Metal Bones – Metal Bones Book 1

There could never be a more perfect day to practice killing

Leo Spearman cares about one thing: finding a cure for his brother Gaeth’s “Steel Elbow,” a deadly disease that is slowly turning his bones into metal. Yet when they decide to leave Earth to cure him, they find themselves breaking galactic law to get it.

Tank has always dreamed of escaping his village and finding his father, but the only way anyone can leave the village is to win the Ceremony, a bloodthirsty competition with a sole survivor. After surviving at a terrible cost, the bargain for his independence takes a dark turn, and Tank must decide if the price of his safety is too high to pay.

Neither Leo nor Tank knows it, but their paths will collide in the middle of a galaxy-wide plot, and only their combined knowledge and experience have a chance of destroying it.

★★★★
I enjoyed Kathleen Contine’s action-driven speculative novel Metal Bones for many reasons, but mostly because she lets a muscle character take the lead. One of the main heroes of Metal Bones is an intimidating alien called a Sovich—a big, scaly being with a tail and a perfect name: Tank. As if I already didn’t love this enough, he’s soon equipped with an arm cannon.

reedsy review

★★★★
Bolstered by confident dialogue and thorough world-building, this sci-fi drama is a creative and expansive foundation for more adventures featuring this unlikely fellowship.

self publishing review

★★★★★
Kathleen Contine entices readers in a rollercoaster of fundamental human emotions and our way of responding to good and evil, love and hate, trust and deception.

readers favorite