Someone Like me - Rated 
Someone Like Me by Tom Holt is a bloodthirsty, gripping thriller, which is set in the future but in a world that has regressed into almost primitive times. There is no electricity or transport system. The human race lives in fear of a race of aggressive beasts that hunt people for their flesh.
The hero, who is a hired hunter of the beasts, narrates the story in the first person. The quest of the hero and his colleagues is to eliminate all of the beasts before they can totally eliminate mankind.
The opening scene places the hero in the midst of recently inflicted carnage resulting from an attack by two of the beasts. It is not long before he finds himself trapped in dark underground tunnels with one of them. It is literally a case of kill or be killed.
The story moves at a very fast pace but the style may not be to the liking of all readers. Certainly, I would not recommend this book to anyone who faints at the first sight of blood, even if it is only in print. However, the twists at the end of the tale are worth waiting for and leave the reader deep in thought. The book took me less than ninety minutes to read, and is about the right length. Any more, and I would have begun to feel bored. Any less, and I would have felt slightly cheated.
I can't honestly say whether I would recommend it to a friend or not. That would depend on what I knew about the friend!
Impact, precision, suspense and intrigue - Rated 
This is the first Tom Holt I have read outside of the J.W. Wells & Co series and if I was wavering as to whether I thought he was a great author or not I certainly am not after this. The extra dimension that this book displays of Tom Holt's writing ability is really impressive; it's hard to decide what superlatives to use...
And that's a genuine point, this is a 90 page, large print "moment" and by that I mean that there is clearly so much back story hinted at, so many possibilities that can be explored, so many characters that can be expanded but aren't - yet it really works! Tom Holt doesn't once over complicate the book; it is hunter vs. hunter, prey vs. prey, pure animal instincts in a battle for survival - nothing else. There is no huge consequence to either winning, just the extra breathes that each may take. This book feels like an insight into what can happen and that is what I loved about it, it's just not something I would normally look for in a book.
This, for me, is what a short story should be all about. I read Matthew Reilly's Hell Island and found it far too complicated with far too many characters but this is truly the opposite. The only criticism I can possible level at it is that it whet my appetite for more when I doubt more is coming and that's a real shame, but not enough of a draw back for me not to whole heartedly recommend this book.
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