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Russ Wesley is a man who doesn’t want to lay down roots, he prefers to drift around, looking for adventures and to explore new places. He’s in Baton Rouge when he gets a message informing him that his beloved Grandpa has passed away. He turns the car around and drives straight to Wyoming so that he can attend the funeral. It’s when he goes to his Grandpa’s old book store to clean it up, that he discovers a strange stone. He’s on his way home from the lab of a local scientist when a deer trots onto the road and he can’t swerve in time. Feeling for the injured animal, he decides to put it out of its misery with his remarkable marksman skills – and that’s when everything changes for Russ.
He’s somehow attracted an alien type of monstrous animal to earth with the strange stone he found in the bookstore. And now, he’s been conscripted into a band of Intergalactic Exterminators Inc. A group of pseudo space government department pest control. It’s a dangerous job, and it’s a job for life – but it’s incredibly well paid. $2,000 a week, in fact. His Grandma is in financial strife and with less than a penny to his name, Russ knows this could be the answer to all her problems.
The thing with Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc is that it’s fast paced and a slow builder all at the same time. You’re dropped right into the middle of scene in the woods, after Russ has shot the deer, and then whisked back in time to when he found out about his Grandpa’s passing. From there, we get a very detailed description of everything that happened in the lead up to the opening scene.
From here, I found it dragged, somewhat. It was full of detail and humorous incidents, but I was chafing at the bit waiting to get back to the group of quirky and interesting exterminators. The ones who caused Russ all of the mad issues since his strange encounter. However, even then, Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc is a great read for anyone who loves a bit of urban sci-fi.
S. A
This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC program. Read the original here.
You can buy Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc. on Amazon. Available as paperback, hardback and on Kindle.