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Counterfeit Kings: A Novel

Counterfeit Kings: A Novel

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Counterfeit Kings
Review:
In the not so near future someone attempts to assassinate the King of a mining colony. Exactly who is responsible is up for grabs. The Queen has implored ex-guard Horracks and his wife Sari to find him and his surgically altered ringers.
Meanwhile, the King's many illegitimate children, collectively known as the Bastards, have banded together to take advantage of the ensuing chaos; Lead by Tinton they hire the very unscrupulous Guilfoyle to do the same.

In a race against time and political maneuvering by power hungry factions, Horracks must piece together the clues hidden with the Counterfeit Kings. The King only has twenty days left and Guilfoyle in his uncontrolled hatred is destroying the Counterfeit Kings and any chance of stopping the looming civil war.
This was a refreshing page turner, no matter how much I wanted to put it down I couldn't!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Wild Ride
Review: As Horrocks demands of Sari in the opening scene- strap your seatbelt on and get ready for one wild ride. This debut novel, from a writer I certainly hope to read more of, has it all- adventure, war, hate, love, and greed- presented at a breathtaking pace. The language used is terse and at some times harsh, and Connell does an excellent job of using dialogue to define the personalities of his characters. Throughout the story there are references to the great masters of the genre- Guilfoyle seems to be an ugly shadow of the famous Bester character. The story is driven by the egos of the essential characters and these characters are driven by the darkness inside them whether it comes from greed, jealousy, anger, or a warped sense of responsibility. The story is as much about the extreme actions people will take in a time of uncertainty- looking at death as an insignificant coincidence in their quest for what they believe is rightfully theirs- as it is a politically charged sci-fi epic. I highly recommend this book to any sci-fi aficionado and to anyone ready to take on a swift and stirring read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Adam Connell is the real deal
Review: Awesome, awesome, awesome!!

If Alfred Bester, David Mamet and Kate Chopin had a voodoo love-child, their
punk-rock offspring would be Adam Connell.

Counterfeit Kings is a daring debut on par with Mieville's and Stephenson's.

Connell surprises, delights and amazes. All the things science fiction was
meant to do, and Connell does them better than most.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intense
Review: Counterfeit Kings rivals the best of classic SF in scope and intensity. The science fiction setting and plot are woven together tightly, giving us one of the most plausible future visions ever put on paper. The plot twists and turns like a runaway rollercoaster, and even the most jaded reader of SF is going to get taken by surprise as the story unfolds.

But for me, the most fascinating details of Counterfeit Kings are the characters. The cover shows a flayed human face, and Adam Connell pulls off the equivelent feat in presenting his characters, peeling away the layers of their external actions to stare unblinkingly at the demons that drive them. Life in outer space isn't easy in Connell's vision--the characters are trapped in flimsy tin cans, surrounded by void, their lives dependent on jury-rigged and ever-failing technology. The stress and claustrophopia has taken a toll on even the most likable of the characters. The heroes are separated from the villians by only the thinest moral lines, but, in the end, these lines prove to be the truly important ones. Connell's understanding of human desires and actions equals or exceeds his impressive grasp of science fiction. Even non-SF readers will love this book.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Connell has gained a fan for life in me after this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intense
Review: Counterfeit Kings rivals the best of classic SF in scope and intensity. The science fiction setting and plot are woven together tightly, giving us one of the most plausible future visions ever put on paper. The plot twists and turns like a runaway rollercoaster, and even the most jaded reader of SF is going to get taken by surprise as the story unfolds.

But for me, the most fascinating details of Counterfeit Kings are the characters. The cover shows a flayed human face, and Adam Connell pulls off the equivelent feat in presenting his characters, peeling away the layers of their external actions to stare unblinkingly at the demons that drive them. Life in outer space isn't easy in Connell's vision--the characters are trapped in flimsy tin cans, surrounded by void, their lives dependent on jury-rigged and ever-failing technology. The stress and claustrophopia has taken a toll on even the most likable of the characters. The heroes are separated from the villians by only the thinest moral lines, but, in the end, these lines prove to be the truly important ones. Connell's understanding of human desires and actions equals or exceeds his impressive grasp of science fiction. Even non-SF readers will love this book.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Connell has gained a fan for life in me after this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Amateurish
Review: Folks, I bought this book based on the existing glowing reviews. But, I have to say that I thought this book was raw at best. I almost didn't finish reading it.

I think that Adam Connell could develop into a much better author, but this work reflects his weaknesses more than strengths:

* Characters that you had to try hard to care about
* Weak plot
* Gratuitous violence

I personally will not buy another of his books until he gets positive reviews from a major source and/or makes the cut at a major publisher.

Sorry, but that's my honest opinion.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A New Classic
Review: I've been a fan of science fiction since I was a kid, I've read all the classics, and I've just found a new one: Counterfeit Kings. It's that good. The story will blow you away. It's so breathtakingly original, I don't want to spoil your first encounter with it. Let's just say that I envy you-because I've taken this ride, I know what to expect. You have no idea what's waiting for you. You have the chance to experience this stunning book for the first time. I envy you.

The Counterfeit Kings world Mr. Connell has so deftly drawn is gritty, palpable, lived-in. You're light years away from pristine starships and fancy uniforms. Counterfeit Kings is that rare gem: a realistic space opera. It may sound like an oxymoron, but it's true. This is a world you can almost reach out and touch.

The characters are layered, complex, and believable. Some of my favorite chapters revolved around Horrocks and Sari, the married couple that are the heart of the book. They've been married for something like ten years, they love each other (fabulously elucidated by Mr. Connell in some truly affecting scenes) but there's a rift between them that goes way back to...I'll keep that a secret. Let's just say that these are two fascinating, flawed people I'd follow all the way to Jupiter.

Do I need to sum this up? Buy this book. Period.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent future world tale
Review: In the far distant future three percent of Earth's energy come from the gas mines above Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon. The harnessing of energy is the work of the Furnaces which is the brainstorm of Kingston who created a powerful empire in which he and his wife are the king and queen. During the Push, a war was fought to wrest control of the mines from Kingston but he and his allies were victorious.

To prevent another successful assassination during the war he created Ringers, surgically transformed men to serve as Kingston's bodyguards. The system worked and the empire thrived until an assassin was able to slip past the guards and kill the king and take control. The ringers and Kingston scatter and claimants to the empire want the king to stay gone for twenty days for that means he will be officially declared dead with his empire to go to the most powerful claimant. Horracks and his pregnant wife Sari, once bodyguards to the royals, are asked to find the king before the time is up. They do not know that Kingston's illegitimate children and an old enemy working for rival business man want them to fail.

Adam Connell debuts with an excellent future world tale in which business rules and sabotage and assassination is the order of the day. COUNTERFEIT KINGS is not a happily ever after tale but it is a realistic one as business rules the galaxy. There are many villains in Mr. Connell's story that readers will love to hate more than they will love the protagonist, a man who doesn't even know what his best option is in the coming war. Counterfeit Kings is a mesmerizing, action-packed and riveting work of science fiction.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent future world tale
Review: In the far distant future three percent of Earth's energy come from the gas mines above Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon. The harnessing of energy is the work of the Furnaces which is the brainstorm of Kingston who created a powerful empire in which he and his wife are the king and queen. During the Push, a war was fought to wrest control of the mines from Kingston but he and his allies were victorious.

To prevent another successful assassination during the war he created Ringers, surgically transformed men to serve as Kingston's bodyguards. The system worked and the empire thrived until an assassin was able to slip past the guards and kill the king and take control. The ringers and Kingston scatter and claimants to the empire want the king to stay gone for twenty days for that means he will be officially declared dead with his empire to go to the most powerful claimant. Horracks and his pregnant wife Sari, once bodyguards to the royals, are asked to find the king before the time is up. They do not know that Kingston's illegitimate children and an old enemy working for rival business man want them to fail.

Adam Connell debuts with an excellent future world tale in which business rules and sabotage and assassination is the order of the day. COUNTERFEIT KINGS is not a happily ever after tale but it is a realistic one as business rules the galaxy. There are many villains in Mr. Connell's story that readers will love to hate more than they will love the protagonist, a man who doesn't even know what his best option is in the coming war. Counterfeit Kings is a mesmerizing, action-packed and riveting work of science fiction.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Action, Action 24/7!
Review: None of the other reviewers have commented on the book's female characters. Being a woman, I'll step in and raise my voice. I do agree with most of what's been said around me, but the women of Counterfeit Kings are the book's strength. Sari and Kitsis in particular.

Sari's a strong heroine, but not in a Ripley/Alien kind of way. She's not a whip-cracking butt kicker. She's pregnant, she has her frail moments. She's also the book's toughest character when it comes to self-sacrifice and her refusal to live in denial. A lot of the characters lie to themselves to cope, but never Sari.

Science fiction doesn't have enough complex, layered women. Hopefully Counterfeit Kings starts a trend.


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