Bounty Inc. is a chonky sci-fi novel written by a Star Wars fan who was intrigued by Boba Fett and wanted more bounty hunter stories. It’s easy to agree on this point; bounty hunters can be fearless and cool, rule-breaking heroes, or ruthless assassins – we definitely need more stories featuring them!
In Bounty Inc., multi-millionaire, Wyn Kelda, wants to leave behind corporate life, selling his father’s successful company to become a bounty hunter. He decides to use his inherited wealth to go one step further, setting up a company of hunters who will sometimes work together and sometimes alone. This is a new concept for a group of big personalities who traditionally fight each other over the most financially beneficial bounties and barely ever give each other the time of day.
Bounty Inc. is also a warm-hearted window on a ragtag group of misfits. Stone cold killers and trainee wannabes who become a tight-knit found family and a force to be reckoned with. The hunters themselves are a mixture of interesting alien races, which do a nice job of showcasing Holcombe’s vivid imagination. I’m willing to bet the Star Wars tavern scene was one of his favorites growing up, as it was mine. Alien life is often depicted in books as mostly humanoid – Bounty Inc.’s characters do not disappoint in this way. We have an eight-legged insectoid, a hive made up of beetles and a cyborg, among others, and the antagonist is an extremely hard-to-kill shape-shifter.
The novel begins with Wyn Kelda’s father’s funeral and then focuses on his recruitment of suitable bounty hunters for his team. The bounty hunters in this story have superhero-like talents, and I commiserated with Wynn, a human who was unable to gain such a talent unless he went through a very painful process that then seems to have failed (or does it?). Instead, he has to undergo rigorous training in the hopes that he will not be a liability to the others when they go out on missions together. There are multiple interspecies romantic relationships in this novel, and a strong feeling of being true to yourself, no matter what society may expect. It will be interesting to see if all those workplace relationships make it through the next instalment, or if there is going to be an awkward atmosphere at Bounty Inc headquarters.
There is a whole lot of action in this story, but it mostly comes later in the story, and when it does, it is unrelenting in its intensity! Multiple times, I couldn’t see how anyone was going to survive, and thought maybe this was going to be a standalone novel with a very dark ending!! However, Holcombe pulls out some miraculous ideas to help with the survival of most, if not all, of Wynn’s new family, and there will be a sequel, thankfully! Bounty Inc. is a whole lot of fun and chaos, and I highly recommend it!
For more information on Adam Holcombe and his books, visit https://bountyink.com/
