Archon’s Queen by Matthew Cox
Genre: cyberpunk, science-fiction
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Release: August 10, 2015
Cover Artist: Conzpiracy Digital Arts
Description:
Secrets,
guilt, and shame―Annabelle Morgan has them all in droves. Fortunately, only one
can kill her.
Anna’s
gift, psionic control of electricity, tends to go haywire in moments of high
emotion. One such episode leaves her homeless after her father’s “accidental”
death. She ekes out a modest life as a thief and freelance enforcer until a
close call with a murderous government agency makes her turn to Zoom―a powerful
hallucinogenic street drug that numbs her mind so the monster cannot get out.
Her safety
blanket becomes a devouring pit.
In 2413
London, Anna lives in the gutter, unable to even keep work as an exotic dancer
and prostitute. After ignoring her only friend’s pleas for years, it takes a
pimp telling her she is too addicted to be useful to realize just how lost she
is.
When a
young addition to her circle of vagrants attaches to her, Anna attempts to turn
away from Zoom. A job from her old handler ends on shaky ground, but introduces
her to Doctor James Mardling, a university professor looking for people just
like her. He offers the one thing she has always longed for: dignity.
His price,
however, may just be too much to pay.
Isis' Review:
I would like to thank Curiosity Quills Press for granting me a copy of this e-book to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.
Goodreads Teaser: Secrets, guilt, and shame―Annabelle Morgan has them all in droves. Fortunately, only one can kill her.
Anna’s gift, psionic control over electricity, tends to go haywire in moments of high emotion. One such episode leaves her homeless after her father’s “accidental” death. She ekes out a modest life as a thief and freelance enforcer until a close call with a murderous government agency makes her turn to Zoom―a powerful hallucinogenic street drug that numbs her mind so the monster cannot get out.
Her safety blanket becomes a devouring pit.
In 2413 London, Anna lives in the gutter, unable to even keep work as an exotic dancer and prostitute. After ignoring her only friend’s pleas for years, it takes a pimp telling her she is too addicted to be useful to realize just how lost she is.
When a young addition to her circle of vagrants attaches to her, Anna attempts to turn away from Zoom. A job from her old handler ends on shaky ground, but introduces her to Doctor James Mardling, a university professor looking for people just like her. He offers the one thing she has always longed for: dignity.
His price, however, may just be too much to pay."
As a sequel I must admit this is not at all what I was expecting. Prophet of the Badlands was all about Althea, so I was anticipating that this story would be a continuation of the first. Instead this story is about Anna, a secondary character from book one. It was also a tad confusing as it took some time to figure out if this was the story of Anna's past or present life.
In the Prophet of the Badlands Anna is a strong, powerful woman, almost the polar opposite of the woman we meet in this book. Anna is a woman beaten down by life, so far down she can't even see a sliver of light at the other end of the tunnel. Her life spiraled out of control long before she had the experience and ability to make the correct decisions for herself. By the time she was in her early teens she's living on the streets; a lifestyle that rapidly leads to worse and worse degradation. It isn't long before she is addicted to a psychotropic drug called Zoom. The addiction has nothing to do with getting high and everything to do with suppressing the monster in her head; the one that killed her father. Not that anyone would care that it had been an accident.
While I felt for Anna it seemed to me that the book could have focused on some other issues and less on pounding Anna's addiction into our minds. It didn't take to long to get it that Anna is a hot mess, so I'd have enjoyed more details about Aurora and Doctor Mardling, a.k.a Archon. I did enjoy the glimpses into the nefariously twisted workings of Archon and his cronies, and am looking forward to learning what will happen when his bill comes due with Anna and others. As it is I think this book could have easily told both Anna's and Mardling's stories with room to spare, but then I'm saying that without knowing just where the overall tale is going.
Anna's attachment to Twee was sweet, and a nice sidebar and method for helping her back away from the edge. The way situations were manipulated was an interesting twist and helped keep me attached to this story and all its characters. The fact that many characters had already been introduced in the first book piqued my interest and left me wondering what had happened to them and what will happen.
Overall the arc of the story was smooth and engaging, keeping my attention throughout. Although I felt that Anna's pathetic life and behavior was overdone, there were some moments that were crucial to the story as well as their role in moving this tale forward toward its ultimate conclusion. Given the flexibility of each of the main characters it stands to reason that the grande finale could be a total surprise; the unknown ending a rarity in books these days.
About Matthew Cox:
Born in a
little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science
fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between
fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero,
Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other
projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with
author Tony Healey.
Hobbies
and Interests: Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for
two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci
Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual
science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens
after it. He is also fond of cats.
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