Customer Reviews

Brother Death

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nobody does martial arts/action/sci-fi novels better than Steve Perry, and even when he's not at his best, his work is still well worth reading. This book does a good job of adding more human depth to the excessively-muscled Bork of the other Matador novels.

The story focuses on Bork's life, his history with his father, and his search for a sense of self-worth as he encounters an opponent who might finally be able to beat his physical strength.... Of course, you're probably not looking for introspection when you read a Matador novel, so you may feel the angst detracts from the action. I know I did.

For more background to some of the more obscure references in the novel, see if you can track down the Omega Cage.

Brother Death is the eighth book in the Matador Series but could be read first . They include:
1) The Man Who Never Missed 1985
2) Matadora 1986
3) The Machiavelli Interface 1986
4) The Omega Cage 1988
5) The 97th Step 1989
6) The Albino Knife 1991
7) Black Steel 1992
8) Brother Death 1992
9) The Mushashi Flex 2006
Brother Death being a back story.

Perry writes fun-to-read books, while you're waiting for John Ringo's latest book to come out.

Gunner March, 2007

This was trite in comparison to the previous novels, and Bork's introspection isn't enough to carry the whole book. The Matadora Trilogy(ish) had a lot of depth for space opera, which made it very enjoyable... I was disappointed with Brother Death - however, I'm still looking for a copy of Albino Knife, so I couldn't have been THAT disappointed... :)

The protagonists are a brother and sister, born of genetically-engineered heavyworlder stock, who shared the same childhood but different adult lives. He was trained as a special type of bodyguard called a Matador, she became an assistant planetary police chief. Together, they are confronted by a series of impossible locked-room murders, including an attempt on the sister's life using her own gun that had been impossibly retrieved from within a security vault. Behind it all is an insane religious cult devoted to the artifacts of an ancient alien race, who have seemingly attained the power to walk through walls.

This is more or less the scientifictional equivalent of the "Mack Bolan" novels, largely action-adventure with people shooting and hitting each other, sprinkled with a little SF flavor. As such, it's not bad popcorn reading. Though it seems to be a late book in a series (checking Wikipedia, it's 8th of 9), there is enough background provided not to feel lost.