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A review by alexanderp
Coil by Ren Warom
4.0
Posted originally here.
Apex sent me this book in return for a review, and I was incredibly excited. Cyberpunk noir? Hell yes! And what Ren Warom gives us in Coil, is not only these but sci fi crime-noir at its best. Without even going farther into the book right now, if you like any of those genres I just listed, you will love this book.
When Officer Stark realizes that a particularly brutal crime seems to have a calling card for Bone Adams, one call puts both men on a ride for their lives. As more and more bodies turn up, stripped of their implants and other modifications, there appears to be pattern and one of which that Stark becomes more and more obsessed with. Yet, if Bone cannot figure out what is a foot, then both men are most certainly going to wind up dead, and the Spires will be left with more unrest than ever before.
There have been few and far between cyberpunk, let alone gritty future science fiction stories that have been this imaginative. This is one reason why I personally love Apex, so much, because they find and foster this incredible ingenuity in genre and imagination that few other publishers attempt in the first place. Warom jolts new life into cyberpunk and rather than relying on Blade Runner or Necromancer to provide the blue print, they strive out on their own with something brutal, gorey, and bleakly new.
While in most senses, Coil has a true crime noir premise, there are certainly portions of it that retain cyberpunk heritage, while keeping the story as fresh and new as the plot allows. The mixture of post humanism, humanity’s frailty, and outright bodily perversion makes for a compelling read all together. I believe most readers who enjoy gritty science fiction, pulpy hard-boiled noir, and dark future cyberpunk will enjoy this book quite a lot.
I can only hope that there’s more, because this setting is rich and I would want to learn more about the “Spires” that Bone and Stark inhabit. I want to know even more about why the gangs are such an established feature of this region. There is so much more that lurks under the surface that even after the first read of Coil most reader may want to dive back in. I know I do!
Apex sent me this book in return for a review, and I was incredibly excited. Cyberpunk noir? Hell yes! And what Ren Warom gives us in Coil, is not only these but sci fi crime-noir at its best. Without even going farther into the book right now, if you like any of those genres I just listed, you will love this book.
When Officer Stark realizes that a particularly brutal crime seems to have a calling card for Bone Adams, one call puts both men on a ride for their lives. As more and more bodies turn up, stripped of their implants and other modifications, there appears to be pattern and one of which that Stark becomes more and more obsessed with. Yet, if Bone cannot figure out what is a foot, then both men are most certainly going to wind up dead, and the Spires will be left with more unrest than ever before.
There have been few and far between cyberpunk, let alone gritty future science fiction stories that have been this imaginative. This is one reason why I personally love Apex, so much, because they find and foster this incredible ingenuity in genre and imagination that few other publishers attempt in the first place. Warom jolts new life into cyberpunk and rather than relying on Blade Runner or Necromancer to provide the blue print, they strive out on their own with something brutal, gorey, and bleakly new.
While in most senses, Coil has a true crime noir premise, there are certainly portions of it that retain cyberpunk heritage, while keeping the story as fresh and new as the plot allows. The mixture of post humanism, humanity’s frailty, and outright bodily perversion makes for a compelling read all together. I believe most readers who enjoy gritty science fiction, pulpy hard-boiled noir, and dark future cyberpunk will enjoy this book quite a lot.
I can only hope that there’s more, because this setting is rich and I would want to learn more about the “Spires” that Bone and Stark inhabit. I want to know even more about why the gangs are such an established feature of this region. There is so much more that lurks under the surface that even after the first read of Coil most reader may want to dive back in. I know I do!