This book is a must-read for various reasons. For one, if you like the paranoia element in works by Philip K. Dick and Alfred Bester, then you will probably like this one as well. I would say it falls somewhat in the dystopian genre (the protagonist narrating in first person can be seen as a bit similar to Winston Smith), so if you like that, this work will appeal to you as well. Next, and this is a big reason why I tell this people to read this book: it is one hell of a commentary on why we need a good universal health care system that cares for everyone. This novel basically shows the worse case scenario for managed and for profit care systems. In a way, it does for health care and for financial extremism (think the recession is bad now, imagine it worse if those bankers so on are not regulated at all) what The Handmaid's Tale does for religious fundamentalism taking over the country. Plus, the book itself is a pretty good thrill ride.

This is a world where any organ or body part can be replaced...for a price. Can't afford it? No problem. The Credit Union will be happy to work with you on financing. However, can't pay the loan? They send their Bio-Repo men to get their assets back by any means necessary. You bleed to death during the repossession? Too bad. You should have read the fine print and paid your loan. Rate of the loan too high? Looks like usury? Hey, what's that when you get a new kidney or liver instead of having to die waiting for a transplant? Sure, this is a future dystopian scenario, but are we really that far away from it. What really keeps us from selling organs in an open market? We already do have artificial hearts? Who is to say those won't get better and better over time? And why not other organs? And as health care costs keep spiraling out of control to the point where only the ultra-rich can get it, how long before some entrepreneurs come along and offer financing? How much different is that from, say, a rent-to-own joint or any other shady loan operations now? The beauty and strength of this book is that the future it portrays is all too plausible. Therein lies the true terror of it.

I won't spoil the ending, but I did have mixed feelings about it, which is why I did not go for the 5 stars. But the ending will leave you thinking. And as I said, it is a pretty engaging book overall. Definitely recommend it.
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You go a little late on your payments to the credit union and the Repo-Man shows up at your door. Only this one uses ether and scalpels and he’s legally obligated to call an ambulance at your discretion. You see, this credit unit funds artiforgs – artificial organs – and if you don’t pay up, you’re not embarrassed, you’re dead.

So, this might sound familiar to you. There was a movie made of it not too long ago with Jude Law as Remy, the Repo-Man (the character in the book is actually unnamed). I enjoyed the film which wasn’t a surprise since anything vaguely phildickian with themes of property, identity, and evil “mega” corporations will get me into a theater seat. But I enjoyed the book more, simply for the fact that we have more details, more background, things the film didn’t have time or budget for. Garcia explains that he had a hand in writing the script adaptation and while the two are similar, the ending is quite different. Quite different. The book’s ending was poetic and even though I saw it coming 50-pages off, it felt like the right thing to happen. But it wasn’t Hollywood and I understand why the film ended the way it did, too.

This is one of those stories that is told half in the present and half in the past, alternating until they catch up. Much like the titular mambo, I suppose, but this dance was over way too quickly for me. I’ll be back for another twirl with Garcia, just let me change into proper dance shoes! ( )

Liked this story, its narrator and its conclusion more than I ever expected I would! This one is worth turning the pages for! Wonderfully structured. ( )

Somewhere in the not-so-distant future, clothing stores no longer fill our shopping malls. No more Abercrombie; no more JC Penny's. Instead, we have synthetic organ dealers vying for our attention. But amidst the smiling crowds—the injured dying thinking, "there is some hope"—between the dancing "Harry the Heart" mascots, and neon, pulsating "A Lifetime Can Be Yours!" slogans, there is something sinister. Something dark.

Enter our main character: a nameless bio-repo man. Armed with ether, a taser, and a handful of scalpels, he reclaims the Credit Union's organs when their customers fall behind on their payments. The job is harsh, gory, and the general public regards him with a sort of morbid curiosity.

What attracted me to this book originally was the movie, Repo Men, recently come to theaters. I knew I wouldn't have time to go see the movie, so I elected instead to read the book. Frankly, I'm glad I did.

The prose is straight-forward. Told in the first-person, our nameless bio-repo man has a very strong personality. The flow of language and vocabulary is consistent; the imagery portrayed, vivid and tight. The characterization—at least of the main character—is steady and well developed.

The concept—of fake organs and power-hungry companies—is one that I think many people can fear. This is what I might call 'real' science-fiction. Light science-fiction. It's one of those concepts that might be frighteningly realistic, leaving people like you and me to hope it never comes to past. That being said, I wish that there had been more focus on the technology of the future society, rather than our brooding main character.

Repo Men as a story does drag a little bit. At times—and certainly upon finishing—I felt like I had finished a short story, rather than novel. It doesn't seem like there should be enough information to fill a book this size, and I wonder if this wouldn't have been better off as a novella. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the non-linear plot, and liked the book well enough to keep.

Repo Men is a dark book. It's full of things that we don't really want to think about; of concepts that leave us shuddering while we read. But it is also a realistic book. I could imagine myself as one of the future public, grimly fascinated by the work of our bio-repo man. A man who is world-weary, and aging under the burden of his past sins.

Eric Garcia has a very interesting book here, but I do wish it had been shorter—even tighter than it already is. Three and a half stars out of five.

You can read more at my blog: http://jpwickwire.blogspot.com/ ( )

I read this book for a RL book group. And I was the one that inflicted it on them. I gave it a 3 star rating, because it was spelled correctly and wasn't written terribly, but I found it to be boring and lacking a point.

The premise is that in the future they have developed metallic artificial organs that don't cause rejection in the human body. People who are sick get them, and even those who are not sick join in the fun. It becomes a fad to get a new liver that has a computer date book for example (never explained how the extras are accessed or used).

The artiforgs are easily inserted and malls give up selling stuff and become clinics where you can buy new organs and have them installed. Of course the prices are outrageous and people have to buy them on credit with massive interest rates. If people fall behind in paying, their organs can be repossessed.

The main character in this book is an organ repossessor, a bio-repo man, for a major credit union. I don't think he even has a name. Somehow Congress has passed a law allowing repossession of the organs on the spot (not in a hospital) even though removing an important organ will kill the person it is being repossessed from since nothing is inserted in its place. The people removing organs, the repossessors, aren't even required to be doctors.

The book has some funny black humor, but it runs out pretty quickly, and them as a reader you are looking for what comes next. Unfortunately, the answer is nothing. The author has this idea but he never goes into the type of society he posits, or what led up to it. He may be making a comment on current society where money or the lack there of determines who lives and under what conditions, but he doesn't deal with the society. He also doesn't do much with the SF theme of artiforgs. How are they developed, what does it mean to be an artificial human, how they work ...It makes the book ultimately half-baked and boring.

What he does focus on, is the main character. So we see him as a hardcore repossessor and we learn about his current life and his past that leads him to it. He obsesses with his inability to stay married though he wants to (he has been divorced 5 times). Perhaps because he consistently picks the wrong woman ?

We learn about his past life and experience in the military, and his lack of other employment options. We also see him end up in the same trouble as his targets, and how he supposedly grows emotionally. The story is woven from threads of past, current and future so it jumps around. As though the jumping will change the fact that there is nothing there but bad jokes, blood and a loser who can be summed up in a chapter. The author drags it out for over 300 pages. It just bored me. ( )