Reap3r by Eliot Peper

As we all know, I love a good dystopian future book. Reap3r by Eliot Piper was listed in a couple of articles about new authors or new dystopian futures books. I had a look on Kindle Unlimited and as I was available as part of my subscription, I thought that I would give it a go.

There are a number of main characters in this book. There is Geoff, a scientist who developed a vaccine for a virus which had killed 200 million people. There is Devon, an investigative journalist stroke podcaster who manages to interview some highly secretive people. There is Luki, a computer specialist who has created the world’s first quantum computer. These three people are all being paid and supported by a billionaire hedge fund investor. There is also his scary assistant and a government agent.

Warning spoilers.

I don’t like to give too much away when I review books, but I have to in this instance. Nothing happens in the book for the first two thirds. The characters interact and bimble about, but nothing happens. Two thirds of the way through all hell breaks loose when the three main characters realise that they might be in danger of being assassinated.

Reap3r is an App for assassins and the people who want assassinations to be carried out. With the help of the quantum computer, the App is hacked, and all of the assassins are directed to attack each other. RR Haywood would have written a whole book on that simple premise. Anyway, that is the only exciting section in the book. They all escape. The villains are caught, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Overall, a very disappointing book, considering how good the reviews are. I gave it three out of five, which I felt was a little generous. There is an interesting article at the end of the book by the author where he expands upon the writing of this book. He states that he was incredibly excited to finish the first draft, thinking that it was the best piece of writing he’d ever done. He gave the draft to a few close reviewers, who came back with queries and questions. The author went back to the drawing board and the re-write took him twice as long to write as the first draft. Don’t get me wrong, it is ten times better than anything I could ever write, but it was a little disappointing.