Fantastic new dystopian diction. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. Michael C. Bland is an author to look out for. 😀

While this book was an interesting read and definitely kept me turning the page, it was also much more violent and sadder than I expected. Dray is a good man, a BRILLIANT man, and other than create machines to make the world a better place the only thing he cares about is keeping his wife and two daughters safe. However, as the book starts and he is helping his company reveal their newest invention, he gets a phone call that will change everything. His daughter, Raven, is in trouble and instead of calling the police she calls her Dad.

I honestly considered not finishing this book because of the violent intensity and even hopelessness of the running, but I will say this...I really did have to know how the conclusion was and one other reason. For Talia.

There is also some profanity in the story that I could have done without, that deducted another star for me. It's like a sprinkled in topping you only notice every ten pages or so but it's enough that it was a distraction for me.

I could NOT make sense of the technology in this book and it is explained with gusto throughout, however, I kept up with Dray and the craziness he has to go through with his family. They are not just running from bad guys, they are running from EVERYONE. I wish he and Raven could have had a real heart to heart in this book, but I guess it's building up for the sequel. I won't be reading it, but I'm sure it will be another well written scene.

One twist in the story happens because of Mina, Dray's wife, I just couldn't believe what she pulled and then learned her reasons for it. She means well, but she never quite has her sanity with her. And oh my, that cover, it really got my attention and the scene it represents was crazy! Very well written and suspenseful, totally reminded me of a tense scene in Minority Report!

I really wanted to like Kieran at first but he becomes a really good psycho, for some reason he acts like he wants Dray to live while obsessively chasing him... that intention changes later on.

I liked the story, just didn't connect with it like I hoped to. Bland has a real talent for creating impossible situations for his characters to get out of and having the reader root for them the entire time no matter how unrealistic the crisis has become. Despite the violence and even cruelty in some of these chapters, I do believe he gives heart to the main characters and I believe that's why his storytelling is so well done.

I received an ecopy from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The thoughts and comments are my own.

The Price of Safety by Michael C. Bland
If the current virus crisis hasn’t done enough to freak you out, then read this book.   It is a frightening look at a possible future where privacy it truly non-existent.   Dray, an engineer, fights to protect his family and discovers secrets about his world that were unexpected. 
Bland portrays a reasonably plausible projection of our electronic future.   Consider the number of people you see daily  (prior to self-quarantining) who are constantly connected to their phone.   It isn’t much of a stretch to see implanted phones.  Lasik surgery, it isn’t too much of a stretch to see vision improvement with computerized adjustment of biological lenses. There are a substantial number of people who feel that Alexa and Google are always listening and recording.  
Consider the last paragraph and Bland’s book isn’t farfetched.   That makes it a bit terrifying.  Self determination figured prominently in the founding of our nation and yet our personal freedoms are being abridged due to terrorism, crime and now disease.   
Bland postulates one future and hopefully the second and third books in his trilogy would provide a positive path out of this dismal projection of our future. 
I found this book one of the more thought-provoking books I have read in quite a while.

Dystopian thriller with elements of space opera. The protagonist is a brilliant engineer who we first meet at the first run of his dark matter fueled fusion reactor. He and his family become embroiled in waging war against an all knowing government that monitors and controls the population by means of visual and neural implants, the removal of which mandate the death sentence. During the adrenaline fueled course of the novel the middle aged engineer becomes a warrior, invents numerous weapons and flying motorcycles, hacks control networks and overcomes potentially lethal wounds from a superhuman opponent.  This is the first of a series.