Matt McAvoy Book Review

I liked this book by Brock Rivers – I liked it quite a lot in fact, but to a point.  The truth is that I thought it might go much more epic than it did.  That said, it is fun, enjoyable, and very pleasingly crosses the genres of sci-fi, action and historical adventure.  With an interwoven dual-timeline narrative, there are two tales being simultaneously told five hundred years apart, though the focus is very much on the “present day” one – “present day” in this case actually being a few decades in the future.  In Brock’s imagined near-future, the world hasn’t actually changed much, but he does use the opportunity to introduce some very cool hi-tech weaponry and transportation.  He doesn’t go over the top with it, though, in some Back to the Future-style fantasy of the future, but instead keeps it nice and simple, powered by A.I., drones and super-algorithms.  I won’t lie, though, there is an alien plotline which I wasn’t too sure of, and don’t really have much to say about. 

The fact is that there is more than enough going on Blood Fortune for it to really stand out, yet at the same time, the story itself is actually surprisingly small and restrained.  Despite all its cleverly connected subplots – the 16^th century Aztec exodus, the mind-controlling alien, the guys in shady suits sending out hit squads – Brock really just opts to whittle it down, in the main and disproportionately, I think, to a tale about a few people trying to protect themselves from a gang of murderous bikers.  In honesty, it felt to me like this book could and indeed should have been more epic – all the elements were there, but for me the focus was sadly a little misdirected.  Simply put, it should have been bigger, more grand and far more ambitious in scale than it came down to in the end. 

The author has really shown his talent with Blood Fortune.  It’s his debut novel and a very good one, from which he’ll hone his craft a great deal.  Next time, I think he needs to go all out and throw himself into the sci-fi and historical adventure a little more, and focus less on the real-time action; there are far too many books which do this, and I believe that Brock has much more to offer than many of those do.  There is a slight hint of Cloud Atlas about this one, and that is the level of epic that Brock should be aspiring to.  I strongly recommend that you pick this one up if you’re a fan of the aforementioned mixed genres, for two reasons: first, it’s a good read – exciting, entertaining and gripping – and second because this author is one to watch, I’m sure.  I look forward to reading his next.