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The Price of Everything
John Wick
meets
Johnny Mnemonic
in a nail-biting cyberpunk technothriller about a courier on the run from his own Guild
Corporations fall, gangsters are killed, but no one messes with the Couriers Guild.
When Armand Pierce first became a courier ten years ago, he had an attaché case connected to a titanium cuff grafted into the bones of his wrist, and took an the delivery is everything. He can run, fight—kill, if he needs to—but the package gets where it's going. It's the Guild's guarantee, and since the internet went down in the Cyber Wars, all business, legitimate or otherwise, depends on it. Otherwise, he dies.
So Pierce knows he's in deep trouble when he arrives at his latest destination to find his payload missing, his case mysteriously empty. Something strange is going something that's already cost three couriers their lives, and threatens to upend the global order. And Pierce had better get to the bottom of it, before the Guild catches up to him.
Corporations fall, gangsters are killed, but no one messes with the Couriers Guild.
When Armand Pierce first became a courier ten years ago, he had an attaché case connected to a titanium cuff grafted into the bones of his wrist, and took an the delivery is everything. He can run, fight—kill, if he needs to—but the package gets where it's going. It's the Guild's guarantee, and since the internet went down in the Cyber Wars, all business, legitimate or otherwise, depends on it. Otherwise, he dies.
So Pierce knows he's in deep trouble when he arrives at his latest destination to find his payload missing, his case mysteriously empty. Something strange is going something that's already cost three couriers their lives, and threatens to upend the global order. And Pierce had better get to the bottom of it, before the Guild catches up to him.
1 pages, Audio CD
Published April 8, 2025
About the author
Jon McGoran
27 books188 followersJon McGoran is the author of ten novels, including Spliced, Splintered and Spiked, a trilogy of near-future YA science fiction thrillers from Holiday House Books.Spliced was named to the ALA’s Library Information Technology Association (LITA) inaugural 2018 LITA Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Lists and was also named one of the American Bookseller’s Association’s 2017 ABC Best Books for Young Readers. The sequel, Splintered, comes out May 2019. His other books include the acclaimed ecological thrillers Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up, from Tor/Forge Books, and The Dead Ring, based on the hit TV show, The Blacklist. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is the author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn, from Penguin Books. His short fiction includes stories in the recent anthologies Hardboiled Horror and Joe Ledger: Unstoppable, as well as the novella “After Effects,” from Amazon StoryFront; Bad Debt, which received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery Stories 2014; and stories in a variety of other anthologies. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to writers helping writers. When not writing novels and short fiction, McGoran works as a freelance writer and developmental editor and co-host of the writing podcast The Liars Club Oddcast. Find him on Twitter at @JonMcGoran, facebook.com/jonmcgoran/ or at www.jonmcgoran.com. Or visit www.spliced.world and splice yourself!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 27, 2026
This is a book whose plot depends on the destruction of the internet by malware, the consequent collapse of the banking system, the nature of money, and the possibilities of microbiology, and is best enjoyed if you do not know anything about the internet, malware, banking, money, or microbiology, because if you do you might find the nonsense that the plot requires you to believe distracting.
The basic conceit is that the internet became so poisoned with malware as a result of a cyberwar that it stopped working, and as a result of this society didn’t fall back to the point-to-point electronic communications used before the internet, but just gave up on electronic communications full stop, and that no one is either old enough to remember the world before 1995 or is capable of reading a history book. Obviously in real life the internet is already teeming with malware, but even if you are happy to believe that super “military grade” malware is out there in some way magically breaking mathematically proven encryption and VPN tunnels, you might still have thought that big businesses would manage to reinvent the idea of a private communication network.
Furthermore, we are required to believe that in the absence of electronic communications, society didn’t just fall back to the old, analogue methods of banking that worked perfectly well before the time of computers and start issuing chequebooks and filling in ledgers and so on, but has reverted all the way back to everyone storing all their wealth in bank notes under their mattresses, with couriers zipping around with attache cases full of notes to settle all transactions large and small, a system so stupid and awkward that the Knights Templar managed to invent a better one in their spare time in the 12th Century.
Also, you know how when something biodegradable is exposed to microbes that can digest it, it basically vanishes instantly in what amounts to puff of smoke, and doesn’t get increasingly soggy and rotten over the course of days or weeks? Well, no, I’ve never seen that either, but apparently that’s how the magic super microbes work in this world.
So, fine, whatever. For a variety of unsatisfactory reasons we have a courier whose job it is to move cash from A to B, and who is much much sexier then your average Securicor employee.
Once you have accepted that and stopped thinking about it, everything else is quite fun and it zips along at a decent pace.
It’s not quite Gibson but it’s not bad.
--------------
The more I think about this book, the stranger it seems that what it is fundamentally about is a critique of Capitalism - at various points various people say the usual things that student protestors who don’t know very much yet say - “unchecked greed is destroying the planet”, etc. - and yet it really, seriously and profoundly, doesn’t understand what Capitalism even is. There’s a scene towards the end (SPOILERS FOLLOW) in which a billionaire is sitting in his tower, far above the grime and violence of the city, waiting for a drone to deliver him another half-million dollars to add to the billions of dollar of cash that he keeps in his safe, because that’s apparently what the author thinks that being rich is; that at some point he internalised an image of Scrooge McDuck frolicking in his swimming pool full of gold and has never updated that story.
And when the microbe eats all his cash, that’s it for him, he’s wiped out, so he chucks himself off his balcony. This is absolutely nuts. I mean, if you had a billion dollars, would you just leave it in a vault, not even earning any interest? Because billionaires definitely don’t.
So kids, today’s lesson is going to be “what even is capitalism anyway?”.
And let’s start with “what even is Capital anyway?”. Is Capital the same thing as Wealth? Is every rich person a Capitalist? No. A pile of cash in a safe is not Capital; or, is only potentially capital. Capital is that portion of Wealth that is invested in such a way as to get a return on the investment. Capital is Wealth that you have spent on building or improving a business, on tools and code and infrastructure and so on. If you’re a billionaire but all your money is in a big swimming pool full of gold, it’s not generating you any income, and every coin you spend is a coin that you have lost forever, and you are no capitalist. Capitalists are rich not because they have lots of cash on hand, but because they own profitable businesses. The richer you are, the more of your wealth will be in productive assets, not cash.
The big question for how to organise human society is “how should we spend the surplus production, beyond what is needed to keep everyone alive”, and it turns out that spending it on building pyramids to ensure the comfort of the souls of the Pharaoh in the afterlife doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and building cathedrals to the glory of God doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and spending it on palaces for the King doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and giving it to the revolutionary committee for public safety doesn’t make anyone’s lives better, and the One Weird Trick that has lifted the mass of humanity out of subsistence poverty over the course of the last 200 years is taking all that surplus production - the profits from the factories and businesses and the savings of the workers - and investing it in more businesses, more ways that make workers more productive. Productivity growth is the only thing that makes people’s lives better. When someone discovers or invents an unmet need, people flock to buy their products and services and profits are high, so other capitalists think “There’s money to be made there” and Capital floods into that sector until all the needs are met and competition has brought the profit margins back down to normal. Or at least that’s what is supposed to happen.
Now I am by no means in favour of what 21st Century Late State Capitalism looks like. Capitalists don’t like the hard work of honest competition, and would much rather sabotage their rivals instead of beating them in the marketplace. Capitalists are constantly trying to create and exploit monopolies, and we must vigilantly guard against letting them do so. Governments that should be creating a level regulatory playing field and making sure that no one gets rich by polluting the commons have been corrupted and suborned. Big money has too much political power, and has been steadily eroding the safeguards put in place to ensure that the economy - powered by Capitalism - serves the people, and not the other way round.
But if you want to write a critique of Capitalism that can be taken seriously, you need to start with a basic knowledge of what it is. Otherwise you just sound like a fool who wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, not even to short-sightedly get more gold today, but because you don’t understand why you needed the gold in the first place and you want to save on goose-food.
The basic conceit is that the internet became so poisoned with malware as a result of a cyberwar that it stopped working, and as a result of this society didn’t fall back to the point-to-point electronic communications used before the internet, but just gave up on electronic communications full stop, and that no one is either old enough to remember the world before 1995 or is capable of reading a history book. Obviously in real life the internet is already teeming with malware, but even if you are happy to believe that super “military grade” malware is out there in some way magically breaking mathematically proven encryption and VPN tunnels, you might still have thought that big businesses would manage to reinvent the idea of a private communication network.
Furthermore, we are required to believe that in the absence of electronic communications, society didn’t just fall back to the old, analogue methods of banking that worked perfectly well before the time of computers and start issuing chequebooks and filling in ledgers and so on, but has reverted all the way back to everyone storing all their wealth in bank notes under their mattresses, with couriers zipping around with attache cases full of notes to settle all transactions large and small, a system so stupid and awkward that the Knights Templar managed to invent a better one in their spare time in the 12th Century.
Also, you know how when something biodegradable is exposed to microbes that can digest it, it basically vanishes instantly in what amounts to puff of smoke, and doesn’t get increasingly soggy and rotten over the course of days or weeks? Well, no, I’ve never seen that either, but apparently that’s how the magic super microbes work in this world.
So, fine, whatever. For a variety of unsatisfactory reasons we have a courier whose job it is to move cash from A to B, and who is much much sexier then your average Securicor employee.
Once you have accepted that and stopped thinking about it, everything else is quite fun and it zips along at a decent pace.
It’s not quite Gibson but it’s not bad.
--------------
The more I think about this book, the stranger it seems that what it is fundamentally about is a critique of Capitalism - at various points various people say the usual things that student protestors who don’t know very much yet say - “unchecked greed is destroying the planet”, etc. - and yet it really, seriously and profoundly, doesn’t understand what Capitalism even is. There’s a scene towards the end (SPOILERS FOLLOW) in which a billionaire is sitting in his tower, far above the grime and violence of the city, waiting for a drone to deliver him another half-million dollars to add to the billions of dollar of cash that he keeps in his safe, because that’s apparently what the author thinks that being rich is; that at some point he internalised an image of Scrooge McDuck frolicking in his swimming pool full of gold and has never updated that story.
And when the microbe eats all his cash, that’s it for him, he’s wiped out, so he chucks himself off his balcony. This is absolutely nuts. I mean, if you had a billion dollars, would you just leave it in a vault, not even earning any interest? Because billionaires definitely don’t.
So kids, today’s lesson is going to be “what even is capitalism anyway?”.
And let’s start with “what even is Capital anyway?”. Is Capital the same thing as Wealth? Is every rich person a Capitalist? No. A pile of cash in a safe is not Capital; or, is only potentially capital. Capital is that portion of Wealth that is invested in such a way as to get a return on the investment. Capital is Wealth that you have spent on building or improving a business, on tools and code and infrastructure and so on. If you’re a billionaire but all your money is in a big swimming pool full of gold, it’s not generating you any income, and every coin you spend is a coin that you have lost forever, and you are no capitalist. Capitalists are rich not because they have lots of cash on hand, but because they own profitable businesses. The richer you are, the more of your wealth will be in productive assets, not cash.
The big question for how to organise human society is “how should we spend the surplus production, beyond what is needed to keep everyone alive”, and it turns out that spending it on building pyramids to ensure the comfort of the souls of the Pharaoh in the afterlife doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and building cathedrals to the glory of God doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and spending it on palaces for the King doesn’t really make anyone’s lives better, and giving it to the revolutionary committee for public safety doesn’t make anyone’s lives better, and the One Weird Trick that has lifted the mass of humanity out of subsistence poverty over the course of the last 200 years is taking all that surplus production - the profits from the factories and businesses and the savings of the workers - and investing it in more businesses, more ways that make workers more productive. Productivity growth is the only thing that makes people’s lives better. When someone discovers or invents an unmet need, people flock to buy their products and services and profits are high, so other capitalists think “There’s money to be made there” and Capital floods into that sector until all the needs are met and competition has brought the profit margins back down to normal. Or at least that’s what is supposed to happen.
Now I am by no means in favour of what 21st Century Late State Capitalism looks like. Capitalists don’t like the hard work of honest competition, and would much rather sabotage their rivals instead of beating them in the marketplace. Capitalists are constantly trying to create and exploit monopolies, and we must vigilantly guard against letting them do so. Governments that should be creating a level regulatory playing field and making sure that no one gets rich by polluting the commons have been corrupted and suborned. Big money has too much political power, and has been steadily eroding the safeguards put in place to ensure that the economy - powered by Capitalism - serves the people, and not the other way round.
But if you want to write a critique of Capitalism that can be taken seriously, you need to start with a basic knowledge of what it is. Otherwise you just sound like a fool who wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, not even to short-sightedly get more gold today, but because you don’t understand why you needed the gold in the first place and you want to save on goose-food.
May 1, 2025
I bought this book because of the cover, and I am not ashamed to say that, but it was a bit of an error and I really should have known better. I only have a couple of things currently in my to-be-written file, but one of them is a story about a courier, and this is a story about a courier--a far future courier with a titanium handcuff permanently attached to his wrist, mind you, a lot different than what I was working on--so I thought it would be a cool read.
And to a degree, it works out fine, and even imagines a world where couriers are not just useful but necessary. But that world depends on two dystopian themes intersecting--climate change and One Big Corporation that runs everything--and the courier just can't be a little cog in that system (he only gets to make one delivery! One!), but he has to be right at the heart of the ginormous global conspiracy. And he can't date just anybody, goodness gracious no, he has to date the one exotic research scientist with a tragic past who has the key to the mystery of who is liquidating the world's supply of spendable cash.
Outstanding read if you like your action scenes laced with anti-capitalist sentiment and global warming catastrophism, otherwise blah.
And to a degree, it works out fine, and even imagines a world where couriers are not just useful but necessary. But that world depends on two dystopian themes intersecting--climate change and One Big Corporation that runs everything--and the courier just can't be a little cog in that system (he only gets to make one delivery! One!), but he has to be right at the heart of the ginormous global conspiracy. And he can't date just anybody, goodness gracious no, he has to date the one exotic research scientist with a tragic past who has the key to the mystery of who is liquidating the world's supply of spendable cash.
Outstanding read if you like your action scenes laced with anti-capitalist sentiment and global warming catastrophism, otherwise blah.
May 10, 2025
Reading the sample of The Price Of Everything immediately struck a chord with me because of the Transporteresque overtones. Couple couriers transporting cases full of large denomination cash and a near future world, and I was all in.
The crumbling society and reversion to paper, or in this case, plastic, money, works well. The many other layers of the world and its two main controlling bodies really fill-out the read, prompting a lot of interest throughout. It’s an easy and fast read with the questions concerning the main mystery stretched through the whole book without feeling forced.
Unfortunately, the main character is unconvincing, lacking the mental fortitude you would expect of a ten-year veteran of such a dangerous and tough career. The finale falls flat, too, resorting to completely predictable and clichéd monotonous action.
The crumbling society and reversion to paper, or in this case, plastic, money, works well. The many other layers of the world and its two main controlling bodies really fill-out the read, prompting a lot of interest throughout. It’s an easy and fast read with the questions concerning the main mystery stretched through the whole book without feeling forced.
Unfortunately, the main character is unconvincing, lacking the mental fortitude you would expect of a ten-year veteran of such a dangerous and tough career. The finale falls flat, too, resorting to completely predictable and clichéd monotonous action.
May 10, 2025
Well I’m a big sucker for f**ked up future worlds (we’re not THAT bad yet, are we?) so this one sucked me in real hard. Plenty of climate-change fiascos (gulp), mega corporations (also…gulp), lab-created bacteria…it all comes together in a spectacularly satisfying fashion.
Pierce himself was just kind of along for the ride, but that was fine. Most of us are basically just boring human drones anyway, until we get that one opportunity to either do something great or f*** everything up.
Probably my favorite “future” part was the construction robots. Great action/fight scenes too. Definitely hope there’s a sequel!
I received an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley.
Pierce himself was just kind of along for the ride, but that was fine. Most of us are basically just boring human drones anyway, until we get that one opportunity to either do something great or f*** everything up.
Probably my favorite “future” part was the construction robots. Great action/fight scenes too. Definitely hope there’s a sequel!
I received an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley.
February 21, 2026
"People think Uni Con is this revolutionary development, but it's really just a dropping of pretense, an incremental step along a path we've been following for hundreds of years. The same people are in control now as have always been.
They've just stopped pretending they aren't. That in itself isn't getting any worse than it's ever been, it's just that the evil it causes has been compounding all this time." She shrugged. "Now, things are coming to a head."
"You mean the climate?"
"I mean all of it: the climate, the water, pandemics, nanoplastics, wealth stratification, oppressive police, an unfair and unworkable financial system. We're going backward, not forward." She paused. "Okay, my turn again. You're a courier, not a cop. If money is being stolen or destroyed, how come you're here investigating, and not the UniCs?"
Pierce swirled his drink. "Well, I don't know what the UniCs are or aren't doing, but I have a personal interest in figuring out what's going on."
I read this book due to its longlisting for the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize – a prize in its second year and which this year in particular seems to be focused on near-ish future, inevitably dystopian novels, and in this case in more of a cyberpunk thriller than speculative or science fiction type genre.
The world is living in the aftermath of the Cyber Wars – a conflict between the US and China/Russia/North Korea where the latter threw out “all sorts of malware – crazy attack worms and e-bombs, self-replicating-this and Trojan-that and all manner of Ai cyber weapons” – and the failure of Western governments to protect them lead to the bigger conglomerates forming “United Conglomerates – UniCorp – a sort of non-governmental UN” to take on the attackers (successfully but perhaps self-defeatingly given the economic collapse of China lead to global collapse) and they claimed (but did not deliver) climate change.
The economic collapse and long lasting almost evolving malware lead in turn to the destruction of all digital assets, online banking, cryptocurrencies, phone networks, internet and so on.
And crucially to the book (although I have to say less plausibly) the breakdown of cryptocurrency and online banking appears to have lead to a reversion not just to say the pre-internet late 20th Century banking but pre medieval banking with a complete breakdown of any form of non-cash transactions (albeit with the cash in the form of paper notes) and with all trading in now a massively hyper-inflated (again I was not quite sure why) US dollar notes popularly known as “crinkles” as well as extremely high denomination notes (known as “Large”).
Which leads to the role of the main protagonist – Armand Pierce – who works as part of the Guild, a trusted group (one of the few still independent of the quasi world government UniCorp) of money couriers who have titanium cuffs in their wrist to which their attache cases of cash are secured and who suffer the penalty of their hand being chopped off if they fail to deliver their cargo of cash (of quantities which cannot be trusted to drones).
The socio-economic backdrops to the story are an increasing series of actions and protests by a group of radical climate-change-protestors-turned-reversers The Better Lates who are planning to launch a massive cloud seeding project and of UniCorp being about to announce the much hyped and much delayed launch of U-Net (a secure quantum electronic infrastructure)
Pierce though has a more immediate concern – his latest delivery of Large inexplicably disappears from his attache case, leading him to resort to extreme violence to avoid amputation (this is a book long on bursts of violent action) and then to try to understand what is happening as the Guild launches an investigation into his apparent dereliction of duty – even as it becomes increasingly clear that something or someone has the ability to turn high value notes to dust.
And its an investigation – taking place among the bursts of violent fight and chase scenes and the rather bewildering cast of gang bosses, drug dealers, wanabbe UniCorp Board members and Guild enforcers – which drags in Pierce’s jailed father (a Ponzi scheme fraudster), his ex-girlfriend Gloria (an occasional third party POV character – with a complex past of environmental disaster victim, research chemist working for the oil industry and then saboteur – herself also under some form of arrest), and the charismatic leader of the Better Lates with a series of links between all three (perhaps rather implausibly making Pierce not just almost the first to experience the note dissolving issue but also intimately connected to those at its heart).
Overall I found this an easy reading and entertaining (if not exactly plausible) novel which was very different from the types of literary fiction I normally read and an interesting edition to a varied longlist.
"So, is this about wealth disparity or the climate?" She shook her head. "They go hand in hand, don't you see? The rich use the resources and create the pollution, they burn the oil and coal and methane and pump out the carbon; and the poor deal with the floods and the droughts, the heatwaves and wildfires. That inequality is part of what's killing us. Look, we're not sending everyone back to the stone age. Most people, the vast majority, will be better off in the long run, since the money they have will be worth so much more. But the people in these towers, the ones wringing all the wealth out of the system, using up all the resources, they'll have to live like normal people, at least for a generation or two. It will be good for them."
March 1, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion-Solaris for an advance copy of this novel of speculative fiction dealing with a future world, slowly going underwater, a corporation determined to have all the power, hard currency, hard people doing bad things, and the one man who might be able to save it all, or let it just go to dust.
I remember the book that introduced me to the world and ideas of the cyberpunk genre, as I still have the paperback on my shelf. Most would say William Gibson who I found later in an old issue of Omni magazine, I think. It wasn't Mirrorshades the Bruce Sterling anthology, I read that much later. The book was Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams, and the cover made it look like Mad Max meets Star Wars. As I loved both, I grabbed it and gave it a try. The mix of computers, punk rock sensibility, dystopia, violence, the writing, the ideas. The Max Headroom, Escape from New York feeling that this was the future, and that it was going to be be so dark that sunglasses were needed all the time. Take that Asimov's Caves of Steel. The book and other books in the same genre hit me like a jolt of canned oxygen on the top of Everest. Soon there were movies, games, computer games, comics, and like every genre the good soon had to be found in a mass of bad. However it was always worth searching, which was why I loved this book. The Price of Everything by Jon McGoran is a novel of the future, where the Internet and government barely work, the seas are rising, hard currency rules, and everything humans value might be turned to dust.
Armand Pierce is an independent man in a corporation controlled future. The Interned has been hacked to death, along with most of the financial institutions and cyber currencies. In answer the world has gone back to hard currency, making cash king. To move these large amounts of bulky packages, there are couriers, who exist outside the system, with their own Guild, ideals and codes, and ways of handling problems. Couriers are outfitted with attache cases chained to the courier's bones, and are trained to protect their package until delivery. Pierce has had a lot go wrong in life, but has been a courier for over ten years, and knows what he is doing. Which is why when a package disappears on his watch, he takes it seriously. Mainly because his own Guild will chop off his hand, and maybe end his life. Pierce does not want this, and goes on the run, trying to figure out what is going on. Soon Pierce finds that there is a vast conspiracy, one that is bigger than a small robbery attempt. And that the past that Pierce that was behind him, might have much to do with what is happening now.
This was like an old cyberpunk story, with a world that exists, technology that is vaguely of now, with some changes, and lots of big ideas. Oh and violence, lots of violence. The world seems totally possible, especially with the news about foreign governments hacking cybercurrencies regularly, as well as mad billionaires ruining things. The story starts moving almost immediately and doesn't let up, and lets the world slowly unfold so that one isn't info dumped all at once. Little things fill in the background and again it all works. There might be a little much in the way of coincidences, but it really does move the story along. I liked the character, his motivations, and the motivations even of some of the people doing bad things.
A book that brought me back quite a bit, and one I really enjoyed. Science fiction and dystopian fiction fans, meaning most of the people living right now will enjoy this. Role playing gamers will get a lot of good ideas for games also, including the big plot which I am trying not to blab about. A really fun story, and I plan to keep a mirrorshaded eye out for more books by McGoran.
I remember the book that introduced me to the world and ideas of the cyberpunk genre, as I still have the paperback on my shelf. Most would say William Gibson who I found later in an old issue of Omni magazine, I think. It wasn't Mirrorshades the Bruce Sterling anthology, I read that much later. The book was Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams, and the cover made it look like Mad Max meets Star Wars. As I loved both, I grabbed it and gave it a try. The mix of computers, punk rock sensibility, dystopia, violence, the writing, the ideas. The Max Headroom, Escape from New York feeling that this was the future, and that it was going to be be so dark that sunglasses were needed all the time. Take that Asimov's Caves of Steel. The book and other books in the same genre hit me like a jolt of canned oxygen on the top of Everest. Soon there were movies, games, computer games, comics, and like every genre the good soon had to be found in a mass of bad. However it was always worth searching, which was why I loved this book. The Price of Everything by Jon McGoran is a novel of the future, where the Internet and government barely work, the seas are rising, hard currency rules, and everything humans value might be turned to dust.
Armand Pierce is an independent man in a corporation controlled future. The Interned has been hacked to death, along with most of the financial institutions and cyber currencies. In answer the world has gone back to hard currency, making cash king. To move these large amounts of bulky packages, there are couriers, who exist outside the system, with their own Guild, ideals and codes, and ways of handling problems. Couriers are outfitted with attache cases chained to the courier's bones, and are trained to protect their package until delivery. Pierce has had a lot go wrong in life, but has been a courier for over ten years, and knows what he is doing. Which is why when a package disappears on his watch, he takes it seriously. Mainly because his own Guild will chop off his hand, and maybe end his life. Pierce does not want this, and goes on the run, trying to figure out what is going on. Soon Pierce finds that there is a vast conspiracy, one that is bigger than a small robbery attempt. And that the past that Pierce that was behind him, might have much to do with what is happening now.
This was like an old cyberpunk story, with a world that exists, technology that is vaguely of now, with some changes, and lots of big ideas. Oh and violence, lots of violence. The world seems totally possible, especially with the news about foreign governments hacking cybercurrencies regularly, as well as mad billionaires ruining things. The story starts moving almost immediately and doesn't let up, and lets the world slowly unfold so that one isn't info dumped all at once. Little things fill in the background and again it all works. There might be a little much in the way of coincidences, but it really does move the story along. I liked the character, his motivations, and the motivations even of some of the people doing bad things.
A book that brought me back quite a bit, and one I really enjoyed. Science fiction and dystopian fiction fans, meaning most of the people living right now will enjoy this. Role playing gamers will get a lot of good ideas for games also, including the big plot which I am trying not to blab about. A really fun story, and I plan to keep a mirrorshaded eye out for more books by McGoran.
January 19, 2026
In the future world Jon McGoran describes in this novel, things are in a bad way and getting worse. The planet's climates are continuing to fall apart, with flooding and other things destroying infrastructure, including the Internet, though that was mostly dues to so many malware attacks in the Cyber Wars on systems worldwide. Large corporations eventually banded together to protect themselves, calling the new megacorp United Conglomerates ("UniCon" or "UniC"). Governments had all fallen apart, and UniC was now in charge. As electronic cash and records had been destroyed during the Cyber Wars, UniC said, we're going back to paper, including for money.
People now cart around paper bills, with large denominations (dubbed Large)designed to be counterfeit-proof in a tough plastic nicknamed crinkle.
There are still smaller corporations, many of them led by criminals, with many of these people trying to enter the ranks of UniC, which requires a high level of ruthlessness, complete amorality, and lots and lots of Large to impress UniC leaders and show these leaders that these wannabes UniC leaders had the ability to show future ability to amass more Large.
Commerce required the safe transport of this cash, and a new courier organization, called the Guild, independent from UniC, has couriers move the cash around in bundles of Large. The Guild demonstrates its trustworthiness to everyone by holding the couriers to an incredibly harsh set of rules: make the deliveries successfully, you get paid. Steal or fail to deliver (no matter the reason), you’ll be hunted down and killed.
One such courier, Armand Pierce, a former army vet, arrives in Alaska to deliver a briefcase of Large to a criminal. Problem is, when Armand arrives, the gang boss says three other couriers arrived already with empty briefcases (the man shows Armand three chopped off hands) and warns Armand that’s his fate if his case is empty. Which it is, inexplicably, as Armand has not opened the case since receiving it, and no one else has touched it.
Needless today, a firefight ensues, with Armand escaping and returning to his Guild office in New York City, where he hears of more couriers disappearing, and gangs all over New York City engaging in battles, as each thinks the other has stolen Large from the other.
Armand knows he's in big trouble, but that something really weird is going on. While running around New York City staying one step ahead of Guild enforcers, he reminisces about a supersmart bioengineer former girlfriend, who is currently under house arrest in another country for attempting to harm the corporation she worked for. Armand also keeps updating his childhood best friend, a drug dealer, about what he's finding out as he digs into the situation. The two are also running an investigation into who destroyed the apartment building their mothers were killed in when it collapsed.
There is almost constant action as Large keeps disappearing, causing chaos and a lot of grief in the live of ordinary people. The world McGoran shows us is super awful, with UniC claiming to manage systems and infrastructure at the expense of privacy and safety, while also claiming they're combating climate change, which is so unbelievable because what profit-driven system full of psychopaths would give a crap about the planet? Everyone knows that UniC is doing nothing about the ever worsening situation but are powerless to do anything, despite activists agitating. There are also cults of all sorts popping up, including one Armand keeps running into as he's racing around.
The story is reasonably enjoyable, though I never warmed to Armand. The future world is terrible, and I can see parts of it coming true (as in the flooded cities and the like). I'm not sure I believe that only one mega-corp would be managing things everywhere on the planet, but I can see how many would believe the false claims of an entity saying it would govern, manage all systems and fix the planet, as long one handed over all of one's rights and privacy to them.
My fave characters in this were the construction robots on the site of a new building that Armand encounters during a gunfight.
Thankyou to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.
April 4, 2025
A breakneck thriller, Jon McGoran's The Price of Everything grips you from page one and doesn’t let go. Set in an eerily believable near future where climate change has run unchecked, rising sea levels have flooded cities and corporations have stepped in to govern after the collapse of the internet, it's a world that feels uncomfortably plausible especially in today’s political climate. With Trump back in power and Elon Musk wielding influence, McGoran’s vision of unchecked corporate control hits hard.
The dual mysteries at the heart of the story are masterfully woven. Pierce has to solve the terrifying question of how money itself is disappearing, threatening the very foundation of this corporate run society, as the Guild comes after him for his missing payload. All the while he's still working to uncover the truth behind the apartment collapse that killed his mother. The balance between high stakes global intrigue and intimate personal stakes keeps the narrative sharp and emotionally compelling.
McGoran’s pacing is relentless, his action sequences electric, and his world building frighteningly authentic. It's a chilling commentary on corporate greed, climate change and activism. You’ll keep turning the pages, racing alongside Pierce as he uncovers secrets that could shake what remains of civilization. As the world falls apart for a second time he'll have to choose a side, and what's more important: revenge, lost love or the very fabric of society itself. If you love fast paced thrillers with a disturbingly realistic glimpse into the future, The Price of Everything is a must read.
Thank you Solaris Books for the ARC
The dual mysteries at the heart of the story are masterfully woven. Pierce has to solve the terrifying question of how money itself is disappearing, threatening the very foundation of this corporate run society, as the Guild comes after him for his missing payload. All the while he's still working to uncover the truth behind the apartment collapse that killed his mother. The balance between high stakes global intrigue and intimate personal stakes keeps the narrative sharp and emotionally compelling.
McGoran’s pacing is relentless, his action sequences electric, and his world building frighteningly authentic. It's a chilling commentary on corporate greed, climate change and activism. You’ll keep turning the pages, racing alongside Pierce as he uncovers secrets that could shake what remains of civilization. As the world falls apart for a second time he'll have to choose a side, and what's more important: revenge, lost love or the very fabric of society itself. If you love fast paced thrillers with a disturbingly realistic glimpse into the future, The Price of Everything is a must read.
Thank you Solaris Books for the ARC
June 11, 2025
This near-future dystopian novel will grab you with fantastic action scenes, deep intrigue, and some really scary world possibilities!
When I started reading it, I thought I was getting a Jason Statham "The Driver" type novel, but it rapidly morphed into a thrilling mystery. The protagonist Pierce is a courier who is much more than a meathead. He's muscle but with depth and a brain along with a complicated past. He's driven by trauma and an ennui with current events that has led to some questionable choices, but I rapidly fell in love with his character and so many of the others that came along.
McGoran takes an impending doom situation and manages to bring along some hope and light despite incredibly awful circumstances. His world building is thorough and his near-future setting offers some chilling possibilities. Tech plays prominently in this novel, but it's easy to grasp even for everyday (read non-science) people.
I particularly liked the "mob" characters who had heart and depth. I found myself liking and empathizing with these criminals despite the nastiness that surrounded them.
Teacher friends: This could be a great independent read for high schoolers who are reluctant readers. There's enough action to make it a page turner, and the couple of sex scenes are not graphic enough to cause squeamishness.
If you like a novel that has fast action, characters with depth, and some world situations that cause you to ponder and think a bit, this is the book for you! Enjoy, my friends!
When I started reading it, I thought I was getting a Jason Statham "The Driver" type novel, but it rapidly morphed into a thrilling mystery. The protagonist Pierce is a courier who is much more than a meathead. He's muscle but with depth and a brain along with a complicated past. He's driven by trauma and an ennui with current events that has led to some questionable choices, but I rapidly fell in love with his character and so many of the others that came along.
McGoran takes an impending doom situation and manages to bring along some hope and light despite incredibly awful circumstances. His world building is thorough and his near-future setting offers some chilling possibilities. Tech plays prominently in this novel, but it's easy to grasp even for everyday (read non-science) people.
I particularly liked the "mob" characters who had heart and depth. I found myself liking and empathizing with these criminals despite the nastiness that surrounded them.
Teacher friends: This could be a great independent read for high schoolers who are reluctant readers. There's enough action to make it a page turner, and the couple of sex scenes are not graphic enough to cause squeamishness.
If you like a novel that has fast action, characters with depth, and some world situations that cause you to ponder and think a bit, this is the book for you! Enjoy, my friends!
August 17, 2025
The Price of Everything grapples with the real issues climate change and cyber warfare, and the desperate situations to which they could lead.
Someone said to me recently “Greed is undefeated” and that seems like an apt slogan for entering the world McGoran has created, where devastating flooding from climate change has damaged and remade cities and their infrastructure; and the technologies that underpinned the global world of money have collapsed to a cyber war that has destroyed all value stored therein, bringing about a return to a cash economy and enforcement mechanisms that are grisly and unflinchingly applied.
A cash courier with a titanium alloy cuff implanted in his wrist finds the cash he is delivering turn to dust, which compels drastic action on his part to avoid literally losing his hand. But why? His journey to the truth brings together the twin threads of eco-disaster and financial primitivism in a race to a sabotage that may be about saving the environment or making a killing on yet another twist in the global economy.
The world is convincing and thoroughly conceived, the characterizations fully human and deep within the dire circumstances, and the stakes for the protagonist Pierce as dire as can be imagined.
A great read that poses questions about the future of our planet, as we play dumb about the pending environmental disasters and a tech landscape that may soon be outside of human control, and the short-sighted venality of the few who control the means to do something about it.
Someone said to me recently “Greed is undefeated” and that seems like an apt slogan for entering the world McGoran has created, where devastating flooding from climate change has damaged and remade cities and their infrastructure; and the technologies that underpinned the global world of money have collapsed to a cyber war that has destroyed all value stored therein, bringing about a return to a cash economy and enforcement mechanisms that are grisly and unflinchingly applied.
A cash courier with a titanium alloy cuff implanted in his wrist finds the cash he is delivering turn to dust, which compels drastic action on his part to avoid literally losing his hand. But why? His journey to the truth brings together the twin threads of eco-disaster and financial primitivism in a race to a sabotage that may be about saving the environment or making a killing on yet another twist in the global economy.
The world is convincing and thoroughly conceived, the characterizations fully human and deep within the dire circumstances, and the stakes for the protagonist Pierce as dire as can be imagined.
A great read that poses questions about the future of our planet, as we play dumb about the pending environmental disasters and a tech landscape that may soon be outside of human control, and the short-sighted venality of the few who control the means to do something about it.
April 22, 2025
The Price of Everything by Jon McGoran is a techno thriller set in a future where the internet has crashed and out of the ashes the great corporation of Uni Con has risen to dominate the world.
In a world where climate change is irreversibly affecting the planet, the 1% hold all the wealth and will do anything to maintain their domination.
In the midst of this, lives are devalued and the only way to make a living is to become a courier or to become a gangster.
Armand Pierce is a courier. When a shipment of money that he is transporting inextricably disappears he finds himself on the wrong side of the gangs and the Couriers Guild who extract recompense from failed deliveries by removing the hand of the courier.
In order to prove his innocence and his hand. Pierce attempts to find out the truth of the disappearing money. What he finds is a plot that will change the world and secrets he thought long dead.
The Price of Everything is a propulsive thriller that keeps the reader engaged until the very end, Pierce is a likeable character that you can’t help getting behind as he fights his way to the reason for his fortunes.
The background to the world that he lives in closely resembles our own, and tackles issues of climate change and corporate greed and how the two are inextricably linked.
The Price of Everything is an enjoyable cyberpunk thriller that had me turning the pages to the very end.
In a world where climate change is irreversibly affecting the planet, the 1% hold all the wealth and will do anything to maintain their domination.
In the midst of this, lives are devalued and the only way to make a living is to become a courier or to become a gangster.
Armand Pierce is a courier. When a shipment of money that he is transporting inextricably disappears he finds himself on the wrong side of the gangs and the Couriers Guild who extract recompense from failed deliveries by removing the hand of the courier.
In order to prove his innocence and his hand. Pierce attempts to find out the truth of the disappearing money. What he finds is a plot that will change the world and secrets he thought long dead.
The Price of Everything is a propulsive thriller that keeps the reader engaged until the very end, Pierce is a likeable character that you can’t help getting behind as he fights his way to the reason for his fortunes.
The background to the world that he lives in closely resembles our own, and tackles issues of climate change and corporate greed and how the two are inextricably linked.
The Price of Everything is an enjoyable cyberpunk thriller that had me turning the pages to the very end.
April 30, 2026
The Price of Everything is a wonderful futuristic cyber techno thriller that grapples head-on with the twin nightmares of climate change and cyber warfare, set in a world where “greed is undefeated” feels less like a slogan and more like a law of physics. McGoran imagines devastating floods that have remade cities and their infrastructure, while a cyber war has wiped out the technologies underpinning global finance, forcing a return to a cash economy enforced through grisly, unflinching means — like the titanium alloy cuff implanted in the wrist of the protagonist, Pierce, a courier who watches the cash he’s delivering turn to dust and has to take drastic action to avoid literally losing his hand.
His race to the truth braids eco-disaster and financial primitivism together toward a sabotage that may be about saving the planet or just making a killing on the next twist in the global economy, and the world is so convincingly conceived, the characters so fully human inside such dire circumstances, that the stakes land with real weight. It’s clever, smart, and innovative — perhaps the most intelligent fictional treatment of corporate greed’s response to climate change I’ll ever read — with a killer premise built around a dark, resourceful, biologically enhanced courier who is both hunter and hunted.
I was all in from the start, invested in every beat, and I can’t wait for the next in the series. A must read.
His race to the truth braids eco-disaster and financial primitivism together toward a sabotage that may be about saving the planet or just making a killing on the next twist in the global economy, and the world is so convincingly conceived, the characters so fully human inside such dire circumstances, that the stakes land with real weight. It’s clever, smart, and innovative — perhaps the most intelligent fictional treatment of corporate greed’s response to climate change I’ll ever read — with a killer premise built around a dark, resourceful, biologically enhanced courier who is both hunter and hunted.
I was all in from the start, invested in every beat, and I can’t wait for the next in the series. A must read.
October 5, 2025
Rating = 2.93
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Synopsis: When Armand Pierce first became a courier ten years ago, he had an attaché case connected to a titanium cuff grafted into the bones of his wrist, and took an the delivery is everything. He can run, fight—kill, if he needs to—but the package gets where it's going. It's the Guild's guarantee, and since the internet went down in the Cyber Wars, all business, legitimate or otherwise, depends on it. Otherwise, he dies.
So Pierce knows he's in deep trouble when he arrives at his latest destination to find his payload missing, his case mysteriously empty. Something strange is going something that's already cost three couriers their lives, and threatens to upend the global order. And Pierce had better get to the bottom of it, before the Guild catches up to him.
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Review: Not my cup of tea. The premise held a lot of promise, and the word-building got the book started with a bang.
Unfortunately, the main character is unconvincing, lacking the mental fortitude you would expect of a ten-year veteran of such a dangerous and tough career. The finale falls flat, too, resorting to completely predictable and clichéd monotonous action.
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CAWPILE: 7,7,6,5,4,7,5 = 41(2.93)
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Synopsis: When Armand Pierce first became a courier ten years ago, he had an attaché case connected to a titanium cuff grafted into the bones of his wrist, and took an the delivery is everything. He can run, fight—kill, if he needs to—but the package gets where it's going. It's the Guild's guarantee, and since the internet went down in the Cyber Wars, all business, legitimate or otherwise, depends on it. Otherwise, he dies.
So Pierce knows he's in deep trouble when he arrives at his latest destination to find his payload missing, his case mysteriously empty. Something strange is going something that's already cost three couriers their lives, and threatens to upend the global order. And Pierce had better get to the bottom of it, before the Guild catches up to him.
----------------------------
Review: Not my cup of tea. The premise held a lot of promise, and the word-building got the book started with a bang.
Unfortunately, the main character is unconvincing, lacking the mental fortitude you would expect of a ten-year veteran of such a dangerous and tough career. The finale falls flat, too, resorting to completely predictable and clichéd monotonous action.
----------------------------
CAWPILE: 7,7,6,5,4,7,5 = 41(2.93)
April 7, 2025
This really is a 90s-style action adventure in the style of Johnny Mnemonic. Its voice is its own (the nod to William Gibson's worldbuilding notwithstanding) and hero Pierce is as real as can be. Like Johnny, he's driven but somewhat naive, allowing for fallibility and learning as the story moves forward, taking us with him.
Things can get a little too descriptive sometimes, with a fair bit of showing rather than telling, but often it's the inner monologue of a lone man, so it's not as intrusive as it could be. The action zips along, so we're not given much time to spot any flaws as we try to figure out how Pierce is going to keep himself alive!
A fun spin on familiar tropes.
I was kindly sent an early copy of this book by the publisher, but the above opinions are entirely my own.
Things can get a little too descriptive sometimes, with a fair bit of showing rather than telling, but often it's the inner monologue of a lone man, so it's not as intrusive as it could be. The action zips along, so we're not given much time to spot any flaws as we try to figure out how Pierce is going to keep himself alive!
A fun spin on familiar tropes.
I was kindly sent an early copy of this book by the publisher, but the above opinions are entirely my own.
February 13, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion.
Set in a future where the internet has disappeared and cash is the only means of payment. Pierce is a courier who makes sure it gets to its intended recipients. When he opens a delivery and the money has disappeared, he becomes a target as he tries to find out what has really happened.
He also tries to find answers to other tragedies in his life and relies on his tenacity and multiple skills to do so.
A charismatic character who takes us on a ride where corporate corruption and the mafia go hand in hand.
A science fiction novel with a dose of thriller, very effective and action packed. I really enjoyed it.
Set in a future where the internet has disappeared and cash is the only means of payment. Pierce is a courier who makes sure it gets to its intended recipients. When he opens a delivery and the money has disappeared, he becomes a target as he tries to find out what has really happened.
He also tries to find answers to other tragedies in his life and relies on his tenacity and multiple skills to do so.
A charismatic character who takes us on a ride where corporate corruption and the mafia go hand in hand.
A science fiction novel with a dose of thriller, very effective and action packed. I really enjoyed it.
February 18, 2026
I'm not a huge audiobook listener but the reader – Patrick Zeller, apparently – really complements the story. I guess you'd call this noir climate fiction? It's some of the best worldbuilding I've read in quite awhile and I hope the author does more in this world. Great story, good pacing. Some suspension of disbelief is necessary – way too many coincidences tying everything together – but it's a good story and the characters are interesting. The primary narrator, Armand Pierce, is a typical hard boiled detective kind of character, and as the audience we pick things up well before he does, but that didn't hurt my enjoyment of what was an absolutely excellent story.
February 25, 2025
Clever, smart, and innovative. An intelligent and realistic fictional treatment of corporate greed's response to climate change; perhaps the most intelligent I will ever read. What a killer plot and premise, with a dark, resourceful, biologically enhanced 'courier' as both the hunter and the hunted. So unique. I thoroughly enjoyed this. A must read. (Chris Bauer, author of I HEARD YOU PAINT COWBOYS and the Max Fend Maximum Risk series)
May 5, 2025
Jon McGoran’s "The Price of Everything" combines real‑world headlines, cutting-edge science, and white‑knuckle suspense. The story riffs on today’s debates over biotech and economic inequality, and just when you think you’ve grasped the big picture, McGoran pulls back another layer to show you how much more is at stake. Smart, timely, and genuinely thrilling, "The Price of Everything" rewards both the adrenaline junkie and the reader who loves to see current events reimagined in fiction.
June 15, 2025
Thank you for the opportunity to preview The Price of Everything.
I think this book is best described as a cyber/tecno thriller.
I do like these types of books and stories.
The protagonist is not typical and there are many characters to keep track of.
Crime, bad guys and villains are part of this epic novel set in the future.
Good read and could very well be a movie.
3.5 stars
I think this book is best described as a cyber/tecno thriller.
I do like these types of books and stories.
The protagonist is not typical and there are many characters to keep track of.
Crime, bad guys and villains are part of this epic novel set in the future.
Good read and could very well be a movie.
3.5 stars
October 21, 2025
Wonderful futuristic cyber techno thriller; really action packed. As a fan of Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, I was all in after reading the description. The story held my attention from the start and I was really invested in the premise. Can’t wait for the next in series and hoping that happens quickly.
March 14, 2025
A well-written Dystopian thriller. Solid MC. Fun action scenes. Interesting and creative plot. The ending was kinda predictable but fine.
First time reading this author. I'll be checking out some of his earlier stuff.
Read from an ARC in March 2025.
First time reading this author. I'll be checking out some of his earlier stuff.
Read from an ARC in March 2025.
December 18, 2025
I've read several books penned by Jon McGoran, and enjoyed all of them. This one doesn't disappoint. McGoran skillfully brings the reader into a dystopian future where couriers with chains grafted into their arms, carry suitcases with money.I highly recommend it.
January 14, 2026
Bought this in a whim because I was looking for something original and it was pretty good- it definitely did not follow a cookie cutter expected pattern for a thriller, and there were some cool scientific speculations about how new discoveries change society. Glad I picked it up.
June 14, 2026
McGoran incorporates interesting libertarian principles into this novel which makes it a fascinating read. I struggled with the pace and in places it hit a little too close to current events for comfort.
July 25, 2025
Wow! What a fun, energetic page turner. I would go see this on the big screen. 😎👍
September 8, 2025
This would make an excellent action movie. I have rounded up because I think others might like it more than I did. Too many fight scenes for my taste though.
December 23, 2025
Too much romance - not enough world-building.
February 5, 2026
This was an exciting story and so, so familiar. I feel like McGoran had a crystal ball when he was writing it.
March 29, 2026
It's unusual that I read a book from a prize list and find out it is an action thriller, like a proper one with conspiracies and shooting and car chases and explosions. This was exciting and attention grabbing, with the background science not coming off as too complex.
The climate issues almost take a back seat to the action, but the book still does a good job of highlighting the impact of corporate greed and corruption on the environment. Definitely not a boring or overly depressing dystopian read.
The climate issues almost take a back seat to the action, but the book still does a good job of highlighting the impact of corporate greed and corruption on the environment. Definitely not a boring or overly depressing dystopian read.
July 18, 2025
Imagine a not-too-distant future when computer viruses have collapsed the banking system, a cabal of sinister corporate overlords is in charge, and climate change has drastically remapped the earth. That's the backdrop for The Price of Everything, a chillingly plausible thriller from the talented Jon McGoran. It's a wild tale, packed with action yet managing to slow down at just the right moments, giving its characters depth and humanity. The reluctant hero of the story is Armand Pierce, whose life and livelihood depend on his ability to keep his head down and to deliver large sums of cash in a secure briefcase. He used to be very good at both of those things -- until now.
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