Company Town Audiobook By Madeline Ashby cover art

Company Town

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Company Town

By: Madeline Ashby
Narrated by: Cecelia Kim
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They call it Company Town - a city-size oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd.

Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bioengineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig - making her doubly an outsider as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but all of the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa's front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be - but now the danger is personal.

A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved or saving herself.

©2016 Madeline Ashby (P)2016 Audible, Inc. Crime Fiction Genetic Engineering Hard Science Fiction Mystery Noir Science Fiction
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There are a lot of great ideas packed in the book and the world building is excellent, but it's hampered by a slow story. I loved Hwa as a character and the writing is excellent. The main issue is that the novel spends so much time on things that feel secondary to the overall plot. I felt like I kept waiting for the story to pick up and go, and by the time I felt like it did, the book was finished. If there was as much story as there was detail about Hwa's life and the day to day stuff (her job, her mother, etc.), I would have enjoyed it far more.

Great Ideas and Mix of Genre, Story Moves Slow

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I grew to love the characters. The book makes you think about what the future could have in store for us.

Interesting concept

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Strong female lead. Decent science fiction and bonus Newfoundland accents. Overall I liked it a lot.

Thumbs up!

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I really liked it. It was fast paced and I felt like the characters had great development. My only complaint is that it wasn't twice as long! I wanted to delve more into the world of Company Town.

Different

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This is one of the most engaging and original books I’ve read and a while. It reminded me of some of the most enjoyable elements William Gibson’s Neuromancer. The author does really impressive world’s building very gradually — which never seems clunky. Part of why it works is because it’s so rooted in the depth of a single character as opposed to a jumping to huge in personal time travel storylines. I found it impossible to turn off. I look forward to reading her other works.

Not sure how I missed this before

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I thoroughly this book. It's a bit violent, but not too gory. I especially enjoyed the world they built: a colony of people living on old oil rigs off the east coast of Canada.

action and intrigue through the very end

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I enjoyed this story, but I found the story seemed to jump details. Some things were not explained very well.

Entertaining but details missing

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I liked machine dinasty alot and this is why i purchased this book. After 3 hours listening to it i concluded that it was time wasted and better cound start another book i would like more.

Not for me

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The narrator’s voice really grates. But even a great performance wouldn’t be able to save this confusing and flawed book.

Nope

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Would you try another book from Madeline Ashby and/or Cecelia Kim?

Probably not from this author, definitely not from this narrator.

What could Madeline Ashby have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The ending felt like it belonged to an entirely different book, some clues that this was the direction things were heading, a bit of foreshadowing or a less outrageous ending would have worked better.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Cecelia Kim?

Khristine Hvam would have been perfect for this book.

What character would you cut from Company Town?

About half of them. There is an endless cast of characters who flow past with little more than names and brief descriptions, limiting the named characters and fleshing them out a bit more would have improved this book greatly.

Any additional comments?

The scene setting was well done. The dark, gritty grungy vibe is well established but this book just tries to cover too much ground and falls well short of telling a compelling story.

A Dark Gritty book

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