So many books, so little time…
I have been reading a lot this year! Even more than usual, because I’m doing a deep dive into the cyberpunk genre, beta reading for other authors, reading books on writing craft and book marketing, as well as pleasure reading in other genres (my go-tos are mysteries, thrillers, and horror) and reading to my kids.
My goal was to read 40 books this year, and I’ve already read 46 by my count (I don’t add the middle grade and young adult books I read with my kids to my goodreads shelf because it gets too messy)
That’s great!
But I haven’t been as on top of writing reviews as I’d like to be.
I’m going to kill two birds with one stone here and do a Cyberpunk Indie Feature Friday: Double Feature!
Fancy, right?
Here they are…
The Blind Spot by Michael Robertson
The Blurb:
COULD YOU BETRAY EVERYONE YOU CARE ABOUT TO PREVENT A WAR?
The Blind Spot exists in defiance of Scala City’s dystopian big brother regime. It occupies a small sector in the city, and those who live there believe in their right to privacy. Scala City believe if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. But the Blind Spot have hackers that could bring the larger city to its knees. This is why it’s never spilled over into all-out war. Until now …
A terrorist attack on Scala City’s main plaza has tipped the delicate balance. There is only one person who can halt the conflict before it begins …
Marcie Hugo, daughter of the Blind Spot’s leader, and the district’s best kept secret. Cybernetically enhanced, she’s faster, stronger, and smarter than most. But more importantly, she’s invisible. Protected and hidden away by her father for the majority of her life, she’s in the unique position to move between the Blind Spot and Scala City unnoticed.
With the best hacker in the city on her side, and while the rest of the Blind Spot prepares for a bloody war, Marcie gets to work …
To avoid total annihilation, she will have to betray everyone she loves, starting with her father …
And even then, her chances of success are slim …
Join Marcie in a race against time as she turns over every neon-lit inch of Scala City and The Blind Spot in a quest to discover who’s trying to destroy her home and why. And even if she is successful, with the number of ties she’s severed, how much of a life will she have left to return to?
My Review:
If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you will know that I only review the indie books I really love. The Blind Spot stands out for the intricacy of its plot and the excellent use of a double POV framework.
The book is structured so that chapters alternate between two characters from opposite sides of a politically divided city.
Nick, an overweight and underloved office manager from Scala City, is addicted to a social media app that sends him “lifts,” recordings of the positive things that his friends and colleagues say about him through out the day. In fact, nearly everyone in Scala City is driven by this app, and much of their days are made up of sending and receiving lifts to others. At first glance it seems like a really sweet, wholesome use of technology. But when Nick is betrayed by someone close to him, he begins to question the validity of this constant stream of thoughtless praise…
Marcie, a typical teenager rebelling against her father’s attempts to get her to settle down, wants nothing more than to escape the Blind Spot, an enclosed area of Scala City that is completely free of government surveillance. An uneasy peace exists between the Blind Spot and Scala City, and when a terrorist attacks, tensions rise, putting Marcie’s dream of moving to the City on hold. But Marcie discovers a secret that could stop an all out war from breaking out. The trouble is, she will have to betray everyone in the Blind Spot in order to stop the war…
Robertson very skillfully builds up these characters with their completely separate lives and then slowly brings them together in a fast-paced thriller that deals with huge universal themes like love and betrayal, the abuse of social media, the abuse of people by the government and huge corporations, and technological inequality.
I’d felt the characters were very believable and well rounded, though I would have liked to see a little more development of the true villain of the story. The interpersonal conflicts between Nick and Marcie and their respective antagonists was spot on, though! The characters really drive the plot in this story, and I could barely put it down.
I look forward to the rest of the series!
Ringer by D.T. Wilby
The Blurb:
Will is not himself lately… but is someone else?
All he knows for sure is something is out there. It wants his home, his girlfriend, his life. And it wants him gone…
Years from now, Will is one of the many who have benefited from gene therapy and replacement organs that fit like a glove. Growing up a sickly child was tough, but now he is able to live the full life he could once only dream of from a hospital bed. Life couldn’t be going much better for Will, until one night he awakes to disturb a break in. A glimpse of the intruder drives him to demand answers that he knows will turn his life upside down. Something just doesn’t add up and he can’t let it go. Is he losing his grip on reality? Or is there really something very sinister going on at New Horizons Bio-Tech?
By demanding the truth, he will only be hurting himself…
My Review:
Ringer is a real throwback to classic sci-fi horror like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
This is a novella length tale with very slow burn tension that builds throughout the book and gets quite intense at the end.
Wilby’s language is very literary in style, another parallel with the classics. So if you aren’t used to that, you might find it a little difficult to get into. However, the prose is often beautiful and has moments of true poignancy that I feel are well worth the extra effort.
The main character, Will, walks a very fine line throughout the novella where we are not quite sure if he is going insane or if his experiences are actually happening to him. In the end, we are faced with another, even more unnerving reversal (no spoilers!) which really brings up some excellent thematic questions.
I feel this one would make a great book club book, but I don’t want to discuss it too in depth and give away the twist!
The dialogue was a bit stilted in places. Again, it reads in a similar way to classic stories where modern writers favour a bit more indirect conversational styles. But overall I don’t feel it detracted from my appreciation of the story.
It’s very difficult to weave a completely story into fewer than 100 pages and Wilby has done a superb job with the medium. I will be keeping my eye out for more of his work!
Discussion:
Have you read either of these books? What did you think? If not, do either of them strike your fancy? Robertson’s The Blind Spot is one of the original Top 10 Indie Cyberpunk Novels I set out to read and review this year. I’m slowly making my way through the list, but I keep getting sidetracked by new Cyberpunk books!
You can check out past reviews here:
As well as some classics:
I have a review of Into Neon by Austin Dragon coming up, as well as a non-cyberpunk review of Alexis vs. The Afterlife by Marcus Alexander Hart, a fantastic YA/NA Paranormal that had me laughing out loud repeatedly and is a great fit for the other Sci-Fi Humour lovers out there.
What else would you like to see me review?