Convergence

DRMR #1

by Michael Patrick Hicks

An Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 Quarter-Finalist

Jonah Everitt is a killer, a DRMR addict, and a memory thief.

After being hired to kill a ranking officer of the Pacific Rim Coalition and download his memories, Everitt finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a terror cell, a rogue military squadron, and a Chinese gangster named Alice Xie. Xie is a profiteer of street drugs, primarily DRMR, a powerful narcotic made from the memories of the dead. With his daughter, Mesa, missing in post-war Los Angeles, Everitt is forced into an uneasy alliance with Alice to find her.

Mesa's abduction is wrapped up in the secrets of a brutal murder during the war's early days, a murder that Alice Xie wants revenged. In order to find her, Jonah will have to sift through the memories of dead men that could destroy what little he has left.

In a city where peace is tenuous and loyalties are ever shifting, the past and the present are about to converge.

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 21, 2014

About the author

Michael Patrick Hicks is the author of several horror books, including the Salem Hawley series and Friday Night Massacre. His debut novel, Convergence, was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalist in science fiction, and his short stories have appeared in more than a dozen anthologies.

You can find Michael’s books on Amazon in print, ebook, and audiobook at http://viewauthor.at/MichaelPatrickHicks.

Connect with Michael at:
Website: http://michaelpatrickhicks.com

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/michaelpatri...

Reviews

[Vivian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sci-fi, assassins, and Los Angeles, this should have been right up my alley. Alas, I had some issues with the execution. The world building and characterization being top most. The action scenes were great, a bit repetitive, but solid, high velocity, and engaging. The introspection and background filling were far less successful. The sense of place, nailed it. This was Los Angeles destroyed and detailed enough that those familiar could follow Jonah's paths.

First person and descriptions are a little clunky, superficial. Makes sense in a scanning the scene manner, but combined with the first person point of view I expect more embellishment to reflect Jonah's personality. At the beginning, he sounds like he buys into stereotypes which for a man in his profession seems dangerous. Combined with the pattern of lose consciousness then flashback or change location feels plastic.

I know I'm breaking the rules of reading here by not accepting the premise set out in the blurb, but the naivete required to believe that Russia, China, and Iran could actually work together in a concerted effort is mind boggling. The internal elements in two of those countries are unstable that keeping them together is hard enough let alone mounting a coordinated offensive overseas. That said, it's managed to portray the U.N. as impotent as it is.

Some bold, but improbable technology made me do a double take. All for heat seeking bullets, but ones that can navigate around to find gaps in plating and armor? Yeah not so much. Some things are just illogical, like the wire and pipes stripped out of a house. That makes sense in a society that is recycling and a profit can be made, but there's no infrastructure to support that so it wouldn't happen. The incentive is missing. Where is Jonah getting money to pay for things as a refuge under foreign rule? The currency is going to be different, yes black market goods can get cash, but barter is more likely.

The unexplained shift in relationship between Jonah and Alice. Fuck and roll, or friends with benefits I get, but Alice laying down her cards for no good reason--doubtful. The Alice's shift from BAMF organized crime boss to little woman--No. Then again, Jonah isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Bouts of preaching, being overly invested in projecting present day issues into the landscape of the story from terrorism to Patriot Act to entitlement made me go



Bogeyman, xenophobic, dystopic world building which resembles flashes from news media outlets rants rather than a cohesive sociological construct.

And please, don't get me started on the representation of women. The frighteningly telling resolution with his daughter and Jonah's response is disturbing. And how did Jonah get from coward to hitman? The vacillation in his character from sweaty nervous to cold-blood killer was head spinning, the multiple times it happened.

Honestly, with more editing for the characters, consistency and minor grammar issues this could be strong. The concept of memory harvesting and convergences, similar to the research in social media tracking, but first person is really interesting. But here, it feels superficial and disjointed with character choices that are illogical. Like Kaften buying into Jonah's problem after his mission was complete--Nope.

So this was not my cup of tea, but it worked for many other readers. I suspect that my preference for science fiction over dystopia put this story at a disadvantage.

Overall, uneven pacing with characterization flaws in a blockbuster format.


~~Copy provided by Netgalley~~

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Yes, I followed the bread crumbs. Here I am.

Assassination, Los Angeles, and science fiction--it's like book crack, I can't resist.

[Ted Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came to my attention through a blog post by a reader who was comparing two cyberpunk books he had just read--my debut novel and this one. I was intrigued by the review enough to want to read this book, and I'm very glad I did. I admit I haven't read a ton of indie novels yet, but this one is easily the best of those I have read. This author has true talent, and with a debut novel as strong as this I certainly look forward to his future books.

As different as the stories are between our two books, they share enough similarities to make me feel a level of kinship with the author, as if we share some similar visions of what the near future holds. We both deal heavily in nanotech and brain manipulation and even with addiction stemming from the digital-mind convergence (sorry, I couldn't resist!). We both show America collapsing due to our persistent ability to refuse to pull together as a country and face the realities of our problems.

As with any debut novel, including my own, there are a few small issues. After the halfway point the author begins throwing in a bit too much exposition, and while even that was well written, those sections were far less entertaining to me and I didn't feel they were entirely necessary. Overall, though, the writing is as strong as what I see in the best trade published sci-fi novels.

I was sorely tempted to give this five stars, because I do believe it's tougher on indie novelists to produce truly great novels, since we don't get the benefit of high-quality professional developmental editors, and this book does about as great a job as I could expect from any indie. But in the end I have to stay true to my rating system, which only awards five stars to novels I love so much that I want to re-read them many times over again throughout my life, such as LOTR and A Song of Ice and Fire. So I just want to tell author Michael Patrick Hicks that he has a new fan, and all of you who have yet to discover his work should make time to do so.

[Jola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review also on www.jolasbookshelf.wordpress.com

'Convergence' is a great sci-fi novel, one that kept me interesting in its story the whole time. The plot was original and the characters well-developed. I think it has everything that a novel of this genre should!

Thanks to Michael Patrick Hicks for sending me an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Andy Thorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good dystopian sci-fi novel. I am a big fan of dystopian fiction, aimed at all ages and as light or dark as you like and whether filled with futuristic technology, real or imagined or in post-apocalyptic wasteland. This novel is situated at the darker, adult end of the spectrum and quite techno-heavy so if that’s not to your particular taste, you probably won’t enjoy this as much as I did.

The author writes extremely well and develops complex and interesting characters. There is a lot of introspection from the main protagonist and this allows the novel to explore some modern issues that are influencing present society as well as broader themes relating to morality, war, human nature and relationships. I like that none of the individuals or factions in the story are painted as wholly good or evil and that the reader can empathise with characters from all sides. Interspersed amongst the contemplation and exposition of how the world came to be as it is, there are some tightly written, fast-paced and engaging action scenes. Overall, a gritty but enjoyable read.

[J.S. Collyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Convergence is the first of Michael Patrick Hicks, SciFi writer's books that I’ve read. And, boy, was it an action-packed blast of a novel.

It’s set in a post-revolutionary America where the oppressive establishment has rounded up those who have so far survived the take-over into refugee camps little better than internment camps. There’s security checks, poor rations, poor living conditions. Crammed into these camps are what once were the ordinary people of modern day America, suddenly without jobs, homes or stability. Families have been split up or destroyed and every semblance of their lives overturned.

The main character, Jonah Everitt, has tried desperately to find a way to scrape by with his sanity in tact, whilst trying to keep his daughter alive and manage an ever-increasing need to experience other people’s memories.

Surgically implanted computer ports in the brain are the norm for people of this generation, allowing them to upload and download the memories and thoughts of themselves and others, meaning they can relive moments of intense emotion whenever they choose. But in this war-torn world, what began as a recreational and commercial activity is now at once a commodity and weapon. Information is power and with people’s thoughts and memories recorded and stored and accessible by others, literally everyone’s information is up for grabs.

It’s when there’s information that more than one person is, with power, weapons and influence, is after it that the problems really start to escalate.

Convergence is fast-paced, full of action and a thrilling ride from start to finish. Everitt struggles even more than he perhaps realises to cope with the hand that’s been dealt him, and sometimes makes questionable decisions in his fight for survival. But you’re right there with him and want him to succeed, however he goes about it. You ache for his redemption, or even just a crumb of comfort or stability, right along with him.

The language is clipped and bold, which is what you want for this kind of story. It keeps the prose active and doesn’t tell you what to think. You come away with your own ideas about the situations and the characters but cannot entirely argue that you wouldn’t be doing the same things were you in their shoes, be they friend or enemy.

The plot is many-layered and intricately woven. The narrative stays tight, focusing on Everitt's journey, but you learn of the vast reality that’s the backdrop to his experiences. This is how I love to explore fictional worlds rife with intrigue, strife and wide-reaching ramifications: through the eyes of one or two characters only. It makes you feel like you’re living in it with them. Disturbing as this can be at times, it makes the narrative real, which is what I like in my escapism. I want to believe. And with Hicks, I do.

There is violence, depth of feeling, explosions, car chases and tenderness. The book has everything and is perfect for those who like their SciFi gritty, edgy and realistic.

May there be many more.

[Anthony Vicino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Convergence comes right out of the gates swinging like a drunken baboon high on bath-salts. That can be a bad thing if you dislike fast paced science fiction, but if that's the case then you should mosey on out of here 'cause this ain't your rodeo.

Don't get me wrong, Convergence isn't all whiz-bang-boom action galore. Our main character, Jonah, is a single dad trying to survive in a world that's been turned upside down as though he were living inside a snow-globe. But he does the best he can given the circumstances. He grows throughout the story, but not always in the way you want.

That's not a bad thing, by the way. You can't always get what you want. Strong, willful characters are gonna do what they want, and sometimes as the reader you're gonna feel like a parent watching their tweenage son or daughter stumble out into the world. All you can do is sit back and hope for the best.

Which is hard in a story like Convergence, 'cause poor Jonah, despite how much you empathize with him, has some issues. He's addicted to DMRM (which is one of the most inventive "drugs" I've read about in recent sci-fi), which allows him to relive saved memories. Some of these memories are his own from a happier time when his wife was still alive and everything was honkey-dorey. Or, at least honkey-dorey by comparison to the hellhole his life has subsequently become. Some of these memories are from other people's deaths. The final moments of life as their bodies flood with endorphins and chemicals giving the viewer an unprecedented rush.

It's easy to see how, if the situations were turned, you yourself might turn to a drug of this sort. That's frightening, but also the hallmark of good fiction.

All in all, this is science fiction at its best. A solid plot, great action, beautifully tragic character development all set within a unique vision for what the world might one day become.

Full review available at http://onelazyrobotblog.com/2014/12/2...

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly depressing. The world depicted is horrible with authoritarian governments running rampant, and the US split into numerous factions, and being divided up by other countries. The Mexican cartels warring against Texas. Militant groups fighting each other and everyone calling their enemies terrorists, while engaging in their own acts of terror. Sounds kind of familiar in a lot of ways. By the end of the book there is a bit more hope. The situation is still dire, but there are still people surviving and attempting to make lives for themselves. I thought the projection of current events were generally plausible, and the characters engaged in realistic discussions to the point that I have heard some of these arguments in real life.

The main character Jonah is problematic, exhibiting aspects of toxic masculinity, but then it makes sense given the world he inhabits, and having him be some kind of paragon of liberal virtue would have been unrealistic. He's not someone I would want to know, but he is an effective channel for the story, and he does engage in introspection and displays self-awareness. As much as this book fed into my generally pessimistic tendencies, I still enjoyed(?) it enough that I plan to read the next one.

[Lena (Sufficiently Advanced Lena) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.25 (8.5/10)

I read this book as a part of my SPSFC badge!
So Convergence is quite tricky, because I actually really liked cause is dark as hell (also the goriness is a great factor) but at the same I'm not sure everyone would enjoy it preciselly because of that.

I'll just say that my favorite part was the world and the premise. Getting high on memories? Amazing.
We'll see what happens in the semifinals because this one of our choosen ones that is going to next phase!

[Tommy Muncie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of Convergence by Michael Patrick Hicks

Convergence is a work of fiction that makes me remember a number of others. Not that I want to criticise it for being derivative; in fact quite the reverse. The whole thing has a familiar echo of other stories I’ve enjoyed. It begins with such an echo of the film ‘Strange Days’ that I wondered when the book might reach Hicks’s answer to answer to that mesmerising, shocking and challengingly visceral middle scene where Ralph Fiennes yells ‘He’s jacking her into her own input!’ Instead, Convergence takes ideas I’ve always found engaging and creates its own engaging mixture.

The idea of people becoming addicted to memories blended with a dystopian USA in which the PRC and former are trying to make order out of chaos is a curious one. Futuristic highs and the people who kill for them populate this book from start to finish, but rather than being a straight game of cat and mouse between opposing military factions there is a mystery-centred plot that goes deeper into the author’s invented technology and the backgrounds of the characters all at once. The result is a novel of average length that takes a longer than average reading time as waves of information wash through and between ever action scene.

Of action there is plenty. Lovers of gun fighting and the bomb-fuelled chaos of war fields will be very much at home here. Everything is notably R-rated and certainly the kind of content where the likes of me can say ‘I’m at home here’ yet nothing feels overdone to me. The focus is not on the horrors of conflict so much as how it affects the central character, Jonah. The father-daughter dynamic once the latter is introduced is a typical parent-teenager conflict, but blended neatly into the narrative becomes something deeper once both characters start to show their vulnerability. Not always an entirely sympathetic character, I found myself rooting for this protagonist because of his sheer ability to keep taking what gets dished out in his life, if nothing else. His actions and questioning of which side he’s on do become predictable, but the real tension lies in whether or not he can survive it, and even if he does whether anything will change.

Convergence is at times a difficult read because of the resulting bleakness and the clinging-to-hope tropes do get repeated along with the anything-for-my-daughter. The puzzles and the history info-dumps at times become more engaging than the narrator himself. Any writing class debating both the virtues and perils of long information where the narrator is mostly buried would do well to take this novel apart. Sometimes the switch between details of how the current society came to be and the narrator’s present situation happen jarringly, but despite all this, Hicks as the author demonstrates a considerable skill in setting up an imagined society which although far-fetched and unlikely seems disconcertingly real.

There are no apparent holes in the made up future-history, and indeed some of it becomes intriguing in its complexity rather than confusing - the kind of writing where a slower reading pace both rewards and engages, and certain passages are worth scrutinising twice. The emphasis for me was on the fiction rather than the science (which is my personal preference in sci-fi books) but the science is dealt with through solid research and an equally adept authorial skill. Some readers might cry ‘not another info dump’ by the last third, especially where one concept becomes introduced in a way which although believable comes rather out of the blue (no debate possible here without spoilers). I would argue that there is a reward for paying attention through all the slower passages, even towards the end where a less weighed down climax would have been stronger. The narrator’s moralising often links the details and I as the reader never felt blinded by science even if the longer paragraphs could be heavy going.

Hicks’s descriptive passages are first class - the attention to detail in the narrator’s voice being partly explained by his arts background and in many places thoroughly enthralling, even when going through the most morbid details. I can forgive the author an early cliché where the character introduces his appearance by means of catching himself in a mirror, because the both human and place descriptions in this book took me to school on how to blend description in and bring the fiction around it to life. In my favourite moment, Jonah Everitt returns to a significant place (no spoilers) only to wind up describing destitute hobos and an emaciated, barely alive body on a mattress, a passage written in a way that took me back to passages from Ballard’s Empire of the Sun - a similar theme of how the details of war can become obsessive for the people living around them running right the way through.

The messages in Convergence are largely left up to the reader, which in a book with a first person narrator has obviously taken some work. Nothing ever feels preachy or thinly veiled about the idea of how the (arguably) most powerful society on Earth might collapse; nor did I find myself wanting to take sides in a world where they are perhaps all as good or bad as each other. The titular ‘convergence’ and other forms of surveillance and detective technology all carry various ideas of their own but at no point is there much of a two-way debate about it; what’s more interesting is how these capabilities make the story unravel rather than questions about whether they’ve effectively caused as many problems as they solve. This is all left to the reader’s own decision.

Don’t read this book if you want overwhelming happiness and positivity in your fiction, and don’t expect heroes in and villains in black and white ‘traditional’ sense either, but do expect a challenge and a beautifully crafted world, albeit a dystopic one. It might have benefitted from some of the padding being cut down but thanks to it all being so finely written I find myself feeling ambivalent about the slower pace and the history lessons, rather like I do with the likes of Peter F Hamilton and Stephen Baxter. When the action is in focus, it’s page-turning stuff, and the reader who likes their tech will feel very much at home here as well. Convergence reaches an ending that I hadn’t completely predicted and still found believable. I look forward to reading more from Michael Patrick Hicks.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 x ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review.

Michael has outdone himself with this book, the first thing that dragged me in was cover, I am one who loves good book cover and it can even win me or lose me.

Apart of the blurb was the next thing to catch me “ Jonah Everitt is a killer, an addict, and a memory thief.”

At the start it took me while to get into the book itself, that was mainly on my part for going into a genre that I have only dipped my toes in. Once the first chapter was in mind, I could see the letters in my mind showing me the story just like a film.

Michael description in this book is mind blowing I could taste those cheesy potatoes and feel the pain in Jonah’s back.

Definitely give this book ago it won’t disappoint you, if you like me and are dipping your toes is Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk genre this is a perfect place to start.

[Georgina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gritty post-apocalyptic/ Sci-fi thriller. It's always nice to come across an fresh idea behind societal breakdown, and in Convergence we see America being invaded by other world powers with shanty tent-towns in once vibrant cities. The characters are not the kind you warm to, they are cruel, self-righteous, and violent, but they do have interesting tales. If you like books where the people and places are described in rich detail with plenty of intriguing future concepts mixed into the story to explore along the way, then this is a book for you.
Definitely worth a read.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Like a number of near future thrillers, this one dances with the death of the United States. It’s a really interesting experiment in future scanning – trying to answer the question of what would happen if the Chinese invaded the West Coast, with the advent of memory saving technological implants which allow those willing to be able re-experience fragments of their own lives, and even other people’s. The mixture is a fascinating one – a sweeping narrative through the book which combines a country and a context where the occupiers have forcibly imposed elements of their own culture onto the occupied with the ability to then revisit one’s past through the technological.

And it feels as if the author put a lot of time into thinking through all the sociological and political implications of the situation. While it would have been easy to take sides against the evil oppressors, one is forced into much more complex assessments alongside our protagonist, Jonah, who’s thrown into the midst of a thrilling clash of agendas on the part to some powerful players. While he tries to cling onto his roots, his daughter and his sanity.

The book’s well written – with sweeping political and sociological critiques mixed with nerve shredding action. One moment we’re reflecting on the interaction between the political and corporate domains of post-war American life, and the next a bomb has gone off which forces us to confront them through the eyes of a man struggling to find his way to discovering what’s most important to him while the world around him is burning.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

convergence by Michael Patrick hicks.
Memories are the most dangerous drug.
Jonah Everitt is a killer, an addict, and a memory thief.
I really enjoyed this book. this is the 2nd book I've read of Michael’s and I've enjoyed both. I loved the story and the characters. Jonah was my favourite character. I didn't see that coming. 5*.

[Kamini Mehta · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the mood for a dystopian vision of the future? Jonah's life is a tattered remnant of what it once was. He continues on, determined to survive and trying to help his estranged daughter. A fabulous, complex read. But I wouldn't want to live there.

[Stephanie Embry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast-paced, excellent world-building, and definitely one of the cooler concepts I've read lately. This book definitely grabbed me from that first sentence, and I was impressed with the fact that Hicks does not shy away from describing the hard scenes. No fade-to-blacks here. Having read a short story by the author in an anthology called No Way Home, I was expecting him to hit me pretty hard in the feels, and he delivered. Throughout the book I was angry, I was excited, I was exhausted--the mark of a reader fully invested, which in turn is the mark of a great author.
If I had any single negative thing to say, it was that some of the relationships between the characters felt off to me. I can't really nail down anything specific, just that some things felt more tentative, less concrete, than they should have been. Honestly, the fact that the author has a light hand with character relationships isn't much of a negative.

Interestingly, I both agree and disagree with some of the other reviews I've seen here and on Amazon--yes, the MC does go through a negative growth arc and become more deflated as time goes on, but I disagree that that's a bad thing. I thought it was realistic and sensitive of Hicks to show the man being broken down by the circumstances. And, I felt that the book ended on a hopeful note. That final tragedy turned into a chance to remake himself. If rising up and starting over after everything is not hopeful, I don't know what is.

Would definitely recommend this book to techno-thriller lovers, apocalypse-fic lovers, dystopian-fic lovers. It's a fantastic addition to those genres.

[Michael Brookes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard good things about this book and I wasn't disappointed. It's a well written sci-fi tale set in the near future. The main character isn't the most likeable of people but his motivations and struggles develop throughout the story in a well thought out way.

There's some interesting tech and associated issues at the core of the story - namely that of memory recording. It's also used to good effect for the flow of the story allowing flashbacks to integrate seamlessly into the plot.

My only real down point was the setting. California having been captured by the Chinese seems a bit unlikely and I would have liked to have learned more about how this came to be. Once into the story it didn't make any difference as it did make for an interesting setting. Although again a bit more of the culture clash would have made for interesting reading.

Apart from that the story is well paced and well written. It didn't suffer from any bloat. There's a good blend of technology and the human side and it ends in a decent fashion. I also enjoyed the mix of action and more contemplative side of the main character. Overall a recommended read.

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the characters and world-building, along with a tense, fast-moving plot. What struck me as most refreshing with plots in which the USA has fallen apart, is the rest of the world's nations are actually getting on with their own lives. In the meantime, as with many conflicts today, they look on with indifference as the United Nations tries to ensure humanitarian aid and good treatment of the former US citizens by the Pacific Rim Coalition.

I found Convergence a great read and thoroughly recommend it.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Michael Patrick Hicks's short stories in the past so when I found myself in the mood for a bit of cyberpunk action recently, I dived into Convergence. I wasn't disappointed. The book is a very well written, fast-paced tale that reminded me a lot of the classic cyberpunk books like Neuromancer but still had enough of a modern spin on things that it didn't feel dated. There's plenty of different threads running through the book but Hicks weaves them together into a satisfying conclusion. Definitely recommended if you like your science fiction with a side order of grit.

[Simon Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book of Michael's I have read after Broken Skulls so thought I would know what to expect. I was very wrong as this completely different, but also brilliant at the same time.

The book is a brilliant example of the post-apocalypse genre and is very fast paced throughout. The way that Michael describes the world and characters leaves you imagining it as if you were there yourself and the whole book is a very easy read.

Overall it is a well-written book and worth a read if you are into this genre or would like to experiment in it

[Benjamin Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phew, this story was bleak. And often brutal. While there are some elements of cyberpunk in here (memory recording ala Strange Days / braindancing), Convergence is a near-future dystopia at heart, taking place primarily in a post-war LA refugee camp. We go into a lot of detail about how everything came to be - the war and its various factions, the geopolitics, the collapse of society. The details lend an extra layer of believability that goes a long way to enhance the grimness of it all.

The narrative itself is a twisty thriller with plenty of violence both doled and out received by our protagonist. Beatings, terrorist attacks, torture, etc. And there are some genuinely heart-wrenching emotion-grenades scattered throughout as well, following a fraught father-daughter relationship. If you like your dystopias extra dark, then this story is going to be right up your freshly-bombed alley.

[Pete Aldin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novel: 9/10
Narration: 10/10

Satisfying and very very clever.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read! It imagines the exciting and thoughtful details of a very possible future. The plot moves quickly and is easy to follow. Delicious, indeed!

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sad. I'm not one to put negativity to any effort at writing. That said..... stating all the things wrong with society and showing the readers how opportunist criminals can be (ordinary people and political entities) is not an enjoyable read. Maybe it(this book) is put out there to warn us how complacency can put people in harm's way. I did not finish it.

[Rob Slaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this product free for review but as always, despite receiving a free product I'm perfectly candid in my review.

In a nutshell, a foreign army has taken over the western border of the U.S. and California has become a nightmare of refugee camps and gang warfare. Our protagonist is the technological equivalent of a drug addict who lives in a refugee camp with his rebellious teenage daughter.

To the positive side, the author has cobbled together quite an interesting, though depressing, alternative future for the country. He has pushed technology forward considerably with brain-augmenting implants and related technologies that make the human animal barely recognizable. His rendering of this future time is vivid, evocative and thought-provoking. Hicks also has a flair for the descriptive especially when it comes to violence and sex. The book is, at times, rather gory and doesn't hesitate to be violent but it does so with immense skill that leaves a solid image in the mind of the reader.

To the negative, the story lacks narrative arc; in 386 pages there is little actually accomplished and there's no grand crash of proverbial cymbals at the end as you expect with most mega-violent stories. The world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. In the beginning, our protagonist is bold, confident and brash but as the story unwinds he just seems to deflate like a pierced balloon and ends up a fraction of himself. While this is perfectly lifelike, it doesn't gel well with the tonal qualities of the book in general. As a narrative, it felt like I was reading the middle book of a trilogy without having read book 1 and with no hope of a book 3. This book feels like a bridge more than an individual novel but based on the ending, there doesn't seem much of a place to go.

PS: I hope my review was helpful. If it was not, then please let me know what I left out that you’d want to know. I always aim to improve.

[Crittermom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dystopian novels are a penny a dozen, but Michael Patrick Hicks’s Convergence offers the reader far more than the standard dystopian fare. Convergence is an intelligent thriller, an action-adventure that poses questions to the reader on the nature of self and memory, on what constitutes terrorism versus fighting for freedom, and what comes after death.

Before the Pacific Rim Coalition conquered the west coast and America fell apart, Jonah Everitt was an art professor. Now he is a killer, a memory thief addicted to the experience of death. He lives in a refugee camp, just one of the many displaced. The one thing of value left in his life is his daughter, Mesa, and she hates him. The world is both primitive and highly technical. Most people have units that record their memories and allow them to access stored memories. Some even have medimachines that help the body repair itself after injury. At the same time, communications have broken down, access to housing, food and clean water is limited. Jobs are few and the city is partially in ruins. Efforts to rebuild are hampered by terrorist attacks. Innocents are at risk from the both PRC officials and freedom fighters.

When his daughter goes missing, Jonah finds himself in the middle, uncertain of who he can trust, of who he should trust. Truth lies in the details, where memories of the past and present converge.

Convergence is a novel that is violent and disturbing, but at the same time thought provoking. It raises a great number of questions about identity and responsibility. Convergence is not always a comfortable novel to read, but it is a good piece of speculative dystopian fiction.

4/5

I received a copy of Convergence from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

—Crittermom

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and Potentially Realistic End of the U.S.A.

Instead of a killer virus, ancient vampires, or zombies, the United States was ended by a sense of entitlement, the path of least resistance and the best way to get media ratings. The People's Republic of China dropped dirty bombs on cities, had Chinese nationals inject populations with resistant strains of bacteria, resulting in comas, amputations and illness. Instead of military action, the United States fractured. The U.N. is politically correct, and puts economic sanctions on the invading country. The PRC doesn't care, and things continue to deteriorate.

Using this as a background, our protagonist, Jonah, using the embedded memory recording technology of the DRMR, is paid by a Tong to assassinate targets and steal death memories from them by someone else after they are dead. Jonah just wants to keep his daughter safe, and be able to use the snuff memories from everyone he copies. He gets high off them, as they record the brain chemistry, physical and emotional state and play them back.

Unfortunately, his Tong contact, his mercenary acquaintance and his terrorist buddy have a plan of betrayal - one of them double crossing and triple crossing all the others in a web of lies so deep, you would need a data map to dig yourself out.

The result is a story where everything Jonah holds dear is in dire peril. The plotlines are intense, complex and tightly woven. The characters are all as realistic as the setting, and feel like you could meet them in a coffee shop. The action is non-stop in this unstable fractured America, where everything is for sale, including assassinations and death memories. This is definitely an excellent example of an apocalyptic America novel. The best I have seen yet.

[Gill's likes reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why I liked this book:

Boy, this was a good book to read.

There was a brilliant contrast between the a ruined landscape and nano-technology and beyond.

“A series of carpet bombings had wiped out much of the skyline. What remained of downtown were ruined shells; once-tall skyscrapers stood like jagged broken teeth in a bloodied jaw.”

What a descriptive picture it gives me in my head of a place desolate, ravaged by war.

The technology doesn't seem so outlandish when it is so seamlessly woven into the background of the story.

For me it was such an exciting and easy read, Hicks brought this dystopian world alive without compromising on the characters. As the story unfolds reading about the technology feels really ‘comfortable’ as if it is commonplace already.

I loved the characters, they were honest in their portrayal, strong and intriguing, but showing emotions and vulnerability, especially Jonah.

Full of nano technology and brutal descriptions of war and desolation, I was stunned by this contrasting observation:

“My fingernails worried at a small knot of fabric on the thigh of my pants, picking at the tiny, raised imperfection in the otherwise-smooth plane of cotton . I dug at it, trying to work the knot out of keep myself from going crazy with worry.”

This is an author I really enjoy, I love the way Hicks puts together his novels, his style of writing and his really imaginative plots that work so well.

I absolutely recommend this book to you all.

Source: Bought from Amazon UK.

[Eric Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Patrick Hicks’ novel Convergence had me at the first sentence: “Murder is easy when you wrap a cause around it, like a flag or a god—or money.” The narrator’s cause is money and really, what else is left to him? The Pacific Rim Coalition has invaded, the US has fallen and shattered into pieces, and there’s nothing left but simple survival for most of the residents of Los Angeles.

Jonah does most of his killing for a Chinese gangster named Alice Xie and mainly for the memory chip that most people have installed in their skulls. The chips, containing the entirety of a person’s life, are valuable on the black market because with them it’s possible to relive a person’s life. Not that it’s their lives that people pay big money for.

No, what makes the chips valuable is the owner’s death.

With a memory chip a person can experience the moment of death in full 3D, “the white, burning rush of death’s chemical dump.” It’s the ultimate drug and Jonah is a junkie, replaying other people’s deaths until euphoria turns into unconsciousness.

From the opening scene Convergence rocks and it never really stops until the end. There’s a gritty realism to this book that makes it easy to fall into it and lose track of the outside world. Jonah, the narrator, is, like a lot of other people, just trying to survive in a world that has turned upside down.

Convergence has its shortcomings—I found Jonah’s relationship with Alice a little hard to swallow at times and I’d like to know just a bit more about the organization Kaften works for—but overall it’s a fine book and just super when you consider it is Hicks’ first novel. I expect to enjoy his novels for years to come.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a dark, riveting, and grim world the author has created in this dystopian sci-fi novel. And what a backdrop for this compelling, complex, and fast-moving story filled with action, suspense, and an interrogation sequence that was 24's Jack Bauer-worthy.

Jonah Everitt didn't have an ideal life before his world was thrown into chaos, but he loved his wife and daughter and I appreciated the glimpses the reader is given of his 'normal' life. Those flashbacks allowed me to see how Jonah learned to adapt to his environment and become a survivor, while simultaneously trying to keep his family together as his daughter became increasingly distant. Jonah is a strong protagonist with many flaws, but also very vulnerable, which makes him completely human and entirely believable.

I enjoyed the sci-fi aspects of this story and thought the idea of people being able to relive some of their memories when they chose could give them a momentary reprieve from their horrific circumstances. On the flip side of that, the idea that someone else could go through your memories, learn your deepest secrets, strengths and weaknesses, was chilling.

If you're looking for unicorns and rainbows, this isn't the book for you. The atmosphere of Convergence is bleak, gritty, and hopeless for the most part, but this was a captivating and exciting read with some excellent descriptive writing.

I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Kath Middleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dystopian science fiction is necessarily dark and bleak. This story takes place in a future where part of America has been invaded by the Pacific Rim Coalition, mainly Chinese military who hold power there. Jonah Everitt is trying to find his daughter, Mesa, who has gone missing. There are terror gangs, local military groups and a woman gang leader, all of whom make it hard for Jonah to decide who is on which side. Many people have had a data port inserted in their head so they can upload or download information, chips for which are valued, particularly for ‘snuff’ memories. Early in the story, Jonah kills a man for his memory chip.

I found this story compelling to read, bleak and brutal though it often was. My feelings about the characters shifted as I read, though there were few I’d like to have known. The ending teetered between hope and despair and I thought it was particularly well handled. I confess to finding the product information a little cloudy, calling character sometimes by both names, sometime their first and sometimes their surname in a short space. It didn’t go in straight away and I re-read it. The description needs to hook you immediately.
I received a copy of this from the author – as a prize. A very readable prize indeed.