2 out of 4 stars
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Imagine yourself as a soldier on a battlefield. You have consciously made a choice to be deployed, to serve your country, and to put yourself in harm's way in pursuit of that cause. Freedom and safety are ripped from your patriotic hands as you find your unit attacked in the Middle East during a routine transport mission. You are whisked away to an unknown location after being dangerously wounded. Your life is saved by a secret team of medical professionals who have been experimenting with high-tech prosthetics. Without your permission, you have been transformed into the U.S. military's latest experiment: a soldier with weaponized limbs replacing those lost in battle! This is where Chase finds himself at the beginning of the first installment of the Artificial Military Prosthetics Division (A.M.P.D.) trilogy by Thomas Hraynyk.
This book is a bit hard to define beyond the vast genre of science-fiction. I would have to classify it as a tale somewhere between a modern war story, a superhero (and supervillain) novel, a book about an undead army, and Ironman. On the ''good team'' we have a secret division of the U.S. military that is taking elite wounded soldiers and outfitting them with enhanced technological prosthetics in order to make them the ultimate fighting machine. On the ''bad team'' we have the most dangerous criminals known to this world being brought together for one ultimate plot. Although I don't want to give too much away, the plot involves an army of soldiers, who aren't quite as alive as they used to be, known as ''The Plague''. A.M.P.D. takes you on a roller coaster ride of discovery surrounding these two sides of good and evil. Although at the onset of the book those two concepts seem black and white, as the reader progresses further in the book, they quickly realize that this isn't exactly the case. Spidey-senses are tingling on both sides of the spectrum and all characters find themselves drowning in more shades of grey than an E.L. James story. You'll need to pick up the novel to find out more and take one step closer to figuring out who really is the puppeteer and who is the puppet.
For a modern science-fiction and war novel, I loved the premise behind this book. The storyline has a lot of potential. I loved the twists and turns the Hraynyk throws the reader. Although there is plenty of foreshadowing, it is never really clear where the author is leading the unsuspecting reader. What I appreciate the most about this novel is perhaps held a bit further in the background, but as a member of the armed forces, it really jumped out at me. The moral dilemmas put forward by the author where a soldier has his life saved, but in such a way that goes over and beyond the regular concept of consent, is definitely thought-provoking. The soldiers of the A.M.P.D. are all transformed without any choice whatsoever due to their immediately life-threatening injuries. Evidently, as anyone with a family (or really a life at all) can imagine, this would have a definite cascading effect on a soldier's life.
Lamentably, there were several places where this book fell short. First was the language and writing style. The writing seemed slightly choppy at times, a bit repetitive, and overall missing a professional feel that comes from an experienced author. Next, I get the impression that it is a recent craze that everyone has to write a trilogy. This is not always essential. Book one was relatively short (108 pages with my version) and came to no logical conclusion. Yes, there were revelations, partnerships revealed, plot twists and turns explained, and hints to where the next book is taking the reader. But despite all of this, book one really isn't a standalone novel and the complete series will likely be better as one book rather than three. If the other two are as short as the first, it will nevertheless be a respectable length for a reader to digest. Finally, and what I disliked the most about this book, was the lack of professional editing. It didn't even take me ten pages into the book to rack up over ten noticeable errors. Some are grammatical, some splitting words (e.g. when ever instead of whenever), and some just plain spelling errors. It shows that the author has yet to put any considerable effort into editing the book.
I genuinely wanted to enjoy this book and in many ways I did. I love the idea of weaponizing prosthetics and even the idea of the ultimate enemy known as ''The Plague''. That being said, due to the sloppy editing, unfavorable writing style, and lack of any plot conclusion, I am forced to give Artificial Military Prosthetics Division (A.M.P.D.) 2 out of 4 stars. If the author would have performed a thorough editing job and rethought the idea of a trilogy, it would have merited at least one more star. Despite all of its flaws, it was a fun read and I can recommend it for those that love the science-fiction/war genre combo. If you are turned off by significant errors in a book or hate cliffhangers, you should probably skip this one.
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A.M.P.D. Artificial Military Prosthetics Division Part One
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