindle – am I right?) By chapter 12, I’d been told, by the Husband, to “shut up about how bad the book is because if it’s so bad, why haven’t done anything but read since you came home for work. You didn’t even make dinner!” (Poor man. He’d starve if it weren’t for frozen pizza – which can be made with one hand while reading a kindle). By chapter 15, I read wide-eyed and breathless and by the last chapter, I firmly declared the Cestus Concern to be a marvelous book!
Nastos’s book is a fantastic story. Albeit, one that reads like a comic book, contains cheesy plot devices and somewhat shallow characters.  It’s a B movie – you know it’s bad and that’s why you watch it. Because it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s precisely what you want to watch – you don’t get dragged through the emotional ringer or some overinflated Hollywood producer’s world ideology shoved down your gullet or get left at the end going “um, what?”. The hero wins, bad guy loses and you spend the time wishing you could have the nanotech healing or a giant bulldozer or fancy metal arms because – dude, how cool would that be!
In conclusion, I will recommend this to others and I will be purchasing the next in the series!
I received this book free as part of LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Bookmarks: 6 of 10

Awards: None

Date Finished: 2-13-2013
Pages: N/A (ebook)

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