Scott ReardonCritiques

*I was provided a copy of the book via NetGalley; all opinions are my own.*

This was a true thriller - fast paced, atmospheric, and intense. It's not an upbeat book (not that thrillers usually are) but the tone of the story takes a pretty depressing, moralistic viewpoint. There's also a lot of violence, and a epically bad bag-guy of Stephen King's THE STAND proportions. Reardon writes in a pretty cinematic manner and this would easily transfer to the screen (not that I need to see body parts torn off. Did I mention it's violent?)

I confess, I was not in the mood for this type of book after the first few pages. And I told myself "I'm not really in the right frame of mind for this book" most of the way through, because despite that, I wanted to see how it ended. It was a total page turner, despite the violence (which I was not prepared for, but should have been). This is part of a series, but you definitely do not need to have read the first book to enjoy it.

If ever there was a book that qualifies as vulgar, sexual, adolescent, white male punk privilege—this is it. In fairness though, the author’s blurb does warn “…savagely funny—and a middle finger to modern pieties—Dead Kennedys is a book of dissent.” I suppose that’s the point. Save your money and time. Pass.

An apocalyptic thriller that replaces the viral zombies in Justin Cronin's The Passage with augmented humans, most of the criminal persuasion. In a quest to create super soldiers, a program succeeds in only a single healthy soldier while others die, most of suicide. In an effort to refine the process, tests are done on death row inmates. One of them, Kronin, seems to be a Hannibal Lechter-type. When the maximum security oil rig housing them is destroyed in a storm, these augmented criminals escape and total mayhem follows.

The damage done by this band of criminals is massive, and threatens the collapse of civilization. Tom, the one successful augmented soldier, is pressed into duty along with Karl, a CIA agent who discovers the shuttered program was still active in China. The criminals are driven toward achieving their goal of maximum destruction while the good guys are trying to stop them and save what's left. Parts of Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois go up in flames in the process.

This was an exciting story to read; fast paced although many atrocities were graphically described so be warned.

I am a hopeless junkie when it comes to sci-fi/thrillers about augmented humans. I jump right on stories about undercover government operations that mistakenly believe that because they CAN scientifically create an augmented, stronger, more violent person that they SHOULD. I get sucked right into the story....and even find myself talking back to the book "Oh...now that's such a good idea'' or "I wouldn't go in there looking for the violent, superstrong, angry escapee if I were you....''

The Dark Continent is the first book I've read by Scott Reardon....and I will definitely be coming back for more. Not only did his story have me talking to the book....but it was a total binge read for me! Loved it! I could definitely see this book as a film....I would definitely watch it!

Although the concept of Project Prometheus has been done before in books and on film, Reardon creates a really gripping story. The Dark Continent is well-written and definitely an exciting read. I couldn't put it down! There is another book -- The Prometheus Man -- that is technically the first book in the series. But, the stories are independent of each other and do not need to be read in order.

I will be reading The Prometheus Man next, and I look forward to more from this author!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Aspen Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I'm not giving this book any rating. I just want to let the publisher know that the copy I received was a corrupted file. The font is so small, I can't read it. I tried adjusting the font size on my kindle, but nothing I did could make it large enough to actually read.

This book is an exciting, action-packed novel. In terms of genre, I would put this book solidly into the thriller genre with some elements of sci-fi and apocalypse-fiction. If this novel was a movie, I would consider it an action-packed B-movie. It is certainly not literary fiction, so do not expect to be blown away with the author's exquisite use of the English language. With that said, the novel is well-written for what it is trying to accomplish and the author was certainly able to hold my interest throughout. The story is captivating and at times I had a difficult time putting the book down. It is a quick read, despite being over 400 pages, due to its short chapters and the author's ability to continually advance the plot without going on long tangents. I read this book while being quarantined due to the coronavirus and was a good escape to a reality that is perhaps worse than our current one.½

I received this book as an early review book. I was very involved for the first 100 pages or so. Eventually, I started to feel like the plot didn't make sense. It was kind of like watching a horror movie and saying, "I would never do that...." It is an action and somewhat gory book. I enjoy those components, but it wasn't enough to hold my interest all the way to the end.

The United States government is researching and attempting to enhance the bodies of test subjects on an unsanctioned oil rig just off the coast of Alaska. These fifteen men not the first but they were chosen for a reason - they're all on death-row. Not only to the researchers succeed in their endeavor but they get more than they bargain for in the process. The subjects are led to escape by the mysterious and exceedingly intelligent death-row inmate with no apparent background and other than the fact he's on that rig he doesn't exist.

Tom Reese and Karl Lyons are the two of the select few people that fully understand what the test subjects are capable of but even they are blindsided. Forced to cross portions of the United States that have been ripped apart, isolated and in the dark they will come face to face with the horror of the government's hubris.

I love reading author's descriptions of abandoned cities, a lot of times they seem more realistic and easier to imagine than descriptions of highly populated cities. You could almost split this book into two genres via the internal split of Book I and Book II - the atmosphere of each section is quite varied. The couple of chapters of the story shortly before Book II starts seems rushed after such a long escalation. I'm honestly also wondering how the good doctor kept up at sea as much as she is. The ending of the novel was also fairly anticlimactic in my opinion and suffers the same fate as the last chapters of Book I mentioned previously. The book overall is fairly fast paced with a lot of action, bits of horror, gore, murder, murder and more murder. The murder and gore in the book can get a little repetitive after a while and seems to be there more for a shock factor than anything else. I would also like to note that this book is the second in a series, the first book being The Prometheus Man. It isn't essential that you read The Prometheus Man first because I believe this book functions well on its own but I believe that the backstory would be beneficial to fully grasp the certain interactions and background information in The Dark Continent.

There are portions of this book that remind me of Resident Evil - mainly the God gene the prisoners are enhanced with (without the monster and zombie aspect of Resident Evil) and the location. I could definitely see a Resident Evil game taking place somewhere similar to the Alaskan oil rig the test subjects are kept on or the abandoned Chinese city of Kangbashi. If I were to play this book as a game I would expect it to be a similar play style to the Resident Evil series. There are also certain elements of it that remind me of Fallout. Instead of irradiated Yao Guai or Deathclaws the suspects are similar to a human appearing version of a Super Mutant. The factions that blossom in Book II are also reminiscent of Fallout but more of the bloodthirsty carnage variety than The Minutemen and The Brotherhood of Steel. I'm sure that this book will remind any reader of movies, books or video games that they've experienced as some portions of the book are similar to works in these areas.

There really is A LOT of gore and indiscriminate murder in this book. I really do mean indiscriminate - men, women, young, old, children etc. If you are sensitive to books about mass murder, in depth descriptions of murder and gore I would avoid it. I would suggest this novel to those who love books that feature conspiracies, action, war, thrillers, horror, societal collapse, and apocalyptic type events. I would like to thank NetGalley and Aspen Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you librarything who both gave me advanced copies of this book. When I requested this book I didn't know it was a sequel. I found the first half pretty confusing and tedious but about halfway through things go absolutely insane and the story becomes really interesting. This is a quick read because it becomes difficult to put down. I hope there will be a sequel, and I need to go back and read Prometheus man

Spectacularly mediocre. Action-movie cliches, shallow sentimentality, and threadbare social commentary (hint: the Chinese government is evil and men absolutely require the redemptive love of a woman) abound in the Dark Continent, and the plot involving rogue CIA operations and super soldiers run amok does very little to enliven a story that is essentially the book equivalent of a direct-to-video potboiler one might encounter on the SyFy channel. Reading about violence ought to be a joy in a thriller, yet it never excites in this novel. Instead, combat is simply a matter of narrative logistics--of awkwardly maneuvering the plot along rails that most readers will have charted in advance. Those who appreciate distinctive dialogue that features the unique voices of individual characters are also likely to be disappointed, as each member of The Dark Continent's cast largely sounds like everyone else. At over 400 pages, this novel taxes one's patience with its exhausting survey of ground that is already well trodden in this corner of fiction, and it does nothing to approach subjects like the geopolitics of human augmentation from a fresh perspective. In short, if you're into this sort of thing, there are plenty of books out there that do it much, much better (e.g. Thirteen/Black Man by Richard K. Morgan). Cannot recommend whatsoever.

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2017/03/06/audiobook-review-prometheus-man-by-sco...

3.5/5 Stars

Prometheus Man is a science fiction thriller that pairs action with mystery. Scientists have formulated an injection that enhanced abilities in mice. A human trial, however, has gone horribly wrong. The book definitely features some violence, as you might expect with a book that starts off with a pile of bodies.

Investigating those bodies is a CIA agent, who, well, may not be who he says he is. I have to say, someone posing as a CIA agent to just people on the street is one thing, but this guy? He is actually posing as a CIA agent to the CIA, actually working on a case. That’s takes a lot more guts and skill than just an average Joe could pull off. The question is, how long can he make it last? Long enough to track down his brother’s killer?

This story was interesting, and really kept me interested. I was quite curious to figure out all the details of what was going on as well as seeing just how long Tom could pull this off. Bonus points to this book for actually making me laugh out loud in a couple of places. That is incredibly rare, so I want to make sure to mention it.

I have to say, my only real complaint with this book may be that some of the lines were a bit politically incorrect. Sometimes when that’s the case, you can tell the author is trying to use it to make a statement that offsets the negative comments. I wasn’t sure I could see that in this book. It just felt like was a part of the character, which maybe true to the author’s vision, but at the same time I found it completely unnecessary. There were other ways to paint the character that way without potentially alienating readers that might be offended. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is only a very minor component of the book, most of it is not this way. I don’t want anyone to read my review and think this is a highly offensive book. It’s not even close, I am really just talking about a few borderline lines from the entire novel. But when it comes down to it, I just could not find justification. Maybe I’m just more sensitive, who knows.

This was an intriguing book, particularly for fans of thrillers. It features a rogue human experiment that is an efficient killing machine. It also has a protagonist out for vengeance, posing as a CIA agent. There were a few laugh out loud moments in this, which is rare for me.