I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Junkyard Bargain
by
Faith Hunter
apocalyptic in a Kindle edition that was published by Lore Seeker's Press on February 25, 2021 and has 166 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Raven Cursed, An Apple for the Creature, Death's Rival, Blood Trade, Kicking It, Blood in Her Veins, Mercy Blade, Shadow Rites, Bloodring, Seraphs, Dark Queen, Shattered Bonds, Black Arts, Broken Soul, Dark Heir, Cold Reign, Blood of the Earth, Curse on the Land, "Water Witch", "Explosion On King's Street", Skinwalker, Dirty Deeds, "Shiloh and the Brick", "Black Friday Shopping with Nell and Occam", Circle of the Moon, Blood Cross, Spells for the Dead, "Easy Pickings", True Dead, Dirty Deeds 2, Trials, Junkyard Cats, Rift in the Soul, Junkyard War , Junkyard Roadhouse, Flame in the Dark, Host, "Gotcha"
Second in the Junkyard Cats apocalyptic science fiction series and revolving around Shining Smith, a hero in hiding in West Virginia. The focus is on planning for war.
My Take
Hunter uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Shining’s perspective. Boy, do we learn about this “new” world with its “mushy eggy stuff” that’s not palatable, but it is protein from Shining.
Water is pricy, the landscape and roads are a disaster, and Shining’s enemies are gunning for her. And Cupcake is performing miracles! Enough water to take a shower once a week! There’s more . . . Cupcake keeps surprising Shining with all that she can do. Talk about luck!!
That’s some handicaps Hunter has put on Shining. That “ability” of hers to infect anyone who touches her, the viability of her sweat and blood. It’s inevitable, and poor Shining, she does love her isolation.
I do love Shining’s interactions with the cats, particularly Tuffs. Mental communication, and the cats make great spies. Scarily, the cats have discovered the fun of war games — they already liked the taste of human flesh. That scene at Marty’s when the cats “help out”? Whoa.
More of the fun is all the military-grade weapons and equipment Shining hides in the junkyard. It’s all illegal for civilians, and it’s what helps Shining survive.
She’ll need help when she bargains with Marty! He has most of what Shining needs to survive, and he does have a variety of fun “toys”.
Ooh, we get more of Mateo’s back story . . . oh, brother.
Conflicts include Shining wanting her thralls to achieve some independence of mind, but not all their choices are what she expects (or gets).
Junkyard Bargain is so full of characters and action . . . whew, is it FULL! It’ll be a helluva ride full of bandits, sex slavers, corrupt lawmen, and criminal bike gangs looking to move in on Shining’s territory.
If you like weapons, battle, and survival . . . with a female heroine . . . you want to read Junkyard Cats.
The Story
A good friend died and someone knows who Shining is. Someone knows she is guarding, a scrapyard full of valuables.
The life she’s built in hiding has been safe until she gets that note warning her of a coming attack. Now time is running out for Shining Smith and her crew to gather the weapons they need to rescue one of their own.
The Characters
Shining “Little Girl” Smith, alias Heather Anne Jilson, is a survivor, a queen, and the current owner of Smith’s Junk and Scrap. Seems her office had been part of a Bug ship. The junkyard cats have been changed by Shining’s nanobots and include Tuffs, the original queen and Guardian Cat of the Junkyard Cats. Spy is one of her descendants. Pops, the head of the Outlaws, and Little Mama had been her parents.
Cupcake, formerly Red’s Old Lady and the communication and records specialist for the president of the Hell’s Angels MC — Red had been their number three — is one of Smith’s thralls and has taken over meal prep, gardening, and organizing. The Hell’s Angels lost a valuable resource in Cupcake!
Mateo had been the captain of the USS SunStar, a spaceship built by the western alliance that had crash-landed in the back of the scrapyard, whom Shining had rescued. He’s now a warbot, a cyborg, his badly damaged body supported by machinery. Jolene had been the AI aboard the ship, and she’s evolved once exposed to Shining’s nanobots. Gomez is the office AI.
Logan Jagger, an enforcer for the Outlaw Military Warriors (OMW), became a thrall in Junkyard Cats. “McQuestion” is the head of the OMW. Other biker gangs include the MS Angels whose president (Rico “Three Fingers” Garcia Perez) had fled and the Mara Salvatrucha.
Buck Harlan had been Shining’s friend. Captain Evelyn Raymond had been the second-in-command of the USS SunStar.
The police are now called the Law. Deputy Darson is incredibly corrupt.
Charleston
The sneaky Marty Morrison of Morrison’s Foundry, Metals, and Scrap sells and buys metals. Wanda is Marty’s right-hand “man”. Marconi’s Famiglia is a great Italian restaurant run by old man Daniel Marconi and his family, which include Enrico, Jacopo, who does not miss; Lorenzo; and, Min, a psychopathic killer. Lucretia is his wife, his Old Lady.
Amos is a bodyguard. Victims included Gretchen, a nurse, and Carol, who’s a good shot.
Catherine Warren, a.k.a. Clarisse Warhammer, is a queen and leader of the MS Angels — just touching the skin of a queen enables the transfer of nanobots and makes the person touching a queen their thrall. One-Eyed Jack is her second-in-command.
Bugs had been the space aliens who battled earth in World War III. A Simba is a battle tank. A PRC is a broad category of warbots. Berger chips are silicone implants that provide additional memory, knowledge, and speed up the brain’s ability to make connections. A thrall wants to please, they need to please. Sherman Griffith and a twelve-year-old Shining survived a swarming. The Battle of Mobile was a milestone. A WIMP bomb is a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle bomb, which essentially destroyed the ozone layer and changed the earth. A Morphon seems to be a cellphone-type device. “Strip clubs” are actually about the sex trade.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a jumble of browns with the short-haired Shining Smith in an action pose wearing form-fitting, iridescent battle armor, holding one big wrench. Surrounding her is junk. Rusty, gray, black, machinery, struts, an I-beam . . . and cats. At the top is the title in a distressed gold. At the bottom is an info blurb and then the author’s name, both in a fainter gold.
The title is what Shining gets, a Junkyard Bargain.
