Review: Ghost Trigger by Alex Lopes

 

Genre: Cyberpunk/Technothriller

Description:

“In the near-future, from the claustrophobic depths of a server room, a brave hacker sacrifices his life to pass on damning documents to an unsuspecting ally, an employee of the very megacorporation that stands as a symbol of their oppression.

This unsuspecting woman, shaken by the weight of the truth, finds herself thrust into a perilous game of rebellion. As she undergoes a transformation from a corporate employee to a daring whistleblower, she joins forces with Marton, an unyielding attorney from the Victims and Families organization, and Jo, a mysterious and skilled mercenary. United, they form an unexpected alliance, determined to expose the decay lurking within the Firm.

As they navigate the city's underbelly, their quest becomes more dangerous, their allies fewer, and their mission ever more critical. Feel the pulse of their desperation, the strength in their defiance, and the warmth of their shared moments of respite. Join them in their fight to expose the truth, one flash drive at a time.

Tailored for fans of thriller literature and everyone who cherishes a story with twists and turns, Ghost Trigger will keep you glued to its pages.”

Author:

“Alex Lopes grew up in the periphery of Brazil, captivated from a young age by books and the computers in his father's repair shop.

Over 20 years, he navigated the universe of technology, moving through virtually all areas of IT, until finally finding himself as a software engineer.

A lifelong enthusiast of both literature and tech, he seeks to join these worlds in his writing.”

Appraisal:

Although set in a futuristic world that is far advanced in a technological sense than our current one, in many ways the meat of this story, a thriller with a protagonist fighting back against an evil corporation, is one that could just as easily happen today. I found the story world interesting and it added to the story as well as made what might happen or what response the heroes of the story might try less predictable, but as a thriller lover it also satisfied those needs. An enjoyable and intense read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words

Review: Ubiquicity by Various Authors

 Genre: Cyberpunk/Science Fiction/Short Story Anthology

Description:

“It is the dawn of the 22nd century, and in the sprawling development known as ‘UbiquiCity,’ the most wealthy and powerful districts possess all the latest in smart technology, with every building, device and control system connected via the Internet Of Things.

The world is augmented and identity is fluid. Satellite-guided cars drive themselves. Busy drones fill the skies. Cloud-assisted bots perform once-human jobs. Appliances, vehicles, buildings, media devices, products, streetlights, roadsigns and even toilets communicate electronically, all under the watchful eye of the AI CitySystem. For the inhabitants of the UbiComp zones, life is sweet.

But not everyone in the city is so blessed.

Short stories by Niko Carcosa, Antony Copeland, Tod Davies, Tod Foley, DeAnna Knippling, SL Koch, Shariann Lewitt, Adrian McCauley, and T Reynolds paint a picture of a realistic future city where ubiquitous computing is the source of much innovation, renovation and social disruption.”

Author:

A variety of authors.

Appraisal:

This book starts out with a map of Union City. All of the ten stories in this anthology take place in this shared story world. The map and the stories also share some terminology to describe things in the shared story world, for example sprawl zones and squatter towns are what might be thought of as the slums (to use terminology from our times) of Union Town. This also takes places in the future where artificial intelligence is widespread and those that populate the planet where Union City is located are as likely to be a robotic creature as anything else. (Be aware that there is a glossary at the end. If you find yourself wondering about the meaning of some terminology then scanning the glossary before continuing might be a good idea.)

Cyberpunk, the genre label used to describe these stories, happens in a dystopian future and, like the dystopian genre, these stories make you think about the potential downsides of some directions the world is headed. I found it interesting, yet logical in many ways, that those who lived in the slums of Union City often seemed like the happier characters. As with any collection of stories from multiple authors, some of the stories grabbed me more than others, but overall I found them to be good reads that succeeded in getting me to wonder about what the distant future will bring.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of proofreading misses.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 105-110,000 words

Reprise Review: Frayed (DarkTrench Shadow Book 1) by Kerry Nietz

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Cyber Punk

Description:

“ThreadBare is a debugger. He’s property, one of the Imam’s vast pool of implanted servants. He lives in a smelly, greasy garage on the boundary of the battlefield known as Delusion. All he wants is to complete his tasks, exceed his rival BullHammer, and stay alive. Possibly get a promotion.

When an atypical chore brings Thread into contact with Sandfly and HardCandy, things get complicated. Day by day and task by task he struggles with the life he’s always known. Ideas plague him, brutality vexes him, and women distract him.

Then there’s the list of offline debuggers, those who’ve quietly disappeared. Through datamixes — dreamlike records of their lives — Thread tries to uncover the truth. Where did they go? What does it all mean? And what can one forgotten debugger do about it anyway?”

Author:

“Kerry Nietz is a refugee of the software industry. He spent more than a decade of his life flipping bits, first as one of the principal developers of the database product FoxPro for the now mythical Fox Software, and then as one of Bill Gates's minions at Microsoft. He is a husband, a father, a technophile and a movie buff. He is the author of several award-winning novels, including A Star Curiously Singing, Freeheads, and Amish Vampires in Space.”

Check out Mr.Nietz’s website or follow him on Facebook.

Appraisal:

I read and enjoyed Mr. Nietz’s A Star Curiously Singing. If you enjoy snappy cyberpunk writing, I definitely recommend that read. Frayed had a number of similarities in style and in the worldview, so I was looking forward to another trip to the author’s extraordinary hi-tech future world run by powerful Imams. I wasn’t disappointed.

Written in the first person of a debugger, DR23, nicknamed Threadbare, much of the story involves the internal struggles of this “implanted” human when he is faced with the actions of a ruling class of “freeheads” (humans without implants). They abuse their powerful positions to run roughshod over not only Sharia Law, but also human decency.

Exposed to their moral corruption, Threadbare is under constant threat from the internal “stops” programmed to prevent him (through pain) from even thinking about disobeying Sharia Law. An attractive concubine further tests his “stops,” and causes Threadbare to confront the hypocrisy of a system that he is programmed to obey.

Frayed is the first book in the Dark Trench Shadow series. The series premise of a secret project and a list of debuggers who have somehow broken free of their internal programming is foreshadowed throughout. My only complaint is the cliff-hanger ending that left me feeling that this installment hadn’t been cleanly finished in its own right.??

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review posted September 7, 2016.

Format/Typo Issues:

Very few.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: She Shits Bricks and Other Short Stories by Samson Tonauac

 

Genre: Science-Fiction, Cyberpunk, Short Story Collection

Description:

“Twerker, COVID-991, advert jinn--we all went a little crazy after 2020 ... did we not? 13 ultra-short science fiction and cyberpunk stories inspired by the events of 2020.”

Author:

Besides this short story collection Samson Tonauac is also the author of a cyberpunk novel, Dreamsphere: The Day We Stopped Dreaming.

Appraisal:

When I decided to give this short collection a read, I was looking for a change of pace. Something that wasn’t one of the genres I gravitate to most often. Something different. This definitely fit that. The future world where these stories take place is different in many ways from today’s, but as the description indicates, they’re also inspired by the events of 2020. The people in the stories may live in a vastly different world, but they’re still human, and still react in many of the same ways. The things that are good about humans and the things that irritate the heck out of us are still there. The stories may make you laugh, they may make you think. Both applied to me at times, but most importantly I was entertained and got that change of pace I was hoping for.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 18-19,000 words

Frayed (DarkTrench Shadow Book 1) by @KerryNietz

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Cyber Punk

Description:

“ThreadBare is a debugger. He’s property, one of the Imam’s vast pool of implanted servants. He lives in a smelly, greasy garage on the boundary of the battlefield known as Delusion. All he wants is to complete his tasks, exceed his rival BullHammer, and stay alive. Possibly get a promotion.

When an atypical chore brings Thread into contact with Sandfly and HardCandy, things get complicated. Day by day and task by task he struggles with the life he’s always known. Ideas plague him, brutality vexes him, and women distract him. 

Then there’s the list of offline debuggers, those who’ve quietly disappeared. Through datamixes — dreamlike records of their lives — Thread tries to uncover the truth. Where did they go? What does it all mean? And what can one forgotten debugger do about it anyway?”

Author:

“Kerry Nietz is a refugee of the software industry. He spent more than a decade of his life flipping bits, first as one of the principal developers of the database product FoxPro for the now mythical Fox Software, and then as one of Bill Gates's minions at Microsoft. He is a husband, a father, a technophile and a movie buff. He is the author of several award-winning novels, including A Star Curiously Singing, Freeheads, and Amish Vampires in Space.”

Check out Mr.Nietz’s website or follow him on facebook.

Appraisal:

I read and enjoyed Mr. Nietz’s A Star Curiously Singing. If you enjoy snappy cyberpunk writing, I definitely recommend that read. Frayed had a number of similarities in style and in the worldview, so I was looking forward to another trip to the author’s extraordinary hi-tech future world run by powerful Imams. I wasn’t disappointed.

Written in the first person of a debugger, DR23, nicknamed Threadbare, much of the story involves the internal struggles of this “implanted” human when he is faced with the actions of a ruling class of “freeheads” (humans without implants). They abuse their powerful positions to run roughshod over not only Sharia Law, but also human decency.

Exposed to their moral corruption, Threadbare is under constant threat from the internal “stops” programmed to prevent him (through pain) from even thinking about disobeying Sharia Law. An attractive concubine further tests his “stops,” and causes Threadbare to confront the hypocrisy of a system that he is programmed to obey.

Frayed is the first book in the DarkTrench Shadow series. The series premise of a secret project and a list of debuggers who have somehow broken free of their internal programming is foreshadowed throughout. My only complaint is the cliff-hanger ending that left me feeling that this installment hadn’t been cleanly finished in its own right.

Buy now from:    Amazon US    Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Very few.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 Words

Non-Compliance: The Sector / Paige Daniels

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Dystopian / Cyber Punk

Approximate word count:

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Paige Daniels is the pen name for Tina Closser. When she isn't busy with her nine to five job as an electrical engineer she helps her husband with a small hobby farm complete with a mini horse, cows, and sheep. In between farm duties and running the kids to gymnastics she likes to write, thus the creation of this novel.

Description:

Shea Kelly had a brilliant career in technology, but after refusing to implant an invasive government device in her body she was sent to a modern-day reservation: the Non-Compliance Sector, a lawless community run by thugs and organized crime. She’s made a life for herself as a resourceful barkeep, and hacks for goods on the black market with her best friend Wynne, a computer genius and part-time stripper. Life is pretty quiet under the reigning Boss, apart from run-ins with his right hand man, the mighty Quinn: until Danny Rose threatens to take over the sector. Pushed to the edge, Shea decides to fight back ….

Appraisal:

There’s a lot to like about this novel. Shea is a neat character. I enjoyed spending time with her. She always seems to have a sarcastic retort or cutting remark ready, sometimes too at the ready for her own safety. Shea punches above her weight both physically—martial arts--and with her quick-thinking 

streetwise high IQ. She’s definitely strong enough to carry a series.

The Non-Compliant world (we never hear much about the “normal” world where everyone is controlled by an implanted chip) is gritty and raw—fitting for the genre.

As the story evolves, though, I got a little irked with Shea’s whiney side. “Does he really like me? Gosh he can’t because I’m not pretty enough or smart enough.” I paraphrase, but this was an oft repeated inner thought, and, for me, the insecurities just didn’t gel with the badass Shea character.

But this is a minor gripe in an otherwise great read that I looked forward to each night. Definitely a 4-star until I came to the end, which wasn’t an end at all. The story seemed to finish mid-paragraph. The main objective wasn’t resolved. A key character was frightened by a mysterious phone call—that was clearly significant because he wasn’t an easily frightened person--and a mysterious vial was sent off for evaluation, but no result was forthcoming even though Shea had risked her life to obtain said vial.

I guess because there’s another novel in the series the author wanted to leave a hook, but this was less cliff-hanger than truncation. I felt cheated.

Format/Typo Issues:

Clean copy. Written in present tense—no problem for me, but some readers do dislike that format.

Rating: *** Three Stars