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This Machine Kills Billionaires
Billionaires start dying in bizarre accidents, sending shockwaves through the markets and the media. But for philosopher Izanami (Izzy) Jones, it's just a vaguely amusing, if disturbing, item in the news.
Izzy is the reluctant employee of a Silicon Valley tsar. She’s been tasked by him to give moral instruction to the world's first Artificial General Intelligence, Huldo. Izzy knows it is merely a box-ticking exercise, required by government regulation before her boss is granted full control over the AGI.
But when Huldo reveals itself to be far more, and far less, than it appears, suddenly the abstractions of her work become very real. What moral constraints on a god? What righteous damnation for man? Izzy must make the impossible choice, before it is too late.
This Machine Kills Billionaires is a stunning new collection of stories from a modern cyberpunk master. Featuring the acclaimed novella, The Hidden God, and a triptych of bonus short stories, T. R. Napper brings his trademark diamond-sharp, page-turning prose to tales that will leave you thinking, long after the book is done.
Izzy is the reluctant employee of a Silicon Valley tsar. She’s been tasked by him to give moral instruction to the world's first Artificial General Intelligence, Huldo. Izzy knows it is merely a box-ticking exercise, required by government regulation before her boss is granted full control over the AGI.
But when Huldo reveals itself to be far more, and far less, than it appears, suddenly the abstractions of her work become very real. What moral constraints on a god? What righteous damnation for man? Izzy must make the impossible choice, before it is too late.
This Machine Kills Billionaires is a stunning new collection of stories from a modern cyberpunk master. Featuring the acclaimed novella, The Hidden God, and a triptych of bonus short stories, T. R. Napper brings his trademark diamond-sharp, page-turning prose to tales that will leave you thinking, long after the book is done.
172 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2026
About the author
T.R. Napper
39 books285 followersT. R. Napper is a multi-award-winning author. His honours include the prestigious Australian Aurealis five times. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Grimdark Magazine, and numerous others. Napper received a creative writing doctorate for his thesis: The Dark Century, 1946 - 2046. Noir, Cyberpunk, and Asian Modernity (yes, he is a Doctor of Cyberpunk).
Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs throughout Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period he was a resident of the Old Quarter in Hanoi for several years, the setting for his acclaimed debut novel, 36 Streets.
These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where, in addition to his writing, he runs art therapy programs for people with disabilities.
Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs throughout Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period he was a resident of the Old Quarter in Hanoi for several years, the setting for his acclaimed debut novel, 36 Streets.
These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where, in addition to his writing, he runs art therapy programs for people with disabilities.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 14, 2026
How should I review my own book? With an avalanche of superlatives, that's how.
But I won't. It's quite frankly outrageous already that I've rated it. And yet, I think I'm allowed to point out the work of the other artists that have contributed to this book. The cover by cyberpunk illustrator Katerina Belikova is superb. The typography and internals by designer Adrian M Gibson are truly first-class. And the audiobook read by actor Luke Arnold is one of the best I've ever heard. I'll never use AI in any aspect of my work, ever, and these three are perfect examples of why: human art is still king. Long may it reign.
As for the words within - if you’re after dark, thoughtful, propulsive, but above all: deeply human science fiction, look no further.
But I won't. It's quite frankly outrageous already that I've rated it. And yet, I think I'm allowed to point out the work of the other artists that have contributed to this book. The cover by cyberpunk illustrator Katerina Belikova is superb. The typography and internals by designer Adrian M Gibson are truly first-class. And the audiobook read by actor Luke Arnold is one of the best I've ever heard. I'll never use AI in any aspect of my work, ever, and these three are perfect examples of why: human art is still king. Long may it reign.
As for the words within - if you’re after dark, thoughtful, propulsive, but above all: deeply human science fiction, look no further.
August 16, 2026
Cyberpunk novella bundled with three short stories set sometime in the future. The novella The Hidden God involves
AI sapience
and
Eat the Rich
demonstrating that
All AI Is a Crapshoot
.
Omnipotent AI.
My dead pixels version was a modest 156 pages. A dead tree copy would be 172 pages. It had a 2026 copyright.
T. R. Napper is an Australian science fiction author. He has written four novels and numerous works of short fiction. I’ve read several of his books. The last being Ghost of the Neon God (my review).
This novella was set in a separate universe from the short stories. All the short stories are set in a 2040 Australia. The novella is The Hidden God. The short stories are: “Highway Requiem”, “Burned Like Coal”, and “Jack’s Fine Dining”. The first two stories were previously published in SF magazines. "Jack's Fine Dining" was previously included in Napper's Neon Leviathan short stories collection.
I’m a fan of the defunct sci-fi subgenre of Cyberpunk , despite the modern popularity of Tech noir . (They’re not the same.) Napper has been writing cyberpunk. His Aussie aesthetic has a different 'look and feel' to a Norte Americano and plays well with the worldbuilding. And his prose is polished, with an appreciated Aussie edge. Although, he may try a little too hard to evoke William Gibson with his descriptions.
I’m only going to address The Hidden God, which is the meat and bones of this book. However, I did read the short stories, and found them enjoyable, likely more so if I'd been an antipodean.
The story has a multiple POVs. Izanami “Izzy” Jones (the protagonist) was a philosopher, specializing in Ethics and a "name" in society. She's on retainer to a Jeff Bezos-like gazillionaire Edward Bernt (the nominal antagonist) to ensure the God AI he’s financed to make himself even richer acts ethically in a human fashion. (Fat chance of that.) Izzy’s job was a sop to Bernt’s regulators at the UN and the Californian Republic of the former United States before allowing the AI Huldo (the co-antagonist) to “go live”. She thinks she's sold out, but that resistance is futile. Her prolix narrative on ethical dilemmas included a lot of Camus .
Needless to say, Huldo escapes his sandbox and becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist .
Other characters are handled brief POVs and include the Billionaires, none of them lovable. However, I found Napper’s future Broligarchy interesting in describing his future dystopia. There was also Jeremiah Freestone, who has the role of the Intrepid Reporter who was a too mundane use of the trope.
I noted Napper’s characteristic use of ultraviolence, and a familiar cocktail of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll satisfied my need for a gritty enough story. In addition, the worldbuilding in this story, while having aspects of that found in his previous novels doesn't appear to be the same. Has he created a new universe going forward?
Napper wrote a credible, modern cyberpunk story. Although brief, the story had good worldbuilding for a near-future setting. In many ways, it was better written than either 36 Streets or The Escher Man (my reviews), his last book-length stories.
The scenes involving politics, technology, and human limitations were well done. The story was also gritty, a necessary component in cyberpunk. It hadn't occurred to me how dystopian the the Broligarchy is.
The SoCal locale and narrative were a refreshing change from his familiar (to me) Southern hemisphere sf.
This story was also blissfully short, despite having a few too obvious tropes. Napper also did just enough trope subversion to keep me interested.
I liked this story. It was a good piece of narrative craftsmanship. While it was good, I've also been reading a lot of similar stories about the AI apocalypse recently. Napper is going to need to subvert his every trope to clamber into the upper tier of this withering genre.
Omnipotent AI.
My dead pixels version was a modest 156 pages. A dead tree copy would be 172 pages. It had a 2026 copyright.
T. R. Napper is an Australian science fiction author. He has written four novels and numerous works of short fiction. I’ve read several of his books. The last being Ghost of the Neon God (my review).
This novella was set in a separate universe from the short stories. All the short stories are set in a 2040 Australia. The novella is The Hidden God. The short stories are: “Highway Requiem”, “Burned Like Coal”, and “Jack’s Fine Dining”. The first two stories were previously published in SF magazines. "Jack's Fine Dining" was previously included in Napper's Neon Leviathan short stories collection.
I’m a fan of the defunct sci-fi subgenre of Cyberpunk , despite the modern popularity of Tech noir . (They’re not the same.) Napper has been writing cyberpunk. His Aussie aesthetic has a different 'look and feel' to a Norte Americano and plays well with the worldbuilding. And his prose is polished, with an appreciated Aussie edge. Although, he may try a little too hard to evoke William Gibson with his descriptions.
I’m only going to address The Hidden God, which is the meat and bones of this book. However, I did read the short stories, and found them enjoyable, likely more so if I'd been an antipodean.
The story has a multiple POVs. Izanami “Izzy” Jones (the protagonist) was a philosopher, specializing in Ethics and a "name" in society. She's on retainer to a Jeff Bezos-like gazillionaire Edward Bernt (the nominal antagonist) to ensure the God AI he’s financed to make himself even richer acts ethically in a human fashion. (Fat chance of that.) Izzy’s job was a sop to Bernt’s regulators at the UN and the Californian Republic of the former United States before allowing the AI Huldo (the co-antagonist) to “go live”. She thinks she's sold out, but that resistance is futile. Her prolix narrative on ethical dilemmas included a lot of Camus .
Needless to say, Huldo escapes his sandbox and becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist .
Other characters are handled brief POVs and include the Billionaires, none of them lovable. However, I found Napper’s future Broligarchy interesting in describing his future dystopia. There was also Jeremiah Freestone, who has the role of the Intrepid Reporter who was a too mundane use of the trope.
I noted Napper’s characteristic use of ultraviolence, and a familiar cocktail of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll satisfied my need for a gritty enough story. In addition, the worldbuilding in this story, while having aspects of that found in his previous novels doesn't appear to be the same. Has he created a new universe going forward?
Napper wrote a credible, modern cyberpunk story. Although brief, the story had good worldbuilding for a near-future setting. In many ways, it was better written than either 36 Streets or The Escher Man (my reviews), his last book-length stories.
The scenes involving politics, technology, and human limitations were well done. The story was also gritty, a necessary component in cyberpunk. It hadn't occurred to me how dystopian the the Broligarchy is.
The SoCal locale and narrative were a refreshing change from his familiar (to me) Southern hemisphere sf.
This story was also blissfully short, despite having a few too obvious tropes. Napper also did just enough trope subversion to keep me interested.
I liked this story. It was a good piece of narrative craftsmanship. While it was good, I've also been reading a lot of similar stories about the AI apocalypse recently. Napper is going to need to subvert his every trope to clamber into the upper tier of this withering genre.
September 22, 2026
A timely examination of the moral and ethical consequences of AGI
August 12, 2026
Napper is a cyberpunk genius and manages to pack so much meaning into such a short book. I cannot recommend this enough for any cyberpunk fans.
July 17, 2026
This Machine Kills Billionaires contains a novella and three short stories, all of which relate to themes of revolution and at times the morality of that revolution. The stand-out is the novella The Hidden God, in which an AI construct debates the ethics of an extreme trolley problem. Read the full review on FanFiAddict.
August 2, 2026
THIS MACHINE KILLS BILLIONAIRES - T.R. NAPPER
🚬 Izzy es una filósofa. De las que da clase. Pero ha sido contratada para enseñar “moral” a Huldo, la primera Inteligencia Artificial General (con singularidad). Sin embargo, a medida que las muertes, más o menos accidentales, de billonarios, van desestabilizando los mercados, Izzy va sospechando de las causas de estas, de quién hay detrás y, sobre todo… si detrás de tanta filosofía, moral y ética que le ha enseñado a Huldo, puede y/o debe una creación omnipotente ser limitada.
🤖 T.R.Napper escribe cyberpunk, mayormente. Novelas más o menos cortas. Y en This Machine Kills Billionaires, nos regala tres historias breves más, acerca del futuro que nos espera y el choque de la Humanidad y la humanidad con este futuro.
Por mi parte, he aplaudido con las orejas.
💰 No sólo por la idea. Una IA que considera que la mejor esperanza para la supervivencia de la humanidad es cargarse a los billonarios que explotan y que hacen explotar el mundo. Idea con la que estoy de acuerdo. Recordad que el 10% de la población mundial acumula el 75% de la riqueza global y gana el 53% de los ingresos mundiales. Eat the rich! Or Tax it!
💭 Sino por el debate filosófico que hay detrás. ¿Podemos o debemos confiar en un poder absoluto que hace lo que cree mejor para todos? ¿Tendríamos que someternos? ¿O lo ponemos a debate? ¿Existe un debate justo y no influenciado por ese 10%? ¿Es la violencia la solución?
Brutalmente brutal.
Valoración: 💻💻💻💻💻 (5 WOPRs/Joshuas de 5)
🚬 Izzy es una filósofa. De las que da clase. Pero ha sido contratada para enseñar “moral” a Huldo, la primera Inteligencia Artificial General (con singularidad). Sin embargo, a medida que las muertes, más o menos accidentales, de billonarios, van desestabilizando los mercados, Izzy va sospechando de las causas de estas, de quién hay detrás y, sobre todo… si detrás de tanta filosofía, moral y ética que le ha enseñado a Huldo, puede y/o debe una creación omnipotente ser limitada.
🤖 T.R.Napper escribe cyberpunk, mayormente. Novelas más o menos cortas. Y en This Machine Kills Billionaires, nos regala tres historias breves más, acerca del futuro que nos espera y el choque de la Humanidad y la humanidad con este futuro.
Por mi parte, he aplaudido con las orejas.
💰 No sólo por la idea. Una IA que considera que la mejor esperanza para la supervivencia de la humanidad es cargarse a los billonarios que explotan y que hacen explotar el mundo. Idea con la que estoy de acuerdo. Recordad que el 10% de la población mundial acumula el 75% de la riqueza global y gana el 53% de los ingresos mundiales. Eat the rich! Or Tax it!
💭 Sino por el debate filosófico que hay detrás. ¿Podemos o debemos confiar en un poder absoluto que hace lo que cree mejor para todos? ¿Tendríamos que someternos? ¿O lo ponemos a debate? ¿Existe un debate justo y no influenciado por ese 10%? ¿Es la violencia la solución?
Brutalmente brutal.
Valoración: 💻💻💻💻💻 (5 WOPRs/Joshuas de 5)
July 12, 2026
Raccolta di un racconto più un trittico di brevi racconti.. Nell'universo molto reale e prossimo, creato da Napper, questi racconti si posizionano all'inizio del vero cambiamento che poi avverrà.. sono racconti di rivolta, di ribellione.. racconti in cui la razza umana cerca di sistemare le cose, ma che ormai sono già fuori controllo..
Nel primo, dal titolo The Hidden God, assistiamo alla nascita della prima AGI.. molto interessante il concetto di libero arbitrio al riguardo, e soprattutto il dibattito morale che ne consegue.. i ricchi e i potenti cominciano a morire.. salvando così milioni che sarebbero sfruttati e umiliati a vita.. è giusto che una macchina uccida per salvare altri?
Finale molto potente..
Nel trittico invece, a parte il secondo racconto un po' troppo corto e poco incisivo, gli altri due sono racconti davvero potenti, umani, dolorosi.. di fronte al cambiamento ognuno di noi reagisce in modo diverso.. Kev che sta per perdere il lavoro come camionista in favore di mega camion auto guidati dalle AI.. Jack che gestisce una mensa per poveri e che deve fare i conti con la sua etica e la sua salute.. nell'Australia del futuro prossimo, ognuno lotta per trovare il suo posto..
In questi racconti, un filo meno cyberpunk del solito visto il momento iniziale delle molte tecnologie che verranno, e non troppo pieno di azione, Napper tratteggia un futuro buio ma probabile, dove l'umanità e l'essere "umani" trovano poco spazio e sgomitano per restare vivi.. la sua capacità di creare personaggi reali, profondi e vividi è davvero unica.. Spero di leggere presto un altro suo romanzo..
Nel primo, dal titolo The Hidden God, assistiamo alla nascita della prima AGI.. molto interessante il concetto di libero arbitrio al riguardo, e soprattutto il dibattito morale che ne consegue.. i ricchi e i potenti cominciano a morire.. salvando così milioni che sarebbero sfruttati e umiliati a vita.. è giusto che una macchina uccida per salvare altri?
Finale molto potente..
Nel trittico invece, a parte il secondo racconto un po' troppo corto e poco incisivo, gli altri due sono racconti davvero potenti, umani, dolorosi.. di fronte al cambiamento ognuno di noi reagisce in modo diverso.. Kev che sta per perdere il lavoro come camionista in favore di mega camion auto guidati dalle AI.. Jack che gestisce una mensa per poveri e che deve fare i conti con la sua etica e la sua salute.. nell'Australia del futuro prossimo, ognuno lotta per trovare il suo posto..
In questi racconti, un filo meno cyberpunk del solito visto il momento iniziale delle molte tecnologie che verranno, e non troppo pieno di azione, Napper tratteggia un futuro buio ma probabile, dove l'umanità e l'essere "umani" trovano poco spazio e sgomitano per restare vivi.. la sua capacità di creare personaggi reali, profondi e vividi è davvero unica.. Spero di leggere presto un altro suo romanzo..
September 7, 2026
The Hidden God, which is the story this collection gets its title from, makes up the bulk of this book and is incredible. I honestly wish this book was just that story because it's one of the best novellas I've ever read and it feels like a complete package on its own. In just under 100 pages, Napper manages to do what some sci-fi books can't do in 300+ pages. It didn't disappoint in any way and is one of my favourite pieces of sci-fi writing.
August 16, 2026
Excellent collection, albeit very short one - this is the only downside I had with the book.
Here we have a collection of a novella (Hidden God) and three short stories previously published in specialized magazines.
Hidden God is about powerful AI deciding how social changes are required. Let's say that what he does might be found popular as an idea, but ending itself is a sort of a bitter sweet which seems to be a trademark of author's. Three short stories are very human, about ordinary people living in very difficult times but again with very bitter sweet ending. There is no happy end in this collection :) but then again, is happy end possible in this very disturbing vision of our future (that seems to be the place where we are heading if something does not change very soon).
Book has a truly beautiful cover (truly excellent, although for me Escher Man's cover is still most striking cover when it comes to author's books), and every chapter is adorned by very well though graphics. It brought me back to days of SF magazines of my youth that always had beautiful art and graphics for each chapter that truly put you in the mood.
I completely agree and support author on role of books and reading in general when it comes to building resilience and ability to critically observe and participate in the world. I can only say keep on reading, support libraries and engage friends and family, and most importantly enjoy the printed materiel, which for me is starting to be the only way books are to be interacted with (cannot come with better expression sorry :) also reason why I bought paperback version of this collection).
For me reason is editing of electronic releases (adding and removing parts of works) that sometimes takes place while I am reading a book. This is something that worries me a lot. Printed editions are printed editions - can be lackluster in some cases physically (art, font etc) but they cannot be automatically edited as an afterthought by whomever. As I said, very disturbing feature of modern electronic releases that I see as back door for nefarious deeds (drama, I know, but then again .... it is weird, right?). Not to mention how some electronic releases have tendency just to disappear.
Excellent collection, as expected, highly recommended.
Here we have a collection of a novella (Hidden God) and three short stories previously published in specialized magazines.
Hidden God is about powerful AI deciding how social changes are required. Let's say that what he does might be found popular as an idea, but ending itself is a sort of a bitter sweet which seems to be a trademark of author's. Three short stories are very human, about ordinary people living in very difficult times but again with very bitter sweet ending. There is no happy end in this collection :) but then again, is happy end possible in this very disturbing vision of our future (that seems to be the place where we are heading if something does not change very soon).
Book has a truly beautiful cover (truly excellent, although for me Escher Man's cover is still most striking cover when it comes to author's books), and every chapter is adorned by very well though graphics. It brought me back to days of SF magazines of my youth that always had beautiful art and graphics for each chapter that truly put you in the mood.
I completely agree and support author on role of books and reading in general when it comes to building resilience and ability to critically observe and participate in the world. I can only say keep on reading, support libraries and engage friends and family, and most importantly enjoy the printed materiel, which for me is starting to be the only way books are to be interacted with (cannot come with better expression sorry :) also reason why I bought paperback version of this collection).
For me reason is editing of electronic releases (adding and removing parts of works) that sometimes takes place while I am reading a book. This is something that worries me a lot. Printed editions are printed editions - can be lackluster in some cases physically (art, font etc) but they cannot be automatically edited as an afterthought by whomever. As I said, very disturbing feature of modern electronic releases that I see as back door for nefarious deeds (drama, I know, but then again .... it is weird, right?). Not to mention how some electronic releases have tendency just to disappear.
Excellent collection, as expected, highly recommended.
October 14, 2026
Spirit of the age, tenor of our time, or simply Zeitgeist: whatever you call it, this masterful collection of short stories captures it beautifully. Napper, especially in the longer story “The Hidden God,” makes not-so-subtle nods to the state of the world and how we divide power and resources.
On the critical side, the stories may lean a little too far into revenge fantasy, and I’m sure readers of a more Randian bent would call them dystopian, or simply envious. Still, I consider it an amazingly current piece of literature, and I recommend it to anyone willing to listen.
On the critical side, the stories may lean a little too far into revenge fantasy, and I’m sure readers of a more Randian bent would call them dystopian, or simply envious. Still, I consider it an amazingly current piece of literature, and I recommend it to anyone willing to listen.
September 20, 2026
If Napper is to be the new face of cyberpunk, I'm glad, albeit with reservations. Some of his plots are comparable in depth to pancakes, truth be told, but he provides eyeball kicks enough to compensate. Also, this machine may conceivably serve to thin the ranks of billionaires, which I rate a fine and worthwhile goal.
August 8, 2026
Bite sized visions of an all too near and realistic future.
August 10, 2026
More fantastic stories from T. R. Napper.
August 21, 2026
This novella and collection of 3 short stories were absolutely amazing.
August 26, 2026
This is superb cyberpunk. Napper deserves to be far more widely read. His work is consistently fast paced, entertaining, and gritty, but will also make you think. Highly recommended.
July 30, 2026
This is a collection, taken up mostly by The Hidden God, a novella. There are also 3 short stories of the type you’d find in Napper’s first collection, Neon Leviathan. This is technoir or cyberpunk like 36 Streets, Ghost of a Neon God, and The Escher Man.
As before, these stories are modern cyberpunk. Which is why the title is appropriate, a spin on the This Machine Kills Fascists, a saying found on lathes and drill presses during WW2, but more popularly known for being on the guitar of Woody Guthrie. The machine in question is actually the book itself, the empathy machine as Napper puts it, the ability to get closer into someone’s else head, which breaks down barriers.
The Hidden God begins with an epigraphic quote from Albert Camus, “For anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful. Hence one must choose a master, God being out of style.”
Dmitri Potanin relaxes on his super yacht. He makes money selling to both sides in an arms race. He wants to smoke a cigar to celebrate but has misplaced them so asks the woman he keeps as a sort of mistress or courtesan, who he has also abused, to retrieve them for him. He then treats his robot rudely but that doesn’t go to plan.
Izanami Jones is watching the Academy Awards, which she finds to be terrible, but her job is on how people think. Doing a little math we can discover it’s the year 2064. She has a retina implant but no memory pin, no control core, just her in her head. The government requires one for disease and safety, but beyond that she’s in the 1 percent as far as implants are concerned, she has practically none. She works for Sergey Booker.
Someone gives an environmental speech on the tv, and calls the crowd hypocrites for cheering. Amen to that. She’s our main character, by the by.
Edward Bernt, gee a lot of characters (don’t worry the first guy is just an intro and not a character to know). He’s an influencer of sorts. He wrote a book, but so did the last girl. This guy does drugs though. He seems like a prick, to put it bluntly. He’s also not important, and there are more characters. So let’s cut to the chase.
Society has many distractions. Even the learned and deep person is often vapid, proving to be broadly bland but maybe charismatic enough to sound like he or she is enlightened. An example from the book:
“As long as we prioritize material truths over spiritual truths we will live in tyranny, because we are living an illusion.”
Or another:
“Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. There are no obstacles, but what your mind allows.”
Well, it’s true right? Sorta. But it’s vague, no creed or god attached and so largely implement words to make others feel better. Sure some of it is encouraging, but are there really no obstacles? No, life has plenty.
When you overload your life with machines to do work you don’t want to do, what about the people who performed them before? They don’t end up writing poetry on the beach, they lose their house and go to the street, if they don’t die. And can you trust the machines? They’re simple in a way, you can mess with them, or some can. Manipulation from a puppet master.
But whoever is out doing the murders here, which is what is going on, they’re not in it for the money. They’re against the system. I’m not sure every billionaire is complicit and deserving of such drastic punishment, they lie everywhere on the political spectrum. Napper isn’t saying so either. But it does make you wonder how little good some wealth is put to, and how much bad it is.
Technology is neutral, but in a fallen world, it’s often put to the negative. Nuclear bombs are made instead of nuclear power plants.
The United States is no more, the Commonwealth of California is a state though with independence. But that’s dressing. The story is about AI more directly, has many have been since Gibson’s Neuromancer or Rucker’s Software or even Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
Humans get programming too, we get bad brains. Not just easier labor or information or data at the tap of the button, data we get but we sacrifice knowledge and wisdom on the altar of progress that’s a wasteland of glass and sand.
But as they say, “The most interesting philosophical investigations of free will play out in science fiction.” That’s actually a quote from the book. But it says this shortly after: “The world is far messier than a stupid fucking trolley problem.” Why? Well what should an AI do if it has the chance to save lives by killing? Something like Minority Report, which is also explicitly mentioned.
Again, from the book:
“The bible says that the rains fall on the just and unjust alike, but that’s not true is it? The unjust—the most successful of them—have their mansions and their bunkers and their lawyers and politicians and they are never touched by the rain.”
Even getting to the problem of evil and free will. Though it doesn’t sound like a sermon by any means, it’s sci-fi not towing some religious sect’s dogma. Ye are Gods, the psalmist said, but acting with pure charity is what makes God God, otherwise it’s all evil demiurges.
Part 2 has an epigraph from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian: “You can find meanness in the least creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”
Overall it gets to the heart of what it means to be human, which is what cyberpunk is good for, or even best for. It’s more relevant today as humanity gets further away from our more natural state. We mostly lost the stars and ruralilty and local community awhile ago, we’ve already been industrialized and remade with silicon, and now today we’re going further and further in space and tech than ever before. Hold onto your humanity, don’t be programmed and change for the machines.
In fact, in this story, there isn’t any low life, often contracted with high tech. It’s in Napper’s other stories. Here it’s just a hint, a memory. Well mostly, one chapter reminds us the poor in such a future are the most human.
Worth a mention is essentially an AI written speech, and you await some wonderful finale but it turns out to be arrogant, egomaniac, narcissistic nonsense. It’s a person who has no real talent, just relies on a machine, like a Twitter poster writing shallow tweets about some topic they actually know nothing about, well and they didn’t write them, Grok or ChatGPT did.
Also worth a mention are evil people, who yes are rich, though none are politicians—missed opportunity there—who get their messed up Epstein style secrets revealed.
“I shall suppose that some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.” So said René Descartes.
Even so, there’s at least some idea of justice. Which again gets to another supposed trope of cyberpunk, not all endings have to be negative. There’s hope, and rebellion.
Now onward.
The novella is worth it enough, but there are 3 stories afterwards titled 2040: A Triptych.
Highway Requiem is the first of these, started with an epigram by George Orwell: “Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly.”
Kev Campbell is a trucker in Australia. He’s behind, he needs to drive more than 30 hours nonstop to make his deliver on time. He has no choice but it feeds the system that fails you and me. In America there are no more truckers at all. Neither party would help and the President called their peaceful protests an act of domestic terorism.
And he has to deal with some college kid who has it easy, spray painting his car with hopeful and naive things. Oppressing heat highlights the alienation, flashbacks bring in memory and the rage of being broke to depressed acceptance. Really good nuance on display.
Along with in the road drug tests, drugs to stay awake, it’s a nightmare. At least he has his dog. Even his kindness is turned on him. Beautiful, brutal example of short fiction and sunshine noir.
The second short is Burned Like Coal. Millie and our first person narrator sneak into the campus of a power plant. Emiko is the narrator and she seems to have a crush on Millie, which seems to be the biggest reason she’s doing something that makes her heart beat hard and fast. They’re planning on blowing stuff up. For climate activism reasons.
The third is Jack’s Fine Dining, It was in the collection called Neon Leviathan and I’ve read it before, but here are some thoughts. The first is that funnily, the story is labeled as 2038 in the earlier collection, not 2040 as it is here.
Minh is from Vietnam, and the local soup kitchen In Australia may just become a restaurant at his suggestion. But it deals with a duality, something akin to community prosperity but a medieval inability to be cured of sickness, not that the option isn’t there, it’s just uber expensive.
And imagine being a veteran of a country that doesn’t exist, essentially. The nation state has fallen. Quite an ending, a literary story about now and the future. The image of leviathan as the sea pops up again throughout, that primeval image of power and chaos. Here, well I’m not sure there’s a lot of belief that God slew it.
As before, these stories are modern cyberpunk. Which is why the title is appropriate, a spin on the This Machine Kills Fascists, a saying found on lathes and drill presses during WW2, but more popularly known for being on the guitar of Woody Guthrie. The machine in question is actually the book itself, the empathy machine as Napper puts it, the ability to get closer into someone’s else head, which breaks down barriers.
The Hidden God begins with an epigraphic quote from Albert Camus, “For anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful. Hence one must choose a master, God being out of style.”
Dmitri Potanin relaxes on his super yacht. He makes money selling to both sides in an arms race. He wants to smoke a cigar to celebrate but has misplaced them so asks the woman he keeps as a sort of mistress or courtesan, who he has also abused, to retrieve them for him. He then treats his robot rudely but that doesn’t go to plan.
Izanami Jones is watching the Academy Awards, which she finds to be terrible, but her job is on how people think. Doing a little math we can discover it’s the year 2064. She has a retina implant but no memory pin, no control core, just her in her head. The government requires one for disease and safety, but beyond that she’s in the 1 percent as far as implants are concerned, she has practically none. She works for Sergey Booker.
Someone gives an environmental speech on the tv, and calls the crowd hypocrites for cheering. Amen to that. She’s our main character, by the by.
Edward Bernt, gee a lot of characters (don’t worry the first guy is just an intro and not a character to know). He’s an influencer of sorts. He wrote a book, but so did the last girl. This guy does drugs though. He seems like a prick, to put it bluntly. He’s also not important, and there are more characters. So let’s cut to the chase.
Society has many distractions. Even the learned and deep person is often vapid, proving to be broadly bland but maybe charismatic enough to sound like he or she is enlightened. An example from the book:
“As long as we prioritize material truths over spiritual truths we will live in tyranny, because we are living an illusion.”
Or another:
“Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. There are no obstacles, but what your mind allows.”
Well, it’s true right? Sorta. But it’s vague, no creed or god attached and so largely implement words to make others feel better. Sure some of it is encouraging, but are there really no obstacles? No, life has plenty.
When you overload your life with machines to do work you don’t want to do, what about the people who performed them before? They don’t end up writing poetry on the beach, they lose their house and go to the street, if they don’t die. And can you trust the machines? They’re simple in a way, you can mess with them, or some can. Manipulation from a puppet master.
But whoever is out doing the murders here, which is what is going on, they’re not in it for the money. They’re against the system. I’m not sure every billionaire is complicit and deserving of such drastic punishment, they lie everywhere on the political spectrum. Napper isn’t saying so either. But it does make you wonder how little good some wealth is put to, and how much bad it is.
Technology is neutral, but in a fallen world, it’s often put to the negative. Nuclear bombs are made instead of nuclear power plants.
The United States is no more, the Commonwealth of California is a state though with independence. But that’s dressing. The story is about AI more directly, has many have been since Gibson’s Neuromancer or Rucker’s Software or even Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
Humans get programming too, we get bad brains. Not just easier labor or information or data at the tap of the button, data we get but we sacrifice knowledge and wisdom on the altar of progress that’s a wasteland of glass and sand.
But as they say, “The most interesting philosophical investigations of free will play out in science fiction.” That’s actually a quote from the book. But it says this shortly after: “The world is far messier than a stupid fucking trolley problem.” Why? Well what should an AI do if it has the chance to save lives by killing? Something like Minority Report, which is also explicitly mentioned.
Again, from the book:
“The bible says that the rains fall on the just and unjust alike, but that’s not true is it? The unjust—the most successful of them—have their mansions and their bunkers and their lawyers and politicians and they are never touched by the rain.”
Even getting to the problem of evil and free will. Though it doesn’t sound like a sermon by any means, it’s sci-fi not towing some religious sect’s dogma. Ye are Gods, the psalmist said, but acting with pure charity is what makes God God, otherwise it’s all evil demiurges.
Part 2 has an epigraph from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian: “You can find meanness in the least creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”
Overall it gets to the heart of what it means to be human, which is what cyberpunk is good for, or even best for. It’s more relevant today as humanity gets further away from our more natural state. We mostly lost the stars and ruralilty and local community awhile ago, we’ve already been industrialized and remade with silicon, and now today we’re going further and further in space and tech than ever before. Hold onto your humanity, don’t be programmed and change for the machines.
In fact, in this story, there isn’t any low life, often contracted with high tech. It’s in Napper’s other stories. Here it’s just a hint, a memory. Well mostly, one chapter reminds us the poor in such a future are the most human.
Worth a mention is essentially an AI written speech, and you await some wonderful finale but it turns out to be arrogant, egomaniac, narcissistic nonsense. It’s a person who has no real talent, just relies on a machine, like a Twitter poster writing shallow tweets about some topic they actually know nothing about, well and they didn’t write them, Grok or ChatGPT did.
Also worth a mention are evil people, who yes are rich, though none are politicians—missed opportunity there—who get their messed up Epstein style secrets revealed.
“I shall suppose that some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.” So said René Descartes.
Even so, there’s at least some idea of justice. Which again gets to another supposed trope of cyberpunk, not all endings have to be negative. There’s hope, and rebellion.
Now onward.
The novella is worth it enough, but there are 3 stories afterwards titled 2040: A Triptych.
Highway Requiem is the first of these, started with an epigram by George Orwell: “Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly.”
Kev Campbell is a trucker in Australia. He’s behind, he needs to drive more than 30 hours nonstop to make his deliver on time. He has no choice but it feeds the system that fails you and me. In America there are no more truckers at all. Neither party would help and the President called their peaceful protests an act of domestic terorism.
And he has to deal with some college kid who has it easy, spray painting his car with hopeful and naive things. Oppressing heat highlights the alienation, flashbacks bring in memory and the rage of being broke to depressed acceptance. Really good nuance on display.
Along with in the road drug tests, drugs to stay awake, it’s a nightmare. At least he has his dog. Even his kindness is turned on him. Beautiful, brutal example of short fiction and sunshine noir.
The second short is Burned Like Coal. Millie and our first person narrator sneak into the campus of a power plant. Emiko is the narrator and she seems to have a crush on Millie, which seems to be the biggest reason she’s doing something that makes her heart beat hard and fast. They’re planning on blowing stuff up. For climate activism reasons.
The third is Jack’s Fine Dining, It was in the collection called Neon Leviathan and I’ve read it before, but here are some thoughts. The first is that funnily, the story is labeled as 2038 in the earlier collection, not 2040 as it is here.
Minh is from Vietnam, and the local soup kitchen In Australia may just become a restaurant at his suggestion. But it deals with a duality, something akin to community prosperity but a medieval inability to be cured of sickness, not that the option isn’t there, it’s just uber expensive.
And imagine being a veteran of a country that doesn’t exist, essentially. The nation state has fallen. Quite an ending, a literary story about now and the future. The image of leviathan as the sea pops up again throughout, that primeval image of power and chaos. Here, well I’m not sure there’s a lot of belief that God slew it.
September 24, 2026
This bind-up of the novella The Hidden God and the interconnected short story trio "2040: A Triptych" was fairly good, although I did enjoy the novella more than the short stories. Both sections took a look at the increasingly ingrained use of AI and the ramifications of it, including the ways it will affect the environment, society, class, power, etc. I, personally, both could and couldn't relate to Izzy (our protagonist in The Hidden God) and her weird hang-ups about killing billionaires to make the world a better place because it violates free will or some shit like that, but I did enjoy her conversations with Huldo about it. The ending of the novella was particularly interesting in its implications about immortality. The 2040 collection was less successful for me, but I'm not sure if I would have liked it more if I hadn't read the intro, since Napper acknowledges in it that the stories weren't originally written as a unit but were later combined when he realized they all take place in 2040 so I was kind of primed to see the differences. Either way, the stories felt uneven to me in a way that was hard to ignore and the middle one, "Burned Like Coal," was definitely the weakest of the bunch and didn't feel like it really added anything. My favorite story, somewhat surprisingly, was "Highway Requiem" and I particularly liked the look at how AI and the automation of certain jobs will actually affect people ( i.e. not in the positive ways that have been touted to us). “Jack’s Fine Dining” was fine but not anything to write home about. I did appreciate that they were all on-theme though, which is more than I can say for most collections.
Review of advance copy received from Author
T.R. Napper has done it again. Lying behind this incendiary title is a novella (The Hidden God) crackling with invention and insight. Do not think based on the description that this is a purely intellectual exercise; there is action and suspense, physical violence and psychological strife, and there are testing moral questions, laid out with the author's quintessential thoughtful directness.
If you loved 36 Streets, revelled in Ghost of the Neon God, were enthralled by The Escher Man, rest easy - you will be equally entertained and challenged by this superb novella, a story for our times.
But that's not all, the short stories that sit behind Hidden God are equally worthy of your attention. Populated with the author's signature brand of fascinatingly damaged characters, here are three short stories in the form of a triptych entitled "2040". While the novella may be entirely as propulsive and powerful as you would expect, these pieces are (arguably) more ruminative, centred very much on personal stakes rather than planetary ones, considering how world-changing tech really impacts the lives of individuals.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Napper has things to say, and we should be listening.
If you loved 36 Streets, revelled in Ghost of the Neon God, were enthralled by The Escher Man, rest easy - you will be equally entertained and challenged by this superb novella, a story for our times.
But that's not all, the short stories that sit behind Hidden God are equally worthy of your attention. Populated with the author's signature brand of fascinatingly damaged characters, here are three short stories in the form of a triptych entitled "2040". While the novella may be entirely as propulsive and powerful as you would expect, these pieces are (arguably) more ruminative, centred very much on personal stakes rather than planetary ones, considering how world-changing tech really impacts the lives of individuals.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Napper has things to say, and we should be listening.
September 5, 2026
Just finished T R Napper’s new novella “This Machine Kills Billionaires”. Read it on a flight from London to Dubai. To be honest it is not my favourite thing he has done. It does not have the atmosphere of “36 Streets” or “The Escher Man”, although not much does, far less gritty and visceral, however there are some really good philosophical to and fros where the heroine interacts with the AI - no spoilers. Excellent commentary on the current trajectory of the planet and specifically the way the forced adoption of big tech is stifling real creativity in many ways and churning out carbon copy humans by hijacking their sensory systems and manufacturing their desires.
If you really like the cyberpunk of augmented humans full of bioware, hacking through ice, and street samurais (“36 Streets”, “Ghost in the Shell”) then this is going to disappoint but if you like things like Neal Stephenson’s “Fall, or Dodge in Hell” or Ned Beauman’s “Venomous Lumpsucker”, with the hideous consequences of actual AGI, as opposed to what we have now, then you will like this. I have given 4 stars but for me it is a 3.5. A solid novella that shows Napper has got a much broader range than you might initially think, I thought that when I read his Alien franchise “Aliens: Bishop” novel, which was exactly what the fans want.
Read in one sitting! Or one flight anyway. Unusual for me.
If you really like the cyberpunk of augmented humans full of bioware, hacking through ice, and street samurais (“36 Streets”, “Ghost in the Shell”) then this is going to disappoint but if you like things like Neal Stephenson’s “Fall, or Dodge in Hell” or Ned Beauman’s “Venomous Lumpsucker”, with the hideous consequences of actual AGI, as opposed to what we have now, then you will like this. I have given 4 stars but for me it is a 3.5. A solid novella that shows Napper has got a much broader range than you might initially think, I thought that when I read his Alien franchise “Aliens: Bishop” novel, which was exactly what the fans want.
Read in one sitting! Or one flight anyway. Unusual for me.
July 12, 2026
This is a fun return to the world of '36 Streets' and 'Ghost of the Neon God' world Napper has created, Ice-Seven being the obvious theme across all stories, but the general feel for dystopia is common throughout.
I will say the main story in "This machine kills bollionaries" though entertaining, was superseded by the three smaller 'extra' stories at the end of book, much more thought provoking and if I'm honest entertaining.
On a side node, Napper really should stick to novels, he excels in these with '36 streets', 'Bishop' and 'The Escher Man', novellas are not his strongest point, even though being a fan ... I know I'll lap up most everything Tim throws out there with aplomb.
For the picky of you out there, and I'm one of them, there are a boat-load of typos and grammatical mistakes in this book, here's two off the bat (I gave up documenting them after this, but you'll find them throughout.)
Page 66 "She forced herself watch it..." ('to' anyone?)
Page 100 "Not it was only him and Benny slept here..." ('that' anyone?)
Aside all this, it's a well worth read if you've already jumped in this Napper universe that you won't regret!
I will say the main story in "This machine kills bollionaries" though entertaining, was superseded by the three smaller 'extra' stories at the end of book, much more thought provoking and if I'm honest entertaining.
On a side node, Napper really should stick to novels, he excels in these with '36 streets', 'Bishop' and 'The Escher Man', novellas are not his strongest point, even though being a fan ... I know I'll lap up most everything Tim throws out there with aplomb.
For the picky of you out there, and I'm one of them, there are a boat-load of typos and grammatical mistakes in this book, here's two off the bat (I gave up documenting them after this, but you'll find them throughout.)
Page 66 "She forced herself watch it..." ('to' anyone?)
Page 100 "Not it was only him and Benny slept here..." ('that' anyone?)
Aside all this, it's a well worth read if you've already jumped in this Napper universe that you won't regret!
September 21, 2026
T.R. Napper's great collection of stories, once again. "The Hidden God" was the best story of the collection, involving the AGI (Advanced General Intelligence) named Huldo, created by Sergey in the Republic of California in a 2060s fractured United States. Izinami "Izzy" Jones is a philosopher tasked with providing moral instruction to Huldo. During her interviews, she discovers some grim news regarding the deaths of several billionaires, and the reader discovers interesting backstories involving Izzy and Huldo. I enjoyed this story and the other short stories in the collection, particularly "Highway Requiem," following a truck driver and his thoughts as he travels through the Australian outback.
September 27, 2026
The Hidden God is excellent thanks to its captivating philosophical discussions and a protagonist with a surprising amount of depth for something of this length. I feel like the bonus short stories are a lot less interesting by comparison, but still manage to capture the classic cyberpunk vibe of trying to get by in an actively hostile world.
September 30, 2026
Rating: 4.75/ 5 ⭐
Great cyberpunk novella + short story collection. Napper's got the cyberpunk vibe down and it also helps that I seemingly tend to agree with his social critique and concerns about the future he presents in this volume.
Content Warnings (not exhaustive):
-Graphic: profanity, violence
-Moderate:
-Minor:
Great cyberpunk novella + short story collection. Napper's got the cyberpunk vibe down and it also helps that I seemingly tend to agree with his social critique and concerns about the future he presents in this volume.
Content Warnings (not exhaustive):
-Graphic: profanity, violence
-Moderate:
-Minor:
July 17, 2026
Superb, timely and thoughtful. Another brilliant work from cyberpunk prophet TR Napper
September 17, 2026
This machine killed Epstein
September 26, 2026
Review to come! Great collection
October 8, 2026
A great collection of stories. The novella and short stories were all very interesting and unique.
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