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Nekonikon Punk Trilogy #3
Ctrl+Esc
315 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2026
About the author
S.D. Miller
3 books2 followersS.D. Miller is an author and educator from Nova Scotia, Canada. After years teaching and traveling across several continents, he brings a global and philosophical lens to his fiction. His debut novel, Nekonikon Punk: Ctrl Break, won the 2024 Indies Today Award for Best Sci-Fi Action Adventure. Miller’s work blends action and insight, exploring how technology and power shape the human story.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 28, 2026
So, here we are. The trilogy is over and I want to talk about it, this meaning this review is for the trilogy in its entirety.
Since I’m no professional and writing carries a somewhat credibility weight, and kneeling deep both in the foundational punk aesthetic and in my favourite character from the series (that’s Kara, btw), BRACE YOURSELVES BECAUSE I’M NOT FUCKING BEHAVE. From now on what you will read is a jumble of disjointed thoughts, out of context quotations as to not give anything away to whom hasn’t read the book, bad translated uneducated opinions (I’ve alteady stated I’m no professional, didn’t I?), vulgarities and shouting.
This is how much I fucking loved this trilogy.
(On a side note. I read the entirety of the last book in somewhat less than 16 hours, counting sleeping and working hours. “This means you read it in every possible spare moment!”. You could bet I did.)
Without further ado, let’s get started.
THE STORY ARCS
There isn’t a character that won’t draw you emotions, those being both love, hate or sympathy. For instance, Rafiq is so miserable I cannot hate him for the life of me. Some may get retribution, some may redeem, all of them are good (from a narrative standpoint).
I especially loved, in the first book, how the music (FUCKING HARDCORE/POST PUNK MUSIC, LET IT SINK) is fundamental in one character transformational arc.
As an edgy teenager (I retired as teenager 12ish years ago) I dived into metal, nu metal and metalcore, while I thought punk were “just four chords but veeeeeery quick”. Oh boy, was I wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I was heart deep into the whole slam dancing, poging, headbanging subculture, I just didn’t like punk music. UNTIL
Until I read the very book of this trilogy and followed the playlist from the author. Sadly, as a non-native english speaker, I couldn’t manage to listen to someone sing while reading something completely different (while I can in my native language, I swear). So, this toast is for you, author. Thanks.
Speaking of arcs, ALMOST all of ‘em are typical of the cyberpunk narrative: not all of them will redeem, there are characters that are right and others that are so fucking desplicably and evilly wrong and for the love of God or whatever why don’t more people read this kinda stuff is so far beyond me I can’t… where was I?
So, on a moral standpoint there’s not much new EXCEPT THIS ONE CHARACTER SO FUCKING BRILLIANTLY CHANGE MIND (not giving anything away is getting progressively hard, hope that someone who read the first book can understand what I am saying) showing very clearly where the heart of the author stands (not that writing a cyberpunk trilogy make this necessary, if you got what I’m saying here in cyberpunk being inherently anti-authoritarian and… punk, for fuck’s sake).
The punks seems a bit of mary-sues them all at a superficial reading and while I think this is not the case (they aren’t great at everything and they fail quite often) even if it was it’d have drawn so much from Plato’s Cave myth and that’s good enough for the gnostic myself.
Speaking of arcs I have to spend two words on the ending. It’s good. maybe a little too optimistic (for a cyberpunk standpoint. A lot of good people dies in the worst way during the trilogy) but it’s so human it’s frankly awesome. Many of my non-cyberpunk favourite authors showed a love for humankind complexity of both being heavenly-good and horribly-kinda-even-devil-intimidating cruel (Terry Pratchett above all) and here I found the same mood.
It goes without saying that I loved it (I mean, I even compared S.D. Miller with my all time favourite author. It actually should have gone without saying it, shouldn’t it?)
A GOAL WORTH THE STRUGGLE
What can an author in these very times add to the cyberpunk discourse? There’ve been Gibson, Philip K. Dick in literature, Oshii, Pondsmith, the Wachowsky sisters in other media, what can an author add that have not been discussed?
As with some of the authors I have mentioned the discourse revolves around free will, the philosophical definition of “human” and the nature of reality itself. It is obvious, I think, that the thesis climax find its home in the final pages and this returns to the whole “loving humanity in its complexity” discourse, but discussions of it are periodically drawn out during the whole of the trilogy.
Listen, I know. I may appreciate all of the discourse because I ultimately and intimately agree with it, and in the most naïve and confirmation bias fashion, I find it ingenious (this made me smile thinking at the very last pages) but please, please, please. The whole thing surrounding AI and echo chambers is FUCKING GOLD (I realised it’s some time since the last curse word in this review. Here you are.)
The aesthetic itself is a mash-up of Neuromancer, Tron trilogy, Cyberpunk franchise, distilled to the core and delivered pristine. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the Logyu or Cogsmythe nets, nor the chaos theory.
“ARE YOU GONNA BEHAVE?” “HARDLY, IN FACT-“
Cyberpunk is a place for grey and nuanced morals. One day or another in a cyberpunk world you’ll take a life. It’s not even a matter of possibility, it’s a matter of context. In cyberpunk aesthetic, dare I say in punk aesthetic as a whole, conflict is resolved through force. Even the look (bright coloured spiky hairs, leather jackets and so on) is made to make the observer uneasy. The punk aesthetic is not (usually) the place where someone whispers politically correct solution to the world problems. To be clear: punk is the place where a bassist smashed his very bass against the pavement during a dispute and get prized with being immortalised as the cover of one of the most famous albums of the whole history of music.
Cyberpunk is the place where one’s life is inherently worthless and eventually binded to one’s wealth (remember something?), where rich megacorp boards have grown so powerful that they substituted the government de facto (or actually) and since the power (executive, judicial and legistative) is in one board’s hand, it depicts a dictatorship of wealth. In a landscape of dictatorships many populations have storically resorted to various degrees of violence (resistance was a widespread phenomenon in Europe during WW2, each with its own peculiarities) and so, moral grey.
The good guys, thererefore, indulge in actual guerrilla act, collapsing buildings and thus creating a big collateral damage. Nothing unsettling. Well, almost. There’s a particularly uhm… morally grey fucked up scene in this very last book. But there’s only one way to get rid of a shadow, after all.
CONCLUSIONS
I should include acknowledgement for anyone enduring this rambling wall of text this far, but this second toast is for the author, hoping they didn’t fall asleep reading this here (in case they did). For their love of music and making me discover Bad Brains (and a bunch more, go fucking listening to the three playlists), for paying this beautiful tribute to slam dacing and pogo, for making me fall in love with Surmieda, Penny, Kara (❤️), Beeson (and for making me fear Beeson), for making me ditch A.I. as a rubber wall/brainstorm tool, and last but not least, to having shown that one actually can write genre with their own twists and especially for the ending. Thanks a lot, author.
Since I’m no professional and writing carries a somewhat credibility weight, and kneeling deep both in the foundational punk aesthetic and in my favourite character from the series (that’s Kara, btw), BRACE YOURSELVES BECAUSE I’M NOT FUCKING BEHAVE. From now on what you will read is a jumble of disjointed thoughts, out of context quotations as to not give anything away to whom hasn’t read the book, bad translated uneducated opinions (I’ve alteady stated I’m no professional, didn’t I?), vulgarities and shouting.
This is how much I fucking loved this trilogy.
(On a side note. I read the entirety of the last book in somewhat less than 16 hours, counting sleeping and working hours. “This means you read it in every possible spare moment!”. You could bet I did.)
Without further ado, let’s get started.
THE STORY ARCS
There isn’t a character that won’t draw you emotions, those being both love, hate or sympathy. For instance, Rafiq is so miserable I cannot hate him for the life of me. Some may get retribution, some may redeem, all of them are good (from a narrative standpoint).
I especially loved, in the first book, how the music (FUCKING HARDCORE/POST PUNK MUSIC, LET IT SINK) is fundamental in one character transformational arc.
As an edgy teenager (I retired as teenager 12ish years ago) I dived into metal, nu metal and metalcore, while I thought punk were “just four chords but veeeeeery quick”. Oh boy, was I wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I was heart deep into the whole slam dancing, poging, headbanging subculture, I just didn’t like punk music. UNTIL
Until I read the very book of this trilogy and followed the playlist from the author. Sadly, as a non-native english speaker, I couldn’t manage to listen to someone sing while reading something completely different (while I can in my native language, I swear). So, this toast is for you, author. Thanks.
Speaking of arcs, ALMOST all of ‘em are typical of the cyberpunk narrative: not all of them will redeem, there are characters that are right and others that are so fucking desplicably and evilly wrong and for the love of God or whatever why don’t more people read this kinda stuff is so far beyond me I can’t… where was I?
So, on a moral standpoint there’s not much new EXCEPT THIS ONE CHARACTER SO FUCKING BRILLIANTLY CHANGE MIND (not giving anything away is getting progressively hard, hope that someone who read the first book can understand what I am saying) showing very clearly where the heart of the author stands (not that writing a cyberpunk trilogy make this necessary, if you got what I’m saying here in cyberpunk being inherently anti-authoritarian and… punk, for fuck’s sake).
The punks seems a bit of mary-sues them all at a superficial reading and while I think this is not the case (they aren’t great at everything and they fail quite often) even if it was it’d have drawn so much from Plato’s Cave myth and that’s good enough for the gnostic myself.
Speaking of arcs I have to spend two words on the ending. It’s good. maybe a little too optimistic (for a cyberpunk standpoint. A lot of good people dies in the worst way during the trilogy) but it’s so human it’s frankly awesome. Many of my non-cyberpunk favourite authors showed a love for humankind complexity of both being heavenly-good and horribly-kinda-even-devil-intimidating cruel (Terry Pratchett above all) and here I found the same mood.
It goes without saying that I loved it (I mean, I even compared S.D. Miller with my all time favourite author. It actually should have gone without saying it, shouldn’t it?)
A GOAL WORTH THE STRUGGLE
What can an author in these very times add to the cyberpunk discourse? There’ve been Gibson, Philip K. Dick in literature, Oshii, Pondsmith, the Wachowsky sisters in other media, what can an author add that have not been discussed?
As with some of the authors I have mentioned the discourse revolves around free will, the philosophical definition of “human” and the nature of reality itself. It is obvious, I think, that the thesis climax find its home in the final pages and this returns to the whole “loving humanity in its complexity” discourse, but discussions of it are periodically drawn out during the whole of the trilogy.
Listen, I know. I may appreciate all of the discourse because I ultimately and intimately agree with it, and in the most naïve and confirmation bias fashion, I find it ingenious (this made me smile thinking at the very last pages) but please, please, please. The whole thing surrounding AI and echo chambers is FUCKING GOLD (I realised it’s some time since the last curse word in this review. Here you are.)
The aesthetic itself is a mash-up of Neuromancer, Tron trilogy, Cyberpunk franchise, distilled to the core and delivered pristine. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the Logyu or Cogsmythe nets, nor the chaos theory.
“ARE YOU GONNA BEHAVE?” “HARDLY, IN FACT-“
Cyberpunk is a place for grey and nuanced morals. One day or another in a cyberpunk world you’ll take a life. It’s not even a matter of possibility, it’s a matter of context. In cyberpunk aesthetic, dare I say in punk aesthetic as a whole, conflict is resolved through force. Even the look (bright coloured spiky hairs, leather jackets and so on) is made to make the observer uneasy. The punk aesthetic is not (usually) the place where someone whispers politically correct solution to the world problems. To be clear: punk is the place where a bassist smashed his very bass against the pavement during a dispute and get prized with being immortalised as the cover of one of the most famous albums of the whole history of music.
Cyberpunk is the place where one’s life is inherently worthless and eventually binded to one’s wealth (remember something?), where rich megacorp boards have grown so powerful that they substituted the government de facto (or actually) and since the power (executive, judicial and legistative) is in one board’s hand, it depicts a dictatorship of wealth. In a landscape of dictatorships many populations have storically resorted to various degrees of violence (resistance was a widespread phenomenon in Europe during WW2, each with its own peculiarities) and so, moral grey.
The good guys, thererefore, indulge in actual guerrilla act, collapsing buildings and thus creating a big collateral damage. Nothing unsettling. Well, almost. There’s a particularly uhm… morally grey fucked up scene in this very last book. But there’s only one way to get rid of a shadow, after all.
CONCLUSIONS
I should include acknowledgement for anyone enduring this rambling wall of text this far, but this second toast is for the author, hoping they didn’t fall asleep reading this here (in case they did). For their love of music and making me discover Bad Brains (and a bunch more, go fucking listening to the three playlists), for paying this beautiful tribute to slam dacing and pogo, for making me fall in love with Surmieda, Penny, Kara (❤️), Beeson (and for making me fear Beeson), for making me ditch A.I. as a rubber wall/brainstorm tool, and last but not least, to having shown that one actually can write genre with their own twists and especially for the ending. Thanks a lot, author.
April 25, 2026
S. D. Miller's third installment in the Nekonikon Punk Trilogy is a gritty sci-fi read that is full of doubles crosses and brutal deaths. CTRL + Esc begins with Juan, who has hidden himself on the remote city of Hope. After joining the military force, Juan goes on a resupply mission where his team is double crossed and ambushed. Juan grapples with the internal struggle of wanting to help others, while not losing himself to becoming a mindless killer
After Juan's recently removed neuro link explodes, due to the prompting of the cybernetic humanoid, Greta (Metalfist), Juan races towards Nekonikon in an attempt to find the woman he loves who was imprisoned by Greta to create a mind control program call FreeFall.
This novel has so many different events of betrayals, murders, and double crosses that it is hard to contain it all in a short synopsis.
I enjoyed the dark and gritty tone of this novel. S. D. Miller's world conveys themes of needing to step out of what is comfortable and take charge of your destiny. He has the reader bear witness to loss, pain, and forces a self-reflection of the reader on how society functions. His novel is a page turning sci-fi adventure that ends with a deep sense of hope for the future and enjoying each and every moment of life.
I truly loved Greta's motivation as one who simply wanted to make Nekonikon a better city to wanting to take over and control everyone. As a villain, her character development only got better and better as the trilogy progressed. As a reader, I could understand her motivation and see how that drove her to become the evil cybernetic tyrant she truly was on the inside all along.
This is one of the best endings to a trilogy I have read in a sci-fi series. There are so many thought provoking themes present, and the characters and their motivations are understandable and relatable.
If you are someone who enjoys movies like The Matrix, Blade Runner, or the Fifth Element, then you should read S. D. Miller's Nekonikon Punk trilogy.
After Juan's recently removed neuro link explodes, due to the prompting of the cybernetic humanoid, Greta (Metalfist), Juan races towards Nekonikon in an attempt to find the woman he loves who was imprisoned by Greta to create a mind control program call FreeFall.
This novel has so many different events of betrayals, murders, and double crosses that it is hard to contain it all in a short synopsis.
I enjoyed the dark and gritty tone of this novel. S. D. Miller's world conveys themes of needing to step out of what is comfortable and take charge of your destiny. He has the reader bear witness to loss, pain, and forces a self-reflection of the reader on how society functions. His novel is a page turning sci-fi adventure that ends with a deep sense of hope for the future and enjoying each and every moment of life.
I truly loved Greta's motivation as one who simply wanted to make Nekonikon a better city to wanting to take over and control everyone. As a villain, her character development only got better and better as the trilogy progressed. As a reader, I could understand her motivation and see how that drove her to become the evil cybernetic tyrant she truly was on the inside all along.
This is one of the best endings to a trilogy I have read in a sci-fi series. There are so many thought provoking themes present, and the characters and their motivations are understandable and relatable.
If you are someone who enjoys movies like The Matrix, Blade Runner, or the Fifth Element, then you should read S. D. Miller's Nekonikon Punk trilogy.
April 28, 2026
This is absolutely the best trilogy I have ever read. And for sure the best way to end this amazing series was this book. I love the world building and every single character, I even missed some characters while reading this last book. I don’t want to spoil much, but I will say this, resistance will always win as long as heart and bravery are in this world. Thank you S.D. Miller for these amazing books
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews