Reviews

I have to say Australian writers always surprise me in a very positive way. Works from down-under are not that frequent in my area (and sometimes are very much of local character and dont reachn world wide readers) but what gets published to the rest of the world (indie publishing or one of the known publishing houses) are truly gems.

While advertised as cyberpunk, all stories collected here would be more precisely be identified as stories from Twilight Zone set in so distant future (an in some aspects being extremely contemporary).

Backdrop of this collection is world in the last decades of 21st and first decades of 22nd century. Location - Australian-Asian area, more concretely Australia and [as far as I can see] Vietnam. It is time of war between China and ASEAN (with Vietnam suffering the brunt of the war and getting hit by pretty nasty nano and biological combat drones). China seems to be a victor of this pan-Asian-Indo-Pacific war (considering the hints given throughout the stories) and all other major powers ended up as either pulverized or totally pushed aside to political and military irrelevance. It is time of utter disaster and collapse, corporations control all the data and influence the normal every day life while remaining states/coalitions apply very disturbing (and again, rather contemporary) social means of control (very similar to West's modern approach to control of media and constant fight against "disinformation" with ostracizing everyone thinking differently and of course Chinese Great Firewall and terrifying social points system).

Why do I say these are stories from the Twilight Zone? Well, while technology is present it is not carrier of the story - you do not see net plugs, "surfing" the virtual worlds, human machine symbiosis nor cyborgs. Story is about ordinary people (or in some case extraordinary people) in extraordinary situations. Technology is there to show how use of technology gave birth to the dystopia but meat of every story are people, men and women and kids trying to survive the complete social collapse, trying to somehow provide for their families. And this is second thing that plays the role in this collection - family. Basic unit of human species finally returns and for me this was truly refreshing.

Stories are very diverse - from the battlefields of Asia, criminal underground, halls of overpowering corporations, Orwellian state control offices in form of Adjustment and Harmony departments and people trying to survive oligarchs playing people for money in pit fights or using them as fodder in dirty industries (complete fall back to abysmal conditions of miners and heavy industry workers before 20th century). Besides these, there are few stories that are true Twilight Zone stories that have nothing with the cyberpunk genre at all (E.T. betting industry was truly weird story :) ).

Stories are all very .... depressive and very few even have a hint of [some sort] of happy ending because that happy ending always comes at cost of something else - human decency or human lives - and nobody gets away clean (short story of organization in Australia organizing and paying for moving families from war torn Vietnam was excellent - weapon purchases go without problems but saving people, that is something that is under constant sanctions and prevention).

Philip K. Dick was obviously an inspiration (as author acknowledges in the afterword of this collection) and it shows in characters never-ending fight to keep their own personality, sanity and humanity intact by holding to the memories and constantly fighting to live in reality. Opposite to this we have constant efforts of the opposing forces (corporations, state social and media control/censorship) to warp these very memories in various ways - from buying them out, playing on persons complete disorientation and inability to discern reality from fantasy under duress so that nefarious goals are reached, controlling the main media and publishing the disinformation to break the opposition to alternating actual memories to fit the narrative using clandestine or overt ways and in that way placing people as unwilling undercover agents, using them and then discarding them. Best examples of these mind-altering stories are story of Klara from Adjustment Bureau of Australia and Eromanga tank crew story (this one was sicko in the twist, such a 6th Sense moment).

All in all very disturbing future but future all our progressive and freedom loving leaders lead us to. And people follow like sheep. Unfortunately. You know how they say - road to hell is paved by good intentions.

Very down-to-earthiness of the stories might cool down people to observe these stories as warnings and not something to aspire to (or consider it something unchangeable and let one self to it). Because believe me, we do not want to live in this world.

Highly recommended.

barsie's review

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

kayleecake's review against another edition

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5.0

Now THIS is Cyberpunk!

T.R. Napper has some amazing concepts and follows through on the penmanship as well. His work is creative and both catches you with sharp turns as well as determined but fascinating stories. Highly recommend it for newcomers and old cyberpunk fans alike.

enbyglitch's review

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5.0

While a little strange at first, I quickly came to love the format of this book as a collection of short stories all taking place in the same cyberpunk/dystopian world, dealing with different aspects of technology and society with a wide - yet sometimes repeating - cast of characters.

Napper dives deeper than most into unreliable narrators questioning reality. I was (and still am) stunned at the ending of one story, and remain fascinated by his explorations of memory with relation to the imagined self.

The one criticism I was prepared to level at this book was the predominance of cis-male leads, but one important story with a lesbian couple front and center - along with the book's overall themes of conservative societal control - allayed my frustration in that direction. That being said, I think these stories would be a perfect place for explorations of trans experiences.

Despite the futuristic world, these stories are fundamentally human and I think anyone could learn a lot by giving them a read!

robinlukasreads's review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

trackofwords's review against another edition

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4.0

Bringing together twelve bleak, powerful short stories into a single volume, this paints a suitably, at times harrowingly grim picture of a not too distant future. Across a deliberately jumbled, back-and-forth timeline Napper explores tales of desperation, survival, love, loss, corporate greed, oppression and fear, all set in a loosely defined world formed from a warring, conflicted melange of Australia, South and Southeast Asia. As nations, alliances and realities blur, as technology becomes increasingly pervasive and life ever more stratified, Napper asks questions of what’s real, what’s possible and what people will do to survive.

This isn’t escapist fiction, it’s thought-provoking, concern-provoking science fiction at its best and most haunting. Powerfully, worryingly relevant and relatable, these stories are tough to read – very few are anything other than heartbreaking – but at the same time wonderfully written, and utterly compelling. It’s a book that’s best absorbed in small doses, both to appreciate the fabulous writing and avoid becoming overwhelmed by the darkness and the blurred realities, but it feels like an important one too, with a strong voice and a lot to say.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2020/02/15/neon-leviathan-t-r-napper/

aucencia's review against another edition

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Sorry either it's the audio book performance gave me weird feelings, or the author just fetishized the suffering Vietnamese, which killed the experience.
( As a Chinese reader I don't really might the all demonized Chinese villian what not, suprise, suprise.)
Might try later without audio, ideas about memory and bad financal decisions are quite facinating. But now it belongs to the DNF bin.

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