Jason MatherBesprekingen

I found this to be a very good book. A good choice for anyone who enjoys science fiction. I felt that the plot and characters were all well developed.

*I received a copy of this book for free. The review is my own, honest and unsolicited.

I have not received this book so that I could review it. I was supposed to receive it as a part of Library Thing's Early Reviewers group.

"Will his chivalry get him and others killed?"

Hans Ricker: sarcastic, stubborn, ne’er-do-well, jack of all trades, committed to causes and saves damsels in distress. Will he be able to save the people he cares about without being destroyed in the process?

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a sister that’s more manly than you?"

Greta “Grit” Ricker: commander of the Denver Security forces, impersonal, serious, strong, precise and protector of her brother Hans. How can she protect her brother from something she cannot control?

"Whatever is in our systems is able to use our tech against us."

Onyx, AKA Illyana Petrovich, AKA Kaori Li: organized techno-crime boss, lethal weapon, ballet dancer, and will do anything to find the black sphere that cannot get into the wrong hands. Will she find it in time?

Mr. Mather’s debut novel set in a future Denver, Colorado, drops you right into the action from the first page. Hans lies dying after some metal object tears through his body after he attempts to deliver a package. From there you are thrown into an action-packed sci-fi thriller filled with robots, jumpcrafts, statis rooms, and creepy furniture that conforms to your body.

The characters are provocative and captivating and yes, you heard right, their names are Hans and Greta which is just some of the fun wordplay in the book. My favorite character is Hans and Greta’s mother, Pat. She is one bad-ass, no-nonsense woman who can hold her own with a rifle. She seems hard on her kids, but she shows them love in her own way.

If you like sci-fi, techno-crime filled novels with lots of action, give this one a try. Highly recommend.

This story began really well, fast paced and interesting unfortunately as the plot develops it slows down and becomes involved in introspection and examination of the main characters motives and morals. Complete with moralistic conclusion, I'm sorry that it did not hold up. I'd have liked to see more of the back-story of the secondary heroine, Onyx, who's role became confusing and elaborate. All negatives aside, I enjoyed the read but found it a little long.

This book started out at a fast run and kept going until the last page. Filled with cyberpunk on all sides of the law, it kept me reading through the night as a man is torn apart and put back together, in more ways than one.

Hans wakes up in a hospital after 14 months in a medical coma while his innards are regrown. The last thing he remembers is being blown up. He's lying in his bed dazed and helpless when an assassin pushes through the door, Then a robospider crashes through the wall to shoot the assassin. It's a very confusing week.

"Shadow Life" is a fast-paced take of technology gone astray. I very much enjoyed the first two thirds or the book but lost interest a bit during the fight between the good robots and the bad ones. The originality of the story was lost around there too, and with it my pleasure in reading.

I received a review copy of "Shadow Life" by Jason Mather (EDGE-Lite) through LibraryThing.com.

I thought the story started off well and held my attention for the first few chapters. However, it seemed to lose its mysterious value and ended up like every other sci-fi book where computers try to destroy human life. I also felt the story was missing some keys points in explaining some of the characters, their actions, the scene and the entirety of the plot. I had to force myself to finish the book and was disappointed about the how the story played out. Maybe science fiction is not a genre for me.

This is a very good story. It starts with Hans trying for some quick money delivering a package when he walks in to a slaughter. His last dying sight is a woman dead next to him as he fades away. That is until he wakes up alive with some of his organs regrown. A capability in this future world where north america is now city states with most of the country gone and being overgrown by nature.
The story continues with twists and turns that keep it a very interesting and fun read. How far has technology gone and what are the new limits? People are still people.

Hans awoke in a hospital, with the last thing he remembers is becoming dead. Hans is not a zombie, he's the beneficiary of some awesome future tech that somehow survives a nuclear holocaust. Hans doesn't know why he was saved, though. Or why people are still trying to kill him in the hospital many months later.

I'm not really a fan of secretive narrative where the reader is as much in the dark as the protagonist, but all other characters seem to have the benefit of a clue. The story was okay, and it involves a self-aware computer and, naturally, the requisite KILL ALL HUMANS prime directive that they seemingly can't be without. But this story has a little bit of a twist, the robots are anthropomorphized and the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. The characters are well developed and Mather uses the minimum number of which to tell the story. My biggest complaint is the later plot is driven by possession of a small orb that, while technical in origin, exhibits magical-like abilities and comes off as an unnecessary crutch. A sequel would either have to involve some resurrections or go a different direction altogether...I might be interested to see what happens next with these characters.

This book is set in a future dystopia, where Hans is brought back to life against his will and is basically a servant. Hans is unlikable and an overall bore. The AI is clunky and the ending is not very compelling. I did not enjoy this book, really.

Jason Mather takes us through the world in a future where the federal government has broken down in the United States and all is left is deep-state entities. States have taken control of themselves. Technology has reached a level of unimaginable proportions in certain areas. Whereas in others, the world appears the same. With every new society, new problems exist. The author certainly highlights where growth has occurred and where stagnation has dominated over the years from the twenty first century toward present day Denver in his book.

What started off on a slow pace and quite mysterious plot turned into an interesting story where the author asks the reader to step outside their present day comfort zone. As a reliable reader of nonfiction, I a submit to admit that I am not the authority on science fiction. Although, as a former member of the military and a scientist by occupation, the book is filled with twist and turns which all come to a common theme in the last 30% of the book. For a reader who is looking to take an exploration into a future (in some ways) not far off from the present, the book is a good read. For the reader who expects to have a linear story laid out to enjoy, this book is definitely not for you. Regardless, as a consumer who is expanding the range of his reading, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who asks me about it.

An action-packed science fiction story set at least a century for now. Decent characters and relationships, solid story, and a bit of a page-turner. Unfortunately, it's also a good example of why a spell-checker is no substitute for a good proof-reader: plenty of typos and grammatical errors that should have been caught. It also needed a good editor - for example, to prevent a gigantic chunk of exposition-by-soliloquy right before the climax. I'm talking 4-5% of the book length gigantic. Unforgivable, and any decent editor would have prevented it.

In the end a book that should have been very good is instead mediocre.

In a future dystopia, a sarcastic rebel goes on a quest to recover a powerful device for a criminal clone.

I eventually got caught up in the action, but the main character is deliberately unlikeable and we're somehow supposed to just get over that because he could be worse.

Some interesting future glimpses, but the AI parts felt clunky and full of plot holes.

Feels like a mystery, of poor Hans trying to figure out which end is up through most of the book. The story is very enjoyable. Toward the end, in Colorado Springs, it turns a bit excessive, and turned me off. I DID enjoy the book though. The last two lines of the book brought it all back home though; once you read it you'll understand.

I cannot believe this is Jason Mather's first book. This unpredictable sci-fi with twists and turns kept me up late for "just one more chapter". I didn't like the main character in the beginning, and he is written to be unlikable. He is a pain in the rear protagonist that you come to appreciate at the end. The writing style and language is fantastic. This could be a YA book, but I believe it will live firmly in the Adult Sci-fi world. I don't read Sci-fi, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Jason Mather's "Shadow Life" (Edge-Lite) blends the societal intrusiveness of George Orwell's "1984" with a sci-fi adventure of George Lucas in a timely manner. The action takes place in a post - apocolyptic, feudalistic North America infested with Big Brother and Unpeople. It might be a world left when Kim Yung Un and our national embarassment walk off of the stage.

Mather's character development is vivid and engaging, but he slyly confuses the reader as to who may be who. In this way, he keeps the reader on edge until the end, though for doing so, the plot can get a little hard to follow. He lays a good foundation for sequels. However, it is a very enjoyable read as a stand-alone piece.