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Christopher Golden
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Tin Men Paperback – 16 Jun. 2015

by Christopher Golden (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 203 ratings
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Tin Men by Christopher Golden - author of Snowblind - is a must-read for fans of Dean Koontz, Peter Straub and Joe Hill thanks to its high concept and jaw-dropping thrills.

Economies are collapsing, environmental disasters are widespread and war the backdrop to life.

And so the military has developed a force of elite soldiers to keep the peace. A force like nothing seen before ... codenamed Tin Man, soldiers are virtually transported to inhabit robot frames in war-torn countries.

When PFC Danny Kelso starts his day shift in Syria, an eerie silence welcomes him and a patrol confirms the area is totally deserted. But when a rogue electromagnetic pulse throws everything into darkness, Danny's conscious mind is trapped within his robot body.

The attack turns out to have been global - the world is facing a return to the dark ages with no electricity, no technology ... no safe zones. And the Tin Men face a race against time to save not only themselves but society as we know it.

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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Headline
  4. Publication date
    16 Jun. 2015
  5. Dimensions
    15.6 x 2.8 x 23.5 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1472209672
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1472209672
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

As military robots proliferate, we have all wondered whether the wealthy will use them to dominate those with fewer resources. Fascinating and thrilling, Tin Men imagines a future in which the playing field is suddenly and violently levelled -- Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Roboapocalypse

Golden is one of the most hard-working, smartest, and talented writers of his generation ... Everything he writes glows with imagination -- Peter Straub

This one is the real deal -- Stephen King

Book Description

Avatar meets Roboapocalypse in this high-octane, near-future thriller, which spins the troubles of today into the cataclysm of tomorrow.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Headline (16 Jun. 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472209672
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472209672
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.6 x 2.8 x 23.5 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 203 ratings

About the author

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Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden

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CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Ararat, Red Hands, Snowblind, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, and Of Saints and Shadows. Golden co-created (with Mike Mignola) the comic book universe known as The Outerverse, featuring such characters as Baltimore, Joe Golem, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Hex Life, Seize the Night, and The New Dead, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, a BBC radio play, and the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson). A frequent speaker at conferences, schools, and libraries, Golden is also co-host of the podcast Defenders Dialogue, and the founder of the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. The winner of the Bram Stoker Award for best novel in 2017 for Ararat, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories, winning twice. He has also been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award, sharing a win in 2020 with James A. Moore for the anthology The Twisted Book of Shadows.

Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
203 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars though not entirely happy with its position on disability
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2015
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Non-stop action, though not entirely happy with its position on disability,
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Justin Tan
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book that reads like a film.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 August 2015
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Thrilling book, well priced when I bought it at £2.99. I'd started reading a sample on iO9.com that had the main character drop into one of the drones and encounter the unusual quiet of a Syrian patrol - It was so vivid I stopped reading and bought the book proper.

It's reminiscent of many taut action thriller films, and wouldn't be surprised if it got turned into one. The vision it paints is grim, and is a future I hope no one ever sees. The characters are well drawn, and I could picture real life actors easily. Some other reviewer said they were thinly characterised, but they were perfectly serviceable, and any deeper characterisation would arrest the pace, which is amazing. It hurtles along at a delightful speed with few chapter breaks encouraging a continual read.
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars American robot soldiers have never been so dull.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 July 2015
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The world has gone to hell and only America can save it, by inventing mind controlled robot soldiers, shooting foreigners and taking over their countries. Some very thinly characterised soldiers get picked off one by one while trying to save the president from baddies who tend to have more morally justified positions but aren't American. Entirely predictable, very dull.
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Shona Booky Ramblings Lawrence
4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2016
I first heard about this book a few months before it was due for release, initially I was really keen to read it, however by the time the book had published and I had my copy to read I found myself wondering what exactly it was that drew me to it in the first place. Surely my tastes hadn't changed so drastically in just two months? I'm genuinely surprised as I didn't think I would like this but I did. I wasn't able to sit down and devour it in one or two sittings, infact it took almost 10 days for to get through it, almost unheard of for me. Usually when it takes me that long to read a book I tend to put it down and move on to something else, but there was something about this that made me want to carry on. And I'm glad I stuck with it.

One thing I did struggle with with this book is the sheer number of characters. There's so many characters and being a military book (or perhaps its just an American thing) they kept switching between using first names and surnames when addressing people, it made it difficult for me to follow who's who. But I also think that Golden may have stretched himself a little too thinly when creating some of the characters as some of them didn't stand out as their own people and several characters seemed to blend in to one another. Much like the Tin Men without any adornments on their bodies, it was hard sometimes to tell them apart.

Overall I felt this book was great, its not so over the top its almost scary to think that this could happen. Perhaps not all of the details but certain aspects aren't that far from our reality. This is my first book by Golden, but it wont be my last.
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catdad
2.0 out of 5 stars A let down due to characterisation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 August 2015
Christopher can be a bit of a hit or miss author for me and whilst the premise is always entertaining as well as something that draws you in, at times it feels that the characters within are not fully realised and feel just there to be cannon fodder rather than anything to show the terror or horror of what they’re facing.

For me, as a reader when this happens it a let-down and really doesn’t allow me to fully engage with the book, to generate a personal connection to those involved and as such really doesn’t keep me glued to see what happens as each situation evolves as well as resolves itself.

Sadly this is the case with this book and whilst I do love the concept, for me as a reader, the execution was sadly missing as the title took a well-trodden path leaving no real surprises as it told the story. Don’t get me wrong, it is an OK read but when you’re spending hard earned money alongside devoting your personal time to help relax then it’s something that I feel cheated by.
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Top reviews from other countries

John D. Harvey
4.0 out of 5 stars “Tin Men” by Christopher Golden a Taut, Futuristic Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on 31 July 2015
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In short ... I couldn’t put it down.

If that’s all you need to know, then go ahead and buy it now. But, if not …

“Tin Men” represents Christopher Golden’s first foray (to my knowledge) into the genre of a futuristic military thriller, and provides a solid, action-driven plot that explores a possible future for modern ground warfare through the eyes of a wide range of characters in multiple settings.

Taking place in the not-so-distant future, soldiers in America’s Remote Infantry Corps link their minds directly to super-soldier robot counterparts and carry out missions across the world. Operating without the fear of death, these “drone pilots” prove to be more than a match for essentially all terrorist and insurgent enemies.

And the Remote Infantry has no shortage of foes. This is a world declining into chaos through a combination of political, social, and environmental factors. Radical activist and terror networks use both technology and increasing broad public resentment against U.S. forces to fuel an ambiguous but violent insurgency. When the world suffers a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that knocks the entire planet’s infrastructure back to the 18th century, members of the Remote Infantry Corps come to some sobering realizations about themselves, their world, and both the government and technology in which they placed their trust.

“Tin Men” focuses on a squad of soldiers (and specifically PFC Denny Kelso and Corporal Kate Wade) battling increasingly impossible odds as they attempt travel from Pakistan to their home base in Germany. In addition to challenges within their own ranks, Kelso and Wade match both wits and firepower against violent fanatics who pursue them with a new bot-killing weapon.

The marketing blurb from publisher Ballantine Books links Golden’s “Tin Men” to the writing of Brad Thor (specifically, “Brad Thor meets Avatar…”). This is misleading. My opinion is that Golden is a vastly better writer than Thor. I’ll also note that Thor’s very conservative politics play a prominent, heavy-handed role in his novels. In contrast, Golden spends less time politically soapboxing his fiction, and when he does it’s more subtle and nuanced.

Nonetheless, when Golden lifts the veil, he reveals himself as being more left-of-center. For example, though it’s never said how far into the future the story takes place, it posits that one of the reasons for increasing global chaos is the catastrophic effects of climate change. This will not please conservative climate-change skeptics in the reading world. “Tin Men” also takes a several beats inside of all the action to offer multiple perspectives (and some not flattering…) on the U.S. military’s continuous state of warfare since September 11, 2001, as well as how the “War on Terror” is perceived by those outside the United States.

“Tin Men” has a few blemishes mixed in with its many strengths. For readers seeking a hard-science techno-thriller, you’ll be disappointed. Most of the tech in “Tin Men” falls into that Star Trek oeuvre of stuff that works … well … just because it does. There are also instances where, if you take a breath during the non-stop action, you may pause long enough to ask “Wait. If they can do X, then why don’t they just do Y to prevent Z badness from happening?” Also, there’s something of a love story that feels spackled in, as they often do in action-thriller novels.

Then again, I may not be much of a romantic. That’s on me.

Whether or not these minor flaws prevent you from enjoying the novel depends on your ability to set aside a few foibles in the interest of reading a fun, fast-paced novel. I had no problem with any of it and enthusiastically recommend “Tin Men”.
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English Prof
5.0 out of 5 stars A Darkly Dystopian Future is Born out of a Pax Americana
Reviewed in the United States on 30 June 2015
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The Tin Men stands out from the crop of Post Apocalyptic Dystopian novels presently competing for our attention. While at its core it is as darkly nihilistic as the most suspenseful zombie novel out there, it also retains, through its roots in military scifi, some of the optimistic elements formed when strong, duty-infused, characters are wedded to cutting edge and thoroughly believable, technology. The text surrounds us with the consequences of our own deeply flawed dependence on technology while, as so often happens in the very best of the genre, it simultaneously demonstrates how that very technology, when placed in the hands of men and women of character, can often offer at least a ray of hope that we might yet escape from the worst consequences of our own hubris. After a suspenseful and plausible beginning set in the Middle East, the action assumes a frenetic pace as it becomes apparent that the New World Order enforced by the Tin Men has met its match in a world determined to resist universal hegemony in the hands of the Great Powers.
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Ernest Lilley
3.0 out of 5 stars but that doesn't mean it's happy about it
Reviewed in the United States on 7 September 2015
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In the not too distant future, Pax America has spread over the globe at the hands of the Tin Men, robot drone soldiers that can outfight any human and are as hard to kill as a tank.

With their operators safely stashed in underground bases, their bodies tended by tubes and technicians until their shifts end, robo-death has no sting. The Tin Men are nearly indestructible, nearly incorruptible, and globally resented.

The world may be at peace, thanks to US intervention, but that doesn't mean it's happy about it.

Kate Wade and Danny Kelso are part of the Alpha Team assigned with thirty four other Tin Men to patrol Damascus and keep it safe and sane. The US has deployed thousands of robotic solders around the world to shut down conflicts and enforce a golden age of peace, but what it's really accomplished is to amp up the resentment of those under the heel of our oppression, no matter how benevolent we think it is, and that resentment is going to break out, even if it means plunging the world into a new stone age.

Thanks to a global electromagnetic pulse attack, the whole world goes dark in an instant. Ironically, one of the few pieces of EMP hardened technology still functioning are the Tin Men, but their satellite communications are deader than a doornail, which makes them wonder why they're not all waking up in their coffins back home.

All too soon they realize that they've been had. Tin Men aren’t actually drones at all, but cybernetic bodies with uploaded minds and the bodies back home are empty shells on life support. Suddenly being in a drone isn't as cozy as it used to be.

Unlike other EMPocolypse stories, the focus here isn't on the billions of people who find themselves suddenly without power, but on the handful of Tin Men that Kate and Danny are with. It turns out that the bad guys had a multi-prong approach to apocalypse, and along with shutting down the grid and burning out everything with semiconductors in it, they've armed anarchist cells across the globe with shoulder mounted robot-killer RPGs. You can't kill a robot with a high caliber round, unless you can put three consecutive shots on their single sweet spot, but one hit from these babies and you've got toasted Tobor.

To make things interesting, we've also got along three regular old, humans. The US Ambassador, Alexa, his spunky 17 year old daughter, who had the misfortune of coming to visit just before the end of the world, and the somewhat worse for wear leader of the Damascus terror cell, in case the president wants to have a chat with him. That gives us a pretty good mix of characters and ideologies.

Thanks to the RPGs, our squad rapidly shrinks from three dozen to a handful, but that doesn't stop them from coming up with a new mission, when they learn from a captured terrorist that the attack was timed to match a G20 summit in Greece so that they could take out all the world leaders in one shot. Knowing that they may be the only US military force with the Intel and a shot at reaching Athens, Kate and the crew take off for the Israeli coast in hopes of scoring a fast sailboat.

So our team takes off for Athens to save what's left of the world, pursued by a well-armed terrorist horde out to scrap their plan, to say nothing of their metal hides, fueled by personal hatred and desire for revenge.

I liked the characters and I liked the action, but the central concept, that you could upload a mind over satellite communications and get it back the same way when a bot goes down made me shake my head. Okay, I could give you a certain amount of memory transfer, but the idea that your meat body was suddenly empty just doesn't make sense. Granted that it was crucial to the way the story was written, but it could have been otherwise. For a small fee I'd be happy to lay out the alternate plot. No? Okay then, we'll make the most of Tin Men as it is.

The final verdict is that Tin Men is a good read, but not great mil-SF.
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erikam
4.0 out of 5 stars Nonstop action
Reviewed in the United States on 12 July 2015
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Fascinating in concept, depth of real issues is intelligently highlighted, but never fully grappled with. Pace is awesome and you won't put it down. Could be the first in a great series.
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Angela
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - terrible delivery
Reviewed in the United States on 9 February 2022
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I love this book. I read it a while ago and wanted to read it again so I ordered it "New". Arrived with the dust cover torn all along the top. This isn't just a little rippling from sitting on a shelf, it has significant tears. Not happy with that, but I love the book itself.
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Angela
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - terrible delivery
Reviewed in the United States on 9 February 2022
I love this book. I read it a while ago and wanted to read it again so I ordered it "New". Arrived with the dust cover torn all along the top. This isn't just a little rippling from sitting on a shelf, it has significant tears. Not happy with that, but I love the book itself.
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