Beyond the Speed Limit - Anton Eine

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AUTHOR: Anton Eine

SERIES: Programagic, #1
GENRE: Science Fiction, Fantasy.
RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A strange combination of fantasy, science fiction, action thriller and crime investigation. The result should have been a hodgepodge mess, but it isn’t! This indie work manages to hit most targets right in the bull’s eye.


Story synopsis:
Rik Northwood, best friend of Magister Sajar Randhar (whom we met in the prequel) and champion race driver, has just died. While his death initially seems like an accident, Rik’s family and colleagues aren’t convinced. The charge of checking this out comes to Sajar, who, with his accomplishments in technology, his expertise in magic, and his earlier experience as a combat pilot, is the right person to handle this intricate investigation. Of course, he has the indomitable Spirit, the world’s best AI, to help him out. Soon, it is very clear that the problems are much deeper than initially anticipated, and the net Sajar has cast keeps widening and the suspects keep increasing. Will he be able to find out the criminal before the threats to his life become worse?
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Sajar.


Where the book worked for me:
😍 Just as in the prequel, technology and magic make for an awesome combination in this story. Sajar’s spells and programming knowhow worked wonders and kept me enthralled. Some also creeped me out.

😍 Spirit is yet again my favourite character. I simply love her attitude! No other fictional (or even real life) AI matches up to her personality. She is almost a human in this story, and it becomes easy to forget that she is an AI character. A certain development didn’t make me much happy, but as she is an AI who is developing and enhancing herself with every human interaction, I realise why the author took that call.

😍 The character development of Sajar is no less. He begins with cockiness, but soon realises that he has to compromise on his need for self-reliance to some extent. The rest of the characters might seem less layered, but they are pretty well-defined considering the scope of the story.

😍 Keeping in tone with the title and the investigation being set in the racing world, there are plenty of high-speed car chases and action sequences. These are so thrillingly written that they are easy to visualise and full of adrenaline-pumping events.

😍 There are plenty of Easter eggs, just like in the prequel. It was fun trying to identify which real life place/person/thing was being alluded to. A few of the references did go over my head, but most were hilarious. Of course, readers need to have an open-minded sense of humour to get the jokes because there is a certain satirical aspect to a few of these hidden clues and some are too tongue-in-cheek.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
😔 There is a tendency to info-dump at times, especially to explain the technical aspects of warfare and how physics works in magic and so on.

😔 I am not a big fan of the cover art, though now that I have read the book, I see how it fits the story.

⚠ The novel does require a minor round of editing for a few repetitions and some spelling errors. But keeping in mind that this is an indie effort, and a translated one at that, I'm more than happy to let this point slide.


The story continues from the events in the prequel novella, 'Behind the Fire Wall'. This prequel is also a part of this ebook on Amazon, so you don’t need to get that one separately.
(On an aside, I am impressed by the author's decision to take off the prequel from Amazon and distribute it only as part of this novel so that readers go through the books in the right order and don't miss out on the backstory. How many indie authors do you know who are willing to let go of an opportunity to sell more?)


Overall, I enjoyed this action adventure cum crime thriller. It made great use of its myriad subgenres and brought them together in a mostly satisfying manner. Definitely recommended. This combined volume is available on Kindle Unlimited.

This final point shouldn’t make a difference. But picking up this book would mean that you are supporting a Ukrainian indie author who is a resident of Kyiv. His books are translated to English. Do support if you can!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through ‘StoryOrigin’ and these are my honest thoughts about it.

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