Featured New Release Of The Week: Blood Victory by Christopher Rice

This week we’re looking at the most intense book yet in a series of a super-soldier who hunts down serial killers. This week, we’re looking at Blood Victory by Christopher Rice.

Unfortunately I’m facing a form of “writer’s block” these days that is barely allowing me to write a Goodreads level review, so that is all I have to offer this week.

Visceral. That is probably the singular best word I can think of to describe this book.

Once again, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK WITHOUT READING BONE MUSIC AND BLOOD ECHO FIRST. They are absolutely serial (see what I did there?) and build on each other – you can follow along with the story here easily enough without reading those two first, but major revelations from each are openly discussed here and will thus be major spoilers.

That dispensed with, back to “visceral”. I gotta admit, my sense of dread of what Charley is encountering in this book made me walk away from it at several points. I knew I was always coming back, because this was an ARC, but I had to take a break because the dread was just too much. Fortunately Rice resolves those issues rather quickly in most cases, instead spending time seemingly trying to build up just such a level of dread before releasing the tension and moving on. In the back half of the book, we get much more exposition of the motivations of the killers of this mission, and one of the more grisly uses of Charley’s super strength we’ve seen so far.

All told an excellent addition to the series, and one that leaves the reader ready for the next book. Very much recommended.

#BookReview: Blood Echo by Christopher Rice

Burning Girl! Decepticon Toaster! I’m going to start this review with a warning I saw in another: If you have not yet read Bone Music, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. But you should *absolutely* read Bone Music… and then you’ll be desperate to get this book in your hands immediately. 😀 (Also, if you haven’t read Bone Music yet… stop reading this review now and go read it. 🙂 )

Arguably one of the only maybe weaknesses of Bone Music is that Burning Girl… didn’t. Here, we get Burning Girl burning early enough in the tale that you almost have to know it is going to happen again somehow… and Rice doesn’t disappoint.

Along the way we also get a reference to one of those jokes that *always* makes me laugh: “My wife asked me why I carry a gun in the house. I looked at her and said “Decepticons”. She laughed. I laughed. The toaster laughed. I shot the toaster. It was a good day.”

Ultimately this continues the excellent work Rice began in Bone Music of creating a compelling Limitless-type superhero but focusing on the various interpersonal relationships at least as much as the superpowers/ action, and is very much recommended.

This review of Blood Echo by Christopher Rice was originally written on August 15, 2020.

#BookReview: Bone Music by Chrisopher Rice

Interesting Spin On Both Serial Killers And Superpowers. This book is an interesting blend of serial killer lore, Hollywood slasher films (particularly of the serial killer variant), and superpowers ala Limitless. Starts off slowish, but then begins building and increasing the tempo to the point that by the end the reader is nearly breathless with anticipation of exactly what will come next. Very much recommended.

This review of Bone Music by Christopher Rice was originally written on July 7, 2020.