Blurb: A lifelong production operator who’s been dragged from boiling-hot reactor cells to outdoor polar pipeline arrays, Cap Jenkins figures he’s seen just about every ugly thing that life on an extraterrestrial corporate mining colony has to offer. But when a fresh, unnervingly innocent young operator clocks in for his first night shift with no warning and no introduction, Cap and his small crew of surly workmen are quickly reminded that things can always get worse. As Cap’s woes progress from minor equipment failures to inexplicable and horrific happenings in the shadows, one thing becomes increasingly clear: there’s something very strange about this rookie.
My thoughts: I received a free copy of Early Retirement from the author in exchange for an honest review. Early Retirement is a short story which are still relatively new to me (I’ve only ever read a collection of short story’s and that was about a month ago). It is also of the horror genre which is again, relatively new to me. It is only 28 pages long but it feels longer as it tells such a good story. I read it in one sitting and my mind was solely focused on the story (which is rare for me seeing as I’ve got a list of ‘To Do’s’ as long as my arm).
From very early on, I knew where this story was going so it was a predictable, easy read. Easy in the sense of it was short, well written and flowed nicely. I had ‘Alien’ and ‘The Thing’ vibes from the start – Alien bored the life out of me as it was such a long film but The Thing is probably the most terrifying film I’ve ever seen, and I believe those that like to read horror and sci-fi-horror would really enjoy this short story.
I noticed during reading the story that I had that horrible feeling in my stomach – a mix of dread and butterflies. I could also feel that I was forgetting to breath at times so I think that the author has done really well in writing this horror story as all horror authors want their readers to feel this way.
What I found impressive, is that in 28 pages, Knight managed to create a decent setting, varied and well presented characters, and a compelling story. I’m hoping that Knight continues to write but I am looking forward to full length novels.
Early Retirement is available on Amazon UK for just 77p. Or Free on you have Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Retirement-Luke-Ethan-Knight-ebook/dp/B091BR42J4/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=early+retirement+knight&qid=1629186289&sr=8-1
For those in the US it is just 99cents: https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Luke-Ethan-Knight-ebook/dp/B091BR42J4/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Early+retirement+knight&qid=1629186393&sr=8-1
As always, thank you for reading.
Gee Liz Reads ❤
geelizreads.wordpress.com 