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rhalfie29's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this pacey, intelligent, futuristic whodunnit, with a unique technological spin. The main character Alex is a traumatised but still ballsy reporter, digging into corruption in a near-future alternate reality. We find her on the trail of a bribe which takes her through lots of twisty, tech-bro and coder geek realms, with a dose of classic British gangster and economic theory thrown in for good measure. I thoroughly enjoyed the wry, self-aware nods to 'our' present / reality (such as The IT Crowd). The concept of the Strange was intriguing and felt highly pertinent to virtual reality / metaverse discussions happening today (although I spent the entire reading of this book with People Are Strange by The Doors stuck in my head...). And the book poses interesting questions about morality, society and technology - such as the role of Thimblerig in showing how internet anonymity sometimes unlocks the worst in us. The mystery unravels at a thrilling pace - I feel this would make a great movie and I'd be first in line to watch! Highly recommended, such a fun read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for the opportunity to read.
apoll0314's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
turbojettje's review against another edition
I'm sorryyy, its just way to complicated and slow for me
snoakes7001's review
5.0
Lucky Ghost is a fast-paced and tightly plotted techno-thriller set in the near future. It follows on from the superb Sockpuppet and while it works as a stand alone I'd highly recommend reading both. A few years have elapsed since the final events of the previous novel and the latest craze is an immersive augmented reality game called The Strange where players earn and trade in emotions. Needless to say, once something attains a value and becomes currency, whether in the real world or a virtual one (or a hybrid of the two), corruption and criminality soon follows. Add an unruly gang of hacktivists and an investigative journalist intent on following the money and you have another of Matthew Blakstad's trademark intelligent, exciting and all-too-believable page-turners. He truly is the king of geeklit.
liisp_cvr2cvr's review against another edition
5.0
It all starts with a new, innovative and modern idea. As always, the idea is something that is normally based on for the good of the people. Nice one, Dani Farr! Add to this idea a nation-worth of people who want to escape reality, mix it with digital currency and all of a sudden, sinister agendas start to emerge.
Dani Farr (jeap, the same firecracker techy coder from Sockpuppet) has yet again graced the people with one of her creations. This time it’s the Strange. A virtual environment where human emotions are traded for Emoticoin, the digital currency.
Real life for some of us is hard, whatever the reason. Anxiety, annoying neighbour, irritating pet, nagging wife, work sucks, etc. The Strange allows you to escape it all… put on your mesh, and with the embedded tattoo on your very body your emotions feed into the virtuality. Can you spell DOOM yet? Then, you can choose an Encounter (kind of like a video game) and live out your ‘life’ with other people who have entered the Strange. In exchange for any kind of activity you will be rewarded emotions like LOVE, REMORSE, RAGE, etc. You can keep track of your emotions by the virtually hovering heart icon that hovers in your vision which indicates your emotional state with various colors. Sounds cool, right?
Except when it’s not cool… you see, where any kind of currency is involved, as I said earlier, the corporations will latch onto it like flies to… you get it! And the sinister plot in Lucky Ghost really evolves around the profiteers finding a way in (because megamind Dani Farr created it, much for her own pleasure at first but it blew into a huge thing) for personal gain at the cost of people’s emotions. I’m talking GRAND scale here! It’s not just about jumping around in the virtual world for people, slapping others or whatever, that gives gains to the profiteers. People and their emotions, livelihoods and even sanity and lives will be risked, threatened and taken by making them do things they don’t realize they’re doing. Now, that is scary! Not so cool, anymore, hey, when the line in between reality and virtuality fades, and your innermost self is laid bare within cooled, security surrounded servers in some warehouse and is nothing more than profitable data to some ambitious businessmen.
If you’ve read Sockpuppet, you’ll know by now that Blakstad doesn’t do simple plots. He weaves together people from all walks of life, puts in the game the big corporations and the government. The character set in Lucky Ghost was again diverse.
To name a few:
Alex Kubelick- An educated ex-vlogger and all around truth seeker of a female who ends up in the middle of everything. She’s married to her partner Harmony and together they battle the anxiety and Strange-addiction that Alex seems to have developed after the crash of her vlog.
Jacko– some call him the leader of hackers, crackers and information age freedom rebels; others don’t know if he even exists! The Godfather of Data, Jacko is seen as the leader in.. on? … Seatopia, a landmark from the war time in the North sea now turned into a data/server farm with good connection.
All sorts of suited up and booted up corporation execs- Mr Ox, Mr Honey Badger, Sean Perce… A lot of macho testosterone wedging boots in between doors to have one up over the next businessman. It’s truly quite amusing and scary…
And then there’s Thimblerig… otherwise known as Abul Ala. A young man living in England after fleeing Syria. Good with tech and out for a good cause, but with a troubled past that casts a shadow over his life in England, as well. The thing with personal demons is (even if those demons aren’t your fault)- they follow you wherever you go! Sadly…
In the most exciting and innovative manner, Blakstad pulls out all the stops and embeds so much of society’s current state into a book that mirrors the status quo modern day, connected life but also includes an element of futuristic possibilities. I am talking appearances of people’s holograms (‘ghosts’) in the room to have a discussion because good old smartphones are so ‘yesterday‘. There’s driverless taxis and cars and bikes that appear when you tell your mesh while connected to the Strange to come and pick you up from your location… Like uber Uber (sorry, couldn’t help myself!)
Anyway, the book starts off by throwing you right into the action within the Strange and you’ll hardly get a chance to take a breath from the suspense until the last page. The plot snowballs into epic proportions! Yes, there’s plenty of hacker/cracker action and maybe you don’t know what sysadmin means and there’s some ‘coder’ chat room talk but just enjoy it! You don’t have to be an IT specialist to get the idea. (As a side note I want to mention here that some reviewers have made an issue out of some language used in dialogue, especially in Sockpuppet, and just, please, the dialogues are keeping with the theme, so try not to be so anal about it and thanks! If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but before you rip the book apart because of this reason, understand that you can hardly make coders/hackers interact with each other in Posh English.)
Lucky Ghost in it’s themes and delivery is brave, bold and dare I say, even, ominous! The whole of society and its good and bad in a single book casting a wide net over past, present and possibly even future. A look at humanity at its best and its worst. When you would have to fight for your life’s worth of work, how far would you go?
With plenty of chases, action, bullets being fired, the question is, who will survive? The ones who are out seeking the truth and keeping information free? Or the already rich who are after even more profit? Who would you say has the most to lose and a better motive to fight at the cost of lives?
Anyway, you have probably guessed at this stage that Blakstad has found a solid fan in me. The Martingale Cycle is a wonderfully thrilling series and remember, you don’t have to have a bromance (or the female equivalent of same) with the IT Lords to be able to enjoy these racy novels. You will find relatable characters with real life issues in both Sockpuppet and Lucky Ghost, the difference is- you may develop paranoid tendencies about your virtual trail!
Dani Farr (jeap, the same firecracker techy coder from Sockpuppet) has yet again graced the people with one of her creations. This time it’s the Strange. A virtual environment where human emotions are traded for Emoticoin, the digital currency.
Real life for some of us is hard, whatever the reason. Anxiety, annoying neighbour, irritating pet, nagging wife, work sucks, etc. The Strange allows you to escape it all… put on your mesh, and with the embedded tattoo on your very body your emotions feed into the virtuality. Can you spell DOOM yet? Then, you can choose an Encounter (kind of like a video game) and live out your ‘life’ with other people who have entered the Strange. In exchange for any kind of activity you will be rewarded emotions like LOVE, REMORSE, RAGE, etc. You can keep track of your emotions by the virtually hovering heart icon that hovers in your vision which indicates your emotional state with various colors. Sounds cool, right?
Except when it’s not cool… you see, where any kind of currency is involved, as I said earlier, the corporations will latch onto it like flies to… you get it! And the sinister plot in Lucky Ghost really evolves around the profiteers finding a way in (because megamind Dani Farr created it, much for her own pleasure at first but it blew into a huge thing) for personal gain at the cost of people’s emotions. I’m talking GRAND scale here! It’s not just about jumping around in the virtual world for people, slapping others or whatever, that gives gains to the profiteers. People and their emotions, livelihoods and even sanity and lives will be risked, threatened and taken by making them do things they don’t realize they’re doing. Now, that is scary! Not so cool, anymore, hey, when the line in between reality and virtuality fades, and your innermost self is laid bare within cooled, security surrounded servers in some warehouse and is nothing more than profitable data to some ambitious businessmen.
If you’ve read Sockpuppet, you’ll know by now that Blakstad doesn’t do simple plots. He weaves together people from all walks of life, puts in the game the big corporations and the government. The character set in Lucky Ghost was again diverse.
To name a few:
Alex Kubelick- An educated ex-vlogger and all around truth seeker of a female who ends up in the middle of everything. She’s married to her partner Harmony and together they battle the anxiety and Strange-addiction that Alex seems to have developed after the crash of her vlog.
Jacko– some call him the leader of hackers, crackers and information age freedom rebels; others don’t know if he even exists! The Godfather of Data, Jacko is seen as the leader in.. on? … Seatopia, a landmark from the war time in the North sea now turned into a data/server farm with good connection.
All sorts of suited up and booted up corporation execs- Mr Ox, Mr Honey Badger, Sean Perce… A lot of macho testosterone wedging boots in between doors to have one up over the next businessman. It’s truly quite amusing and scary…
And then there’s Thimblerig… otherwise known as Abul Ala. A young man living in England after fleeing Syria. Good with tech and out for a good cause, but with a troubled past that casts a shadow over his life in England, as well. The thing with personal demons is (even if those demons aren’t your fault)- they follow you wherever you go! Sadly…
In the most exciting and innovative manner, Blakstad pulls out all the stops and embeds so much of society’s current state into a book that mirrors the status quo modern day, connected life but also includes an element of futuristic possibilities. I am talking appearances of people’s holograms (‘ghosts’) in the room to have a discussion because good old smartphones are so ‘yesterday‘. There’s driverless taxis and cars and bikes that appear when you tell your mesh while connected to the Strange to come and pick you up from your location… Like uber Uber (sorry, couldn’t help myself!)
Anyway, the book starts off by throwing you right into the action within the Strange and you’ll hardly get a chance to take a breath from the suspense until the last page. The plot snowballs into epic proportions! Yes, there’s plenty of hacker/cracker action and maybe you don’t know what sysadmin means and there’s some ‘coder’ chat room talk but just enjoy it! You don’t have to be an IT specialist to get the idea. (As a side note I want to mention here that some reviewers have made an issue out of some language used in dialogue, especially in Sockpuppet, and just, please, the dialogues are keeping with the theme, so try not to be so anal about it and thanks! If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but before you rip the book apart because of this reason, understand that you can hardly make coders/hackers interact with each other in Posh English.)
Lucky Ghost in it’s themes and delivery is brave, bold and dare I say, even, ominous! The whole of society and its good and bad in a single book casting a wide net over past, present and possibly even future. A look at humanity at its best and its worst. When you would have to fight for your life’s worth of work, how far would you go?
With plenty of chases, action, bullets being fired, the question is, who will survive? The ones who are out seeking the truth and keeping information free? Or the already rich who are after even more profit? Who would you say has the most to lose and a better motive to fight at the cost of lives?
Anyway, you have probably guessed at this stage that Blakstad has found a solid fan in me. The Martingale Cycle is a wonderfully thrilling series and remember, you don’t have to have a bromance (or the female equivalent of same) with the IT Lords to be able to enjoy these racy novels. You will find relatable characters with real life issues in both Sockpuppet and Lucky Ghost, the difference is- you may develop paranoid tendencies about your virtual trail!
haitch's review
3.0
An interesting book, the lecture on currency, the weird cartoon characters (random encounter with tony the tiger) and where the plot comes together in the end in the latter half of part 3 were probably highlights.
A very similar book which handles a complicated plot weaved through multiple viewpoints that comes together in the end but also mishmashes sci fi, cyberpunk + fantasy is Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross. Even to the point of having strange
A very similar book which handles a complicated plot weaved through multiple viewpoints that comes together in the end but also mishmashes sci fi, cyberpunk + fantasy is Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross. Even to the point of having strange
amothersmusings1's review against another edition
Won in Goodreads Giveaways not read - passed on to another reader
deadgoodbookreviews's review
4.0
I’m going to make a confession, despite marrying a computer scientist very soon my knowledge of computers is sub optimal. Similarly, my knowledge of economic theory is a little lacking so as much as I would love to tell you all how super accurate this book is in both of those factors…I cannot, nor will I try. There is a lot of interesting knowledge thrown about in this book though which just adds to your enjoyment of the reading. It’s done in such a way that it doesn’t feel boring but you do get the sense that you’re being exposed to some interesting and important concepts. My kind of learning, the kind where you don’t have to work too hard for it.
My favourite aspect of this book was of course the idea of The Strange which is sort of like if Google glass teamed up with amazing game developers and made virtuality gaming like how all those ‘in the future’ programmes from the 90s thought it would be? Does that make sense? If it doesn’t sound like the best thing ever then I explained it wrong. Fact is, even though I know the reader is meant to understand that The Strange is not the healthiest or best thing to do with your day I still wanted to have a go. Blakstad’s writing is such that it gets you hooked on the very thing you are told throughout the book is not necessarily good for you. It’s a book of subtleties, which was a surprise to me.
Our main character Alex is a lesbian which was a happy bit of representation that could easily have been otherwise. I liked that it wasn’t the main part of the book or of Alex’s personality it just was.
This is a longer read than I’ve been used to recently, but it didn’t get boring so I didn’t mind. As I say, there’s a bit of technical speak but I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s got intrigue, action, video game elements, shortly put it is an incredibly fun and simultaneously thought-provoking read.
My rating: 4/5 stars
By the way, I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.
My favourite aspect of this book was of course the idea of The Strange which is sort of like if Google glass teamed up with amazing game developers and made virtuality gaming like how all those ‘in the future’ programmes from the 90s thought it would be? Does that make sense? If it doesn’t sound like the best thing ever then I explained it wrong. Fact is, even though I know the reader is meant to understand that The Strange is not the healthiest or best thing to do with your day I still wanted to have a go. Blakstad’s writing is such that it gets you hooked on the very thing you are told throughout the book is not necessarily good for you. It’s a book of subtleties, which was a surprise to me.
Our main character Alex is a lesbian which was a happy bit of representation that could easily have been otherwise. I liked that it wasn’t the main part of the book or of Alex’s personality it just was.
This is a longer read than I’ve been used to recently, but it didn’t get boring so I didn’t mind. As I say, there’s a bit of technical speak but I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s got intrigue, action, video game elements, shortly put it is an incredibly fun and simultaneously thought-provoking read.
My rating: 4/5 stars
By the way, I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.
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