The start of this book is absolutely disgusting if you’re a man! Yeah, the author created a main character that almost made me want to stop reading the book. He’s such a pathetic wimp that I couldn’t see any way he could carry the story much further in the book. But, I plowed on and yet, it didn’t get any better until more than half-way through the book.
This guy, Quinton Blake, works for one of the largest corporations in the galaxy. The Xcorp ran his life. His boss, Gregory Goodwin, didn’t care one bit about the people that worked for him as long as they got done what he told them needed done. Oh, and they had to get whatever he told them done when he told them it needed done or they would be fired without a second thought. Quinton Blake accepted this kind of boss because he had no backbone and didn’t want to lose the miserable life he was living. And miserable it was even though Quinton couldn’t see it.
Oh, he was a hard worker, but he never once thought to stand-up to his boss, nor could he stand-up to anything else. This guy was the definition of wimp. You’ll find that out very quickly when he has an encounter with an old college buddy who’s obviously a junkie of some kind and asks Quinton for a handout. Quinton says no, so the guy knocks Quinton senseless since Quinton has no clue how to put up a fight. He’s robbed, including his shoes, and left unconscious on the street. When he comes to he gathers himself and makes his way home.
Now this story takes place way after WW3 and humanity has reached the stars. Earth has also fallen under a one-wold government, but it is actually controlled by several mega-corporations, the largest of which is Xcorp. They expect people to comply with whatever edicts the company issues and don’t like anything that “rocks-the-boat”. So, Quinton gets home to a house that is a disaster. Nothin is picked up, nothing is clean and his wife is nowhere to be found. He finds his two sons sitting in one of the boy’s bedroom playing some video game and when he tells them to pickup their room, they just tell him to get out of their room and stop bothering them! Yeah, that’s the way to treat your Dad? Well, this wimp of a man, shuts the door and goes on down to his bedroom which again is a mess. He takes a shower and calls his wife. She’s extremely annoyed that he would interrupt her night out with the girls even though she’s been out with them for more than a few days. But he meekly tells her he’s sorry for interrupting, hangs up and goes to bed!
That morning , his boss told Quinton that he was going to have to take a trip for the corporation since his boss couldn’t go. He said the trip would be in a few days so he, Quinton should get ready. But, his boss calls him that night as says the trip has been move to this morning, so he needs to get his backside up and moving. Surprisingly, when Quinton arrives at the space port, he’s ushered onto an executive space ship and given the VIP treatment since after all, this was supposed to be his bosses trip. Quinton was supposed to deliver an archaic thumb-drive to someone. He had it in his possession but didn’t know what was on it.
Then his life changes dramatically. Probably for him, this was a very good thing. The ship he’s on has a mercenary detachment but Quinton doesn’t know why until he’s awoken by loud noises outside his bedroom. He goes out and sees a soldier or mercenary crouching down near a wall while all the lights are out. He also notices on mercenary on the floor against the wall with a large hole in his head. The merc tells Quinton to go back inside and hide, but Quinton stands there like an idiot when someone or something drops down from the ceiling and quietly slices the merc’s throat. This person in black asks if he is Quinton Blake and if so, does he have the thumb-drive. He’s stupidly says yes to both and the person in black says she’s a Junkyard Dog and she wants the thumb-drive. Quinton swallows it of all the stupid, idiotic things to do.
So the Junkyard Dogs, a gang from Safe Haven is taking him to their planet until he decides to give up the thumb-drive or they just cut it out of him. Quinton, of course wets himself at this unwelcome development in his moronic twist in his life.
This book is full of, well, foul language. It’s not just the rough men who spout almost every word that’s foul, but the females use that kind of language freely. I don’t think any of the people in the gang is formerly educated, but they have educated themselves in certain specialities. Well, there is one that is highly intelligent, Poppy. She is something special.
I like the book, but it seemed pretty long. I think I’ll continue reading the series but it does change something drastically towards the end. Not sure where this story will go and I don’t actually think the author does either, but we’ll see. Book 2, “[A Dog is Born”](https://amzn.to/3OHnKao), is available on Amazon now. I guess I’ll add it to my reading list.