Cold Wind Blowing

by Greg Leunig

A citizen of Alaska's Arcology 1 has gone missing.

For the first time in any domed city, cybernetically enhanced gene-hounds fail to pick up the victim's scent.

After three years behind a desk, Special Agent Julius Weaver takes the case and quickly finds himself tangled in an underground of fringe science that endangers not just him, but all citizens of Arc 1.

Will one obsolete Federal agent be able to stand toe-to-toe with giants and secure justice for the forgotten?

If he's lucky, he might elude a bullet to the back of the head from an underworld mobster, a fiery death from an ageless corporate fixer with murderous intent, and a frozen grave beneath the howling storm outside.

And if he’s not so lucky, he might be the next to vanish without a trace.“The protagonist of Cold Wind Blowing, a hard-boiled detective, grapples with his own obsolescence, yet he's still determined to do his job, and perhaps find love. This cyberpunk noir novella feels like Phillip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler made a book baby and woke up in a surprisingly hopeful mood. Rollicking good fun, in a fascinating world. I'd read more any day!"

— Jennifer Pullen, PhD, author of Fantasy A Writer's Guide and Anthology and A Bead of Amber on Her Tongue



“High-tech modifications collide with low-life society. Monsters, closed-door mysteries, and too much whiskey. This has everything you want in a 21st-century cyberpunk story. It's a great ride.”

— Chris Arnone, author of the Hermes Protocol, Necropolis Alpha, and the Things Forgotten series



“With a hard-bitten protagonist and future-noir style, COLD WIND BLOWING features an exciting mystery that threatens to unravel the secrets at the heart of its snow-covered dystopian world.”

— Erica L. Satifka, author of HOW TO GET TO APOCALYPSE

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 14, 2023

About the author

Greg Leunig lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife and two dogs. His day job involves chipping away at the megalithic US coal and oil industry AKA he works in the solar industry.

He has a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing, despite which he prefers to write about magic and robots and explosions.

Greg’s fiction and poetry have variously appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, and others. His first novel, Multipocalypse, appeared serially on the now-defunct Jukepop Serials.

His second novel, Colossus, was published in September 2022 by Spaceboy Books.

Reviews

[Eryn McConnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a scifi future noir story with shades of X Files and Tom Clancy.

This was an excellent novella, wonderfully paced with great worldbuilding and fantastic characters. My only niggle and it is small: that it could have been fleshed out just a bit more.
I enjoyed this immensely.

[Bryce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cold Wind Blowing is the kind of story that makes you mad that novellas are a thing. From the very first image of agent Julius Weaver stepping down into the slums to meet other agents before the crime scene, Leunig easily creates a high tech/low life world that is oddly melancholy and beautiful while still being garishly oppressive and even violating in its corporate consumerism. In cyberpunk, it’s easy to move towards a stylish far future like Bladerunner 2049. But Leunig chooses to keep small and unexpected threads of our contemporary world, at times making Arcology 1 almost confusingly uncomfortable in its proximity. It’s a nice nod to the state of our own society while still staying true to the sci-fi elements of the genre.

But I think where Leunig really excels is his character creation. I am personally bored of the gritty washed out cyberpunk cop without emotions. Leunig sidesteps this trope expertly, keeping the washed out, hard drinking cop, but adding an empathy that makes him both believable and likable. Unlike many gritty noir detectives living alone with their hard alcohols, Julius might actually have an arc that sees his life change. He has optimism and drive, and ultimately, he’s the kind of person that people like, even with his rough edges. His backstory, peppered in throughout the novella, is also refreshingly new and actually interesting.

The pacing of the main plot is quick and the mystery is fascinating. There are fantastic twists and unexpected turns, and at just 133 pages (or about 3 hours of reading), there really isn't a good reason not to give it a try and confirm that cyberpunk is not dead. Rather, it is being reimagined and brightened by emerging independent authors like Leunig.

[Jennifer Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sci fi noir is excellent. I was lucky enough to get an ARC. Its like Phillip K Dick and Raymond Chandler got together and made a surprisingly cheerful book baby. All fans of sci fi noir should check it out!

[Mark Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detective Noir meets high tech corporate criminal. With space debris clogging traditional launch points, Alaska’s north becomes a launchpad with people living in a multilevel sealed system within a swirling storm. Outclassed and out gunned, a small band of detectives must solve a set of inexplicable murders. I rarely read in the middle of the night, but did for this one!

[Breana Sprinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shorter than his usual books, Greg Leunig managed to hook me with his unique world-building and technology.

This setting takes place in Alaska.
Inside of a dome city in this version of the world, We have special agent Julius.
He tries to find answers to a missing person's case. Starting off with a good mystery. Especially if specifically engineered hounds can't pick up on the scent. Starting off with a detective vibe.

We get interesting pieces of technology like the holographic tape used to keep people back from crime scene, LED animation in tattoos, and quite a bit more.
But while it gives the futuristic approach it also gives the modern world being retro approach. Switch blades. Rust vents.

One of the most fascinating pieces for me is the MMC trying to reflect on how obsolete he's felt in his job lately.
You'll see that there's no chance that he'll become obsolete if he actually has to do more than they usually make him do.
Because without those hounds, there's a definite need for detective work.

Leunig's usual criticism of corporate take-over vs the justice of the people coupled with an underdog character you root for.

A compelling plot with faster pace and a great ending.

Novella was a purchase.
Review is voluntary and my thoughts.

[Heather Bacani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greg does an incredible job of creating a futuristic cyberpunk environment that still feels familiar somehow. It has just enough tidbits and callbacks that remind me of now that I didn't feel so out of place trying to navigate this strange new world. He sets up the scenes in such a way that they transition almost seamlessly from one point to the next, and that always left me hooked and on the edge of my seat.

The characters all felt so real and beleavable, with their own inherent flaws that hindered them in some way, but didn't stop them from moving forward. Each character also has their own unique narrative style that it was easy to tell them apart, and I never had the issue of forgetting which character was "in the spot light" like I do sometimes with other authors. I also absolutely loved the quips and jokes speckled throughout, and at times I found myself in fits of laughter at the shenanigans unfolding in front of me.

All in all, this is a fantastic little read, and I strongly encourage anyone that might be on the fence to give it a shot - you won't regret it!!

[Brandon Getz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever side-project set in the cyberpunk world of Leunig's Colossus, Cold Wind Blowing is a tight and gripping corporate thriller set in a dystopian future I wouldn't want to live in but I love to visit when Greg is writing it.

[hush404 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well written, with wonderful world building, containing interesting ideas and well rounded characters. It gets started with a mystery set in a futuristic dome contained environment in Alaska, that really has one guessing for a bit before revealing more at play.

Being a prequel, it does have a bit of a set out plot it must line up to in the end and I wonder if this hurt it just a little. The last third of the book seeming to dial into that notion where I feel it could have kept stretching out the narrative a bit more before concluding. That really is my only gripe with the novella, that fact that it ended too soon and I was left wanting to explore it's world more before saying goodbye.
If you have an interest in futuristic, cyberpunk like, grounded SciFi involving a detective mystery, Mega corps, murder and the like, then you can't go wrong with Cold Wind Blowing!