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shadyeglenn's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
quirkycatsfatstacks's review against another edition
4.0
I received a copy of Repo Virtual through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Repo Virtual is the latest novel to come out of the mind of Corey J. White, and it is a piece of speculative fiction involving augmented realities, heists, and sentient software.
Julius Dax survives in a world of technology and danger by maintaining two jobs. One involves him repossessing ships online, and the other? Well, let's just say that in the real world, he's a bit of a thief. You do what you have to do to survive, right?
That's where this story begins. A heist has been dropped in his lap, courtesy of his estranged sibling. Naturally, that means that things are about to go to hell, but the adventure will certainly change JD's life forever.
“Kali wrote a piece of software that will change the world but someone stole it from her. All you've got to do is steal it back.”
Repo Virtual was a thrilling whirlwind of an adventure. The combination of augmented realities with real-life thievery and sentient programming was superb, and I found myself adoring every moment of this novel.
I honestly loved everything from the pacing to the characters, as well as all of the little details within. JD was a fascinating character, one who was shockingly complex, with a full backstory and multiple jobs that I personally would have loved to see more about.
To be honest, when I read the description, I thought a good chunk of the novel would be set in the augmented side of this world. While that did happen, it wasn't nearly as much as I expected. Oddly enough, I'm okay with that. The secondary characters introduced throughout the novel added to the complexity, making the world feel richer and more alive. Each little detail rounded out the world.
I love how the distinction between the two worlds would seem to blend at times. This is not an easy thing to portray, especially not in a novel, but I think that White did a solid job of it here. In fact, I'm secretly (okay, not so secretly) hoping to see another novel in this world at some point.
I also really adored the A.I. in this novel. It would have been easy to include one and leave it like that, but that isn't what happened. White explored the concept of a developing A.I., and everything that would include. It was introspective and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed the perspective provided here.
What shocked me was how hard this novel hit me. The conclusion in particular really impacted me, emotionally speaking. But there were other moments along the way that surprised me, both good and bad. I guess that just goes to show how attached I became while I was reading.
I'll confess that this is actually the first novel I've read by Corey J. White, but you can officially consider me hooked. I'm absolutely adding him to my list of authors to keep an eye on, and if I can make some time, I'd also like to dig into his backlog. I hope that fact says enough about how much I enjoyed this novel.
Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Comics
Repo Virtual is the latest novel to come out of the mind of Corey J. White, and it is a piece of speculative fiction involving augmented realities, heists, and sentient software.
Julius Dax survives in a world of technology and danger by maintaining two jobs. One involves him repossessing ships online, and the other? Well, let's just say that in the real world, he's a bit of a thief. You do what you have to do to survive, right?
That's where this story begins. A heist has been dropped in his lap, courtesy of his estranged sibling. Naturally, that means that things are about to go to hell, but the adventure will certainly change JD's life forever.
“Kali wrote a piece of software that will change the world but someone stole it from her. All you've got to do is steal it back.”
Repo Virtual was a thrilling whirlwind of an adventure. The combination of augmented realities with real-life thievery and sentient programming was superb, and I found myself adoring every moment of this novel.
I honestly loved everything from the pacing to the characters, as well as all of the little details within. JD was a fascinating character, one who was shockingly complex, with a full backstory and multiple jobs that I personally would have loved to see more about.
To be honest, when I read the description, I thought a good chunk of the novel would be set in the augmented side of this world. While that did happen, it wasn't nearly as much as I expected. Oddly enough, I'm okay with that. The secondary characters introduced throughout the novel added to the complexity, making the world feel richer and more alive. Each little detail rounded out the world.
I love how the distinction between the two worlds would seem to blend at times. This is not an easy thing to portray, especially not in a novel, but I think that White did a solid job of it here. In fact, I'm secretly (okay, not so secretly) hoping to see another novel in this world at some point.
I also really adored the A.I. in this novel. It would have been easy to include one and leave it like that, but that isn't what happened. White explored the concept of a developing A.I., and everything that would include. It was introspective and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed the perspective provided here.
What shocked me was how hard this novel hit me. The conclusion in particular really impacted me, emotionally speaking. But there were other moments along the way that surprised me, both good and bad. I guess that just goes to show how attached I became while I was reading.
I'll confess that this is actually the first novel I've read by Corey J. White, but you can officially consider me hooked. I'm absolutely adding him to my list of authors to keep an eye on, and if I can make some time, I'd also like to dig into his backlog. I hope that fact says enough about how much I enjoyed this novel.
Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Comics
shereadstales's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
danlemke's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
enchantedfiction's review against another edition
3.0
I received an eARC of Repo Virtual from NetGalley for an honest review. This review will be posted closer to the release date, April 21st!
frasersimons's review against another edition
4.0
Review to come later, but I quite enjoyed it. Bit of a slow start with the typical info dump and introduction to the main character, but it was fleshed out nicely and more characters were introduced. It’s incisive and quietly subversive of the sub-genre and a solid read. Also, it’s the closest thing to showing off hybrid reality yet, which I quite like. It’s all augmented but it was to a point that one step further is easier to imagine than most other novels with AR.
outtoexist's review against another edition
5.0
A solid sci fi book with not one but TWOOOO nonbinary characters?! Count me in! The story itself isn't anything particularly groundbreaking, but it is a cozy cyberfuture story with awesome AI ethics. The AI is nonbinary, which is cool, but even cooler is the human nonbinary character who is simply incidentally nonbinary!
colossal's review against another edition
5.0
In the city of Neo Songdo, a failed capitalist autonomous city-state that's located in Korea, Julius Dax "JD" makes his living in the real world as an on-call robot repairman and in the virtual world doing repossession jobs of digital property in a detailed online game called VOIDWAR. In the world of rampant climate change and political collapse an economy that's basically been taken over by robotic production makes it difficult for humans to make ends meet. All of which makes an offer from JD's sibling Soo-hyun to make big money difficult to refuse. The job is to steal something in the real world from the apartment of the man who owns Zero Corporation (the makers of VOIDWAR).
But what JD actually steals isn't what he was told it was, and fairly soon he has Soo-hyun's cult leader after him as well as a retired covert operative employed by Zero Corporation on his tail, all while trying to make sense of what he's now in possession of.
It's about time someone did a good job at updating the cyberpunk genre for a more modern perspective. It's an interesting update too, with the first and second generations of this sub-genre really skewing towards rampant capitalism and showing the effects of that on people. This one goes a step further to describe a capitalism that has failed leaving countries, cities and people looking for alternatives.
JD makes for an interesting character. Ostensibly a thief, but with an interesting point of view, illustrated by a conversation he has with his ex:
His view isn't even all that different from the cult that JD's sibling is a member of, and it makes for an interesting story where nearly all sides of the conflict realize that they're heading for disaster.
I strongly recommend this; it's an excellent read. If you get a chance, the audiobook is also brilliant, and the Australian narrator does a brilliant job of capturing the chatter, particularly between JD and Khoder.
But what JD actually steals isn't what he was told it was, and fairly soon he has Soo-hyun's cult leader after him as well as a retired covert operative employed by Zero Corporation on his tail, all while trying to make sense of what he's now in possession of.
It's about time someone did a good job at updating the cyberpunk genre for a more modern perspective. It's an interesting update too, with the first and second generations of this sub-genre really skewing towards rampant capitalism and showing the effects of that on people. This one goes a step further to describe a capitalism that has failed leaving countries, cities and people looking for alternatives.
JD makes for an interesting character. Ostensibly a thief, but with an interesting point of view, illustrated by a conversation he has with his ex:
“I want to be with you, but the you that has a job, that gives a damn about his future.”
JD dressed quickly, smell of last night’s clothes filling his nostrils as soon as he was dressed. He met Troy in the hallway between rooms. “Why do you think I do this shit?” he said. “There are no jobs, there’s no fucking future,” he spat the words out, angrier than he’d meant, and Troy stepped back as though struck.
Troy crossed his arms over his chest. “You can’t believe that.”
“I do, though. I have to make a future for myself any way I can. But sure, you go and teach philosophy to students who’ll wind up working four jobs just to make ends meet. When all this comes tumbling down, at least they’ll be able to chat about Kierkegaard while they’re eating rats around a bonfire.”
His view isn't even all that different from the cult that JD's sibling is a member of, and it makes for an interesting story where nearly all sides of the conflict realize that they're heading for disaster.
I strongly recommend this; it's an excellent read. If you get a chance, the audiobook is also brilliant, and the Australian narrator does a brilliant job of capturing the chatter, particularly between JD and Khoder.
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
White, Corey J. Repo Virtual. Tor, 2020.
In an interview, Corey J. White denies that William Gibson’s Neuromancer was an “inspiration” for Repo Virtual but says that Gibson’s novel was a “touchstone” for it. That seems to be a distinction without a difference, because the influence of Gibson is everywhere present in White’s novel. Set in a future multicultural South Korean city dominated by big tech corporations, the world of the novel certainly resembles Gibson’s Chiba City with echoes of his Sprawl. His hacker JD is a less conflicted character than Gibson’s Case, but they are both denizens of a tech underworld with some dangerous antagonists. The central caper of White’s story is a burglary to steal (perhaps repossess) a computer virus from a corporate mogul. The virus turns out to be an emergent strong AI that takes part in its own kidnapping. Along the way there is some lively discussion of the Turing test and what it takes to qualify as a person. There is also some fun future tech. I especially liked the robotic police dogs. They are not always good dogs.
In an interview, Corey J. White denies that William Gibson’s Neuromancer was an “inspiration” for Repo Virtual but says that Gibson’s novel was a “touchstone” for it. That seems to be a distinction without a difference, because the influence of Gibson is everywhere present in White’s novel. Set in a future multicultural South Korean city dominated by big tech corporations, the world of the novel certainly resembles Gibson’s Chiba City with echoes of his Sprawl. His hacker JD is a less conflicted character than Gibson’s Case, but they are both denizens of a tech underworld with some dangerous antagonists. The central caper of White’s story is a burglary to steal (perhaps repossess) a computer virus from a corporate mogul. The virus turns out to be an emergent strong AI that takes part in its own kidnapping. Along the way there is some lively discussion of the Turing test and what it takes to qualify as a person. There is also some fun future tech. I especially liked the robotic police dogs. They are not always good dogs.