Defragmenting Daniel Review Tour

Blurb:

7 stolen organs.

1 vengeful victim.

A gruesome sci-fi thriller.

Organ scrubbing was a bloody job, but somebody had to do it. Daniel, an orphan from the Gutter, was put to work scrubbing kidneys at aged twelve. The job had its perks: a warm bed, Law and Order reruns, and an all-you-can-eat Mopane worm buffet.

Until the Orphanage stole Daniel’s parts, and sold them on the organ market.

Now Daniel has grown up, and yearns to become whole again. The cybernetic organ replacements just aren’t the same – he needs his parts back. But the new owners of his organs won’t give them up. Not without a fight.

Just how far will Daniel go to regain his missing pieces? And how much more of himself will he lose along the way?

Defragmenting Daniel is a cyberpunk crime thriller that will unnerve you. Every part of you.

“A work of great imagination. Powerful and gripping.”

“A stark and moving experience.”

– ReadersFavorite.com, 5 Star Review

Excerpt:

“You feel that, son?”

“No siw,” Daniel mouthed. His tongue was numb. Had been numb since they’d replaced it with the generic a year ago, but it felt more swollen than usual. Clumsy against his palate.

“That’s good. Try to relax.” The surgeon’s voice was deep and quick. Like a scythe. “Music, nurse.”

With Daniel’s head turned the way it was, he looked directly into the surgeon’s crotch. He tried to turn away, but his head had been immobilized.

A beat Daniel remembered from somewhere rolled through the operating theatre. The bass vibrated along the legs of the steel table, up, into the brace that pierced his skull, down, through its metallic fingers, and into his brain. It tickled.

The surgeon shifted. A nurse’s masked face replaced the crotch. “Don’t move.” Only her eyes showed above the mask. The doctors and nurses all looked the same with their masks on. How do they tell one another apart?

A grainy woman’s voice hissed through the beat.

We had you cleaned

We had you eat

The high-pitched whine of a bone saw echoed in Daniel’s skull. “We’ll have you open in no time,” said the surgeon.

Daniel felt pressure against his temple, above his right ear. The whine of the blade morphed to a lower, choppy grind.

We had you bathed

We had your feet

Yes, he remembered the song now. It was all the rage in the cafeteria on Friday nights, when they cleared the chairs to make room for an ad hoc dance floor.

“How the kids?”

“Good, thanks doctor. Jordan’s starting school next week.”

“Already?”

Daniel tried to swallow, but lying on his back with his head fixed at this angle, most of the saliva dribbled onto the operating table.

We ate your lungs

We heart your beat

The bone saw slowed to a toothy stop.

There was a hollow metal twang, as something red dropped into a metal bowl on the edge of Daniel’s vision.

“You doing okay there, boy?”

“Yeth, ma’am.”

The surgeon bent down. Peered into Daniel’s eyes.

“We’re in. Won’t be too much longer now.”

My Review:
3 stars

I want to start by saying that I've read and enjoyed several of Jason Werbeloff's books before, and that the writing in this is just as great as his other novels. However, my main reason for the lower rating is because of the gore. Now while I'm not a fan of overly done gore (I'm talking to you Tarantino), I can still usually stomach it. After all, I love cop and forensic science procedurals. Heck, I love the show Supernatural, which gets way too gory at times. However, this was just too much for me. I think the main reason is due to Werbeloff's writing style. He is very good at providing vivid, realistic descriptions which draw readers into the worlds he creates. While this has worked well for me when reading his previous books, it didn't here. It was just too much, and I found myself skipping parts of the story because I didn't want to read them. So that hampered my enjoyment, but that's entirely on me.

The story is well written and exciting, with excellent world-building. If there is one thing Werbeloff does the best, it's his world-building. It was kind of scary even because I could totally see this happening. I will admit, at first I was confused by why people would want to use organs taken from other donors if you could just have artificial organs which were more likely to be healthier, but as I read on, this world made more sense to me. And part of his great world-building is interesting characters such as Daniel. Seeing how Daniel changed from the beginning of the book to the end is what kept me reading. His scenes with Odin were oddly touching, which was weird at times, but helped capture his character (you'll understand why this is sometimes weird if you read the book). 

On a side note, as the title suggests, this is part 1 of 3, so the book does have a cliffhanger-ish, to be continued ending. 

Overall, while this is an interesting, well-written, and exciting story, it just wasn't for me. I'm faced with conflicting emotions because while I want to know how this series ends, at the same, I don't want to continue reading the series. This book is not going to be for everyone. If you can't handle squicky situations, this is not the book for you and I recommend trying some of Jason's other books (I personally enjoyed Obsidian Worlds, as you can see from my review). But if you have a stomach of steel and laugh at gory situations, then give this book a try, because it is worth it. 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

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September 5: Long and Short Reviews
September 12: Romance and Authors That Rock
September 19: The Silver Dagger Scriptorium
September 26: Sharing Links and Wisdom
September 26: Natural Bri

Author Bio and Links:

Human. Male. From an obscure planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Sci-fi novelist with a PhD in philosophy. Likes chocolates, Labradors, and zombies (not necessarily in that order). Werbeloff spends his days constructing thought experiments, while trying to muster enough guilt to go to the gym.

He's written two novels, Hedon and The Solace Pill, and the short story anthology, Obsidian Worlds. His books will make your brain hurt. And you'll come back for more.

**Amazon Author Page – download all of Werbeloff's fiction from Amazon.

**Newsletter -- subscribe to get 'The Solace Pill' free, as well as VIP access to Werbeloff's latest fiction.

**Sound Cloud – listen to stories from Obsidian Worlds narrated by the inimitable Marc Ryan Rees.

**Goodreads – read and submit reviews of Werbeloff’s fiction.

**Facebook and Twitter – follow for release date information on upcoming shorts and novels.

**Website -- read about the author, and the philosophy behind his fiction.

Defragmenting Daniel Buy Link

The Organ Scrubber is the first fragment of the Defragmenting Daniel trilogy:

Fragment 1 – The Organ Scrubber

Fragment 2 – The Face in a Jar

Fragment 3 – The Boy Without a Heart