The Memory Agent

By: Matthew B.J. Delaney

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin, James Foster

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Crime never changes. Punishment does.

In a time when prisons no longer contain inmates behind concrete and steel, the convicted serve their time while asleep, rehabilitating in virtual reality while blissfully unaware of their crimes.

Roger Parker is a professional prison breaker, skilled at navigating these strange penal dream worlds and extracting those imprisoned there - for a price. Parker wants out of the game, but a powerful senator, desperate to save his son, convinces Parker to pull one last job. The clincher? An opportunity for Parker to find his wife, herself interned, lost somewhere in a treacherous, time-shifting Manhattan cyberscape.

As Parker and his team make their hallucinatory journey between worlds, memory and motive lose coherence and integrity, and the clock begins to run out: internal security detects the breaker, and sets out to remove him - permanently.

Unable to rely on his perceptions, unsure of the truth or even his very identity, will Parker break out... or be broken?

©2017 Matthew B.J. Delaney (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

a stunning sci-fi thriller

this book kept me guessing to the end as to what would happened. the author's writing style is complemented greatly through the use of two narrators to help Express the differences in the characters perceived location.

Great novel. Interesting plots and twists.

Captivating book with interesting plots and twists. I'm so glad I purchased this novel. Thanqs

interesting way to pass time

Interesting mix of Philip K. Dick-esque mindscapes ala Ubik with some Christopher Nolan "Inception" and "Memento" vibes, and I appreciated Delaney's willingness to throw the reader into the deep end of the story from the beginning.

The pacing is pretty solid for a story that has to slowly unravel bits & pieces of information in the midst of sometimes mind boggling action pieces, but personally, it didn't always hold my attention. I think bc I've read a lot of altered reality/mindbender type stories, certain elements that were supposed to create tension, interest or be surprising twists didn't land with the same impact for me. That being said, the narrator does a great job and anyone looking for a head-hopping, mindbreaker heist may enjoy this.

Think of a giant MMORPG for convicts

Being a fan of James Anderson Foster since I first listened to him in the Adrian’s Undead Diary series. And being, not really a fan, but one who thinks that dual narrations can be a treat to listen to. I am surprised that I have not listened to The Memory Agent sooner than now.

This is such an interesting yet not totally unique story. The concept of the mental prisons is absolutely fascinating to me. Especially since I have been recently bitten by the LitRPG bug. So I related to the technology in that way. Think of a giant MMORPG (Massively Multi-Player Role Playing Game) where convicts are sent to live out their sentence as someone else in a new reality. Mind you this happens with no knowledge of it happening because the convicted has the pleasure of having their memory’s erased before “plunging in”.

Matthew B.J. Delaney chose to present this story in a way that seemed haphazard and confusing at the time of listening. After processing the story for a couple days I was convinced that Delaney was trying to present his story similarly to the way some Hollywood blockbuster movies are organized. Making me do the work of connecting the dots and drawing conclusions until more is revealed.

Not sure who made the call of the dual narration for this book, whoever it was, they made the right choice. The narrators switched everytime the timeline jumped or you could think of it as a different voice for the different realities. Making it very clear as to what storyline was happening at the moment.

I think this was my first time listening to James Patrick Cronin. He has a pleasant voice that adequately conveys the emotions needed at any given time. Cronin’s voice was very soothing, calm and collected. I would listen to him again without thinking twice.

This was on of James Anderson Foster’s best performances that I have heard. There was a confidence coming from him that I do not remember hearing in the past. You could hear the effort he was putting into his performance to make this a pleasurable listening experience.

My beef is with the production quality of Foster’s performance. Brilliance Audio clearly, for some unknown reason, had Foster processed with some kind of noise gate, this is a technique that essentially turns the mic on and off depending on the volume of sound coming into it. This resulted in a clipping off a couple milliseconds of almost every new paragraph voiced by Foster. Making “Parker” sound more like “Harker”. If something like this happens once or twice I probably wouldn’t have said anything. But, it started to become a little distracting.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Better than Inception & The Matrix Combined

What made the experience of listening to The Memory Agent the most enjoyable?

It has the same feel you get when you watch Inception. You try to follow these characters as they delve into various virtual prisons and it's confusing, but in a fun way. I absolutely adored this book and Mr. Delaney is someone I'm watching from now on.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Memory Agent?

Just keeping up with the narrative was so much fun. Some readers may find this taxing, because they don't want to think when they listen to/read books; I, on the other hand, found it to be enjoyable and it helped my mind get a work out!

What does James Patrick Cronin and James Foster bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

See, both of these narrators are amazing and I thought they did an incredible job. However, I still don't get why there needed to be two. I thought it would explain it in the book (it may have), but I missed it if it did. That being said, I liked the two narrators and I wouldn't necessarily change it. I just wanted to know the reason why.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This question always gets me! Before I try (and fail) to do this, I will say that if they don't make this into a movie, I'll be sad. It has it all and it better be picked up by someone great! Okay, I've tried several times to come up with something, but I can't. I'll let Hollywood come up with something great!

Any additional comments?

If I'm being completely analytical here, I'll say that, no, this book didn't have the best characterization. There was one hole that I found (not a big one and it'd be easily remedied). I don't want people to see my review and wonder why I'm raving so much. Honestly, this book was like watching a Christopher Nolan movie (one of his good ones, at least), and you don't always get that with books. I felt right in the action like I was watching a screen. I loved this book, and I'm hoping more people will find it as thrilling as I did.

What a mind trip

Be prepared for a story that jumps around. It’s a real mind bender. I enjoyed the detective quality and the sci fi technology. Solid story.

Whoa!

I see that another reviewer posted "confusing, but in a fun way". I think that's the feeling I got from this book. I loved it. Last book that gave me a similar feeling was The Dispatcher.

It does end a little abruptly, but I'm one that enjoyed the full ride and is in hopes of a sequel. Voices were wonderful, too!

Can this be made into a movie, please?

Interesting idea but confusing

The memeory agent⭐️
I dont know how to explain this except for that things go wrong in multiple aras and memory, life and death is not what it seems.

Star reasoning
⭐️really liked the writing style. Drew me i to the world.

⭐️the story was unique. The idea of memory and death and life.

⭐️ the intensity grew so easily but then it was just a memory. Memory and what is real and what is false is really confusing but so interesting.

-2 It was complex and Im not entirely sure what the story was about. Since memory is different from real life we never really know whats real. True and false made the story interesting but also frustrating.

Wait, what!?

Interesting premise in a Matrix meets Escape from New York kind of way. But the ending is absolutely terrible. The book ends suddenly with no resolution and just leaves you hanging asking yourself what just happened. I do not recommend it to anyone who enjoys a satisfying read.