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 Roadhouse
by
Faith Hunter
science fiction, apocalyptic in a Kindle edition that was published by Lore Seeker's Press on July 2, 2024 and has 147 pages.
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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 Bargain, Junkyard War , Flame in the Dark, Host
Fourth in the Junkyard Cats apocalyptic science fiction series and revolving around Shining Smith, a made-girl who runs a junkyard in the desert of West Virginia. It’s been six months since Junkyard War, 3.
My Take
Junkyard Cats is an interesting look at the needs of an apocalyptic world, from how Shining describes her world to the importance she places on various skills. One where ice and nuts are a sign of wealth and skin cancer is the primary cause of death.
Hmmm, one thing Shining doesn’t have to worry over is how to feed the cats. Ick.
We experience so much through Hunter’s use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Shining’s perspective — she sure did learn from Pops!
She sure has transformed that junkyard of hers with so many enterprises added from the roadhouse, the trading post, the clearing house-grocery store, and all those rental bunks. She’s so excited about it, and even better, she won’t be in hiding anymore. And she gets to set the rules. More fun is reading about all the security measures Shining is including — like those hitching posts, lol.
It’s sad that it took plagues to make children valuable.
”God loves you just as you are, but people never would.”
Part of Shining’s challenge is her mutated self — a touch or her sweat can start the transition process in another living being.
Part of the drama is Shining being formally ousted from the OMWs and getting her new club’s colors and tats approved. Scarier is whether all those motorcycle clubs converging are coming to battle or make nice.
I love that the made-men fear those cats! Unfortunately, the cats aren’t too keen on all that inking and the men of those gangs.
There are plenty of traps in this story, and it’s fun to watch Shining recognize and then step around them. That payment she demands of Whip is a pip. And Shining discovers she has a friend!
Ooh, that question about events in that last battle towards the end sounds like an additional topic for book five, along with the names in those records Jolene acquired.
Whew, even Jacopo knows he isn’t safe from Mina.
Hunter incorporates the biker culture and its language to create a dramatic story in which the good guys are up against the bad guys . . . and there are enough of those guys who are in the gray to keep all this action and bargaining interesting
The information bonanza Shining and Jolene got from Warhammer’s nest is a treasure trove and terrifying with all that it implies.
Junkyard will be the name of her club. And I gotta wonder, how do two AIs go on a honeymoon?
The Story
To make it official, Shining and Cupcake will have to be branded and tattooed while their “guests” kick back in the roadhouse. And it seems not all of them can read Shining’s Rules of Entry when one of them kicks a cat.
Oops.
The Characters
The orange-eyed Shining “Little Girl” Smith, a queen and made-woman, has finally opened her Junkyard Roadhouse, and it looks like an old-west saloon. Pops, Bill Smith, had been her father and the de facto leader of the OMW. “Little Mama” her mother.
Mateo is a mish-mash of human and machine and the former commander of the USS SunStar. Jolene is the aware AI of the ship. Amos is in a relationship with the amazingly organized Cupcake, who is Shining’s number one thrall and soon to be vice-president and treasurer. Cupcake had been Red’s Old Lady in the original Hell’s Angels and the president’s communication and records specialist. Shining’s other thralls include the rescued Captain Evelyn Raymond (Junkyard War), who had been Mateo’s second-in-command, and Wanda and her son, Alex. Gomez is the alien Bug ship AI whose captain is dead/not dead in a lower level. The bouncer bot sounds sexy yet menacing.
Spy is one of Tuff’s descendants. Tuff is the current queen of the clowder, of Tuffs’ Destruction. Other warrior cats include Wide Stripe, Narrow Stripe, and Spot.
Logan “Asshole” Jagger is the OMW’s national enforcer (and a Hatfield on his maternal side). The current motorcycle clubs include the Outlaw Militia Warriors Motorcycle Club (OMW) where Roy “McQuestion” Gamble is the top man; Marconi (the regional president in Charleston) and Charles “Chuck” Whip are with Hell’s Angels; the augmented J’Ron “Mama-Killer” Walker leads Black Sabbath; Tomika Alverez, the best tattoo artist east of the Mississippi, leads the Sisters of the Cross; and, Bengal is with the Boozefighters. Jacopo and Enrico Marconi are sons while Mina is Marconi’s psychopathic daughter. Weylon McClelland had been the inker of the OMW. “Hammer” Davis is Whip’s NE. Not part of the alliance is Asheville’s Iron Order Rifles MC.
Logan is . . .
. . . a town that has been through a lot, and the Logan Wildcats Militia are offering an alliance. William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield is a descendant of those Hatfields. Martha is his wife. Eloise is their kidnapped daughter. The orphaned Andy Gaither Hatfield made the treacherous trip to the roadhouse. Will and Martha took him in when his parents, Benjamin and Shanna, died. Joey needs medical help. Beckett is Anse’s number two. Richard McCoy is the town mayor. More men include BillyBob, Claude, and Sawyer. The Freewill Baptist Church is critical. The Four Corners Mine used to be a going concern in Logan.
The commander of the Charlotte North Carolina Military Base has a crew of Rangers ready to go. The Hand of the Law are the police.
Clarisse Warhammer had taken over the Mara Salvatrucha Angels (MSA) but was killed in Junkyard War during the battle of Warhammer’s Nest.
Haruto is a tattoo artist from Japan and is now based in Chattanooga. I think a morphon is a combination cellphone and tablet. I can imagine a lot of people could make good use of their very own Medical Battlefield Bay (MBB). Cataglyphis bicolor Fabricius ants swarm to kill. Alien Bugs had gone to war with Earth, to stop its foolishness. One-percenters are the top made-men of a club. Jollies are knockout gummies fro minor surgery. Devil’s Milk is a better medication. Harlan had been Shining’s best friend. “Fostering” had been a euphemism for slave labor or the sex trade.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark with blacks, browns, and golds brightened by a bit of electric blue. It’s a stormy sky above the single-story roadhouse with the short-haired Shining in front, one foot up on a crate, wearing weathered blue jeans, a dirty white tank top, and dusty boots with cats all around her. To her right is a bike, massive with highlights of bright blue; another bit of bright blue is the morphon on her right bicep. The title is at the top in gold while the author’s name is at the bottom, also in gold. Just above the author’s name, in white, is an info blurb.
The title is Shining’s achievement, the Junkyard Roadhouse.
