The last time I wrote about new authors, I was writing about my experience with Steven M. Moore's work. Well, I finished Full Medical and also Evil Agenda, both books part of what Moore calls his "Clones and Mutants" series.

I really liked Full Medical a lot. Part of it was that the issues it deals with resonate strongly with me. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I've on occasion offered up some commentary and opinions on our health care system. (Being part of it, I feel somewhat qualified to talk about it.) This book takes the problems we are facing today to their extreme conclusion, where anyone without "full medical" either has to bankrupt themselves to get care or die (basically). At its heart was a story about clones developed as spare parts, and a couple of deaths that seem to immediately get "cleaned up" by someone.

Evil Agenda told another tale drawn from the main theme of genetic manipulation - one of building mutants as soldiers for a new army. A murder occurs at the beginning, and the rest of the book deals with both governmental and private efforts to solve the crime and bring the perpetrator to justice. It was a good read, not as good as Full Medical, but still very entertaining. I'm given to understand that this started life as a serialized novel on Moore's website, and was edited and augmented and published as an e-book. This may explain why, to me, it felt a lot more disjointed than that first book. Less flowing. Still, a good read for the $2.99 it cost me for my Kindle edition.

I also read a couple by Barry Eisler, Fault Line and Inside Out. Both feature a special forces soldier who is more or less an assassin for the federal government, named Ben Treven. Both were excellent reads, strongly plotted with well-drawn characters and lots of tense action. Eisler describes himself as a former CIA employee and makes it sound like he has some insight into the dark workings of government. These books read like he has exactly that.

I got both of them as bargain books at my local B&N, and will continue to read his stuff. I gave both 5 stars on my Goodreads account. I will also continue to read Steven Moore's ebooks. The other titles sound quite interesting as well.

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