Thanks Net Galley

Weird

I still think he writes crime the best but this one will stretch your imagination and does a good job of pulling all the strings together in the end.

I try to stay away from syfy/fantasy because I can never really get into them. I did manage to finish this book, but it took me quite a while. All in all, great story, just not my favorite.

Claire McCoy and Will Brody are FBI agents tracking down a ruthless sniper. They also happen to be in love and then Will ends up in the afterlife. Now they must find their way back to each other and save the world from evil.

Let me start by saying that science fiction/fantasy is not a genre I typically read. This was a combination love story and sci-fi/fantasy and I found myself gravitating to the love story aspects of the book (which isn’t surprising).

I thought the way that the afterlife is depicted was really interested. In some reviews I’ve seen that people don’t like the ending and wish for a sequel, but I thought it was the perfect way to end the book. This would also make a great movie - all the action and romance!

Received from NetGalley for my honest review
Completed 3/26/18
320 page ebook

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, as it starts in one direction (not part of the blurb) and I was like "huh?" but then it goes into the heart of the story and it gets good. Then, the beginning starts to come around and it all gets brought together and it was very good and interesting.

I definitely liked Brody, Claire and their connection. It was an interesting concept and done really well as well. The afterlife is a neat place, not what I was expecting for the most part. It was an intriguing setting, one that you think about for quite a while.

Definitely recommended for Fantasy fans, fans of Sakey and people who like things not so cookie cutter as a lot of books out there. This one stands out and is memorable.

Setting = A
Plot = A
Conflict = A
Characters = A
Theme = A

This is such an interesting and unusual book. It begins the way many detective and crime thrillers begin and then it changes into something that seems to transcend genres. This is crime and fantasy and horror and romance all rolled into one.
At its heart is the relationship between Will and Claire, and how refreshing to have a strong, intelligent and realistic female lead. The reader is in their corner from the beginning, and when they lose each other, the grief and the sense of loss is beautifully and poignantly portrayed.
The writing is excellent, a joy to read. There is quite a lot of violence here, but, in my opinion, it isn’t gratuitous. And the book is so clever and compelling. As someone with no belief in an afterlife, this is an interesting take.
My only criticism is that it felt overlong. But it’s an intelligent, different, imaginative and unusual book. Definitely recommended.

I was not too familiar with the writer, but boy am I glad that I read AFTERLIFE. I did not know what to expect. I was blown away by the concept and the writer’s execution of his story. The story is unlike any I have come across. And the characters are completely developed and interesting. The writer speaks of redemption, love, and just how good we can be. This message is wrapped around and delivered to us via a captivating and involving story that keeps us turning the pages as fast as we can read. Buy this today and no doubt you will finish it tomorrow.

Sakey follows his lauded Brilliance Trilogy with a beautifully written genre thriller that both embraces and defies multiple conventions. With excellent character work, world-building, and stunning depictions of brutal violence, AFTERLIFE drags the reader along at a breathless pace. It’s quite easy to say that AFTERLIFE will continue Sakey’s trend of putting out excellent, addictive, and eminently re-readable fiction.
In AFTERLIFE, two lovers find themselves separated by the gulf between life and death. Will Brody, killed in a blast and now trapped in Chicago all too familiar but horrifyingly different. Claire McCoy, the woman left behind must continue forward and investigate Will’s death. Both will find reunion and threats beyond their comprehension as they face life after death.

I enjoyed this book. Author Marcus Sakey has a wonderful ability to create new worlds within worlds. A sniper has killed 17 innocent, unconnected people in Chicago. FBI agent Will Brody has the sniper’s DNA, but little else, and is tracking him using skills honed in his military service in Afghanistan. Sent by his boss, and lover, Claire McCoy, to investigate an anonymous tip about an abandoned church, Brody dies when an improvised explosive device blows up. Despite his gruesome death, he awakens in a grey Chicago with no life and no warmth. He is in an afterlife called the Echo because it mirrors life, but like an echo, it fades over time. Joined by a large group of new friends who have fought for years against seductive evil tendencies in the Echo, Brody uncovers dangerous dark secrets that mankind has not even guessed at. Forced to fight this evil while protecting Claire McCoy, Brody must travel through darker and darker worlds, worlds that echo the despair of Dante’s Inferno. Although most of the novel is well written with richly developed characters and plot lines, several parts of the book seemed to be hastily put together. Notwithstanding, this is a superb book and I highly recommend it.

If you kill enough people you become a god. Still makes you a jerk though.

Agents Will Brody and Claire McCoy are hunting a serial killer. But he is unlike any serial killer who has ever come before. He is always a step ahead. He has power. And he has help. I could give more away, but the title gives you the idea.

Afterlife is an intriguing book. The ideas underpinning this supernatural speculative fiction story are as original as you will see. And mixed with this are two interesting characters and their relationship. It hangs together nicely whilst not becoming bogged down with the sort of world-building that spec-fic can bore readers with.

That said, I almost gave up on this book. The first chapter didn't grab me at all. It isn't until later in the novel that you understand why that chapter is there at all. Similarly the semi-ambiguous ending may also throw some people given the setup prior to the penultimate chapter. These points, particularly the first one, could discourage people. Normally I don't say this - since I'm big on giving up on books ASAP to make room for good books - but stick with this for a few chapters. Don't be put off by the opener, it will make sense soon.

NB: I was provided a review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

What is death? Is there an afterlife, and if so, what will it look and feel like? No one knows, but in the truly genre-bending AFTERLIFE, Marcus Sakey has envisioned a place more harsh and far-reaching than we dared to imagine. If you love innovative and striking world-building, AFTERLIFE is the book for you.

With well-fleshed-out characters and heart-pounding suspense, Sakey takes us on a compelling tour of who and what might be out there for us in the "echo", and the possibilities within it. He shows us that good and evil can flourish there, and as in life, that love can conquer more than you'd think.

FBI Agents Will Brody and Claire McCoy are hunting down a serial killer in Chicago. He kills his victims by random spreading terror and fear throughout the city. You could be grocery shopping and fail to return home or going out for lunch and never return home. The FBI get an anonymous tip that a guy with a gun went into the church so Will and a team of police are sent in. Instead, Will dies protecting his fellow police. Will doesn’t understand what happens as he wakes up in the same church but with no one who can hear him. Eventually he realizes he has died and moved on. While Will struggles with the afterlife Claire must still try to deal with the serial killer. She follows a vague idea which leads her to his house where she dies taking down the serial killer. Once in the afterlife things start to get strange as Claire and Will must defened themselves against eaters, people who “kill” other people to gain more strength, energy and the ability to taste and enjoy “life” again.

The characters in this novel were amazing, they were given such depth and unique characteristics that the reader loved reading about them. The romance between Will and Claire was beautifully written. It was a bit over the top with them acting like newly weds the entire time they were together though. I especially liked how their love for each other was what allowed them to constantly find each other even though they were separated numerous times. The concept of the novel was also interesting. I don’t think I have ever read a novel with an afterlife quite depicted like this. While I was reading this novel I felt like it should have finished 10% sooner then it did, however after reading this novel I am glad it ended the way it did.

This novel is amazing. It has great action, suspense, characters and a plot. It is a unique concept to the afterlife and one that I am sure some people will love and other wills hate. I would recommend this book to everyone.

I got this book for free from the publishers in return for an honest review.

There is so much to enjoy in Marcus Sakey’s latest novel, AFTERLIFE: his usual spot-on characterization, precise and evocative world building, and pacing that moves with the velocity of a .17 Remington bullet. None of which is an unexpected development for this reader, as I’ve enjoyed Sakey’s work since his dazzling debut, THE BLADE ITSELF. Sakey cut his bones with straight crime fiction, and has since stretched his writing muscles with stories that have a supernatural or alternative reality underpinning. In AFTERLIFE Sakey writes the compelling story of FBI Agent Will Brody, and Claire McCoy, the woman who loves him, and also, his superior (she’s the head of the FBI Task Force.) Brody is killed in an explosion and wakes, seemingly unscathed, but in a world he doesn’t quite recognize. Chicago is in ruins, a murky facsimile of itself. Buildings trashed, cars abandoned. Worse yet, the few people Brody encounters are wielding machetes. He’s in the afterlife. Meanwhile, Claire McCoy stands over her lover, shaken, heartbroken. This is the jumping off point for a wild ride of a read. The promotional material pronounces the novel as existing between life and death, where there “lies an epic war, a relentless manhunt through two worlds…and an unforgettable love story.” I can’t improve upon that tremendous description, so I won’t attempt to. What I can do is unequivocally endorse Sakey once again as having written an exemplary novel. His talent is immense.

FBI agent Will Brody is hunting down a sniper who is terrorizing the city of Chicago. Eighteen lives have been lost and there is widespread panic in the city. Claire McCoy is leading the task force and is romantically involved with Will. After this assignment they look forward to formalizing their lives together.

While investigating a tip on the sniper, Will enters a church and is engulfed in an explosion. Surprisingly, he wakes up without a scratch and is able to walk without any help. He is told he is in the Echo which is a parallel universe containing souls who died violently. While in the Echo you can see the living but lack the skills to communicate with them. Will must learn to relate to others who can’t see or hear him. Despite his limitations, he continues to investigate the sniper while finding ways to protect Claire and other innocent people.

This book is very unique and provides a combination of mystery, supernatural and romance. This is a different genre for me and I enjoyed this creative story from Marcus Sakey. A movie of this novel is currently in development.

I just couldnt finish it. Completely uninteresting to me. I feel terrible because I love the authors other work.

Edmund has lived through the ages by taking many forms, feeding off humans and their misery and growing stronger as the years pass.
Claire McCoy works for the FBI and despite her career aspirations, she finds herself falling in love with her colleague Will. After his death in a bomb blast, she struggles to cope with her grief, immersing herself in work to survive.
Will wakes up to find himself uninjured, in the afterlife and in a different Chicago to the one he knows. Mourning the life he was building with Claire he grapples with the thought more than his life has been lost. Will is reunited with Claire after her death in a second bomb attack. They join others like them in an attempt to overcome the Eaters and Edmund their leader.
There were a few times during the book where I found myself holding my breath, stunned and thinking what the hell happened just then. The storyline definitely had a thought provoking effect on me. I even tried to imagine my own afterlife, how it would feel and if I would miss what was left behind. In addition, the concept of hell as an idea summoned into existence instead of a physical location really fascinates me.
If you enjoy thrillers with a fantasy horror twist then put this on your reading list. Be prepared to hang on for a ride between two worlds.

I have enjoyed Marcus Sakey's books for a long time. Afterlife was unlike anything else I have ever read by him. I have always loved the way his main characters are normal people you might know in extraordinary circumstances. They are not perfect or unrelatable. They are flawed, interesting, and compelling. People you could see yourself hanging out with in real life. What made Afterlife different for me were the Clive Barker-like twists and turns. This has elements of sci-fi and fantasy for readers who don't normally read those genres. That fit me to a T. Of course I love the immersion in Chicago. Most readers enjoy seeing what they know in a story. With this book, I love that Marcus clearly pushed his comfort zone and boundaries out so far he almost obliterated them. I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next!

Review:

Ex Marine Will Brody , now Special Agent Brody is at the latest murder scene of a Spree-killing Sniper, his Boss and lover is Claire McCoy head of the FBI task force.

The author spends time building these two characters, making them and their relationship real and well formed, putting them in place to truly drive the plot forward. The more you believe in these two and their dialogue the more you can believe the plot, allowing the author then take the story into more and more normally implausible and strange places, to bend the plot across genres a touch of romance here, a dollop of supernatural, a spoonful of sci-fi and a whole load of thriller. The story abounds with tension, and suspense that will hook you in and pull you all the way to the end in a very short space of time. (prepare for a book that gets you thinking…. this is a mind bender of a book)

Its no wonder this is set to be a major Ron Howard motion picture.

(Parm)

Afterlife is an intense read that kept my brain hopping. Just as I thought I might understand it, another layer of reality (death) was added to the story. I requested Afterlife because it is going to be made into a movie. That knowledge certainly altered my reading experience. I kept reading, when I might have abandoned the book. Horror/science fiction is not my favorite genre, but I am glad I stuck with it. I imagine Afterlife will have a cult like following of readers who just love it.

Not a home run for me, but I still enjoyed the game.

When I first started this novel I was worried. The first Chapter almost lost me. Periodically through the book Edmund's character will make a random appearance and each time I was completely lost. I could say that maybe it's the fact that I read the majority of this book while on vacation and perhaps I was distracted at times, but then again, after looking over some other reviews, I don't think it was just me. I think the way this character was written into the story-line was flawed at best.

The story is of two lovers, Claire McCoy and Will Brody (aka Brody) who seem to have been brought together by fate to destroy an evil force. Both are working for the FBI at the start of the novel and are hunting a sadistic sniper who seems to be targeting victims at random. The whole city of Chicago is in a complete state of panic , no one knows who the next victim will be. The team gets a tip that they saw a man enter a church carrying a rifle, when Brody and a team are sent to investigate Brody quickly learns it's a trap. Brody discovers a bomb and in a last ditch effort to save his teammate he throws himself on top of him to shield him from the blast, but killing himself in the process. Only Brody doesn't realize he's dead. He awakes with a shard of glass in his leg an his lungs on fire. He begins looking for his team and exits the church thinking that it will only be minutes before back up arrives. Brody realizes that the "Sniper" was there... it was the man he saw on the balcony smoking a cigarette just before entering the church. He retreats, but he sees people running in his direction, he assumes they are there to help. He's screaming for them to get back, he's warning them of the "Sniper" only they're not listening. They were coming at him fast... how were they so fast? Soon he realized they were wielding weapons, these were not Good Samaritans come to help, they were there to hurt him. They were with the Sniper. Brody made a run for it, injured leg and all. Brody makes his way to a liquor store and slams a security gate closed and locks it with a padlock. No way are they getting through the inch thick metal bars. All Brody had to do now was wait for back up. One of the men grab a hold of the bars and brace for leverage, they slowly begin to bend. This is where things get interesting. I will spare you on what happens next as not to over share, but let's just say that Brody soon realizes that he's not alive and neither are the people after him.

We soon learn about what happens in the afterlife, this new world that Brody is now in is like some Walking Dead post apocalyptic world where the dead are feeding off each other just to stay "alive". There's no pearly white gates, harp music, and glorious bright light. On the contrary, it's a dark gloomy world, what's referred to as an "echo" of the real world. It's the city of Chicago, only without all the living people. Everything looks the same, and you can go into a store, restaurant, movie theater, etc and you're actually walking among the living, only you can't see them, and they can't see you.

The connection between Claire and Brody is the glue that keeps the story-line together in my opinion. I'm not just saying that because all women like a good sappy love story, because this one is different. I think what makes this one unique is that Claire is made to be the superior in the relationship, she is the stronger, more intelligent of the two. She may not be physically stronger, but she's definitely the rock. Brody accepts this, he realizes that Claire is what gives them strength and makes them such a great team. What's the saying "Behind every great man is a strong woman". I think every woman can relate to this in some way. Brody trusts in Claire's wisdom and seeks her guidance. Claire never abuses this though... Brody is still the protector, and Claire puts her trust in this as well.

I can see how this will translate to the big screen, though I can't say that I'm overly excited about it. It's not the most thrilling thing I've read all year, but it's definitely different than all the other movies that are being produced as of late. So congratulations Mr. Sakey! It's an interesting concept... though it might be a tough audience to sell it on... people are guarded when it comes to the ideas of the afterlife.

This was interesting but strange; not really my cup of tea. My rating 3.75.

Brody is an FBI agent working under the direction of his boss, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Claire, who is also his lover, behind the scenes. Their FBI unit is pursuing a serial killer who always seems to be one step ahead of the authorities… as though the killer has insider knowledge.

Brody and a team follow a lead to an abandoned church. It appears to be a false lead until Brody looks out a broken window and sees a man on a balcony watching him. The building explodes and Brody wakes up without an injury but he soon faces three derelict types who clearly wish him harm. He learns that he is in a world that is similar to his “real” life but more like an echo or ‘shadow’ world.

Claire gets a vision that directs her to track down the killer. Events unfold that put her into Brody’s world. But the killer is there too and he is extremely powerful in the shadow world. Brody and Claire want to be together but their nature to protect others compels them to face the powerful evil. They don’t fully think it through which propels Brody on another unexpected path.

I can’t describe too much in this story without leaking into spoilers. Early in the story I felt like I was reading a horror rather than a thriller. The story did get deeper and offers an unusual view of life after death as well as offering a view of how evil develops and grows. The story is engaging although I felt there were inconsistencies and certainly I don’t agree with the after-death scenario. I did like the strong love connection, the moral good and the key elements that made the difference between evil and good.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as The Brilliance Trilogy which I would rather see in film than this book. This is more sensational and apt to be a bit controversial. The writing is good and the story moves along well. Although I wasn’t enthralled, I would recommend it to readers who like dark thrillers and are willing to look at an alternate view of death.

I received this through NetGalley by invitation from Little Bird Publicity.