The third book of this enthralling series is just as good as the first two.

The Lock In continues where The Taken left off.   Ezekiel has decided which side she needs to be on, but the problem with that idea is that she soon begins to realise that they might have different plans for her, ones that don’t include her being on their side.

So Ezekiel finds herself running on the streets again, but after the bombings everything has changed.   Faust makes an appearance with his minions the Ninkashi, who are all very hungry, and much mayhem, gore and death ensues as more of the story and characters are slowly revealed to us.   And that’s what makes these books so good: they are incredibly action packed, fast paced books, dark and not so pleasant, which contrasts so well with story and character backgrounds — that reveal more of the plot — getting drip fed slowly throughout that action.   So even after 3 books, i’m still not sure what’s really going on, but it really doesn’t matter, because to get here has been an awesome ride.   The destination is somewhere ahead, who cares where, the journey is more than good enough.

There simply isn’t any downtime in these books.   Find a comfy chair or bed and start reading, you may be there for a while.

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After such a relentless beginning to this series in The Given i did wonder if this book would keep up with the pace: i most certainly wasn’t disappointed.

As i surmised in my review of The Given, more characters and groups were added along the way slowly building even more complexity and depth into the story, our protagonist finally has to decide which group she’s going to join, and all this is done with never a dull moment.

Once again, it’s incredibly well written, fast paced, and just sucks your attention in as it keeps rewarding you by revealing ever more bits and pieces of the story as you go along.

I do admit to not being aware of having read any urban fantasy before.   I kind of got put of the whole genre by the awful stuff TV show stuff.   So it’s really nice to be shown just how good this genre can be when done really well.   The magic system, which Colby calls “Alchemy”, is well put together and certainly works for the story really well, as each group and character seems to have something different to reveal about it as they themselves get revealed within the story.

All there’s left to say is, so far, so very, very good, and its definitely left me wanting a lot more.

I’ve got a few other books to read but i’ll be back soon with The Lock In.

Colby’s Page

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Wow, that was intense.

The book begins with a car chase trying to retrieve the ‘Final Page’, which has been stolen, but then jumps 2 months forward into the story proper giving no explanation of what the ‘Final Page’ is, who the people were, or what events preceded it.   I believe this is called foreshadowing — someone please correct me if i’m mistaken.   But, whatever the literary device is called it’s certainly done with great effect.   It throws you, head first, straight into the non stop action of this relentless book, which isn’t going to let you off its hook until you get to the end, and even then, it’ll leave you hooked on the next book in the series.

As we leave the enigmatic first chapter and begin to move through the book, more and more is slowly revealed.   The various characters appear, which Colby does a wonderful job bringing to life, and it feels as much a character driven story as a plot driven one.   All the characters are really good and well written.

And as the characters are revealed so is each of the various groups that they belong to within the world of the story.   And then, within each group, sub-groups begin to appear, each with their own rivalries and agendas.

Thrown into the middle all of this is our protagonist, Ezekiel, who, along with her little sister, are simply trying to survive.   But you really get the feeling that the only way of surviving the future that is coming to them is to join one of the many groups.

Getting to the end of the book and looking back: the whole book is mostly setting the stage and introducing the various characters and groups that i presume will be the basis of the story going forward, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more to be added.   It really is an incredibly complex and diverse dystopian future humanity has found itself in, but’s it’s never too complex to leave you confused — a very fine line that Colby walks incredibly well.

Final thoughts: i’m very much left looking forward to reading The Taken, but i just have a quick novella i pre-ordered and have been eagerly waiting to read to whizz through first.   So yeah, i’ll definitely be back very soon with more of Ezekiel’s world.

Awesome!

Also available in Uprising: 12 Dystopian Futures.

Colby’s Page

#fantasy #dystopian #colbyrrice