Review: Tin Men by Christopher Golden

Economies are collapsing, environmental disasters are widespread and war the backdrop to life.

And so the military has developed a force of elite soldiers to keep the peace. A force like nothing seen before ... code-named Tin Man, soldiers are virtually transported to inhabit robot frames in war-torn countries.

When PFC Danny Kelso starts his day shift in Syria, an eerie silence welcomes him and a patrol confirms the area is totally deserted. But when a rogue electromagnetic pulse throws everything into darkness, Danny's conscious mind is trapped within his robot body.

The attack turns out to have been global - the world is facing a return to the dark ages with no electricity, no technology ... no safe zones. And the Tin Men face a race against time to save not only themselves but society as we know it.

Tin Men by Christopher Golden - author of Snowblind - is a must-read for fans of Dean Koontz, Peter Straub and Joe Hill thanks to its high concept and jaw-dropping thrills.

Shona's review 4 of 5 stars

I first heard about this book a few months before it was due for release, initially I was really keen to read it, however by the time the book had published and I had my copy to read I found myself wondering what exactly it was that drew me to it in the first place. Surely my tastes hadn't changed so drastically in just two months? I'm genuinely surprised as I didn't think I would like this but I did. I wasn't able to sit down and devour it in one or two sittings, infact it took almost 10 days for to get through it, almost unheard of for me. Usually when it takes me that long to read a book I tend to put it down and move on to something else, but there was something about this that made me want to carry on. And I'm glad I stuck with it.

One thing I did struggle with with this book is the sheer number of characters. There's so many characters and being a military book (or perhaps its just an American thing) they kept switching between using first names and surnames when addressing people, it made it difficult for me to follow who's who. But I also think that Golden may have stretched himself a little too thinly when creating some of the characters as some of them didn't stand out as their own people and several characters seemed to blend in to one another. Much like the Tin Men without any adornments on their bodies, it was hard sometimes to tell them apart.

Overall I felt this book was great, its not so over the top its almost scary to think that this could happen. Perhaps not all of the details but certain aspects aren't that far from our reality. This is my first book by Golden, but it wont be my last.