Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: "Burn" is an entertaining, complex novel for fans of the sci-fi, cyberpunk, mystery, and horror genres - and even the hard-boiled detective noirs from which actors such as Humphrey Bogart have made their careers. It is an homage to the classics within each genre, encompassing essential elements of each and referencing the works of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Clive Barker, and many others. Yet "Burn" is simultaneously a genre defying story which intentionally transcends boundaries. Jonathan Lyons critically examines many hot issues, including: traditional gender roles, AI and the boundaries of humanity, white/western privilege, transnationalism, and environmental commodification. Set in a post-environmental apocalyptic world with a brilliant, dangerous heroine, "Burn" is one of the most beautifully crafted novels I have read, demonstrating the author's strong mastery of language, characterization, and plot development.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel!
Review: A futuristic work with sophisticated themes of capitalism in its final stages of thuggism and the globe in its final stages of life. Mr. Lyons keeps the future from unraveling us 21st-century-bound readers with old-fashioned suspense, corruption, murder, and a noir detective that has maintained a decent heart beneath the environment's and the society's murk.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent first novel
Review: A welcome first effort. Not quite Gibson, not quite Bogart. Nonetheless, an interesting effort to mix the various archetypes. The story is better than the attempt to cross genres. An interesting detective novel. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating story!
Review: After reading Burn, a book billed as science fiction noir, written by Jonathan Lyons, I had to reread the author bio at the beginning to be sure that this really is his first novel. With a strong narrative voice and fascinating story, Lyons writes like an old pro and as anyone who reads or writes science fiction will tell you, that's no small accomplishment for this genre. Burn is a good old fashioned, hardboiled detective novel set in a dreary future New York. Cage is a private eye on the downside of his luck and life. He's a former police officer who was discharged and humiliated for pushing too far on a case controlled by the most powerful entity in America, Expedite Corp. Expedite and the men who run it bear an eerie resemblance to a current corporate superpower (hint: think Gates) and can make or break not only other companies but the private lives of everyone in the country. The setting of the novel is very Blade Runner-esque, with perpetual darkness and a never-ending drizzle of acid rain. The streets are run by organized gangs of net savvy punks who are smarter than your average hack and more deadly than a pack of trained ninjas. It's a depressing, dangerous place to live, to say the least. Enter Janice Gild, the grieving sister of James Gild, an accomplished techno wizard who was found mysteriously burned to death in his apartment. It appears to be a case of spontaneous combustion, though Cage isn't quite ready to buy into that theory. Cage searches for answers, only to come up with other apparently unlinked cases of spontaneous combustion. Jonny Cache, a former pleasure robot who was rebuilt into a free thinking cyber babe, is on a similar case that will eventually lead to their teaming up with one another. Together, they must find the common thread between all of the victims and come face to face with the most powerful force in the world, Expedite. This novel has it all. A great setting, intrigue, sex, fights, hover cars, bad cops and paranoid net pirates. Lyons paints a wonderful image of this future reality and really knows his stuff when it comes to the technological aspect of a population linked to a cyber world. Jonny Cache is a character deserving of her own series of books. She's beautiful, super smart and can kick some serious tail. Her friends and partners, Yin and Yang-Angelique, lovers who have united themselves in body, mind and spirit with the help of future technology and genetics, are some of the strangest, most memorable characters I've ever come across. Burn is that rare combination of great science fiction and bare bones private dick suspense. This was a surprisingly great read and I look forward to more from Mr. Lyons. I also want to take a moment to praise the aesthetic quality of the hardcover edition of the book itself. Domhan Books, a small publishing company, has created a quality product. In fact, I'm going to their web-site to discover some more new voices in the writing field.
Rating:
Summary: 1984 for a new generation
Review: Billed as a science fiction noir, the book is that, but a lot more too. The author has a gift for description, describing the darkness of a future world where Big Brother is in the form of the worldwide corporation,Expediate, and where much of the globe is in eternal twilight due to the smog and acid rain.Cage was once a detective on the Old New York police force, forced to retire after Expediate got involved in one of his cases. He ekes out a living as a private detective, but his strangest case is yet to come. A new client, Janice Gild wants him to investigate the death of her brother, as the police have dropped the case. The victim was burned, but there were no marks anywhere except on the body, was it a case of spontaneous human combustion? And then more victims turn up, seemingly unrelated... This is an interesting book, the story and backstory flows well without giving too much away at first. It works well as a straight mystery, and the future setting and technology adds to the tale, without distracting from it. There are enough twists and turns to keep puzzlers happy for hours. I can see this working great as a film. A mix of 1984 and Bladerunner, but a unique style all its own, this is one to catch. Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams and Shadows of the Rose.
Rating:
Summary: Near future Gotham noir
Review: Burn is a tightly written book that says a lot in 205 pages. It uses the well-loved formula of a down on his luck dectective battling the establishment against mean odds. Lyons employs many cyber-noir standards such as AI robot consciousness, flesh-machine interface, enviroment that is pollution crippled and various subcultures that are disenfranchised. The dectective, Cage, is hired to find out why the mega-corporation controlled cops have abandoned a strange death. Other deaths by the same method begin showing up. The murder weapon turns out to be one of the most unusual ever used in crime fiction. The prose is sparse and unpretentious, the dialogue is straight-forward but the story gets told in an entertaining manner. Good stuff, if you want a quick easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Winner of the WordWeaving Award of Excellence
Review: In post-environmental-apocalyptic Old New York City, acidic rains fall in a surreal dirty near-night landscape. In a world where the environment has shifted following corporate brutal abuses intent upon profit, citizens don filter masks and non-reactive coats as a matter of course. NewSchool Grrls, Nouveau Gothics and rogue-boyz populate bars like the Nine Circles, where chip rental outpaces consumption of alcohol, allowing patrons to experience the highs and lows of drugs without the aftereffects. Cage had once been a career cop with a wife, a good partner and a retirement plan with Expedite Corporation, the corporate sponsors of Old New York's police force. Then he challenged Expedite Corporation and lost his job, his wife and his future in the same day. Now he ekes out a living as a private detective. Janice Gild arrives in Cage's office, hiring him to investigate the death of her brother James. The police attribute the case to spontaneous human combustion and have dropped the investigation. Soon Cage learns that James is not the only person to die this way. Jonny Cache, a beautiful android, is a netrunner of unique talent, able to slip past any security system undetected. Once she delivers information to those who hire her skills, Jonny burns the information from her memory to the tune of "Ring of Fire," recorded by her namesake in an almost forgotten sunlit era. Jonny achieved sentience because of James Gild. She wants answers to his death. She will begin to find those answers in an online virtual world run by paranormal enthusiasts that leads to a real world meeting with Cage. Together they will attempt to find answers without arousing the attention of Expedite Corporation or the police force it funds. Debut novelist Jonathan Lyons juxtaposes a frightening futuristic landscape with a hero in the tradition of the 30's private investigator. A corporation runs the world, destroying the environment for profit and funding law enforcement. Despite this bleak landscape, these characters thrive, creating their own unique niches in a world gone wrong, merging their humanity with technology seamlessly. Fans of technoir or cyberpunk will find BURN to be a highly entertaining read, with richly developed characters, and a fast paced plot. Readers will be disappointed to reach the conclusion and left hoping for more! A stunning narrative with haunting possibilities, BURN has earned the WordWeaving Award of Excellence.
Rating:
Summary: A great first effort!
Review: It has been a while since this reviewer tried her hand at the Science Fiction genre, and it is a welcome journey. Domhan books (Irish for universe), is based in the U.S., UK and Ireland. Its mission is to give new writers a voice; experienced authors a new outlet; to bring books to market sooner; keep them in print longer; to break down barriers in genres; and to offer affordable books. They use the latest digital technologies and produce their books in both a paper and electronic format on a global basis. Burn is Texan Jonathan Lyons' first book. It is twenty-first century New York. John Cage is an ex-cop whose lost his job and his future wife when he ran up against the mighty Expedite Corporation, the foremost computer corporation in the world. Science has eaten its own tail. The skies are filled with acid rain; and humans coexist with androids, Morlocks, binaries, and other assorted chip fanatics. The entire world is on the "net," StellarNet that is...and it functions as "Big Brother." Cage is approached by Janice Gild, whose brother died in a singularly horrific way...by human combustion. When Cage investigates Gild'sapartment looking for clues, he sees someone watching him through the window: "Moving around to the far side of the bed, Cage found himself looking absently through the greasy smear of the rain on the man's bedroom window, outinto the drizzle, into the darkness of the night, into -- into a window in abuilding across the street, to a backlit, overcoat-clad figure who's just realized Cagehad spotted him. The figure put something down -- a camera? Small telescope?--and disappeared." Scientific science fiction must now be subdivided, to include the category of computer-geek science fiction. Burn is a horrifying look at what over-computerization, coupled with unleashed corporate pursuits, can do to our world. As Lyons so aptly conveys in Burn, if science andcomputers are not kept in check we could be left with a world with no beauty, no wood, and no humanity left. It is interesting to note that Lyons can't help but give his androids human characteristics...a la"Star Trek: Next Generation." Burn is a powerful computer/technologicalscience fiction thriller that leaves room for us to grieve for lost humanity. Great first effort! Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: A great first effort!
Review: It has been a while since this reviewer tried her hand at the Science Fiction genre, and it is a welcome journey. Domhan books (Irish for universe), is based in the U.S., UK and Ireland. Its mission is to give new writers a voice; experienced authors a new outlet; to bring books to market sooner; keep them in print longer; to break down barriers in genres; and to offer affordable books. They use the latest digital technologies and produce their books in both a paper and electronic format on a global basis. Burn is Texan Jonathan Lyons' first book. It is twenty-first century New York. John Cage is an ex-cop whose lost his job and his future wife when he ran up against the mighty Expedite Corporation, the foremost computer corporation in the world. Science has eaten its own tail. The skies are filled with acid rain; and humans coexist with androids, Morlocks, binaries, and other assorted chip fanatics. The entire world is on the "net," StellarNet that is...and it functions as "Big Brother." Cage is approached by Janice Gild, whose brother died in a singularly horrific way...by human combustion. When Cage investigates Gild'sapartment looking for clues, he sees someone watching him through the window: "Moving around to the far side of the bed, Cage found himself looking absently through the greasy smear of the rain on the man's bedroom window, outinto the drizzle, into the darkness of the night, into -- into a window in abuilding across the street, to a backlit, overcoat-clad figure who's just realized Cagehad spotted him. The figure put something down -- a camera? Small telescope?--and disappeared." Scientific science fiction must now be subdivided, to include the category of computer-geek science fiction. Burn is a horrifying look at what over-computerization, coupled with unleashed corporate pursuits, can do to our world. As Lyons so aptly conveys in Burn, if science andcomputers are not kept in check we could be left with a world with no beauty, no wood, and no humanity left. It is interesting to note that Lyons can't help but give his androids human characteristics...a la"Star Trek: Next Generation." Burn is a powerful computer/technologicalscience fiction thriller that leaves room for us to grieve for lost humanity. Great first effort! Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Burn Into Your Mind!
Review: Jonathan Lyons has crafted an intriguing mystery set on our world in a not too distant future. He has taken current events and extrapolated a logical futuristic setting from them while adding multi dimensional characters. At the same time, he asks fundamental technology driven questions such as when does something totally technology based, achieve human status with feelings, emotions, and the like? In this future world, giant corporations run the country. The effects of global warming have come to pass, raising the world's sea levels and destroying major cities. Permanent fogs of smog have rolled in causing a perpetual acidic rain. The well to do have managed to flee to where the sun still shines, artificial islands created in places like the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. Corporations caused it all to happen as they bought off the politicians and set themselves up to run everything. The biggest corporation around is Expedite, which among other things, is the corporate sponsor of Old New York's police force. The suits make the decisions about what gets investigated not the cops. Cage used to be a cop and was a pretty good one. He annoyed the powers that be, by investigating the death of Joseph Fuhlber, an Expedite computer scientist. The doctor's partner was also killed and both were classified as suicide. Both deaths were clearly murder and when Cage wouldn't leave it alone, he was booted from the force, nearly destroying his life. Cage is surviving, financially and emotionally, but just barely. Janice Gild who wants her brother's death investigated contacts him. The cops aren't doing anything to speak of and the dead brother has links back to Expedite. The man was incinerated in his own condo while in bed and amazingly, the rest of the condo did not burn. While vaguely interested and in need of money, Cage does not want to run afoul of Expedite again. He grudgingly agrees while at the same time warning her, that he won't fight Expedite if they don't want it investigated. Soon, he discovers that the crime scene has been tampered with and Janice Gild's brother was only one of several to strangely die by incineration. If it wasn't spontaneous human combustion, a rare event, then what is happening? Bodies begin to pile up and Cage slowly figures out that the only help may come from the missing android domestic Jennifer Four. But, Jennifer Four is not what she once was and has developed her own agenda and Cage may be interference to be removed. This debut novel (available in a variety of formats) is very good with plenty of action and multi dimensional characters. Jonathan Lyons deftly mixes in back ground information and social commentary without sliding into preaching. He adds some downright funny parts, which I won't spoil by revealing. This is a very good book and I eagerly await Mr. Lyon's next project which this reviewer hopes just might be a sequel to this effort. Enjoy!
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