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A review by dguthrieadams
Repo Virtual by Corey J. White
All right! I’m just gonna jump right into my review. Repo Virtual is a cyberpunk action/adventure in three acts that centers around virtual reality repo man JD and his heist of a virus which turns out to be AI. Yep, it's as cool as it sounds. I'm a sucker for Be Gay, Do Crime, yet this book has me split right down the middle. Brass tacks: the first act and I didn’t connect. I never grew to like the characters, and, despite the gorgeous descriptions, the world took me a bit to sink my teeth into. I love the juxtaposition between the shiny galactic online game Voidwar going on in the skies while the streets are ragged and dirty below, but JD and his crew almost lost me.
BUT. Then the second act of the book started and WHAT?
I repeat: WHAT?!
Act two begins with Enda Hyldal, a private investigator with a dangerous past hired (blackmailed) by Zero Corp to retrieve their stolen property, and friends, in this reader’s humble opinion, she stole the show. Honestly, if she were introduced sooner, my opinions might be different about the beginning of the book. Who knows! And then the emergence of the AI is so wonderfully done, and I don’t want to say to much and spoil anything, but the AI’s perspective is *chef’s kiss*— it got me. I think it’ll get you, too.
And although I loved the last 2/3 of this book, I want to mention the diversity, which on the surface is excellent. A non-western location with POC and everyone’s queer. However, I'd be remiss if I didn’t mention that the nonbinary character felt underdeveloped, simply there to be used by other characters. As a nonbinary person who wants to see more rep on the page, this was a major miss for me.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy. And go read White’s Voidwitch Saga, STAT!
BUT. Then the second act of the book started and WHAT?
I repeat: WHAT?!
Act two begins with Enda Hyldal, a private investigator with a dangerous past hired (blackmailed) by Zero Corp to retrieve their stolen property, and friends, in this reader’s humble opinion, she stole the show. Honestly, if she were introduced sooner, my opinions might be different about the beginning of the book. Who knows! And then the emergence of the AI is so wonderfully done, and I don’t want to say to much and spoil anything, but the AI’s perspective is *chef’s kiss*— it got me. I think it’ll get you, too.
And although I loved the last 2/3 of this book, I want to mention the diversity, which on the surface is excellent. A non-western location with POC and everyone’s queer. However, I'd be remiss if I didn’t mention that the nonbinary character felt underdeveloped, simply there to be used by other characters. As a nonbinary person who wants to see more rep on the page, this was a major miss for me.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy. And go read White’s Voidwitch Saga, STAT!