REDEYE – The Book Diva's Reads

Redeye (Book 2 of the Wonderland Cycle) by Michael Shean
ISBN: 9781620072356 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781620072349 (ebook)
ASIN: B00C7T2DJI (Kindle edition)
Publication date: April 12, 2013
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Two years have passed since Agent Thomas Walken and Bobbi January found themselves at the heart of a conspiracy of unimaginable greed and cruelty. The Genefex Corporation remains shrouded in mystery and Bobbi January faces a life of unanswered questions and mounting disillusionment to look forward to. But when she receives a mysterious message from one of Walken’s former comrades, she is drawn back onto the trail. Now, Bobbi will find herself newly equipped to discover the truth – about Walken, about Genefex and the Yathi race – and the key to unlocking those secrets rests in the hands of a cyborg terrorist known only as Redeye.

But the road to truth will be a dangerous one, from the glamor of Seattle’s ultramodern core to the sprawling wastelands of the Old City and beyond. Alongside a band of lethal comrades, Bobbi will face death and worse amidst urban rot, abandoned subway tunnels, and ultimately the nightmarish halls of the Yathi themselves in a race to stave off what may prove to be the death of humanity itself. For the Mother of Systems will not be denied, and it will take all of Bobbi’s intelligence and wit to stave off annihilation. Drenched in blood and neon, Redeye is a tale of humanity on the edge of a new and terrible reality.

Excerpt

Chapter One

In the end, all Bobbi had left of him was a bloody coat.

It had been the one that he had worn when they had driven through the Old City, when they had searched for dead little girls in a concrete wasteland. He had driven them through a mass of insane feral killers to save them both. That was him, her knight in cheap black microfiber.

Tom. On nights like this, she missed him like crazy.

Bobbi had never thought of him as hers at the time. There was too much going on, too much insanity and Stadil’s stupid goddamned quest. And he had followed that road to the end, into the bowels of that abandoned hospital. The hospital that she had destroyed, and probably him with it, at his own request. But he had said that he had forgotten all about the Bureau, and that had meant that he intended to come back. Didn’t it?

Thomas Cooley Walken, agent of the American Industrial Security Bureau. It had not been love, she didn’t think, but it had been something perhaps preceding it. Despite everything she had wanted, she had become fascinated with his vulnerability, his strangeness. Walken didn’t trust this world that she had accepted as a matter of fact. And now he was gone, and had taken the secret of that disbelief with him.

All she had left of him was that black coat, pinned up in a shadow box on the far wall of her tiny bedroom by the door. It was the first thing she saw upon rising, the last thing she saw before going to bed. She stared at it now, stretched out like a skin. The stains had long since faded into the fabric, blood long since bonded with the synthetic fibers.

About the author

Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this, though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws inspiration.

In 2001, Michael left West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry. He settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a result, his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In 2006 he met his wife who urged him to pick up his writing once more. Though the process was very frustrating at first, in time the process of polishing and experimentation yielded the core of what would become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star. In 2009 the first draft of book was finished although it would not be until 2011 he would be satisfied enough with the book to release it.

Michael’s work is extensively character-driven, but also focuses on building engaging worlds in which those characters interact. His influences include H.P. Lovecraft, William Gibson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip K. Dick, and Clark Ashton Smith.

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The Book Diva’s Reads is pleased to be able to share in the cover reveal for Redeye, the second book in the Wonderland Cycle trilogy by author Michael Shean. Read more about book one, Shadow of a Dead Star, and book two (coming soon) – Redeye below:

Shadow of a Dead Star by Michael Shean
ISBN: 9781620070017 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781620070000 (ebook)
ASIN: B006JQ1HLA (Kindle edition)
Publication date: June 23, 2011

Seattle, 2078. The future hasn’t been kind to the spirit of humanity; commercial obsession and technological fetishism rules the day, religion and belief has died screaming in the fires of war, and what remains is moral decrepitude. Life in the future is hard on the soul.

As an agent of the Industrial Security Bureau, Thomas Walken knows that better than anyone. His job is to keep the worst kind of black-market technology out of the hands of citizens, technology born out of the shadowy nation nicknamed Wonderland. But the kind of fantasies that come out of that place aren’t for the good people of the world. Wonderland technology is like black magic made real.

Walken’s newest assignment starts out simply: intercept a smuggled shipment of Princess Dolls, little girls turned into sex toys, and bring them into custody. But when the girls are hijacked from federal custody and Walken gives chase, he finds a trail of bodies in their wake. Before he’s through, Walken will find himself confronted revelations that will answer every question that the troubled lawman has ever had about himself and the world he lives in – but his mind and soul may not survive it.

A dark, brooding piece of future noir, Shadow of a Dead Star will take you down the rabbit hole on a ride you won’t soon forget.

Redeye by Michael Shean
Coming Soon…

Two years have passed since Agent Thomas Walken and Bobbi January found themselves at the heart of a conspiracy of unimaginable greed and cruelty. The Genefex Corporation remains shrouded in mystery and Bobbi January faces a life of unanswered questions and mounting disillusionment to look forward to. But when she receives a mysterious message from one of Walken’s former comrades, she is drawn back onto the trail. Now, Bobbi will find herself newly equipped to discover the truth – about Walken, about Genefex and the Yathi race – and the key to unlocking those secrets rests in the hands of a cyborg terrorist known only as Redeye.

But the road to truth will be a dangerous one, from the glamor of Seattle’s ultramodern core to the sprawling wastelands of the Old City and beyond. Alongside a band of lethal comrades, Bobbi will face death and worse amidst urban rot, abandoned subway tunnels, and ultimately the nightmarish halls of the Yathi themselves in a race to stave off what may prove to be the death of humanity itself. For the Mother of Systems will not be denied, and it will take all of Bobbi’s intelligence and wit to stave off annihilation. Drenched in blood and neon, Redeye is a tale of humanity on the edge of a new and terrible reality.

To learn more about this series, individual books or the author, please visit the author’s website: www.michael-shean.com