Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure

5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, fast read
ByAbookanighton May 21, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I found this little gem on one of those email lists for .99 and took a chance. Glad I did.

McClure does a great job of creating a character to love, as well as move the story along in a rip roaring fashion. The book doesn't follow the cookie cutter format authors are starting to churn out with back story and flashbacks all neatly interspersed.

Gideon Quinn went to prison willingly and then surprised his enemies by surviving. He is released by a mysterious set of circumstances and turned loose in the city to track down a spy. What happens next is general mayhem with an interesting and interconnected cast of Characters that kept me turning pages until the end.

It is not a book that will change the world, there's been those like it before, but I will definitely be reading the next in the series.

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5.0 out of 5 stars
Something for everyone--a guy looking for revenge, a strong female character, bad guys, good guys, post-apocalyptic corruption!
ByMelissaon March 27, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
I really enjoyed this book. Her crisp, often sarcastic writing reminds me of Bill Bryson's style. Totally different genre, but the kind of writing you want to read out loud to someone every so often.

Quinn is sort of a dystopian Jack Reacher--unafraid of confrontation, suffers no fools, but does so for noble reasons. Mia is kind of like Rey in The Force Awakens. She has some problems in her life, but she isn't waiting around for someone to rescue her. Both are smart and principled (in that everything they're doing is to right a wrong or serve some kind of justice) without being infallible superheroes, and there's a complexity to everyone. Even some of the characters who were supposed to be "bad guys" weren't always bad guys.

The narrator doesn't come out and explain what, for example, a draco is, or how this society's social structure works, or why cities are named after American companies (their money is starbucks) but gives enough information for the reader to infer the rest as the story moves along. A few times the narrator tried to adopt the voice or vocabulary of a minor character for whom it was speaking and it sounded a little off, but overall the main characters' voices made them compelling storytellers.

I'd say it's appropriate for middle school and above. Mia is twelve, and I think many kids her age who read this kind of dystopian genre will enjoy it. It's got some tense moments, some humor, some beat-em-up kinds of violence, and one or two adult-ish situations, but nothing graphic--on par with the first Star Wars, for example. There's also a strong theme of social justice that speak to middle-schoolers as well. Something for everyone, well-written, definitely recommend!