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Glitch Rain
Akuba is a low-level hacker for the city's wealthy, making just enough to keep her bills paid and her booze flowing. Her job is to scrub the social feeds for faces who don't want to be seen, hanging out at parties to guard the elite from errant social media statuses and incriminating photo posts. Not the most glamorous job, but she’s getting by. When an old debt comes due early suddenly she is the one who needs to keep her face out of the drones' omnipresent eyes. Thrown into the high-stakes world of international cybercrime, Akuba will have to have to outmaneuver unlimited surveillance, high-tech con artists, and an international hacker kingpin if she wants to survive. Every identity has a price in Glitch Rain.
- GenresScience FictionCyberpunk
140 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2016
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276 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 13 reviews
January 11, 2018
find my other reviews at www.consumingcyberpunk.com
Akuba, like most cyberpunks, has a rough life. Oh, it has some of the generic cyberpunk tropes mind you; the larger problem to be dealt with rooted in capitalism, new terminology for not-so-distant technologies, and cool, ineffable names ascribed to those on the fringes of society.
"Most of this crowd is wearing knock-off blurred style. The kind of clothes that look like they should block facial recognition and drone tracking like the good stuff, but are much cheaper and don’t do a damn thing. Repeating patterns made from the pics of the lips and chins of celebrities."
But in these short 148 pages, Livingston exceeded my expectations. Rooting the story in Akuba's debt was a nice foothold. Having it described in flashback sequences to her earlier days was effective for me to latch onto. She is not the typical love to hate protagonist. And she has an actual backstory. Huh.
"Watch batteries gleam in the center of dark flowers. Henna painted with conductive ink, waiting to be turned on."
Here's the skinny: Akuba is a kid who used to be a skimmer, someone who combs through e-waste (in her particular case, in Agbogbloshie) in order to procure enough valuable parts to get by; barely. Nowadays though, that's behind her.
Kind of.
"back when they were kids together clambering over the hills of e-waste outside of her old town in Ghana. He was two years older, much bigger, and known to throw fits when a smaller kid found a decent bit of scrap. More than once Akuba had hidden herself deep in the piles of old PC monitors and stereos to keep a nice coil of copper wire for herself. Metal was money, and she wasn’t staying in Agbogbloshie forever."
One of the other skimmers, nicknamed Shakey, has imprisoned her in a sort of hell. When she was young she needed a loan to get out of the slums. Ever since then, she's been under his thumb. The narrative's main premise then is when this goes sideways. No more time. Akuba has to pay Shakey back in one week; or else.
"It’s an open secret that the sneakernet is used for a lot more than moving a few dozen terabytes more quickly than you could across the lines. The kids — "chucks" in local argot — pick up your external drive and walk it to wherever you want to send it. Along the way they add on a few other jobs, like grabbing prepaids from some chick and delivering them to the person she owes. Most of the industry uses them."
The only thing that gets in the way of this fast-paced, fun little post-cyberpunk romp then, is kind of the pacing. Livingston can turn a phrase and I think wrote Akuba very well. I have not read much cyberpunk where male authors do great jobs with female protagonists — it's a plus. She's a PoC, she doesn't let Issac the well-meaning, mansplaining, helpy-helperton tell her what's what. And the dialogue has a purpose; telling us about her not him.
"You had better fucking believe I get top-shelf. Life is going to kill me tomorrow. I’ve got to enjoy what I’ve got before it’s taken from me. And if you’ve got a problem with that, then leave me alone."
If the scenes had more time to linger or it just felt like more time had been passing, I think it would have been to its credit. As is, though, it's really enjoyable. I liked the terminology, I liked the new tech, mostly revolving around a cycle of debt (and some stigmatism around it), the bombardment of advertisements; the confluence of drones, surveillance, and the globe-trotting aspects. I liked that it was not set in America but in a multitude of other places. In fact, adding in detail about these unique and interesting places, perhaps with some additional prose, may have really added to the enjoyment.
"Don’t you talk to me about debt. You think you know what debt is? Debt is an abusive husband. Everyone says ‘why don't you just leave him, why don’t you be strong’ but you can’t. He’ll follow you and make it worse. He shows up at your work drunk and angry. He calls your family in the middle of the night and tells them lies about you. He’s in your finances. He’s got your passwords. He threatens your friends to find out where you are. Until you’re up four nights straight trying to build up the strength to check your email, I don’t want to hear another word out of your fucking mouth about debt."
It's better than average, has something to say, is actually cyberpunk, and has a solid female protagonist with cool tech and abilities, though. Worth an afternoon read, no doubt!
"tomorrow I’m gonna get a call from the bank that they made a mistake about some fee and now I owe them five. What do you think that does to people psychologically?"
Akuba, like most cyberpunks, has a rough life. Oh, it has some of the generic cyberpunk tropes mind you; the larger problem to be dealt with rooted in capitalism, new terminology for not-so-distant technologies, and cool, ineffable names ascribed to those on the fringes of society.
"Most of this crowd is wearing knock-off blurred style. The kind of clothes that look like they should block facial recognition and drone tracking like the good stuff, but are much cheaper and don’t do a damn thing. Repeating patterns made from the pics of the lips and chins of celebrities."
But in these short 148 pages, Livingston exceeded my expectations. Rooting the story in Akuba's debt was a nice foothold. Having it described in flashback sequences to her earlier days was effective for me to latch onto. She is not the typical love to hate protagonist. And she has an actual backstory. Huh.
"Watch batteries gleam in the center of dark flowers. Henna painted with conductive ink, waiting to be turned on."
Here's the skinny: Akuba is a kid who used to be a skimmer, someone who combs through e-waste (in her particular case, in Agbogbloshie) in order to procure enough valuable parts to get by; barely. Nowadays though, that's behind her.
Kind of.
"back when they were kids together clambering over the hills of e-waste outside of her old town in Ghana. He was two years older, much bigger, and known to throw fits when a smaller kid found a decent bit of scrap. More than once Akuba had hidden herself deep in the piles of old PC monitors and stereos to keep a nice coil of copper wire for herself. Metal was money, and she wasn’t staying in Agbogbloshie forever."
One of the other skimmers, nicknamed Shakey, has imprisoned her in a sort of hell. When she was young she needed a loan to get out of the slums. Ever since then, she's been under his thumb. The narrative's main premise then is when this goes sideways. No more time. Akuba has to pay Shakey back in one week; or else.
"It’s an open secret that the sneakernet is used for a lot more than moving a few dozen terabytes more quickly than you could across the lines. The kids — "chucks" in local argot — pick up your external drive and walk it to wherever you want to send it. Along the way they add on a few other jobs, like grabbing prepaids from some chick and delivering them to the person she owes. Most of the industry uses them."
The only thing that gets in the way of this fast-paced, fun little post-cyberpunk romp then, is kind of the pacing. Livingston can turn a phrase and I think wrote Akuba very well. I have not read much cyberpunk where male authors do great jobs with female protagonists — it's a plus. She's a PoC, she doesn't let Issac the well-meaning, mansplaining, helpy-helperton tell her what's what. And the dialogue has a purpose; telling us about her not him.
"You had better fucking believe I get top-shelf. Life is going to kill me tomorrow. I’ve got to enjoy what I’ve got before it’s taken from me. And if you’ve got a problem with that, then leave me alone."
If the scenes had more time to linger or it just felt like more time had been passing, I think it would have been to its credit. As is, though, it's really enjoyable. I liked the terminology, I liked the new tech, mostly revolving around a cycle of debt (and some stigmatism around it), the bombardment of advertisements; the confluence of drones, surveillance, and the globe-trotting aspects. I liked that it was not set in America but in a multitude of other places. In fact, adding in detail about these unique and interesting places, perhaps with some additional prose, may have really added to the enjoyment.
"Don’t you talk to me about debt. You think you know what debt is? Debt is an abusive husband. Everyone says ‘why don't you just leave him, why don’t you be strong’ but you can’t. He’ll follow you and make it worse. He shows up at your work drunk and angry. He calls your family in the middle of the night and tells them lies about you. He’s in your finances. He’s got your passwords. He threatens your friends to find out where you are. Until you’re up four nights straight trying to build up the strength to check your email, I don’t want to hear another word out of your fucking mouth about debt."
It's better than average, has something to say, is actually cyberpunk, and has a solid female protagonist with cool tech and abilities, though. Worth an afternoon read, no doubt!
"tomorrow I’m gonna get a call from the bank that they made a mistake about some fee and now I owe them five. What do you think that does to people psychologically?"
June 16, 2017
Livingston takes us on a trip through a very cyberpunk world of smart phones, vids, apps, HUDs (Human User Devices), self-driven cars, extreme social media and camera-rigged security drones. All these things taken together do not allow anyone any privacy so, the protagonist, Akuba, is a hacker who can erase a person’s security and social media presence for a fee. This proves handy for people who can afford her, especially if the customer is planning an evening of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Akuba encounters a problem when a crime-lord and loan shark calls in all her markers. Now she must use her skills to avoid contract hits and get to the crime lord herself.
While the plot is promising, most of the book’s efforts are spent on constructing the cyber world and the jargon used and less is spent on the chase and characters. On the other hand, Livingston sets up the basis for a follow-up sequel that will probably include a ‘grey man’ whose skills may be superior to Akuba’s. Stay tuned.
While the plot is promising, most of the book’s efforts are spent on constructing the cyber world and the jargon used and less is spent on the chase and characters. On the other hand, Livingston sets up the basis for a follow-up sequel that will probably include a ‘grey man’ whose skills may be superior to Akuba’s. Stay tuned.
August 11, 2017
This was a simple, clean, classic sort of cyberpunk novella updated with a lot of more modern cultural sensibilities. Fun read if you've read the classics in the genre and are looking for something to scratch the same itch.
January 8, 2020
Rises above the usual cyberpunk cliches in a number of ways: the characters are diverse; the interface of human and technology is the frontier of the struggle between freedom (which primarily means bad behavior) and surveillance; there is a giant island of garbage floating in the middle of the ocean that serves as a small enclave for various misfits. A fast, entertaining read that will reward your relatively modest investment of time.
April 29, 2016
I got my copy of Glitch Rain from the awesome guys at Apex via LibraryThing.
I devoured the first few chapters really fast… to be honest, this is a fast reading.
First, you have to understand that if you're looking for a Cyberpunk story, this shouldn't be the first in your queue. Instead, it's a fast-paced action story about Akuba, a girl who got herself into big debts with a lone-shark, Enazim "Shaky" - who she met when they're younger and is now a minor crime lord -, and now Akuba has to run away from him with the help of her best friend and "crime partner", the geek Isaac. All happening in a not-so-far future, in lil utopic Earth with some fancy technology that turns the world into a SecondLife "Live Edition", high emphasis on data mining, civil surveillance and your typical criticism on capitalism and environmental issues.
There are good and bad things about this book:
The best part lies on Isaac, a very good character who is responsible for showing us a very well-done approach on what would be otherwise be just a cliché of criticism on modern society, in the shape of an entirely artificial island made of the plastic waste of humans by a group of other hackers and private investors who wanted to have a place to escape the controlled cities.
I find it particularly interesting how the author created an "artist guild" in the plastic island: a group of indie musicians, poets, writters, etc... who work as informants in the island.
Now the really bad part of the book are the regular mentions of brands that turn the whole thing pretty annoying, specially coz there are some stuff that makes no sense at all and seems to have been just thrown around randomly to make the reader recognize them, hence doing the world more realistic but has the completely opposing result.
In general, it's nice fast-paced novelette worth reading for the fans of action on utopic worlds and maybe for fans of Cyberpunk.
I devoured the first few chapters really fast… to be honest, this is a fast reading.
First, you have to understand that if you're looking for a Cyberpunk story, this shouldn't be the first in your queue. Instead, it's a fast-paced action story about Akuba, a girl who got herself into big debts with a lone-shark, Enazim "Shaky" - who she met when they're younger and is now a minor crime lord -, and now Akuba has to run away from him with the help of her best friend and "crime partner", the geek Isaac. All happening in a not-so-far future, in lil utopic Earth with some fancy technology that turns the world into a SecondLife "Live Edition", high emphasis on data mining, civil surveillance and your typical criticism on capitalism and environmental issues.
There are good and bad things about this book:
The best part lies on Isaac, a very good character who is responsible for showing us a very well-done approach on what would be otherwise be just a cliché of criticism on modern society, in the shape of an entirely artificial island made of the plastic waste of humans by a group of other hackers and private investors who wanted to have a place to escape the controlled cities.
I find it particularly interesting how the author created an "artist guild" in the plastic island: a group of indie musicians, poets, writters, etc... who work as informants in the island.
Now the really bad part of the book are the regular mentions of brands that turn the whole thing pretty annoying, specially coz there are some stuff that makes no sense at all and seems to have been just thrown around randomly to make the reader recognize them, hence doing the world more realistic but has the completely opposing result.
In general, it's nice fast-paced novelette worth reading for the fans of action on utopic worlds and maybe for fans of Cyberpunk.
May 26, 2016
This is a fast-paced and very entertaining action sci-fi story set in the near future that follows the hacker Akuba as she has to drift and dodge and downright run like hell to get away from the drones and people out to get her. There's a debt from her past, a man from her past that she owes that debt too, and several other complications along the way.
What kept me hooked to this story was the almost cinematic flow of the action, and also Akuba herself: she's an interesting and likable character and I just really, really wanted to see how she'd get herself out of the jam she was in. There are hints throughout the story of Akuba's difficult past, growing up more or less on her own, in a world that wasn't exactly child-friendly. Towards the end, there's a chapter where that childhood comes into sharper focus and that part was absolutely gripping: I'd LOVE read a prequel all about Akuba growing up, and how that friendship/enmity with "Shaky" came about.
A great scifi read with cyberpunk flavour, set in a time and place that is similar enough to our own to feel both familiar and eerily strange at the same time: I really liked how Livingston wove in the development of ubiquitous communication/surveillance technology, as well as ecological issues, into the action and story.
What kept me hooked to this story was the almost cinematic flow of the action, and also Akuba herself: she's an interesting and likable character and I just really, really wanted to see how she'd get herself out of the jam she was in. There are hints throughout the story of Akuba's difficult past, growing up more or less on her own, in a world that wasn't exactly child-friendly. Towards the end, there's a chapter where that childhood comes into sharper focus and that part was absolutely gripping: I'd LOVE read a prequel all about Akuba growing up, and how that friendship/enmity with "Shaky" came about.
A great scifi read with cyberpunk flavour, set in a time and place that is similar enough to our own to feel both familiar and eerily strange at the same time: I really liked how Livingston wove in the development of ubiquitous communication/surveillance technology, as well as ecological issues, into the action and story.
June 12, 2016
In a not-too-distant future where there is no privacy, unless you can pay for it, Akuba makes a living keeping people's images from appearing on social media. But when an old creditor from demands payment in full, Akuba finds herself in danger, and her globe-traveling adventure with her friend Isaac begins.
It took me a while to get into the story (a little problematic for the novella form) but once I did, I really liked it--particularly after Akuba and Isaac start traveling. The story is fast paced and, once it gets going, compelling. The world building is strong here--I don't want to say too much because I enjoyed discovering aspects of this future world as the story unfolded. I will say that the current tiny house/shipping crate house fad is taken to --maybe-- the logical next phase.
I did really like the trash theme that ran throughout the story-- physical trash, cyber/data trash, people (especially children) who are treated as trash, and the mental garbage we carry with us.
Suitable for teens as well as adults--especially fans of action thrillers and/or sci-fi.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this novella from Apex in exchange for an honest review.
It took me a while to get into the story (a little problematic for the novella form) but once I did, I really liked it--particularly after Akuba and Isaac start traveling. The story is fast paced and, once it gets going, compelling. The world building is strong here--I don't want to say too much because I enjoyed discovering aspects of this future world as the story unfolded. I will say that the current tiny house/shipping crate house fad is taken to --maybe-- the logical next phase.
I did really like the trash theme that ran throughout the story-- physical trash, cyber/data trash, people (especially children) who are treated as trash, and the mental garbage we carry with us.
Suitable for teens as well as adults--especially fans of action thrillers and/or sci-fi.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this novella from Apex in exchange for an honest review.
April 24, 2016
At last, cyberpunk beyond my best dreams … first one since Neuromancer and Snow Crash to capture me! Loved the subtle allusions to these two masterpieces, too! Akuba and Isaac never let up, the pace stays edge-of-chair all through. Only when cyberpunk is written in the style it is lived can I stand it, and this one is—sharp, crisp, zingy. Immersed in the hard, shiny words of the cyberworld, like in a very good movie, I needed time to re-be in the real world every time I put the book down—and I always wanted to get back in as soon as possible. A psychological-terror storyline we know well—a bad guy from childhood who still casts a long shadow—takes on layers of action in this desperate run from him. The Gray Man is the anonymous stalker of our nightmares, the one I was more afraid of than the bad guy. Going to go find more from Alex Livingston!
I won this book from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review.
I won this book from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review.
March 6, 2016
Received this as an ARC from the publisher.
Back in the 90's I read anything from the cyberpunk genre, but in the 2000's the genre seems to have all but disappeared. If, like me, you still get that cyberpunk itch every once in awhile then give Glitch Rain a try rather than re-reading Snow Crash for the umpteenth time.
It felt a bit rushed in parts; almost as if it had been intended to be much longer and was later cut down to novella size. But all in all I recommend it. Akuba is a fun, flawed character and I'm hoping Glitch Rain does well enough that we see her again in another (preferably novel size) story.
Back in the 90's I read anything from the cyberpunk genre, but in the 2000's the genre seems to have all but disappeared. If, like me, you still get that cyberpunk itch every once in awhile then give Glitch Rain a try rather than re-reading Snow Crash for the umpteenth time.
It felt a bit rushed in parts; almost as if it had been intended to be much longer and was later cut down to novella size. But all in all I recommend it. Akuba is a fun, flawed character and I'm hoping Glitch Rain does well enough that we see her again in another (preferably novel size) story.
March 21, 2016
Good prose but too generic post-cyberpunk
Although the novella hits all the marks, some of the really well, the story feels slightly too generic and the same for the cute scenario presented. Still, the prose and wry humor suggests that a longer work would be really interesting
Although the novella hits all the marks, some of the really well, the story feels slightly too generic and the same for the cute scenario presented. Still, the prose and wry humor suggests that a longer work would be really interesting
March 22, 2016
Very fun novella. Check out my full review: http://samanthaedenwilliams.com/2016/...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 13 reviews