Book Review of “Redux II: The Search for Floyd”

redux2

© James Pyles

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Last night (as I write this) I finished Gregg Cunningham’s SciFi time travel novel Redux II: The Search for Floyd published by Starry Eyed Press. It’s the sequel to the original novel Redux: The Lost Patrol which I reviewed on my blog last year.

The original novel is set in the future, primarily on the Moon. Redux and his battle robot Floyd are using a time travel device called a “War Pig” in an attempt to “fix” history. Redux wants to bring back all the people lost in war, to win every battle they lost, and to establish a future history with his lost love.

The original novel is a little hard to follow because, like many time travel books, it tends to bounce around all over the place. In the end, an old, burned out Redux is left stranded when his younger self steals the War Pig and his version of Floyd.

It’s not all bad. His lost love Dixie is alive, but she’s young and he’s an old man she doesn’t recognize.

Redux II picks up there with our hero (or anti-hero) one among a series of refugees destined for relocation on Mars. But then things get weird.

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Book Review of Redux: the Lost Patrol, A SciFi Time Travel Novel

reduxIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Some weeks ago, author Gregg Cunningham asked if I’d mind reading and reviewing his novel Redux: the Lost Patrol, A SciFi Time Travel Novel. To that end, he sent me a PDF formatted ARC copy.

I started to read Part One of the novel “War Pig.” I’ve read War Pig at least twice and so burned through it a third time. Then I hit Part Two “The Lost Patrol.” I was most of the way through Chapter 1 “Time” all the while feeling like I’d read this before. Then I checked Amazon and saw I had bought the book last May. Yikes.

I checked my reviews and I hadn’t published one, but when I checked the digital book on my Kindle Fire, I found my notes. I feel really dumb. I’d read Gregg’s book months ago, but never wrote the review.

Sorry about that, Gregg.

Well, it’s never too late so here we go.

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Book Review of “Skin Traders: A 224-Verse Book”

skin trader

Cover art for Gregg Cunningham’s novelette “Skin Traders”

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I just finished reading Gregg Cunningham’s short novelette Skin Traders: A 224-Verse Book.

Gregg and I share a table of contents in a number of anthologies including Raygun Retro and World War Four and we know each other somewhat online. He was one of the people who turned me on to the 224-Verse to begin with, so I was anxious to read this tale.

It is a short and violent story about a hostile planet Portia where cybernetically enhanced Lawmen are sought after for their implanted technology along with their skin, organs, muscles, and everything else. Life is brutal and Dark Orbit affiliated gangs of pirates plunder the seas and skies.

A Lawman sky ship is shot down by the pirate vessel Skin Trader and those Lawmen (men and woman) unlucky enough not to die immediately are captured and viciously brutalized. Sergeant Bayker is as helpless as the rest of the survivors but desperate to find a way for he and the crew to escape.

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