Wetware: Cyberpunk Erotica

by Violet Blue (editor)

Cyberpunk anti-heroes face global conspiracies, misused government R&D, thugs, drugs, true love, artificial intelligence, and vengeful sexbots in this collection's heady mix of sci-fi and sex. Wetware shows how hot "high tech low life" can be when all the glittering and frightening possibilities of cyberpunk meet the crisis point of sexual need. Seven unpredictable stories depict hackers, transhumans, androids, pop stars, armed revolutionaries, government contractors and more who discover that sex is hotter with hacked, stolen and renegade tech -- especially when it's a high-risk proposition.Some erotica writers have ideas, others have visions. Love is a side-effect of stolen, weaponized biotech in "Bishop to King's Pawn, Two" by Thomas S. Roche. In "Synthetic Skin" by Kendra Jarry, a government contractor steals secret field hardware for the sole purpose of seduction. A brainwave hacker's conquest in a club bathroom stall takes a turn in Cecilia Tan's "Rough, Trade." Lines are crossed and re-crossed when the household helper bot in Devyn X. Sands' "Never Say No" has had enough of her owner's perversions. "Sixty-Five Night" by Stephen Stavros charts a dangerous AI experiment that pushes one woman into a seedy neon ghetto for a public transhuman sexual encounter -- under the shadow of a murder conspiracy. Cyberpunk's sexuality has always been transgressive and prescient; this collection brings the genre's tradition into the current state of cyberpunk affairs. Wetware isn't a typical erotica collection, nor is it a typical sci-fi anthology. It's also a rich celebration of hacker and cyberpunk culture, within the hallmarks of this culture's rich and diverse sexualities and genders. It's a tech-savvy, philosophically-rich, erotic anthology artfully spiked with cyberpunk-themed cocktail recipes and recommendations for sexy cyberpunk films, books, and anime. Blue's introduction "Coded in Spirals and Pheromones" features story excerpts in an essay examining cyberpunk sexuality, and how our fantasies of a gilded cyberpunk future have arrived -- while at the same time, something has gone horribly wrong with the way technology was supposed to empower us. Blue explains exactly why "it is our growing sense of things gone terribly wrong that gives the stories here their power, anchored in one of cyberpunk's most defiant agents of Sex." This book contains adult situations, including BDSM, domestic discipline, gender fluidity in sexual situations, backdoor and oral play, power exchange, role-play, spanking, bisexual men, and explicit scenes. The book also depicts non-monogamous relationships and sexual activity (and penetration) involving more than two individuals. Table of Contents* Coded in Spirals and Pheromones by Violet Blue * Bishop to King's Pawn, Two by Thomas S. Roche * Liquid The Gibson Engine * Rough, Trade by Cecilia Tan * Say Cyber One More Sexy Cyberpunk Films * Dangerous Circuitry by N.T. Morley * Liquid Tschunk! * Grinding by Janine Ashbless * Say Cyber One More Adult Cyberpunk Books * Never Say No by Devyn X. Sands * Liquid Zero Couth * Sixty-Five Night by Stephen Stavros * Say Cyber One More (Sexier) Cyberpunk Anime * Synthetic Skin by Kendra Jarry

Genres: Cyberpunk, Erotica

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2015

About the author

Violet Blue has authored and edited over 40 books, including five (Bronze, Silver and Gold) IPPY award-winners, some of which are now in eight translations. Violet was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, when Ms. Winfrey featured Violet's book on women and pornography (11/17/09). That book is also excerpted and featured on Oprah Winfrey's website, as well as in O, The Oprah Magazine.

Violet owns and operates Digita Publications (digitapub.com), an indie digital publisher of e-books and audio books. Rather than a royalty system, Digita books share all sales with the authors fairly and transparently, featuring books in both DRM-free versions and for Kindle on Amazon.

Her online sexuality blog, Tiny Nibbles, is one of the Internet's longest-running sex blogs, and has won many accolades and awards. For her day job, Ms. Blue is a journalist on hacking, crime, cybersecurity, privacy, and at-risk populations for outlets ranging from Engadget to CNET, and occasionally outlets like CBS News, CNN and O the Oprah Magazine.

Reviews

[Julia Rist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wetware is a short story collection that deserves and needs to be savoured slowly, one precious tale at a time. Each story presents a different version of the future; universes where technology and discovery are seamlessly coupled (pun intended) with unabashed sexuality. The sex is raw, often rough; the characters are needy, hungry, vibrant...real. The collection offers variety in voices, settings, and couplings, all the while maintaining the uniform sterling quality of writing.

I would have a hard time picking a favourite story: I enjoyed the flawless integration of the world building in Sixty Five Night, the twist in Never Say No, and the insight of Synthetic Skin. The prologue, an essay on cyberpunk and sexuality by Violet Blue herself, is not to be missed.

The asides in between stories, with recommendations for books and movies on the theme, are a welcome palate cleanser in between the elaborate dishes served up for this feast.

[Sabriel Mastin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being cyberpunk, I had hoped for more stories all over the spectrum than what was presented. There was nothing to suggest the book would be anything else, I was just hopeful.

While a fine collection of stories in its own right, it's all hetero save for a random mention or if you think about a scenario further. The last story is a bit of a mind fuck and the most homoerotic, but even that's twisted into a hetero tale.

The segments in-between stories that tell more about the cyberpunk genre and gives suggested material, and even drinks, is pretty rad.

In short, not bad, just not what I was hoping for.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great erotica book compiled by Violet Blue. Cyberpunk really needs more erotica.