Dropship

A Near Future Thriller

De: Jonathan Yanez

Narrado por: Jay Snyder

If they can’t control him.
They’ll try and kill him.

Daniel Hunt is the deadliest mercenary in the galaxy if he can just remember. Five years before, he woke up with nothing more than his name. Now his present is on a violent collision with his past and the future of the galaxy.

The Earth is dead. Humanity has taken to the moon and Mars to have a chance. On what’s left of Earth, primal gangs war for dominance.

A rebel force will discover a weapon of unimaginable strength, the wealthy in the galaxy will do anything to possess. As Daniel unravels the origin of his past he’ll realize he’s not the same weapon he once was. But does redemption exist for someone like him?

For fans of Jason Bourne and the Weapon X program, this one’s for you. Grab your hand cannon and start listening now!

©2019 Archimedes Books (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

This book is Bourne on Steroids - Brilliant!!

The story is told through the eyes of Daniel Hunt, a ‘Centurion’ at a dive bar on the Moon, Centurion being a fancy name for bouncer. Humanity has had to abandon Earth as we have killed it, there is nothing living on the surface anymore, and so we now live on the Moon and Mars. Daniel woke 5yrs ago in an alley with no memory, no clue as to who or what he is, just a piece of paper in his pocket with his name and number one written on it. I say what, because he can be cut to the bone, and 5 minutes later, he is healed up like pretty much nothing happened, not even a scar.
Having the story told for Daniels point of view is brilliant, we get to learn things as the story progresses, so we learn as he does, keeping us just as much in the dark as he is.
However, the story doesn’t hold back, there is a myriad of characters, starting with Wesley Cage, Daniels old handler who informs him that seven where created like him in a team, and he was lost on a mission (good old Jason Bourne style), 5yrs ago.
And speaking of Bourne, if you thought those movies were fast, they have nothing on Forsaken Mercenary. Daniel seems to be a magnet for combat, and in the first half of the book has fought more battles than Arnie, Stallone, Bourne, and the Avengers combined, and taken more damage than all of them and is happily standing there with gun in hand grinning saying ‘Who’s Next?’, as what is left of whatever army was dumb enough to come at him crawls away on bloody stumps.
The action scenes are just magnificent in this book, Yanez has taken a masterclass in how to write combat scenes, like you are sitting inside Daniels head watching as the combat unfolds around him, each shot, each blow, and in some cases, each impact to him as well.
What is really fantastic is that the Character writing has not suffered as so many stories of this nature do (Da gun go boom, I have to kill bad guy… Rarrgghhh – and that is the main characters contribution to intelligent conversation), but in this story, Daniel actually has a brain. He has been trained in Strategy and Tactics, to think for himself, not just as a mindless killer, and this makes for a very interesting Character arc. As we learn more and more about his past, we get to see more of who and what he was, and who and what he wants to be now, there is a very strong connection between this story and that of the Bourne series in that aspect, the two characters having lost their memories and being at odds with everything they are being told, and not knowing who to trust.
One of the best characters in the book is an A.I. that Daniel gets called X1097854107890, and the sequence there when he is trying to reason out what the A.I. is, and her name (the string of letters and numbers), is just hilarious. Eventually, the A.I. gets called ‘X’ and she becomes an integral part of the story.
There is a lot of brilliant humour in this book, Daniel’s character seems to thrive on a sense of sarcasm, and the addition of X inside his head, only adds to this. It makes for some outstanding scenes.
In the first part of this book, without giving too much away, Daniel is found by Wesley Cage, his handler for Immortal Corp, the organization that created him. They want to bring him back into the fold, which of course, Daniel is reluctant to do. They offer Daniel a mission for both sides to check things out, and that is to return to Earth, and check out a group on Earth, gather intel on them, and then return with this intel.
Obviously, Daniel takes the mission, gets on board a ‘Dropship’, (Dropships are the only means of transport between the Moon, Mars and Earth, don’t think of something like the Dropship from Halo or Aliens, this is more of a Dropship that is probably twice that size, with Engines capable of Hyperdrive (explained in the book), and ships that are larger than you think, again, all explained in the book. They are awesome!
I should mention the Tech aspect of this book is just exceptional, so much fun, and the Author has really thought of the reader when putting it all together.
Overall, this is just a brilliant book, well worth the read for anyone who wants something FUN, or Mil Sci-Fi, Action Adventure, or just a really good read. If you loved Bourne, you will go nuts over this. Get into this series, its awesome.
The Narration is outstanding. Jay Snyder has a wonderful voice, at times he reminds me of Lance Henriksen, who played Bishop in Aliens. He has that same deep voice, which is just perfect for the character of Daniel. His narrating is perfectly clear, with crystal clear pronunciation, and easy to understand character voices. He has no issue with different genders, allowing him to create a multitude of voices of any gender or age (he does a fantastic young female child), and his voices are so distinctive you can quite often tell the different characters apart without having to be told.
Snyder’s narration is perfect for this book.

This future world is like our slums are now.

Interesting enough that I finished it, but not great. Would it be possible to kill every living weed. Nothing on Earth is green, so it must have been written by an environmentalist who has drunk the kool aid.

futuristic battle to save earth

surprisingly good book. I have now been drawn into buying the series, this book stops at a cloud hanger!

very interesting

though this story is not as long as I like or hoped it would be, it did capture my imagination and I will buy the next one in the series

Proper detail of future tech

Proper detail of future tech in the dystopian world of the near future. Good place descriptions for following the action. Nice character development.