In a nutshell - I finished this near-future dystopian thriller, which means I liked it enough to read it all the way through!
Disclaimer - I discovered this book and received a free copy through the Read and Review program at AuthorsXP, a website that connects authors with readers who may choose to voluntarily review their books.
As the book opens, a mysterious event takes out the power grid and most things electronic. We follow the story of Dennings, a powerful corporate figure with control over key people in the government and military, as he seizes resources in the chaos and builds a new power structure (and I'm not talking about electrical power) centered in the Western US states, with the assistance of Adrianna. We also pick up the storyline of Eduard and Jenny, a couple on the run for some reason that isn't completely clear to begin with but is somehow related to the blackout. We also follow Niklas, who soon joins up with Marcella, forming another pair on the run. Niklas apparently had something significant to do with the blackout event. Eduard and Jenny are on the run in the American West to begin with, but soon make it out of the US. Niklas and Marcella are heading deep into South America. Drama, suspense, and intertwined storylines follow.
Manhunt is the second book in G.D. Leon's Peak Democracy trilogy. I suspect I missed a few nuances in the story by not reading the first book first, but this one stood on its own fairly well. I never felt like I was missing key parts of the backstory.
Somewhere around a third of the way through, I checked to see how far I had to go. Frequent and inconsistent jumps forward in the timeline and jumps between character perspectives might have been distracting me from just following the story. Or maybe I just wasn’t enjoying spending so much time with the bad guys. The middle and final thirds of the book spent more time with the characters I saw as protagonists. I found myself squeezing in more reading time at that point so I could stay in their story.
The proofreaders missed a few items, but not too many. These bumps always interrupt my reading flow, so they tend to stand out in my memory of a book.
There were a couple of big jumps forward on the timeline which gave me pause. The chapter headings contained a count of days from the blackout event. After a few dozen chapters the day count was up into the mid-three-figures. I found it disruptive to stop and try to remember what the previous chapter's count was so I could tell how far forward this next chapter was supposed to be. Eventually, I just started skipping over these counts to get on with the story. Is this the editor's area of responsibility?
As far as the story itself and the development of the characters, I thought the author did a decent job. I might not have been as annoyed about spending time with the primary antagonist if he had been more balanced. Being pretty lop-sided towards pure arrogance and evilness didn't hold my attention well. That could just be my own personal preference. The secondary antagonist, whom I'll call the main hench-woman, offered more interest as a character. I found myself hoping for more of her story, but that didn't happen.
There are two pairs of male and female protagonists in the story. As I noted before, the story spent more time with them in the latter two-thirds of the book, which I appreciated. The author created separate storylines for them but eventually wove them together with a bit of drama, which kept things interesting and ultimately set up a segue to the third book.
Manhunt was the first of G.D. Leon's works I have read. I will definitely put the other two books in this trilogy on my reading list!
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There are 3 books in this series.
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2023
- Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2019
