In this noir space Western thriller, Daniel P. Douglas has created the ultimate female bounty hunter in Kassidy Reyez. Discovered seven years earlier, floating in Federation space, Kassidy has no memory of her former life or how she got the mysterious scars on her body. So, she reinvents herself as a space hunter in Neural Bounty, working alone and taking the risky jobs no one else wants. Her vehicle is a quirky, objectionable, utterly adorable spaceship given to ‘temperature tantrums.’ Kassidy sidesteps meaningful relationships and lives by her wits, never sure where her latent skills came from as she captures the enemies of galactic justice with apparent ease. But a high-stakes contract from a research facility pushes Kassidy to her limits, forcing her to face her mysterious past, her cherished aloneness, and her inherent need to find answers to her deepest question: ‘Who am I?’

I absolutely loved Neural Bounty by Daniel P. Douglas. I was immediately pulled into the action by Kassidy’s sassy narration and the skillful direct dialogue. “You want to know what’ll keep you breathing out here? Shut up and pay attention.” She’s a no-holds-barred, gun-toting space cowgirl with attitude and unpredictability in her genes. There’s the sense that anything can happen, and the reader is along for the ride. Short, punchy sentences amplify the urgency and increase the tension. I enjoyed the phenomenal world-building, which reaches as deep as the defined currencies of geld and coffee beans, alongside the wealth of technical know-how, which makes the plot and the science infinitely believable. Throughout the intelligent and carefully constructed plot, there’s a parallel between Kassidy’s life and the Duryak Scrapyard, both seeking to craft something from remnants. I very much enjoyed Douglas’s dry wit and couldn’t put this novel down.

Seven years ago, Kassidy Reyez had been found drifting away in an escape pod by a Federation Medical Transport ship, with only a vague, fragmented recollection of her past. Since then, she has been tracking outlaws across the galaxy, earning her place in the frontier as one of its most feared and hardened bounty hunters. When Synaptech, a shadowy mind control research megacorporation, offers her a high-paying contract to recover stolen high-end neural technology, Kassidy jumps at it. Tracking her target, Rask Voren, a lieutenant in a ruthless interstellar criminal syndicate dubbed the Stygian Dusters, Kassidy ends up in the Scrapyard of Duryak, a lawless world. Soon, she finds herself treading a dangerous path that puts her life on the line as she uncovers a conspiracy spanning the entire frontier. But that is not all. Her memories are about to be awakened, revealing the bitter truth about her past and true identity. Discover more in Neural Bounty by Daniel P. Douglas.

Daniel P. Douglas’s Neural Bounty is the perfect pick for lovers of gripping space operas fused with noir, sci-fi, and Western themes. Weaving an intriguing plot, Douglas whisked me away from reality and dropped me in the middle of a world of magnificent imagination. The subtle tone of the storyline hooked me, keeping me on the edge of my seat. I never knew where the story was heading. Every time I thought I had it figured out, I was treated to a plot twist. The cinematic depictions brought the scenes to life on the pages. It felt like I was watching a thriller movie. Fans of The Mandalorian or Blade Runner will love this. I was swept up in a dark, gritty world of high-stakes and hard-boiled action, a lawless cosmos, futuristic tech, betrayal, secrets, bounty hunters, outlaws, antiheroes, gambling dens, and more. The hard-edged and character-driven conversations gave insight into the conflicts, intricate emotions, and complex traits of the dynamic cast.