Overall, a really unique, enjoyable, mind-bending sci-fi thriller!

WHAT. THE. FRICK.
This book is a total mind (insert bad word here)!!! And I LOVED every single moment of it. I even set aside Ruin & Rising to give this book my full attention after I realized I was hooked. Holy crap. I just finished it so forgive me while I gather my thoughts...

Ok, perhaps I can form a cohesive thought now and convey to you how out-freaking-standing this book is. I can't even imagine the work it took to bring this thing to life in an understandable manner. My first manner of business is to get a hard copy of this book in my hands STAT. Second manner of business is to check out anything else this man has ever written. Every. Single. Thing.

I had no idea going in what this book was about, which I'm glad about now. I think it added to the element of surprise. I see other people saying they weren't happy about being kept in the dark and confused through the first half of this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was sucked in by the unknowing and it kept me engaged, even after I figured things out. Ohhhh, oh but wait! Even when you think you've figured it out, rest assured you have NOT! I wasn't particularly excited by the first few chapters, anything set in Egypt basically, but that is a very, very small part of this book. I think I'm rambling here. Just go get the book. Now. Like right now. Do you have it yet? Why not?

I received this e-ARC via NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

This book follows our main character Roger Parker who is a professional prison breaker. He navigates strange dream worlds and extracts those imprisoned there, for a fee. He is convinced to complete one last job by a powerful senator. By accepting to do this job Parker can find his wife, who is lost in a treacherous, time-shifting Manhattan cyberscape.

The description of this book sounded like it was going to read like The Twilight Zone meets The Matrix, but I felt the book was very difficult to get involved in. I found it very confusing and was having to revisit back scenes to determine where we are in time. The story starts in Cairo, 1933, with the main character and his group discovering something that leads them to believe in time travel and hints that this time is 2017. There was talk from the characters about a Prohibition era when they get attacked by the "Brotherhood of Anubis" and stumble upon a subway that they take to an underground "Manhattan" that is deserted. From here is where our story takes a turn that felt clunky. The story continues to grow more confusing from there when our main character meets with a doctor that tells him he is in a VR prison and that his job, Parker's, is to break out the prison.

Overall the story is a good idea, but I do not think there was a good follow through, but would be willing to give the author another try in the future.

"Memory is malleable. Memory can be distorted. Changed. Blended together."

Wow, so I must admit, I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. The synopsis doesn't really do this book justice. This is a sci-fi, horror, and psychological thriller all wrapped into one, and that, that is why I decided to go with 5 stars instead of 4. I can't say that everyone will agree with me, but hey, it worked for me! This novel is very much like The Matrix, but at the same time it has it's own originality. The entire time I kept reading this I felt like I could actually see myself playing this as a video game... and I LOVE VIDEO GAMES! At one point in the novel one of the characters actually says "So this whole place is basically one big, fucking video game" and I was screaming "Yes! My thoughts exactly!"; AND... now I really want to play it.

The story is told from only one point of view, and that is from Roger Parker, only in the first chapter (which is the first 33% of the book) you don't know who is really narrating. Roger Parker is not officially introduced until Chapter 2 when he/we learn the truth about who is really is. The first chapter focuses on Parker and his team exploring a tomb in Egypt in the year 1933 in which they discover an city underground that looks exactly like Manhattan, only far more advanced and completely deserted. Parker and his team become trapped in the tomb and this underground city in their escape from the Brotherhood of the Anubis leaving them no choice but to move forward in this unknown city. As Parker begins to explore he finds clues left within the city, one clue leads to the next and then to the next. We're just along for the ride, trying to make sense of all the clues right along with Parker and his team. While none of it really makes much sense at the time, the exploration was still intriguing and entertaining to me nonetheless.

As we near the end of the chapter we begin to discover what Parker and his team are really doing within this abandoned city of Manhattan. Parker is a professional prison breaker for a unique type of prison, "a prison of the mind" better known as the "Panopticon", a machine designed as a means to control and reform prisoners through a dream state. The Panopticon designers built an entire virtual world to serve as the prison. Each world was populated with prisoners, guards, and artificially intelligent beings who looked and acted human but in fact, served as observers and recorders. Before entering prison a person's memories are erased and new memories are inserted by the machine. "Their personal histories would be erased, placed in a memory storage facility and returned later as a download. Traumas that perhaps led individuals down the path of criminality would not be remembered. Instead, they could start anew. Not tied to a violent past." Parker learns that he leads a crew that specializes in prison breaks of the mind. In chapter 2, we get to learn exactly how a prison break works, and this, this is where the story begins to become more relatable to The Matrix.

As the story goes on, we learn that Parker is on a current mission to find and release Andrew Scott, the wealthy son of Senator Ted Scott. Parker discovers that Andrew Scott is being held in the newly designed supermax Panopticon facility, the largest in the world to date. It has a totally different security and you can't just hack into a drone. Parker is reluctant to take the job, it's too risky, but he receives information that his wife, imprisoned for killing a child while intoxicated in an automobile accident, is also in supermax. This is Parker's chance to find his wife and break her out. Parker decides to take the job, and he and his team set out to find a way to break into this new supermax prison, but it won't be easy.

This is a very well written fast paced read. I found it to be very entertaining, I especially enjoyed the comic relief at about 80% into the book. It was probably my favorite part of the book, I seriously laughed out loud. It was so unexpected. Very nicely done Mr. Delaney. The twist at the end was unexpected, though I did find the ending to be somewhat abrupt. I'm not sure how I expected it to end, but something did feel slightly off for me, but it was still satisfying.

The first thing I thought to myself as I read the last sentence of this story was, "that was a good book". The Memory Agent is a fantastic roller-coaster ride of suspense and science fiction and I was entertained the entire time I was reading it, quickly turning pages to find out what happens.

Roger Parker is a professional prison breaker, skilled at breaking minds out of the virtual reality rehabilitation prison where convicted criminals serve their time. This time Parker and his team head into a virtual reality set in 1950's Manhattan. With strange visions, mysterious identities and anti-virus programs chasing Parker and his team through this dream reality state, The Memory Agent will keep you guessing right till the very end.

I found the very beginning of The Memory Agent a little confusing as the story starts out in Egypt in 1933. A group of people are on an archaeological dig and they just discovered the impossible. As they investigate they are attached by the "Brotherhood of Anubis" and must seek the protection of the dig site.

To say I was confused with what was happening is an understatement. This was nothing like what the book-jacket described, and there a legitimate moment where I was seriously contemplated that maybe I received the wrong book. I figured that eventually the story would start to be more like the description on the book-jacket, and sure enough it was. Slowly the puzzle pieces start to come together and make some sort of mind-bending sense. There were also several suspenseful moments when a "monster" is chasing the characters and I still remember my heart beating away in my chest while reading these scenes.

I enjoyed reading this book, it was sort of like a combination of Inception meet The Matrix meets The Adjustment Bureau. I enjoyed all three of these movies immensely because of the mind-trippiness of them. The Memory Agent is right up there with it's mind-trippiness and I was easily entertained as I was reading it, finding it hard to put down at times. If you like mind-tripy books, you will definitely enjoy reading this story. The Memory Agent is available on Amazon July 18, 2017.

More of my book reviews can be found on my website: https://theartisanpenguin.com/book-reviews

The farther into this I got, the more frustrated I was. I finally gave up near the halfway point and I'm not honestly sure I'll ever finish it. *SPOILERS AHEAD* From the first page, you're trying to figure out what's going on, and not just in small ways. It starts out in Cairo, 1933, with the main character, part of a group, and there are hints of time travel to 2017 from the Valley of the Kings. At this point, I was all in. The characters were talking about the Prohibition era just past, a big love for me. Then they get attacked by the "Brotherhood of Anubis" and had to break the seal on a tomb and take the subway into an underground city. What looked like Manhattan, except modern and unpopulated. Then the MC gets led around the city and given keys (this part is especially pointless). He stumbles into a bloody apartment, which has his own picture in it. Later, he concludes it "might" be his own place. Then he goes into a theater and meets a "projection" created from his "own memory," his orthodontist back when he was in 6th grade (no, I'm not making this up). Still with me? So the good doctor explains that the world he's in is really a virtual reality prison, his name is Parker, and he's a prison breaker. Panapticon runs a virtual script on prisoners' minds, serving sentences virtually, while the physical bodies are warehoused. But wealthy prisoners' families can pay to break them out. Then Parker is told that not everyone on his team may be trustworthy. And it. Just. Keeps. Going.

The Memory Agent reminded me of The Twilight Zone. Except I really liked Twilight Zone.

This is what I call a Kitchen Sink plot. As in, throw in everything but. The quality of the writing was good, and that's the only reason I give it 3 stars.

This was an interesting mix of The Matrix and Inception. It's obvious that a lot of time went into planning the set-up and reveals, but at times, it felt a little contrived.

I like to sink into a world and experience it like it's real, but it sometimes felt a little flat and too planned. There weren't many organic feeling moments. This sounds odd as I appreciate a well planned world and story, but this just felt a little stiff.

The complexity of the story made it hard to read in large chunks as I felt I needed to absorb what was happening; to try to get my head around each twist and reveal. There were several of those, with never a dull moment.

Overall, I liked the idea of the story more than the execution. With a little less planning, and a little more focus on reader experience, this could have been a great mind-messing story.

The Memory Agent has a lot in common with The Matrix. But don’t think that detracts from its allure or originality. In The Memory Agent, traditional prisons have been replaced with virtual worlds set in alternate time periods where memory-wiped prisoners are given new bodies and new lives. Parker and his team break prisoners free from their virtual prisons. Their most recent assignment is their most difficult yet - entry into a closed system, the maximum security prison set in 1950s Manhattan.

The novel is extremely complex, it's very basis entrancing. At the beginning you have a set of 1930s adventurers excavating a tomb in Egypt. Deep inside they discover a modern Manhattan empty of people but filled with echoes of memory. The entire city is a memory temple for Parker and his team. Before Parker can move forward with the assignment, he must recover his memories and discover his purpose.

The novel has a surreal, dreamlike feel that entrances the reader. Delaney does an excellent job revealing pieces of the past a bit at a time, the reader learning and reacting alongside Parker. There are a few inconsistencies, but dreams have their own mutable logic. It doesn't detract from the reader’s experience. The Memory Agent is a thrilling ride with a little bit of everything and more than a few twists. I highly recommend it to any lover of science fiction.

5 / 5

I received a copy of The Memory Agent from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

-Crittermom

Ok this book was a little bit of a mind boggler. It was well written and I can't fault that at all but I felt it jumped around a lot. I did enjoy parts but other parts I just could not invest myself in the dream in a dream kind of style. Perhaps this style of book is just not for me.

4.5 stars

An ambitious and exciting novel set in various versions of Manhattan (kind of!). I don't want to say too much about the plot as this is the kind of novel you should really go into with your eyes closed. Honestly, I even think the synopsis says too much which takes away some of the effect from the first part of the book.

The story is full of twists and turns and I did often find myself thinking that I had no idea what was going on but in the best possible way. As you read through the book more and more pieces of the puzzle start falling into place and you begin to understand exactly what is happening and why. The nature of the story is rather mind-bending in a similar way to the likes of Inception or The Adjustment Bureau. The best thing to do is just go with it and enjoy the ride! The the last few pages were particularly brilliant.

The novel itself is fairly genre bending with not only sci-fi, but elements of horror, mystery and adventure thrown in there.

The writing itself is nice, although not super special and for me, the characters could use work. I wanted to feel closer to the characters than I did and I wanted to see more development of them.

Overall, a really unique, enjoyable, mind-bending sci-fi thriller!