I loved the Mancer series by Ferrett Steinmetz and so when I saw the description for Automatic Reload it was something of a no-brainer that I wanted this book in my life.  Here’s a short snippet of the original description to give you something of an idea:

‘Ferrett Steinmetz‘s quirky, genre-mashing cyberpunk romance Automatic Reload a high-octane adventure about a grizzled mercenary with machine gun arms who unexpectedly falls in love with a bio-engineered assassin.’

This was a very entertaining story, quick paced and high octane indeed.  Steinmetz certainly does deliver a genre-mashing quirky romance and even with all the descriptions of guns and customised body parts he still manages to infuse this action story with plenty of warmth.

The story involves two key characters.  Mat, a former soldier, now a mercenary who has been offered a job with a dream payout.  If things go smoothly he’ll be very comfortable for quite some time (what could possibly go wrong?).  Mat is the top in his field. This is a future where people can replace limbs with high grade weaponry andMat has gone for all four limbs. His attention to detail has ensured him an enviable reputation but, he suffers with guilt that means he likes to examine all the risks before taking action.  Silvia is a genetically engineered assassin, almost inhuman in terms of strength, speed and agility with a panic disorder that makes her a little trigger happy.  Silvia has been engineered almost beyond recognition by a ruthless company that will pull out all the stops to retrieve her when she goes AWOL and this is when Mat and Silvia team up.

What I will say about AR is it’s a whole load of fun.  Steinmetz is really good with banter and also including all sorts of references that simply give you a buzz when you’re reading his stories.  Automatic Reload isn’t necessarily a complicated plot, it’s really a boy meets girl story where the two people in question have their own hang ups and never believed that anyone would give them a second look again and so were overjoyed to find this unexpected second chance.  It’s also a rescue mission, boy rescues girl, girl rescues boy, etc and more than that it’s a rage against the machine style plot that goes from fast to faster and promotes all round good feelings.

Of course all this out and out action does come at a slight cost.  The characters are thinly drawn and the romance and love is almost instantaneous.  That’s not really a criticism as it happens because for me lengthy descriptions and too much backstory would probably overload what is otherwise a very entertaining read that has a superhero or comic book feel to it and is a breath of fresh air.

I think the only issue that I really experienced is that there was a little too much information about the body hackers and all their tech.  It wasn’t a problem as such but it did reach a point where I felt I understood the workings and wanted to move on.

I had no problems racing from cover to cover.  This has plenty of action.  Characters that are on the side of good, trying to do good things and a helluva lot of explosions – not to mention some incredibly creative thinking, particularly with the car scene – which I won’t spoil – but was great.

What I can say with absolute certainty is that Steinmetz is an author whose work I really enjoy.

I would rate this 3.5 of 5 stars

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  the above is my own opinion.