Book Review: Hard Luck Harry in Deadtime, by F.A. Corporan and S.E. Bryan, published by Black Rose Writing of Texas (expected publish date in September 2025)
I was given an Advance Reader Copy of Hard Luck Harry in Deadtime and asked to do an honest review.
When Earth is made uninhabitable through human folly, Mars is colonized. Wherever humans go, so go their natures, good, bad, and ugly. Tyrants arise and joust for power, exploiting people, places, and things. Villains vying for complete control – some control is never enough for these types – include Solomon Fiske, the son of a ruthless mob boss who now calls the shots; Senator Moss, a decrepit, corrupt politician in search of the fountain of youth; and the Feds, trying to keep power in the hands of the government.
All bad guys have their paid enforcers. Fiske has Mr. English, Baxter Parish, and Preston Marlowe. Senator Moss wheels and deals to get what and who he wants through coercion, extortion, etc. Enter Hard Luck Harry, a cast-off Mech(anoid) now working as a Bounty Hunter for The Peoples Republic of Mars Feds.
Harry is in rough shape after crawling his way out of a junk heap. His operating system, named Link, is on the fritz, and he needs it tweaked before he dies. Luckily he knows a cybersurgeon and just needs to come up with funds for the parts.
The story revolves around triangulation, manipulation, and frequent all-out brawls between the power players and their paid minions. Of course, innocent people can and do get hurt along the way. Those include geneticist innovator, Dr. Rosewood, and his daughter, Alexia, aka Lex.
When Dr. Rosewood goes missing, Lex hires Harry to find him.
There is so much to like about Hard Luck Harry in Deadtime. The cover art is perfect, as it sets a visual beyond the words in the reader’s mind of the two main characters. I appreciate the creativity of the names of everyone and everything. I enjoy the fast pace, where there’s always something happening. There are many detailed fight scenes between skilled combatants. I appreciate the way the authors are not afraid of using big words. The plot is intelligent and scientific-minded and includes science fiction, a lot of which may not be so far into the future. Descriptions of mechanisms and procedures are meticulous.
Aside from that, there are excellent character studies in it. There is a flashback about villain Solomon’s childhood that explains why he may be the person he is. Harry’s existential anguish about life, the universe, and everything is very well-done.
The support network of characters are also varied and well-developed.
If you enjoy intelligent science fiction writing that is action packed but also has a tender heart at its center, Hard Luck Harry in Deadtime is the book for you. I hope that this is just the first of many Hard Luck Harry (and Lex) stories.
Tao Talk 
This reminds me of Sanaa’s poem about Mars on the live meeting. Good to have you join us. It is so interesting to see and hear everybody!
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I’m sorry I missed hearing Sanaa read it. Next time will set my alarm clock.
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She had written a very unusual Si-fi type poem about women on mars!! Hopefully she will post it.
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I hope so too.
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Wonderful post 🎸thanks for sharing🎸
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You are welcome, Satyam.
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That sounds like a grown up scifi…it sounds really interesting. I like when author doesn’t dumb things down.
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Max, I think you’d like it.
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It sounds like it…I like smart scifi.
I’m watching something scifi right now…one of the shows you like….NIght Gallery. If I could think of a simple way of posting them I would.
Are you doing the SLS? I’m doing it this week.
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I used to love that show and would like to buy the whole series. Yes, I’m doing SLS and just posted my song. Oh cool that you are doing it this week. Can’t wait to see what song you pick :)
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I usually post at night and then post my two tomorrow but I’m sleepy this tonight lol…Mine will post tomorrow morning.
I thought about posting it like I did the TZ…I guess I could go by the way they showed…sometimes they show 3 in one night…2 short one long. I’m mulling it over.
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How many seasons are there of it? If you want some help writing them up, we could do it together.
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One season with only 20 episodes…I’ll do that in a heartbeat. I thought about it…what I could do is actually write most of them up before I start and let it run…maybe on a Thursday or so. Thanks…I’ve wanted to do another TV series and this would be doable without a year into it.
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I hope you do.
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I’ll do it! I will start writing them up in my spare time in the week. I want to have at least 10 done before I start posting…I’ll post them on Thursdays…thats the day I have a little more time. Thank you Lisa. I wanted to tackle another one.
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Max, looking forward to it. Thursdays is a good day to do it.
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I forgot that there was a movie that started it. Do you remember that? Anyway this will be more of a challenge because I don’t know these episodes like I knew the other two shows.
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No I don’t remember a movie, I just remember the show, where Rod walks around and introduces the stories through the artwork.
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I may do that next Lisa…
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Oh you meant the NIght Gallery… 3 seasons but many episodes were short. There were 43 episodes…so that is doable as well.
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Piece of cake compared to TZ and ST.
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YES!
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In fact I’m writing the first one right now…thank you so much Lisa…I needed a break from just music.
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Are you talking about Night Gallery? I totally agree about breaking up topics. It keeps it fresh for me when I’m writing. I’ve actually been thinking a little about my short stories and working on them again. I found out there are apps you can use to make sure the tenses match, which would save me a lot of time.
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No the Night Stalker…sorry I confused myself in that. Yea I need something different. I am posting a personal post probably Thursday and I will mention the up coming Night Stalker episodes.
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Oh ok. So you are doing Night Stalker. I do vaguely remember a movie first? Maybe do Night Gallery next year?
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They were both around the same time…I think Night Gallery was a year or two before.
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p.s. I also like that show The Night Stalker (?) with Darren McGavin (sp?) Another series I’d like to own.
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Oh the Night Stalker!!!! I love that one…and you know what? That would be simple….it’s one season. I have them all…I love that one as well.
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Only one season??? I do remember there used to be a lot more episodes in a season on network television. Nowadays many have only 6 or 8. To me they are more like long movies. I actually love that amount — as long as they keep making new seasons.
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