Griffin Barber

Review to come and I really liked the epilogue.

Set in a post contact future where we now have the tech to have AI implanted in humans to help us and help them win a war. Last Stop Station is literally the last stop for lots of people including Ralston Muck, a disgraced veteran dealing with no longer having an AI working as a bouncer who is trying to find Siren, a talented singer at the club he works at that has gone missing. Several people want her found, the club owner, the local criminal kingpin, and most importantly Angel, the AI that became unmoored from Siren and now is residing in Ralston. The story uses the noir mystery setting in space to excellent advantage. The Artificial Intelligences in the story are great and are more than just talking heads. The epilogue was great and it sets up the universe for so much more in this setting. I can’t wait to see the next book in this setting.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.
… (más)

Barber, Griffin, and Kacey Ezell. Second Chance Angel. Last Stop Station No. 1. Blackstone, 2020.
Barber and Ezell have created a universe with lots of story possibilities. When we met some aliens called Mentors, they offered us a lot of very useful technology on condition that we joined their interstellar war. Our aliens won, but Earth was destroyed (collateral damage), so now humans are mostly refugees, migrant workers, and burned-out vets. Ralston Muck is one of the burned-out vets working as a bouncer in a cabaret on Last Stop Station. When Siren, the beautiful chanteuse he has been protecting, is kidnapped, her AI (the second-chance angel of the title) is looking for a new home and finds it in Muck’s head and off they go to rescue Siren. The first-person narration shifts between Angel and Muck, and both have distinctive voices. The action moves us right along, and the technology is a cut above average. A fun read.… (más)

Ralston Muck is eking out a living as a bouncer on a space station. He is a disgraced army vet who has had his AI removed. His only solace is listening to the star singer at the club where he works. Hearing her eases some of his pain as she sings out her own pain.

One night she disappears and her AI Angel somehow manages to leave her brain and find its way to Muck's. This is unheard of and even thought to be impossible. It is also impossible that Angel is starting to feel emotions but it is.

Angel recruits Muck to help her locate her original host which leads both of them into a galactic conspiracy and all sorts of danger. They deal with the space station's crime lord who is an alien and who sends him to another planet to look into the disappearance and some new drug. But danger follows them there and only a chance encounter with some people from Muck's past let them live through it.

I enjoyed the mystery aspects of this story and learning about the bigger conspiracy. I really liked the relationship that grew between Muck and Angel. I liked the worldbuilding which included interesting aliens, unique technology, and all sorts of secrets.… (más)