Machine Man by Max Barry

Well, from the simply outstanding to the absolutely bizarre — and I mean that in a good way.

Max Barry delivers a deceptively simple tale of Charles Neumann, a mechanical engineer who suffers the most bizarre workplace accident while trying to retrieve his mobile phone from an industrial clamping press. Following the amputation of his crushed leg, he spends a few weeks coming to terms with his injury while learning to use a prosthetic.

Machine Man

Being an engineer (and I recognise this trait in soooo many people), Charles realises that the artificial leg is not as good as it should be, so sets about designing that will fix a lot of the shortcomings of prosthetic limbs (including the lack of wi-fi). His place of work is impressed; he finds himself in charge of a department dedicated to designing and building replacement parts for people. And while looking at ways to improve on his work, Charles realises that other parts of the body can be replaced with much better mechanical bits.

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Elsewhere by Dean Koontz

I’ve read a lot of these dimension-hopping novels, so I sort of surprised myself when I picked up Elsewhere. The plot is familiar, and so are the characters; in many ways it’s a good book to pick up when you don’t want to work your brain too hard.

Jeffy lives a life of quiet contentment with his precocious eleven-year -old daughter, Amity. Their near-idyllic life is torn apart when a vagrant Jeffy’s befriended turns out to be a renowned quantum physicist, who gives Jeffy the Key To Everything: a device that transports “passengers” to alternate realities.

Okay, first off, it’s a good book: engaging, well-written, with a light lyrical style which may have put it in the YA category if not for the over-the-top brutality of the main antagonist.

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