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bluestockingbookworm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
Lots of sex and bodily-fluid swearing. Interesting concept, but poorly written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Medical content, Stalking, Violence, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cursing, Drug use, Medical trauma, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
Capitalism, military entities, weaponized technology, weaponized illness all feature as well.bluejayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book started as a fun, high-octane adventure about a tech-enhanced mercenary who apparently did something truly terrible during a period of time she can't remember. I enjoyed the cyberpunk ideas and the tough, violent protagonist. But it got old quick. The book is unrelentingly violent (perhaps trying to evoke a rough life on the streets?) and it burned through any shock value or emotional response pretty early and then became both boring and over-the-top. Riko is in yet another fight, of course she is, let's move on. Her only setting seemed to be rage and violence - even when her girlfriend dies (not a spoiler, it's the inciting incident), she's more concerned with the damage to her reputation. Even though she knew how to win many of the situations she got herself into, she still got beaten because she couldn't stop trying to solve everything with violence, and that got really frustrating. I haven't read a lot of cyberpunk so I found it interesting for that, but if you've never thought extreme violence could get dull, you should give this book a try!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Violence, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual content and Infidelity
Love interest death, unreality, loss of bodily autonomy, profanityfrasersimons's review against another edition
4.0
This book gives you exactly what you'd expect from the back of the book. It's a cyberpunk action thriller. The protagonist, Riko, wakes up with time missing and has to unravel the mystery of what's happened to her.
It's gritty, it's vulgar all the time. And it's extremely fun. Riko is fleshed out very well. She's a walking, talking mess of contradictions and her humanity shines through brilliantly in a world filled with high-tech cybernetics, nano machines, and augmented reality. She gets beat down, she reacts believably, sometimes shedding her rough exterior when warranted and her internal monologue always satisfied me and never de-protagonized her.
There's some very human moments that come to mind easily, while always maintaining that she's come from the streets and worked her way up for her street cred. The fiction has great pacing and shifts between these moments and some great action sequences seamlessly and leaves some questions open for the next book. This felt like a great blend of 80s cyberpunk made relevant again with both updated tech but also a female protagonist. It could easily make a great action movie (with Angelina kicking ass).
I need to reiterate it's pretty great having a believable, conflicted bad ass woman that's depicted really well in cyberpunk fiction. It's sometimes hard to come by and It's a small thing that makes a lot of impact on the fiction.
I also loved that she was bi-sexual, but in the way that clearly wasn't there just because men find it hot. There's no obligatory woman on woman action that comes with the tag sometimes, and her thoughts about what she likes in people always originate outward from physical appearance. It really does make a huge difference for the story for me.
It's gritty, it's vulgar all the time. And it's extremely fun. Riko is fleshed out very well. She's a walking, talking mess of contradictions and her humanity shines through brilliantly in a world filled with high-tech cybernetics, nano machines, and augmented reality. She gets beat down, she reacts believably, sometimes shedding her rough exterior when warranted and her internal monologue always satisfied me and never de-protagonized her.
There's some very human moments that come to mind easily, while always maintaining that she's come from the streets and worked her way up for her street cred. The fiction has great pacing and shifts between these moments and some great action sequences seamlessly and leaves some questions open for the next book. This felt like a great blend of 80s cyberpunk made relevant again with both updated tech but also a female protagonist. It could easily make a great action movie (with Angelina kicking ass).
I need to reiterate it's pretty great having a believable, conflicted bad ass woman that's depicted really well in cyberpunk fiction. It's sometimes hard to come by and It's a small thing that makes a lot of impact on the fiction.
I also loved that she was bi-sexual, but in the way that clearly wasn't there just because men find it hot. There's no obligatory woman on woman action that comes with the tag sometimes, and her thoughts about what she likes in people always originate outward from physical appearance. It really does make a huge difference for the story for me.
murderbot42's review against another edition
Seems too dark to me. Lots of violence so far.
carolined314's review against another edition
4.0
A balls-out gorefest starring an unrepentant queer rake. This is a profane, violent, protagonist who kicks ass and screams insults and bleeds all the time. Not quite a zombie tale, but close, and kept me intrigued and fired up the whole time.
spiderwitch's review against another edition
1.0
(DNF at about 33%)
I really feel it's a shame that cyberpunk hasn't made more of a comeback lately. The genre's interplay of out-of-control corporations and technology that can track your every move provides a wealth of opportunity for commentary on modern society. Unfortunately, the only question Necrotech seems to be interested in exploring is "what if I made my Cyberpunk* tabletop campaign into a trilogy of novels?" The book does do a little bit of its own worldbuilding, but it mostly feels like reskinning of the game's underlying mechanics. The serial numbers are only half filed off. It honestly feels a bit ironic for something that's trying to portray itself as any kind of punk to say "forget being original or subversive, I'm just going to take the most commercial example of the genre and copy it."
This is annoying because it's lazy, but also because it means the book isn't saying anything actually relevant and feels really dated. About the only message it has is "capitalism sucks," which, sure, but I would argue that it sucks in a somewhat different way now than it did in the '80s. It was interesting to read this book at the same time as I was reading Song for a New Day, which is not at all cyberpunk in aesthetic but is very much interested in the intersection of capitalism and technology in a way that does feel informed by the current state of those things. '80s cyberpunk, for example, is (in my experience) more likely to have cutthroat competition between multiple corporations, as indeed Necrotech does. It is a significant plot point that the heroine was kidnapped and experimented on by a corp, but doesn't know which one. In the world of Song for a New Day, inspired by the monopolistic tendencies of the twenty-first century, you couldn't make a plot thread out of trying to figure out which corporation did something, because there's only one.
Additionally, the fact that the corporations of Necrotech's universe need an ID number (the series-titular SIN) embedded in an implanted chip to track your activities and serve you targeted ads and so on seems laughably naive for a recent novel. There's plenty of tracking happening right now that doesn't require an SSN or other national ID number to be involved anywhere along the line. It seems odd for a future dystopia to have a method of doing this that's both more convoluted and easier to evade. There's also not much of a sense that not having an SIN is inconvenient or limiting. Yes, it's illegal, but in practice that mostly amounts to a justification for random combat encounters in which our heroine can show off how badass she is. Otherwise she pretty much gets the benefits of being off the grid with none of the drawbacks. I didn't get the sense that this made it harder for her to communicate with people, for example, or to buy things, or to get around town, or any number of other things that I could imagine being an issue for someone in the present-day real world who wanted to avoid being tracked.
The book also has a strain of Orientalism and general tendency to exoticize people of color that I found uncomfortable, though I'm not qualified to comment on it in depth.
With all of this bugging me, about a third of the way into the book I checked out the Goodreads page to see if anyone else was complaining about any of these things, because I'm fantastically petty and I feel great validation when other people don't like books I don't like for the same reasons that I don't like them. This was not the case, but I did find someone saying that the book ends with pretty much nothing resolved and no questions answered. I might have been interested enough in the characters and plot to finish out this book, but I definitely don't have it in me to read the whole trilogy, so with the knowledge that book 1 doesn't actually have a complete plot arc of its own, I decided to cut my losses.
* As in the franchise that spawned the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077, not as in the genre.
I really feel it's a shame that cyberpunk hasn't made more of a comeback lately. The genre's interplay of out-of-control corporations and technology that can track your every move provides a wealth of opportunity for commentary on modern society. Unfortunately, the only question Necrotech seems to be interested in exploring is "what if I made my Cyberpunk* tabletop campaign into a trilogy of novels?" The book does do a little bit of its own worldbuilding, but it mostly feels like reskinning of the game's underlying mechanics. The serial numbers are only half filed off. It honestly feels a bit ironic for something that's trying to portray itself as any kind of punk to say "forget being original or subversive, I'm just going to take the most commercial example of the genre and copy it."
This is annoying because it's lazy, but also because it means the book isn't saying anything actually relevant and feels really dated. About the only message it has is "capitalism sucks," which, sure, but I would argue that it sucks in a somewhat different way now than it did in the '80s. It was interesting to read this book at the same time as I was reading Song for a New Day, which is not at all cyberpunk in aesthetic but is very much interested in the intersection of capitalism and technology in a way that does feel informed by the current state of those things. '80s cyberpunk, for example, is (in my experience) more likely to have cutthroat competition between multiple corporations, as indeed Necrotech does. It is a significant plot point that the heroine was kidnapped and experimented on by a corp, but doesn't know which one. In the world of Song for a New Day, inspired by the monopolistic tendencies of the twenty-first century, you couldn't make a plot thread out of trying to figure out which corporation did something, because there's only one.
Additionally, the fact that the corporations of Necrotech's universe need an ID number (the series-titular SIN) embedded in an implanted chip to track your activities and serve you targeted ads and so on seems laughably naive for a recent novel. There's plenty of tracking happening right now that doesn't require an SSN or other national ID number to be involved anywhere along the line. It seems odd for a future dystopia to have a method of doing this that's both more convoluted and easier to evade. There's also not much of a sense that not having an SIN is inconvenient or limiting. Yes, it's illegal, but in practice that mostly amounts to a justification for random combat encounters in which our heroine can show off how badass she is. Otherwise she pretty much gets the benefits of being off the grid with none of the drawbacks. I didn't get the sense that this made it harder for her to communicate with people, for example, or to buy things, or to get around town, or any number of other things that I could imagine being an issue for someone in the present-day real world who wanted to avoid being tracked.
The book also has a strain of Orientalism and general tendency to exoticize people of color that I found uncomfortable, though I'm not qualified to comment on it in depth.
With all of this bugging me, about a third of the way into the book I checked out the Goodreads page to see if anyone else was complaining about any of these things, because I'm fantastically petty and I feel great validation when other people don't like books I don't like for the same reasons that I don't like them. This was not the case, but I did find someone saying that the book ends with pretty much nothing resolved and no questions answered. I might have been interested enough in the characters and plot to finish out this book, but I definitely don't have it in me to read the whole trilogy, so with the knowledge that book 1 doesn't actually have a complete plot arc of its own, I decided to cut my losses.
* As in the franchise that spawned the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077, not as in the genre.
eliza_v_paige's review against another edition
4.0
Action packed and super fast paced. Set in a post-apocalyptic city that is run by mega corporations that keep track of everyone through SIN (Security Identification Number). Though some get off the grid by becoming saints who are SINless.
Riko is one unsaintlike saint who wakes up with without her memories and a lot of people to hurt to find why. She is a kickass mercenary with metaphorical balls of steel.
In this world, there is incorporated tech - tech which is incorporated into flesh. At birth, when SIN is incorporated, so is nanotech and they help with healing. If they get overloaded by either exertion or too much incorporated tech, then the tech will take over and control the body. This is called necrotech because essentially the body is dead but the tech fuels the body to kill. Therefore we get electronic powered zombies. This concept is so flipping cool and was so much fun.
This book does diversity right. Main character is bisexual and disabled (missing arm), plus the side characters are Indian, and these characters are incorporated without their traits being plot points. Really enjoyed that.
Overall, this book was epic. Cyberpunk adventure time with zombies and intrigue. I'm hooked.
NECROTECH SUMMARY (TO READ BEFORE SEQUEL)
Riko – Main Character, SINless (Saint), Splatter Specialist (Merc), Memory loss and PTSD from unknown source, Mind sends word Eradicate to her (possible weaponisation of Necrotech in her brain?)
Nanji – Riko’s girlfriend, died straight away from becoming Necrotech
Greg Keith – detective, Riko’s ex lover
Indigo – Riko’s older brother
Malik Reed – backer for the Vid Zone run, works for Mantis Industries
Lucky – Riko’s mentor and tech person (her doctor)
Hooker, & Carter – died on Vid Zone run
Shiva – works/runs at Mecca where Indigo and his team hang out
Fuck It Jim – bit of a weasel, had information about what happened to Riko but she killed him before she could find out what it was, MetaCore was on his (or her’s) ass
MetaCore – One of the big corporations
Orchard – doctor at Malik’s offices
Hope Ramsay – assistant at Malik’s offices
Necrotech – essentially tech-fuelled zombies, brought about my tech overpowering flesh
Riko wakes on a slab, naked and a wicked hangover, devoid of memory. There is information that uses her real name (Risa Cole) that says she died. She gets up despite Nanoshock (overworking nanos, somewhat comparable to hunger) and has to fight off heavily armoured peeps. Sees Nanji, who has a chrome spinal replacement for some reason, turn into Necrotech. Riko escapes but goes blank and is picked up by the police.
After leaving the precinct, she gets some sleep before trying to figure out what happened to her. When she goes to see Indigo and his gang tries to kill her, she realises that her memory loss goes beyond one day to three months, and her team thinks she sold out Nanji and that’s why she’s dead. Riko wants to find out what happened to clear her name and restore her cred, so she wants to set up a run to where she woke up, but she needs a team and backing, so Indigo sends her Malik Reed.
When she arrives at the club she is supposed to meet him, four enforcers attack her before she can speak to Reed. He wants evidence before he funds a run.
She goes to Lucky to get checked and fixed up. He tells her after he’s fixed her up that she can’t stay because her cred is in the shitter and he can’t have her bring his down by association. Jax shows up and gives her a lead to Fuck It Jim about information. She owes him a favour now.
She goes to Fuck It Jim who seems scared of more than her. He tells her about a deal but not enough info. Riko kinda loses here shit and kills him. Right before a helicopter drops some MetaCore enforcers into his apartment. She flees with a tablet full of information that will show that there is reason to go on the run.
Malik agrees that this is enough info to fund the run and it is set up. Riko must undergo a medical exam, in which she freaks out and the doc, Orchard, thinks she reacted as part of PTSD, but since Riko can’t remember what caused it all.
They go on the run to Vid Zone, where there was a lab set up and members of Indigo’s team had been sold there for unknown purposes. They are blindsided by more necrotech than expected as well as MetaCore enforcers. Members of the team die. In a moment of safety, Indigo and Riko have a heart to heart, where Riko reveals her memory loss and Indigo reveals that he sold her out to Malik.
After much fighting, they make it into the lab and find Nanji’s body and are able to extract the information. Indigo finds footage that makes it look Riko made a contract to sell Nanji. She thinks its fake and Indigo swears to find out if it is once they make it out of there before they get killed or go necrotech.
During the run, Riko was plagued by the mental command to Eradicate. She kinda blacks out at some points when she destroys some necrotechs.
They get out and Indigo had almost gone necrotech and they find out that the virus spread, not through wires but through contaminated nanotechs, which meant that it was much easier to go necrotech.
Malik hires a reluctant Riko as a freelancer, since if she wants to keep digging into the corporations, she will need his resources.
Riko is one unsaintlike saint who wakes up with without her memories and a lot of people to hurt to find why. She is a kickass mercenary with metaphorical balls of steel.
In this world, there is incorporated tech - tech which is incorporated into flesh. At birth, when SIN is incorporated, so is nanotech and they help with healing. If they get overloaded by either exertion or too much incorporated tech, then the tech will take over and control the body. This is called necrotech because essentially the body is dead but the tech fuels the body to kill. Therefore we get electronic powered zombies. This concept is so flipping cool and was so much fun.
This book does diversity right. Main character is bisexual and disabled (missing arm), plus the side characters are Indian, and these characters are incorporated without their traits being plot points. Really enjoyed that.
Overall, this book was epic. Cyberpunk adventure time with zombies and intrigue. I'm hooked.
NECROTECH SUMMARY (TO READ BEFORE SEQUEL)
Nanji – Riko’s girlfriend, died straight away from becoming Necrotech
Greg Keith – detective, Riko’s ex lover
Indigo – Riko’s older brother
Malik Reed – backer for the Vid Zone run, works for Mantis Industries
Lucky – Riko’s mentor and tech person (her doctor)
Hooker, & Carter – died on Vid Zone run
Shiva – works/runs at Mecca where Indigo and his team hang out
Fuck It Jim – bit of a weasel, had information about what happened to Riko but she killed him before she could find out what it was, MetaCore was on his (or her’s) ass
MetaCore – One of the big corporations
Orchard – doctor at Malik’s offices
Hope Ramsay – assistant at Malik’s offices
Necrotech – essentially tech-fuelled zombies, brought about my tech overpowering flesh
Riko wakes on a slab, naked and a wicked hangover, devoid of memory. There is information that uses her real name (Risa Cole) that says she died. She gets up despite Nanoshock (overworking nanos, somewhat comparable to hunger) and has to fight off heavily armoured peeps. Sees Nanji, who has a chrome spinal replacement for some reason, turn into Necrotech. Riko escapes but goes blank and is picked up by the police.
After leaving the precinct, she gets some sleep before trying to figure out what happened to her. When she goes to see Indigo and his gang tries to kill her, she realises that her memory loss goes beyond one day to three months, and her team thinks she sold out Nanji and that’s why she’s dead. Riko wants to find out what happened to clear her name and restore her cred, so she wants to set up a run to where she woke up, but she needs a team and backing, so Indigo sends her Malik Reed.
When she arrives at the club she is supposed to meet him, four enforcers attack her before she can speak to Reed. He wants evidence before he funds a run.
She goes to Lucky to get checked and fixed up. He tells her after he’s fixed her up that she can’t stay because her cred is in the shitter and he can’t have her bring his down by association. Jax shows up and gives her a lead to Fuck It Jim about information. She owes him a favour now.
She goes to Fuck It Jim who seems scared of more than her. He tells her about a deal but not enough info. Riko kinda loses here shit and kills him. Right before a helicopter drops some MetaCore enforcers into his apartment. She flees with a tablet full of information that will show that there is reason to go on the run.
Malik agrees that this is enough info to fund the run and it is set up. Riko must undergo a medical exam, in which she freaks out and the doc, Orchard, thinks she reacted as part of PTSD, but since Riko can’t remember what caused it all.
They go on the run to Vid Zone, where there was a lab set up and members of Indigo’s team had been sold there for unknown purposes. They are blindsided by more necrotech than expected as well as MetaCore enforcers. Members of the team die. In a moment of safety, Indigo and Riko have a heart to heart, where Riko reveals her memory loss and Indigo reveals that he sold her out to Malik.
After much fighting, they make it into the lab and find Nanji’s body and are able to extract the information. Indigo finds footage that makes it look Riko made a contract to sell Nanji. She thinks its fake and Indigo swears to find out if it is once they make it out of there before they get killed or go necrotech.
During the run, Riko was plagued by the mental command to Eradicate. She kinda blacks out at some points when she destroys some necrotechs.
They get out and Indigo had almost gone necrotech and they find out that the virus spread, not through wires but through contaminated nanotechs, which meant that it was much easier to go necrotech.
Malik hires a reluctant Riko as a freelancer, since if she wants to keep digging into the corporations, she will need his resources.
mmelibertine's review against another edition
5.0
Riko is just the unrepentant, angry, vicious bitch I needed right now. She takes a beating and keeps going. She lives fiercely, and on her own terms. She defends her companions tooth and nail. She makes mistakes and owns the consequences. So must we all, now more than ever.