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A review by eliza_v_paige
Necrotech by K. C. Alexander
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.