Monday, June 29, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: "Unrelenting Nightmare" by Stan Yocum


SPECIAL NOTE: This novel was previously released as A Lesson in Reality, which I withdrew from publication when I decided to re-edit the novel.
Stuart Garrison, a brilliant virtual reality software developer, has his company poised on the threshold of industry dominance with the release of his newest virtual reality system—Next World. Preston McBraid, the CEO of a competitor company, realizes that if he does not own Next World his company’s premier position atop the computer industry will be ruined. Drastic measures are taken and McBraid hires a notorious assassin to kill Stuart. The FBI learns of the assassination plot and intervenes to protect Stuart. Stuart clings desperately to the protection provided him in hopes that he can make it though the onslaught of assassination attempts. If he does, his next virtual reality product—Mind Games—will blow the world away with its ingenuity and will catapult Stuart to the top of the computer industry making him a billionaire many times over.

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Some people might have noticed that I love violent novels. Usually that violence is in horror, but in Unrelenting Nightmare, the violence reminds me of reading the Deathstroke comic series by Kyle Higgins. The main character is actually the assassin, Clark Cameron, and its his story we get truly immersed in. Stuart, to me, was a secondary character, just as evil as Cameron but for different reasons.
This is a story with no true hero, and everyone is pretty rotten somehow. You get to see war action, you get deep inside the mind of a hired gun and you see how greed could lead to death. Clark is a better character than Stuart, and I am surprised it ended how it did. I was kind of hoping for something different.
The story did head hop a little with quick and sometimes unnoted POV changes. For 99% of readers, that would have been a problem. For me, however, I like POV changes. It makes me feel as though I am inside the character's heads, knowing their secrets and their worries.
It was a fun read, but definitely not for everyone. Would I read more from this author? Definitely.

4/5--Dark and different.

Purchase Unrelenting Nightmare on Amazon.

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