House of the Rising Gun

Easytown Novels, Book 4

By: Brian Parker

Narrated by: Daniel Penz

Imagine a world where anything is possible and nothing is off limits.

Pharmaceutical giant VirtuaPharm is attempting to create that world through their partnership with a fellow megacorporation who’s developing a closed neural network. The network, enhanced through the use of VirtuaPharm’s drugs, is worth trillions. They’ll do everything in their power to protect the product launch, including employing a private army of enforcement officers to stop any interference in their business.

Meanwhile, something foul is happening in Chinatown. The mayor’s office has forbidden any police presence in the neighborhood and there’s an electromagnetic interference bubble around the district. What secrets are they hiding in the city’s newest entertainment district?

Detective Zach Forrest is back in this fourth exciting installment of the Easytown Novels, where the tech is hot, the weather is cold, and the women are sultry.

©2021 Brian Parker (P)2022 Brian Parker

Looking forward to returning to Easytown!

I recently discovered Brian Parker and his Easytown series while searching for a quality cyberpunk noir series. These books do not disappoint. If you are reading this review, I'm assuming you have read books 1-3, so I will not bother with a synopsis of the story. This book was my favorite of the series so far and the only reason it is not a perfect 5 stars is because the performance was off for this book. Odd volume and tone issues.

Keep up the great work Brian Parker!

Such a great series!

I really do love this series, I just wish there were more as they tend to wrap up quickly with threads always dangling.

Not Up To Series Standards

I love this series, but to me this is by far the weakest of the books. Some of the action is good, but there are too many loose ends (like Paxton Hamura, Tommy Voodoo and chief Brubaker to name a few). The story is overly complicated and the resolution comes much much much too quickly/easily not to mention abruptly. It's almost like the writer just kind of quit on this story 3/4 of the way through.

But You Ain't Got No Legs, Lieutenant Zach..

House of the Rising Gun remains true to it's roots, but feels a lot more stripped back than the previous 3 books, taking more of a traditional 1940's noir approach, with much less lethal weapon-esque antics. More private detective, less cop action/thriller feeling. Much of the previous cast are absent in this book, which is a bit disappointing. The pacing felt a little bit slower here, but it does gradually build to a grand conclusion and was overall an engaging, and at times, very funny story.

The narration by Daniel Penz is fantastic once again, although there are what seemed to be sound quality issues/artifacts throughout this recording? While not my favorite, nor the strongest effort in the series, House of the Rising Gun is still a solid 4 star listen for me. Highly recommended.

Bigger and better as the series continnues

If you like your audiobooks a bit gritty with plenty of humor and procedural cyberpunk action, you will find the latest audiobook in the Easytown series “House of the Rising Gun” can help fill that void. The series keeps getting better and better, and I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to each audiobook. The author is Brian Parker, who tells an engaging tale while keeping things overall light and fun. The audiobook’s narration was superbly performed by Daniel Penz. Mr. Penz is becoming one of my all-time favorite narrators and I can say that this team works well together. The story opens with the usual missing persons case for a PI and then pivots to focus on the extent some big pharmaceutical corporations will go to hook their customers for life. Yet, this this more than just about finding a missing person or making a new drug? Or is there something more nefarious when our main character begins to peal back the onion. If any of this sounds interesting, I can recommend you give the latest Easytown audiobook a listen as the story has depth and the author has done a good job creating this unique world.

It is always nice being dropped back into a somewhat familiar world, being this is the fourth in the series, consisting of multipurpose droids, cyber surveillance, and the latest in holographic assistances, Andy. Yet, even with all the technology and progression, there is still the same corrupt human nature requiring the help of a failed detective turned private eye to collect the clues and ultimately solve the mystery. This time, it is a very powerful pharmaceutical creating a new wonder drug that provides the consumer with whatever pleasures they desire. Yet, this corporation operates in plain sight even though law enforcement knows something fishy is going on under the covers. Knowing that the police will not be able to take down this company through traditional means, they reach out to their ex-coworker and friend to help give them a way of stopping it. No one would have expected that this drug company was so much more, and even something that could threaten the security of the nation.

I have come to enjoy the depth and complexity of the Easytown series of audiobooks and this one seems to take that to the next level. We can see our main character maturing over time, and I think that is also seen in the author’s writing. The characters feel solid, and their actions fit their personalities very well. The cyberpunk world Mr. Parker creates seems to mirror that of other worlds in this genre. It appears to be a bit grimy and gritty, while also quite advanced with technology. The author does a good job of blending the darker elements of the story with enough humor that it does not get too weighty.

About the audiobook narration, Mr. Penz does an exceptional job of voicing the many characters and their accents as he has with previous audiobooks in the series. I do not recall any issues with audio plugs or inconsistencies involving audio volume or character voicing. The reading pace is well maintained and for listeners that like to listen at a rate slightly faster, Mr. Penz voice permits that. As with any of his other narrations, Mr. Penz delivers consistently, even across the four audiobooks in this series. The narrator quickly assumes the character of Zack Forrest even some of his quirks, in a good way.

For parents and younger listeners, this audiobook is really geared toward a mature audience. The use of drugs (legal and illegal), prostitution and some rather graphic violence are contained in this story. I would only recommend this audiobook, and the entire series, to mature listeners.

In summary, I have never been disappointed after listening to any of the Easytown series. The writing has continued to grow, the narration is solid and professional, and the characters fit their environment. This tale goes a bit farther than the previous ones, but I did enjoy the ride. I can say that I am already awaiting the fifth audiobook in the series when it drops.

Disclaimer: This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, and/or publisher at no charge in exchange for posting a non-bias review.

great story, terrible acoustics

House of the rising gun is the latest in the easy town novel series a cyberpunk noir action packed thriller. Typical hard bitten detective that had been removed from the force making a life as a private eye in a distopian world. The characters are well done the story is interesting and the setting is fantastic (especially as a Nola native). Now with that being said there is one major problem with this product; the voice recording for this is absolutely terrible. The voice actor has a decent range of voices I will give him that the main issue that I have is that his Voice does a weird total shift sometimes throughout the story it's very distracting it's almost binaural and I can actually physically feel it. it is incredibly uncomfortable and it happens multiple times throughout the story. It almost made me stop listening several times.

best easytown yet!

this is by far the best easytown novel yet. The audible reading is spot-on as always too.