Battery Life

Battery Life
By Brennan Gilpatrick and Gregory Lang

Welcome to the apocalypse. It’s messy, it’s gritty, it’s constantly trying to kill you. No one’s in charge and everyone’s fighting for survival. Good thing we’ve got our ragtag team to save the day.

This book explores themes such as: what is freedom? what can be forgiven? and what is worth compromising your morals for?

We have a great cast of morally gray characters. Virgil you want to root for completely, but he makes decisions for survival that are sometimes hard to swallow. Diane is a bit naive and new to the road but I had no qualms rooting for her. The other crew members were a great addition and I really enjoyed the character work/development.

The world building was also well done. I’m really interested in learning more about it if there ends up being a sequel. It’s set mostly in the US but alludes to some big things across the ocean. Each of the places we do visit have that distinct apocalyptic feel but each still had its own character as well.

The writing took me a little bit to really get into. I thought the beginning meandered a little bit but then it all came together and I had a lovely time at the end of the world.

Thanks to @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Battery Life was exactly like the description presents. Out of this world dark comedy where as a reader you are not sure what to really expect because the absurdity of it all just feels out there. I enjoyed this book and would say if you like dark humor, a great story, excellent characters, and an arc that will keep you guessing this is the one for you.

The absurdity of some of the novel will stick in my mind for a while, in a good way. This is an imaginatively told story, and I stayed engaged. Good stuff.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

This book is part sci fi, part road warrior, and part dystopia. The earth is toxic and wars have created an inhospitable environment ruled by corporations and warring clans. Centuries ago, when all this mess started, one corporation put a self-sustaining space station in orbit that was living peaceably and well, until a system disaster caused it to crash to earth, with one survivor, a teen girl. She gets locked in a mech suit and becomes part of a team that is working to quash a tyrannical new leader. This book is full of action, an interesting re-imagining of life on earth that feels more like another planet, complex characters, and lots of new tech. I normally don't like this much world-building, but the characters and the plot kept me reading. I particularly liked how the characters interacted and worked together (or undermined each other). I am recommending this to my sci fi as well as my dystopian readers.