Would you sell your life to save another?
Special forces vet, Samantha Jones, is a lowly bodyguard for Ethan Anderson, the biotech billionaire who revolutionized life extension. But at least she’s got a job, unlike most, and won’t have to sell her organs to support her family. Sure, they’re poor, but she’s got death insurance and a roof over her head. Life is livable…
But then Sam’s daughter … livable…
But then Sam’s daughter is kidnapped and sold for parts. Overnight, her life (and belief in the system) shatters. When the rich bastards get off scot-free, Sam’s weak husband commits suicide, and the ex-assassin snaps.
Someone is going to pay.
The question: how to kill the heartless elites that use the poor like livestock and whose security rivals the president? And then there’s the senator fighting to abolish life extension, the trillion-dollar corporate standoff, and bloody protests in the streets as conditions deteriorate. Things are about to get ugly.
Death Donor is a speculative fiction technothriller by renowned futurist and best selling sci-fi author, Matt Ward, that features espionage, political drama, and fast-paced adventure in the dark dystopian world of synthetic biology. If you like Michael Crichton, Daniel Suarez, or Neal Stephenson, or loved dystopian classics: the Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, and Ready Player One, you’ll love this page-turning science fiction thriller.
Grab Death Donor today if a fast-paced genetic technothriller filled with political espionage, bloody twists, and explosive turns sounds right up your alley!
Praise for Death Donor:
“a fast-paced revenge / payback story with a kick-A** female lead!”–She Just Loves Books
“Politically intense, fast paced, and raw, Death Donor spares no grit, guts, or tools of fate.” –EL Strife, author of Stellar Fusion
Buy Death Donor today for an action-packed techno thriller… right up to its shocking conclusion.
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One of the best books I have read this year. The all-too-real possibilities of a future society like this is absolutely chilling! Just thinking about the prospect of something like this happening in a society of which I am still a part of nearly made me have an anxiety attack! Ward does an excellent job of painting a shockingly-vivid and jarring picture of a warped world where people are not not viewed as a whole but merely as the financial sum of their parts. He also pens the ending so cleverly that it can satisfyingly stand as it is or leave the door cracked open for a sequel.
When we first meet Sam, she’s living a boring life as the bodyguard of one of the richest men in the world. It isn’t exciting compared to the life she used to live, but at the very least, she’s able to support her family. When her daughter is kidnapped and murdered, she tries to desperately hold her life together. When her husband commits suicide, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sam goes on a mission for revenge, and she won’t stop until everyone who turned her life upside down pays.
I always love a good story about a strong woman, and this was a book that didn’t disappoint. The complete transformation that Sam went through was an immersive rollercoaster. It was easy to root for her, and I hoped from the very first chapter that things would get better for her. Not only were the characters well created, but the world that Matt has put them in was very unique. Not unique though is the difference between the rich and the poor class. The elite are able to live longer lives simply by using the organs of those unfortunate enough to have to sell them to live.
Very powerful book.
If you like stories full of action, suspense, and a plot that leaves you breathless, this is the book for you.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
I loved this book. Seriously, I may read it again in a few months because it just sort of lingers on the back of your brain, creeping into your awareness at unexpected moments. Well, maybe just me. It’s entirely possible I’ve been watching and reading too many dystopic worlds in which the lower class are sacrificed to extend the lives of the wealthy. It’s not an uncommon place to start, but this narrative deals with it very differently than others. This is the only world I’ve seen where people get the choice to sell their bodies, their families get paid for it, but the elite stay in their original body.
The world building is excellent. Just a little bit different than the world we live in now, just enough to be realistic through familiarity. The characters are all flawed in ways that make sense and that make them sympathetic. I love the format of the book – it switches perspective among the main characters so you really get to understand each one’s world view and why they are who they are and do what they do. Even the antagonist is relatable much of the time, even in his corruption. The primary character sucks you into her life almost instantly. Even though you know (because the author warns you in the description of the book) that her daughter and husband are going to die, it still grabs you at a visceral level and makes you want to wail at her loss. She makes a plan to eliminate those involved in the illegitimate parts of the life extending industry, to make sure it can’t happen any longer, and she fully expects to lose her own life in the process. Watching her evolve from one of the unaware masses just trying to live their lives into an agent provocateur, a sleuth, an assassin, aware of the lives of others, empathizing with the faceless masses, is be beautiful. She’s so real, and I loved watching her learn, not just about the situation, but to adapt to situations in ways beyond her training, becoming more politically savvy, not letting expressions reveal what she’s thinking, etc. I could write so much more about this, but it comes down to just read the thing and see for yourself. It’s both entertaining and deep all at once. (Also, if you like the book, consider subscribing to his mailing list. He sends some fun emails.)
I think this narrative clings so tenaciously to bits of my brain because it addresses so many of the questions that are part of being human. But it addresses them directly, forcing you to look at questions that don’t usually become part of our conscious daily thoughts:
How much is your life worth? Would you give up your life so your loved ones could benefit? (We all claim that we would die for those we love, but this is very different from taking a bullet for another person. How many of us are lying to ourselves when we say we’d take that bullet?) How bad do things have to get for your life to not be worth living? At what point does each of us become a commodity? Not just our “work product” but our bodies? How do you put a numerical value on a life?
What about as one of the elite? At what point do you realize that a popular practice is harming more people than it’s helping? What do you do about it?
And, of course the big one, just because we CAN do something, does that mean we SHOULD?
Wealthy privilege at its most obscene.
Why get old. Why SHOW age at all. All it takes is money and a donor, and they don’t always have to be willing. Hideous vision of the future of vanity. A bit political for my personal taste but that did not take away from plain old good story telling. Recommend it for fans of the genre.
“I’d die for you!” Supposedly those words show that special someone that you would do anything for them, including giving up your life. But would you really? In the near future, people can elect to give up their lives for money so that their families could survive. Their bodies are then processed and organs, vital glands, etc. are given to those people rich or important enough to “deserve” them. Of course, that process does not last forever so eventually the elite must be renewed again. But like anything that seems too good to be true, this rejuvenation causes the most sinister of human actions to be used to find the ones to be processed, including kidnapping, murder, etc. Suddenly, an outsider politician arises to throw a huge monkey wrench into all of these glorious plans.
Mr. Ward has given us another thrilling ride into what life might be like. And it’s not all fun and games.
An action packed and thrilling read! I was on the edge of my seat flipping the pages to see what would happen next. Samantha was a great female character that will do anything to take those down that destroyed her family. I loved her! The world building was on point, the characters are well developed, and the twists and turns made for one exciting read. It’s definitely a story worth reading!
Thrilling Dystopian Story!
This is a very thrilling, suspenseful, edge of your seat story that will shock you, captivate you and entertain you from the very beginning to the very end. With a kickass female character that will do anything to take down the evil individuals and the company that destroyed her family and others.
The story is vividly written with lots of imagery and exceptional world building. A very compelling read.
This book is exciting and so full of action you will just not want to put it down! It is definitely worth reading!
Received as a review copy, this is an honest review. This is a bone- chilling, thought provoking story I’ve read in a long time. In a world where those in desperate need of money sell their organs to help their family survive. Samantha believes she has the job of protecting a biotech billionaire will keep her family safe; that is shattered when her daughter is taken for body parts. Now she’ll make those pay for plunging her life into hell and try to bring down a world that has turned heartless and cold; highly recommended.
Death Donor is an Intense dystopian sci-fi with a political subplot. It has biopunk elements and moral predicaments that will make you wonder about the future of our own world. In Death Donor, life is payment, and payment is life. Love is a precious commodity. And the ending could not have featured a better twist.
DEATH DONOR is a work of utopian/dystopian fiction. At best, it is a treatise on near-future society, and at worst, it is sometimes hard to follow. It is a first person narrative told by three different people… each getting their own named chapters: Ethan, Sam and Mike respectively. It took reading a few chapters to realize which “I” was which. Also, my first impression of the bodyguard Sam was that of a gay man, married with a daughter. Then I found that Sam is short for Samantha. Once I had all this sorted, the plot became clearer.
The writing style is a staccato blend of spoken language and acronyms, so I see this as written for a young, hip audience. Once I settled into the flow of who’s who and what things like LE and VTOL meant, the plot gelled into one of technology, politics and revenge. The end may just bring you to tears. I am always a little disappointed when a writer uses words incorrectly or fluffs a common expression. I am happy to say that though both of these exist in DEATH DONOR, they were easy enough to gloss over.
Along with the technology and politics, DEATH DONOR is a morality tale. We don’t have to look to the future, near or far, to know that money talks and that maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t do the immoral just because you can.
Great dystopian read! Characters you will love to hate. Lots of intrigue and action. Moral dilemmas. Very different kind of dystopian book.
Death Donor – a review by Rosemary Kenny
In an occasionally harrowing ‘what if..?’ future dystopian possible scenario, Matt Ward posits a Hunger Games meets eXistenZ meets Terminator’s Sarah Connor confluence, of a them and us society where (as in certain third-world countries today), poor, desperate people will sell their organs for the means to survive, while the amoral ‘elite’ pay for the right to artificially enhance or renew themselves in whatever way they desire.
Death Donor takes this grim ‘prediction’ of where those who ‘have’ trade in actual lives of younger healthy specimens – even when the donors are unwilling – or as in the case of MC Samantha Jones’ (surrogate), daughter Malea, kidnapped, murdered and ‘harvested’to order.
Enhanced human Samantha is an experienced ex-military sniper assassin, who takes her revenge on the ‘masters’ of this rather bleak dystopian society and, like the Terminator himself, will not give up until someone pays for the loss of her family. Evildoers beware – Samantha’s on a mission!
Sometimes fiction becomes fact
I found this story disturbing and a little odd. Set in the future, poor people sell their bodies to the rich so the rich can live longer and in better health. The monies go to the donor’s families for survival.
Corporations sell body parts for profit. Poverty is so prevalent that payouts to donors’ families are diminishing.
Eathen Anderson is the founder of Defying Death Industries. Sam is his bodyguard. She, her husband, and her daughter are getting by since Sam, at least, does have a job.
Then one day, Sam’s daughter is kidnapped and becomes part of the black market for body parts.
Read and find out what happens when a dangerous mama became woke to the prevalent evil.
I received a free ARC review copy. [There are references to current giant corporations that are mega super in the future.]
A thought-provoking book. It is not reassuring to think that donor harvesting will be an accepted norm in the future.
Righteous anger can be a bitter pill…depending on who has to swallow it!
This tragedy reminds me of the movie “Taken” and similar others, except much more dystopian because it moves beyond human trafficking to human harvesting in the future. And Mama is the one with the skills and righteous anger, not Dad. This is a tragic world we are given access to, unfortunately too parallel to our own today where it’s a privilege to live not a right. It’s a tale of haves and have-nots, revenge, and yet hope in a techno sci-fi setting. Swiftly paced page turner…definitely worth reading!
This was a great story you never know this could happen in the future.
It might even be happening now.
The story is about people donating there body parts to extend the life of other humans.
Only the Rich can afford these operations and the poor are the ones that sacrifice there life for payments for there body parts to help there own families.
Sam the main character works for the man who owns the company that supplies the body parts ,the wealthiest man in the world.
She thinks she is one of the luckier ones.
But then Sam loses people close to her that where sold to the underground black market and she wants revenge.
Who were these people ,how did this happen and why?
You will have to read on to find out .
Great plot ,good characters,especially Sam.