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SINless #1
Necrotech
Street thug Riko has some serious issues — memories wiped, reputation tanked, girlfriend turned into a tech-fueled zombie. And the only people who can help are the mercenaries who think she screwed them over.
In an apathetic society devoid of ethics or regulation, where fusing tech and flesh can mean a killing edge or a killer conversion, a massive conspiracy is unfolding that will alter the course of the human condition forever. With corporate meatheads on her ass and a necro-tech blight between her and salvation, Riko is going to have to fight meaner, work smarter, and push harder than she’s ever had to. And that’s just to make it through the day.
File Under: Science Fiction [ Viral Hitman | Renegade | Nano Shock | Swear On Your Life ]
In an apathetic society devoid of ethics or regulation, where fusing tech and flesh can mean a killing edge or a killer conversion, a massive conspiracy is unfolding that will alter the course of the human condition forever. With corporate meatheads on her ass and a necro-tech blight between her and salvation, Riko is going to have to fight meaner, work smarter, and push harder than she’s ever had to. And that’s just to make it through the day.
File Under: Science Fiction [ Viral Hitman | Renegade | Nano Shock | Swear On Your Life ]
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 6, 2016
102 people are currently reading
1548 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
September 30, 2017
What a great surprise! I've read a lot of machine-aug SF and dirty dangerous streets fiction to get a little jaded and ho-hum, but this one has a great flavor from start to finish.
It's all about the voice... and this woman (both the author and the MC) is wickedly delicious. Do you like awesome insults? Snark? The whole UF feel all wrapped up in a shiny dangerous nano package that can eat you from the inside or completely destroy you with a complete corruption of the software? How about being on the other side of the law, running jobs wherever you can... or how about landing yourself in so much damn trouble that your street cred and therefore your life is about to be landed in the bottom of a sewer somewhere?
It's CyberPUNK, yo!
This is more than a traditional but dressed-up-to-be-modern cyberpunk novel. This is cyberpunk for a brand new generation, with the feel of the neon spiky hair without an actual hair-job meant to poke someone's eye out. :)
Did I mention this had delicious dialogue and text rolls under some of the best throat-punches in the business?
Well, it does. :)
It's all about the voice... and this woman (both the author and the MC) is wickedly delicious. Do you like awesome insults? Snark? The whole UF feel all wrapped up in a shiny dangerous nano package that can eat you from the inside or completely destroy you with a complete corruption of the software? How about being on the other side of the law, running jobs wherever you can... or how about landing yourself in so much damn trouble that your street cred and therefore your life is about to be landed in the bottom of a sewer somewhere?
It's CyberPUNK, yo!
This is more than a traditional but dressed-up-to-be-modern cyberpunk novel. This is cyberpunk for a brand new generation, with the feel of the neon spiky hair without an actual hair-job meant to poke someone's eye out. :)
Did I mention this had delicious dialogue and text rolls under some of the best throat-punches in the business?
Well, it does. :)
April 3, 2017
This book unapologetically throws cyberpunk into a sweaty ménage à trios with AI madness and Cthulhu-cum-tech-zombie foul-mouthed insanity. The resultant gun-slinging, two-fisted, ass-kicking action is non-stop, as is the main character's incredibly, incredibly self-sabotaging bad attitude.
NECROTECH is so full of four-letter jabber it makes PULP FICTION sound like a church sermon. Seriously, if you're even remotely offended by Tourette's-level cursing, this one isn't for you.
We start out with a familiar amnesia trope, and truth be told by the end of the book we don't really get the answers. Want to know more? You'll need to get the second book in the SINless series. I don't think there's a release date at this time, so be warned.
But don't let that corrupt your software so much that you avoid this tale. The main character, Riko, is a walking disaster of overconfidence and simultaneous self-doubt. The tension between her two sides usually results in her using her bionic arm to punch some poor fucker in the mouth. Sometimes this results in said poor fucker's head exploding. Short answer: be very, very careful about what you say when you're talking to Riko.
Alexander's prose is solid. She's got some very poetic work in there, as part and parcel of the non-stop blood and gore. She plays with established grammar structure a bit, with the end result being a unique style — I think I'd now recognize her writing anywhere.
Fun book. Get some.
NECROTECH is so full of four-letter jabber it makes PULP FICTION sound like a church sermon. Seriously, if you're even remotely offended by Tourette's-level cursing, this one isn't for you.
We start out with a familiar amnesia trope, and truth be told by the end of the book we don't really get the answers. Want to know more? You'll need to get the second book in the SINless series. I don't think there's a release date at this time, so be warned.
But don't let that corrupt your software so much that you avoid this tale. The main character, Riko, is a walking disaster of overconfidence and simultaneous self-doubt. The tension between her two sides usually results in her using her bionic arm to punch some poor fucker in the mouth. Sometimes this results in said poor fucker's head exploding. Short answer: be very, very careful about what you say when you're talking to Riko.
Alexander's prose is solid. She's got some very poetic work in there, as part and parcel of the non-stop blood and gore. She plays with established grammar structure a bit, with the end result being a unique style — I think I'd now recognize her writing anywhere.
Fun book. Get some.
August 28, 2016
Review originally posted at my blog: Silicon of the Internet
Title: Necrotech
Author: K. C. Alexander
Genre: Sci-Fi
Subgenre: Cyberpunk/Transhumanist sci-fi
Review by Silicon.
Intro
HOLY. SHIT.
To say I enjoyed this book would be a massive understatement.
Do you like ass-kicking, foul-mouthed, shit-starting heroines? Fast-paced plots that just don't stop the punches? Human & tech integration with ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES and unique dangers?
Publication date is September 1st for ebook & UK, September 6th for North America.
This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC. Yes, I really did like it THIS MUCH.
Plot & Writing Style
The plot of Necrotech is one wild ride.
The major conflict in the story centers around Riko's girlfriend, who is turned into a "tech zombie" (necrotech) following events that implicate Riko herself, and which she cannot remember. Complicating the issue is her girlfriend's brother, who Riko must work with if she's to figure out what happened. The complicated, messy relationships between characters in this book is a real strength of the storytelling. I really liked how Riko is clearly a person who loves & is attracted to many people, and how HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS is a central theme & conflict for everyone. Deciding who to trust, who to betray, who to save makes up a big part of how everyone interacts.
Shit just keeps hitting the fan. Everything Riko does to try and fix the situation has consequences, positive and negative. The world of the story is tightly integrated, and Alexander does a great job giving us essential information through action sequences and really keeping tension up the whole time. This is a first person POV book, so when Riko doesn't know something we don't either. It's tough to make this work with an amnesia-driven central conflict, but I think it was well done. Amnesia isn't my favorite plot device, but for this story it worked.
If you see this XKCD and think "I'd like to read that!" You will enjoy Necrotech. This is one of the fastest-paced books I've read, which packs punches both physical and emotional.
Setting
Humanity has become concentrated in cosmopolitan mega-cities due to massive environmental degradation (whee, it's the future!), and depends on nanotechnology to survive.
The way tech and humanity is integrated in this novel is really unique. I liked the way that tech upgrades came with a significant danger and cost--the possibility of being overwhelmed by your tech's needs and becoming a mere vessel for it to operate. Very creepy. I think the way that tech and environment meshed was well thought out and has interesting implications--for example, nanotech removes the possibility of cancer, so people pulse themselves with straight radiation to disinfect the extremely dubious water coming out of their showers. People can connect and talk to one another through tech-based psionics wired into their brains, but this comes at the cost of also being constantly assaulted with visual and aural advertisements.
It's a very dystopian, post-climate-crisis environment and a very interesting use of universal nanotechnology.
Characters
Yessssss Riko. She's the best.
Riko beats people up, she swears loudly and frequently, she screws up and pulls herself to her feet again, she asks for help when she needs it and powers through when she doesn't. She's a FORCE. She's the kind of heroine I've wanted to read for a long time but rarely actually GET. Usually when you have protags like this, they end up needing A MAN to come save them somehow. Riko is self-sufficient and would probably significantly fuck you up if you suggested that. She needs help, but she doesn't need to be saved.
I really enjoyed how flawed and human K. C. Alexander writes Riko. She's not an emotionless machine. She cares for people and for her reputation. When she screws up and hurts someone else, she feels guilt and regret. Sometimes she screws up BECAUSE she feels so guilty it makes her rash and punch something she shouldn't. Riko has fears and joys that are just so centrally REAL that she really comes alive off the page. Plus I deeply enjoyed watching her beat her enemies up. I would not want to get in this woman's way. She's not the most conniving or intelligent character on the page, and THAT'S OKAY. That's better than okay, actually, it shows how she has significant challenges to face that she genuinely needs others for.
There's a great variety in characters presented in this book, who are all very different, yet need each other to survive and solve problems.
Diversity
Riko has had a long and sometimes complicated love life, and is bisexual. LGBT+ rep is casual and inclusive in this novel, and I really appreciated that. We frequently see Riko make passes at both men and women throughout the story, and there's absolutely no fanfare or big deal made out of who she's attracted to by any other character.
Riko is an amputee who uses a prosthetic metal forearm and hand. In a lot of SFF, loss of a limb is often swiftly compensated by something that functions the same, if not better. However, while Riko's arm definitely is advanced tech, it's not the same as if she'd never lost the arm. It feeds data back to Riko in a series of statistics about whatever it's touching, and she must interpret them rather than feeling as she does with her other hand. It has drawbacks and strengths that play uniquely into how Riko navigates the world. I felt this was excellently done.
Genetics is messy in the world of Necrotech. People can take pills containing genetic material from other human ethnic groups which augment their abilities and change their physical appearance.While this makes it complicated to evaluate racial diversity in the book, I was very happy with the many characters of color we got to see, and who play important roles. This is definitely not one of those "the future is white"-type scifi books. I was happy with the diversity in this book.
Conclusion
You need this damn book. There's a longish excerpt posted here by B&N if you want to see for yourself. If you don't like swearing you won't like this book, but you'd also probably not be reading my blog. SO.
READ THIS BOOK.
Title: Necrotech
Author: K. C. Alexander
Genre: Sci-Fi
Subgenre: Cyberpunk/Transhumanist sci-fi
Review by Silicon.
Intro
HOLY. SHIT.
To say I enjoyed this book would be a massive understatement.
Do you like ass-kicking, foul-mouthed, shit-starting heroines? Fast-paced plots that just don't stop the punches? Human & tech integration with ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES and unique dangers?
Publication date is September 1st for ebook & UK, September 6th for North America.
This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC. Yes, I really did like it THIS MUCH.
Plot & Writing Style
The plot of Necrotech is one wild ride.
The major conflict in the story centers around Riko's girlfriend, who is turned into a "tech zombie" (necrotech) following events that implicate Riko herself, and which she cannot remember. Complicating the issue is her girlfriend's brother, who Riko must work with if she's to figure out what happened. The complicated, messy relationships between characters in this book is a real strength of the storytelling. I really liked how Riko is clearly a person who loves & is attracted to many people, and how HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS is a central theme & conflict for everyone. Deciding who to trust, who to betray, who to save makes up a big part of how everyone interacts.
Shit just keeps hitting the fan. Everything Riko does to try and fix the situation has consequences, positive and negative. The world of the story is tightly integrated, and Alexander does a great job giving us essential information through action sequences and really keeping tension up the whole time. This is a first person POV book, so when Riko doesn't know something we don't either. It's tough to make this work with an amnesia-driven central conflict, but I think it was well done. Amnesia isn't my favorite plot device, but for this story it worked.
If you see this XKCD and think "I'd like to read that!" You will enjoy Necrotech. This is one of the fastest-paced books I've read, which packs punches both physical and emotional.
Setting
Humanity has become concentrated in cosmopolitan mega-cities due to massive environmental degradation (whee, it's the future!), and depends on nanotechnology to survive.
The way tech and humanity is integrated in this novel is really unique. I liked the way that tech upgrades came with a significant danger and cost--the possibility of being overwhelmed by your tech's needs and becoming a mere vessel for it to operate. Very creepy. I think the way that tech and environment meshed was well thought out and has interesting implications--for example, nanotech removes the possibility of cancer, so people pulse themselves with straight radiation to disinfect the extremely dubious water coming out of their showers. People can connect and talk to one another through tech-based psionics wired into their brains, but this comes at the cost of also being constantly assaulted with visual and aural advertisements.
It's a very dystopian, post-climate-crisis environment and a very interesting use of universal nanotechnology.
Characters
Yessssss Riko. She's the best.
Riko beats people up, she swears loudly and frequently, she screws up and pulls herself to her feet again, she asks for help when she needs it and powers through when she doesn't. She's a FORCE. She's the kind of heroine I've wanted to read for a long time but rarely actually GET. Usually when you have protags like this, they end up needing A MAN to come save them somehow. Riko is self-sufficient and would probably significantly fuck you up if you suggested that. She needs help, but she doesn't need to be saved.
I really enjoyed how flawed and human K. C. Alexander writes Riko. She's not an emotionless machine. She cares for people and for her reputation. When she screws up and hurts someone else, she feels guilt and regret. Sometimes she screws up BECAUSE she feels so guilty it makes her rash and punch something she shouldn't. Riko has fears and joys that are just so centrally REAL that she really comes alive off the page. Plus I deeply enjoyed watching her beat her enemies up. I would not want to get in this woman's way. She's not the most conniving or intelligent character on the page, and THAT'S OKAY. That's better than okay, actually, it shows how she has significant challenges to face that she genuinely needs others for.
There's a great variety in characters presented in this book, who are all very different, yet need each other to survive and solve problems.
Diversity
Riko has had a long and sometimes complicated love life, and is bisexual. LGBT+ rep is casual and inclusive in this novel, and I really appreciated that. We frequently see Riko make passes at both men and women throughout the story, and there's absolutely no fanfare or big deal made out of who she's attracted to by any other character.
Riko is an amputee who uses a prosthetic metal forearm and hand. In a lot of SFF, loss of a limb is often swiftly compensated by something that functions the same, if not better. However, while Riko's arm definitely is advanced tech, it's not the same as if she'd never lost the arm. It feeds data back to Riko in a series of statistics about whatever it's touching, and she must interpret them rather than feeling as she does with her other hand. It has drawbacks and strengths that play uniquely into how Riko navigates the world. I felt this was excellently done.
Genetics is messy in the world of Necrotech. People can take pills containing genetic material from other human ethnic groups which augment their abilities and change their physical appearance.While this makes it complicated to evaluate racial diversity in the book, I was very happy with the many characters of color we got to see, and who play important roles. This is definitely not one of those "the future is white"-type scifi books. I was happy with the diversity in this book.
Conclusion
You need this damn book. There's a longish excerpt posted here by B&N if you want to see for yourself. If you don't like swearing you won't like this book, but you'd also probably not be reading my blog. SO.
READ THIS BOOK.
November 15, 2016
Necrotech is one of those titles that left me feeling particularly divisive. K.C. Alexander included a great number of things that I enjoyed, but there were also just enough missteps to disappoint.
Perhaps my greatest problem with this book was going into it without the explicit understanding that this is the first book in a series with an overarching plot line. Alexander presents a story where the lead character, Riko, is on a mission to discover what happened to her and her girlfriend during a period of several months that she cannot recall. In the book's opening moments, Riko wakes up in a lab in time to discover her cybernetically augmented girlfriend going haywire and turning into a savage monster on a bloody tear. The mystery behind what these two women are doing in this lab, and why they were even there in the first place, becomes the crux of Riko's motivation. Unfortunately, by the time we reach the end of the book's 400+ pages there's been zero resolution. Riko does get moved into a new and interesting place, which is a plus, but the story itself lacks any sense of closure. The characters, and readers, are left in largely the same place they found themselves at the outset, with the central mystery unresolved. We had some neat developments and a few interesting scenarios along the way, but the trip itself ultimately felt largely pointless and this left me disappointed.
On the bright side, Riko is a cool heroine, and I have a soft-spot for foul-mouthed, temperamental, tough women. Riko is a particular type of mercenary known as a splatter specialist, and with her gruff, violent, no-prisoners attitude, and big bionic arm heroines don't get much tougher.
Necrotech is a violent book, with nearly non-stop action. At a certain point, though, the action does get to be a bit too much and a bit too tedious. Alexander doesn't slow down enough to really allow her character much in the way of introspection or growth, although there are some nice moments between Riko and the other characters. Her flirtatious side carries a definite charm, which made virtually any scene between her and a corporate secretary named Hope fun and engaging. I could have gone for a few more of those moments, and Riko becomes much more interesting when she's placed in situations far removed from her usual elements.
Make no mistake, Riko's usual elements are gritty and violent. Alexander does a great job building the world her characters inhabit, and I liked the concept of 'necrotech,' a computer virus that hijacks people's implants and turns them into the cyberpunk equivalent of a zombie, quite a lot. It's a scary, gruesome, and highly intriguing idea, and one that I look forward to seeing the author develop in future books.
While Necrotech was not the stand-alone title I was hoping for, and leaves far too many plot threads dangling and unresolved to placate me, I am still invested enough in this world, and in K.C. Alexander as a storyteller, to see what comes up next.
[Note: I received an advanced review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
Perhaps my greatest problem with this book was going into it without the explicit understanding that this is the first book in a series with an overarching plot line. Alexander presents a story where the lead character, Riko, is on a mission to discover what happened to her and her girlfriend during a period of several months that she cannot recall. In the book's opening moments, Riko wakes up in a lab in time to discover her cybernetically augmented girlfriend going haywire and turning into a savage monster on a bloody tear. The mystery behind what these two women are doing in this lab, and why they were even there in the first place, becomes the crux of Riko's motivation. Unfortunately, by the time we reach the end of the book's 400+ pages there's been zero resolution. Riko does get moved into a new and interesting place, which is a plus, but the story itself lacks any sense of closure. The characters, and readers, are left in largely the same place they found themselves at the outset, with the central mystery unresolved. We had some neat developments and a few interesting scenarios along the way, but the trip itself ultimately felt largely pointless and this left me disappointed.
On the bright side, Riko is a cool heroine, and I have a soft-spot for foul-mouthed, temperamental, tough women. Riko is a particular type of mercenary known as a splatter specialist, and with her gruff, violent, no-prisoners attitude, and big bionic arm heroines don't get much tougher.
Necrotech is a violent book, with nearly non-stop action. At a certain point, though, the action does get to be a bit too much and a bit too tedious. Alexander doesn't slow down enough to really allow her character much in the way of introspection or growth, although there are some nice moments between Riko and the other characters. Her flirtatious side carries a definite charm, which made virtually any scene between her and a corporate secretary named Hope fun and engaging. I could have gone for a few more of those moments, and Riko becomes much more interesting when she's placed in situations far removed from her usual elements.
Make no mistake, Riko's usual elements are gritty and violent. Alexander does a great job building the world her characters inhabit, and I liked the concept of 'necrotech,' a computer virus that hijacks people's implants and turns them into the cyberpunk equivalent of a zombie, quite a lot. It's a scary, gruesome, and highly intriguing idea, and one that I look forward to seeing the author develop in future books.
While Necrotech was not the stand-alone title I was hoping for, and leaves far too many plot threads dangling and unresolved to placate me, I am still invested enough in this world, and in K.C. Alexander as a storyteller, to see what comes up next.
[Note: I received an advanced review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
August 26, 2016
Necrotech updates 80s-style neon and street attitude cyberpunk for the 21st century. This is cyberpunk with an emphasis on the *punk*. It's in your face, unapologetic, no-holds-barred asskickery. If you love the Miriam Black books, you'll love Necrotech.
March 26, 2022
3.5 Stars
This was an entertaining cyberpunk novel with plenty of gritty action. This isn't my favourite subgenre but I thought this one was ptetty solid. I appreciated the elements of sexuality diversity.
This was an entertaining cyberpunk novel with plenty of gritty action. This isn't my favourite subgenre but I thought this one was ptetty solid. I appreciated the elements of sexuality diversity.
July 26, 2016
Will review better later. For now: at first I thought this book was going to disappoint. I spotted what looked like a few tropes that had me worried, and I was anxious over how I was going to like the rest. I wanted to love it, I really did.
So--when the rest of the book totally did not at all fall into the tropes I thought I saw coming, I was Ecstatic. This book is refreshing and fun and awesome. Kace is just as fantastic here as she was when she was writing steampunk adventures; perhaps even more so, because I feel like this is really "who she is" as a writer. An honest voice with tons of style, and a world that is totally worth getting sucked into.
So--when the rest of the book totally did not at all fall into the tropes I thought I saw coming, I was Ecstatic. This book is refreshing and fun and awesome. Kace is just as fantastic here as she was when she was writing steampunk adventures; perhaps even more so, because I feel like this is really "who she is" as a writer. An honest voice with tons of style, and a world that is totally worth getting sucked into.
September 27, 2016
Angry Robot has had a way of rewarding us readers with the new and the unexpected when it comes to genre fiction, fantasy or science fiction. Books that break current boundaries, set the stratospheric new heights and also define new sub-genres in that process, giving us fiction we didn't know we needed.
Necrotech is the prime shining example of good things to have come out of that process. Rebelliously, ridiculously good things that rank definitely up there among the best. Re-defining the scope and boundaries of cyberpunk science-fiction thrillers. I cannot believe this is a debut. I cannot believe K C Alexander hasn't written a book before. If this is Chuck Wendig writing under a false pen-name, I wouldn't be surprised. But heck no, he;s written a glowing endorsement for every foul word that has fountained from under that pen.
So if you loved Miriam Black series, then you will love Rikko. The female protagonist whom you will choose to love or hate but just cannot get out of your hair. Snarky from deep-inside-to-outer-core. shockingly violent and as free-and-foul-mouthed a person can ever be. She wears her sexuality like a badge, doesn't really distinguish between a girl or a guy but just folds it unto her designs to get to her goals - with a personality that doesn't win points for being polite or even remotely like-able, it's a wonder how Rikko gets called up for jobs on the street.
And what job do you ask? She's a "splatter" specialist in the street. Something like an obstacle remover or assassin, perhaps. In this world, where tech-integration into your body is an essential way of living, religion is just a way to ease up your conscience at the end of bad day and the environmental degradation has forced humanity to seek refuge in Mega-cities, a bad day for Rikko means she ends up with her memory slate wiped clean, watches her lover/girl-friend get turned into a "tech-zombie" (where the tech or AI sneaks over and takes control of the body through her mind bidding her do ghastly stuff!) and her reputation on the street, goes for a toss - she's branded a traitor to the cause of having sold out and abandoned her entire team for money.
Second book that uses amnesia as a plot device in this month that I'm reading - but both couldn't have been any more different. Necrotech is like the eruption of Mt.Fuji, drowning you in scalding lava - and yet forcing you to suck it up and keep moving forward. It's explosive and it's raw. KC's writing is like a solid right-and-left-hook combo that leaves you breathless. Pacy as hell, an engrossing mystery brewing beneath all that blood, gore and curses flying all around that kept me hooked to the end.
The ruthless futuristic world that Rikko is a part of, comes alive in a glorious manner throughout the story - the tech-enhancements, the nano-tech that helps heal your body, the genetic experiments are messy ( So most characters are characters of color - so yeah, a lot of diversity here and the names for me, distinctly sounded like a mangled up version of Indian names. Krouper = Kapoor? Mallik ? Nanjali!) the world itself minus the ozone layer being burned away and prolonged exposure leading to cancer - It's all effortlessly a part of the narrative without standing out and I thought this was absolutely cool.
Coming to the characters, of course Rikko stood out. First person narrative, that allows the readers to get up close and personal insider her flawed and angry head - Rikko is an intense character that will overwhelm you. With her eruption of feelings and anger issues, she's not the most suavest, savviest person in the book (Nope - that title belongs to Mallik 'cool cucumber' Reed!) but that only made her more appealing to me. But along with Rikko, there were other shining stars. Starting with Indigo, the 'linker' on her team, who's supposed to be the 'brains' of all operations and guide the team on their mission as he's plugged into the information highway and accesses every info-bit available about such, wasn't the strongest or the coolest around. But the raw anguish of having lost his sister to the "Necrotech" and his mammoth trust issues with Rikko makes for a brilliant characterization. Mallik Reed, the "corporate" connect for Rikko, who decides to fund-roll this new operation for Rikko to uncover her memories and thus, the mystery of what really happened to her and her girlfriend, now he is a sinister cat alright. Ice-cool temperament and nerves of steel, this guy is someone you don't want on the opposite side of the ring.
This definitely reads like the first part of a series - and therein, lies the only grouch I had. No payoffs at the end of this book for the mystery - Oh we get teasers alright and it only makes life harder. There are dangerous glints that can lead off into the speculation alleys but I will rein it in. It's a book that you should read. Satisfying that massive itch about hard-hitting cyberpunk you never knew you had. Truly an unexpected pleasure this year.
Necrotech is the prime shining example of good things to have come out of that process. Rebelliously, ridiculously good things that rank definitely up there among the best. Re-defining the scope and boundaries of cyberpunk science-fiction thrillers. I cannot believe this is a debut. I cannot believe K C Alexander hasn't written a book before. If this is Chuck Wendig writing under a false pen-name, I wouldn't be surprised. But heck no, he;s written a glowing endorsement for every foul word that has fountained from under that pen.
So if you loved Miriam Black series, then you will love Rikko. The female protagonist whom you will choose to love or hate but just cannot get out of your hair. Snarky from deep-inside-to-outer-core. shockingly violent and as free-and-foul-mouthed a person can ever be. She wears her sexuality like a badge, doesn't really distinguish between a girl or a guy but just folds it unto her designs to get to her goals - with a personality that doesn't win points for being polite or even remotely like-able, it's a wonder how Rikko gets called up for jobs on the street.
And what job do you ask? She's a "splatter" specialist in the street. Something like an obstacle remover or assassin, perhaps. In this world, where tech-integration into your body is an essential way of living, religion is just a way to ease up your conscience at the end of bad day and the environmental degradation has forced humanity to seek refuge in Mega-cities, a bad day for Rikko means she ends up with her memory slate wiped clean, watches her lover/girl-friend get turned into a "tech-zombie" (where the tech or AI sneaks over and takes control of the body through her mind bidding her do ghastly stuff!) and her reputation on the street, goes for a toss - she's branded a traitor to the cause of having sold out and abandoned her entire team for money.
Second book that uses amnesia as a plot device in this month that I'm reading - but both couldn't have been any more different. Necrotech is like the eruption of Mt.Fuji, drowning you in scalding lava - and yet forcing you to suck it up and keep moving forward. It's explosive and it's raw. KC's writing is like a solid right-and-left-hook combo that leaves you breathless. Pacy as hell, an engrossing mystery brewing beneath all that blood, gore and curses flying all around that kept me hooked to the end.
The ruthless futuristic world that Rikko is a part of, comes alive in a glorious manner throughout the story - the tech-enhancements, the nano-tech that helps heal your body, the genetic experiments are messy ( So most characters are characters of color - so yeah, a lot of diversity here and the names for me, distinctly sounded like a mangled up version of Indian names. Krouper = Kapoor? Mallik ? Nanjali!) the world itself minus the ozone layer being burned away and prolonged exposure leading to cancer - It's all effortlessly a part of the narrative without standing out and I thought this was absolutely cool.
Coming to the characters, of course Rikko stood out. First person narrative, that allows the readers to get up close and personal insider her flawed and angry head - Rikko is an intense character that will overwhelm you. With her eruption of feelings and anger issues, she's not the most suavest, savviest person in the book (Nope - that title belongs to Mallik 'cool cucumber' Reed!) but that only made her more appealing to me. But along with Rikko, there were other shining stars. Starting with Indigo, the 'linker' on her team, who's supposed to be the 'brains' of all operations and guide the team on their mission as he's plugged into the information highway and accesses every info-bit available about such, wasn't the strongest or the coolest around. But the raw anguish of having lost his sister to the "Necrotech" and his mammoth trust issues with Rikko makes for a brilliant characterization. Mallik Reed, the "corporate" connect for Rikko, who decides to fund-roll this new operation for Rikko to uncover her memories and thus, the mystery of what really happened to her and her girlfriend, now he is a sinister cat alright. Ice-cool temperament and nerves of steel, this guy is someone you don't want on the opposite side of the ring.
This definitely reads like the first part of a series - and therein, lies the only grouch I had. No payoffs at the end of this book for the mystery - Oh we get teasers alright and it only makes life harder. There are dangerous glints that can lead off into the speculation alleys but I will rein it in. It's a book that you should read. Satisfying that massive itch about hard-hitting cyberpunk you never knew you had. Truly an unexpected pleasure this year.
November 17, 2017
4.5* I was searching for female-written female SciFi protagonists when I stumbled across this gem. Even better: this qualifies as Cyberpunk with the emphasis on Punk, very much in the “the street finds its own use for things” kind of way.
The world is an immersive not-too-far-away future in which climate change (among other issues hinted at) have forced all humanity to live concentrated in a few protected places - mega cities. The Ozone Layer has been burnt away completely. As is usual with Cyberpunk there’s two kinds of people those who work for the corporations and those who don’t. Riko doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have nanos in her blood, a chipset in her brain and a bunch of other tech enhancements ... but she likes flying under the radar of the massive surveillance practiced by the corps.
Riko is a Saint - meaning she doesn’t have a SIN - a Security Identification Number. She is not only a Saint but also a mercenary with an impressive array of profanity at her disposal and a not-so-small capacity for violence. The story is told from her perspective (1st person) and her voice is at once compelling - full of snark and profanity - and sometimes a bit too much in the ways of slang, street jargon and cliché. At first it’s fun, then I got a little annoyed (minus half a star) and then the plot got just too damn interesting ...
It all starts with Riko waking up in a lab, she has a terrible hangover and she doesn’t remember how she got there. I find the Amnesia trope a bit tired but this execution was good - maybe even great. When she gets back to “her team” it turns out that her (street-)cred took a big hit because of whatever she did and now can’t admit that she doesn’t remember. All her allies - there are no friends in a life like hers - are suddenly wary if not hostile ...
The first half of the book Riko is slowly trying to recover and find leads but in the second half the pace ramps up especially when it turns out the corps are involved in whatever has happened.
The showdown is worthy of being made into an action movie as the bullets fly and the splatter ...
A word on diversity. Riko is bisexual, stares at every butt and flirts with anyone she finds attractive and that’s quite a few people. But neither her gender, nor her mixed race or her missing arm - replaced by a “diamond steel” appendage - are the big themes of this story. The cast - to me at least - seems diverse because in this future world everything is mixed-up.
I do enjoy reading kick-ass female protagonists and especially those who don’t swoon into the arms of any guy who yanks their chains. If you like cyberpunk give this a read ...
Review also on my Blog
For more context the author has written about this book on Scalzi's The Big Idea: Necrotech
The world is an immersive not-too-far-away future in which climate change (among other issues hinted at) have forced all humanity to live concentrated in a few protected places - mega cities. The Ozone Layer has been burnt away completely. As is usual with Cyberpunk there’s two kinds of people those who work for the corporations and those who don’t. Riko doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have nanos in her blood, a chipset in her brain and a bunch of other tech enhancements ... but she likes flying under the radar of the massive surveillance practiced by the corps.
Riko is a Saint - meaning she doesn’t have a SIN - a Security Identification Number. She is not only a Saint but also a mercenary with an impressive array of profanity at her disposal and a not-so-small capacity for violence. The story is told from her perspective (1st person) and her voice is at once compelling - full of snark and profanity - and sometimes a bit too much in the ways of slang, street jargon and cliché. At first it’s fun, then I got a little annoyed (minus half a star) and then the plot got just too damn interesting ...
It all starts with Riko waking up in a lab, she has a terrible hangover and she doesn’t remember how she got there. I find the Amnesia trope a bit tired but this execution was good - maybe even great. When she gets back to “her team” it turns out that her (street-)cred took a big hit because of whatever she did and now can’t admit that she doesn’t remember. All her allies - there are no friends in a life like hers - are suddenly wary if not hostile ...
The first half of the book Riko is slowly trying to recover and find leads but in the second half the pace ramps up especially when it turns out the corps are involved in whatever has happened.
The showdown is worthy of being made into an action movie as the bullets fly and the splatter ...
A word on diversity. Riko is bisexual, stares at every butt and flirts with anyone she finds attractive and that’s quite a few people. But neither her gender, nor her mixed race or her missing arm - replaced by a “diamond steel” appendage - are the big themes of this story. The cast - to me at least - seems diverse because in this future world everything is mixed-up.
I do enjoy reading kick-ass female protagonists and especially those who don’t swoon into the arms of any guy who yanks their chains. If you like cyberpunk give this a read ...
Review also on my Blog
For more context the author has written about this book on Scalzi's The Big Idea: Necrotech
September 9, 2016
Some good old school cyberpunk with a suitably large dash of the punk. We've got the usuals - deckers, fixers, runners, and the like all with suitably updated identities and new technology at their hands. The old school still shows through though with a main character's chrome cyber arm and one of the deckers, sorry, projectors having the DNI ports in his neck and back. This book takes the genre, kisses it on the mouth, and finishes with a swift kick in the balls.
It's a good book.
Cyber psychosis is updated as the titled necrotech. Everyone, basically, has nanites in their system keeping them health, repairing damage, etc. When the nanites get over stressed, such as you're implanting too much foreign material or you're starving, they can go into panic mood. The panic can lead to them multiplying exponentially to keep up with what's going on till the point they overwrite your nervous system and go onto autopilot. Hence, necrotech. This is a bad thing.
Our main character is painfully flawed and she knows it. However, knowing doesn't mean you're able to stop making the same mistakes. Violent, foul mouthed, and just wanting to know what the hell is going on. It's an excellent welcome to a whole new world.
The book finishes with few answers but a promise of a whole lot more to come. Some serious corporate malfeasance is afoot and there are a lot of highly punchable faces that need to provide some explanations.
Need more.
It's a good book.
Cyber psychosis is updated as the titled necrotech. Everyone, basically, has nanites in their system keeping them health, repairing damage, etc. When the nanites get over stressed, such as you're implanting too much foreign material or you're starving, they can go into panic mood. The panic can lead to them multiplying exponentially to keep up with what's going on till the point they overwrite your nervous system and go onto autopilot. Hence, necrotech. This is a bad thing.
Our main character is painfully flawed and she knows it. However, knowing doesn't mean you're able to stop making the same mistakes. Violent, foul mouthed, and just wanting to know what the hell is going on. It's an excellent welcome to a whole new world.
The book finishes with few answers but a promise of a whole lot more to come. Some serious corporate malfeasance is afoot and there are a lot of highly punchable faces that need to provide some explanations.
Need more.
March 6, 2018
Necrotech puts the punk back in cyberpunk. It had everything you could want: big bad corporations, bad ass heroine, cybernetic appendages, and tech out the wazoo. It’s fast paced, action packed and even has something new with the corruption aspect of said tech.
Im usually okay with unlikable characters in my fiction but Riko really grated on me. She was full of complete non-stop attitude and anger. So much so that I actually started to sympathize with the other characters in the book for having to put up with her shit all the time. I understand she is looking for answers and nobody gives them to her but she is locked into bitch-mode throughout the entire book. I hope in future novels the author dials it back a bit and lets us see a different side to her because I honestly did not like the character.
Speaking of, there’s one other point that irritated me and that was the authors style. She has this habit of every time there’s a line of dialogue she follows it up with numerous paragraphs of exposition or explanation making it feel like the conversation lasts forever when really it’s only a few lines of dialogue. Not a huge deal just a little quirk that bugged me.
It’s a decent book. One that cyberpunk fans should definitely check out. I just hope we see a different Riko next time. I’ll grab the next in the series for sure eventually.
Im usually okay with unlikable characters in my fiction but Riko really grated on me. She was full of complete non-stop attitude and anger. So much so that I actually started to sympathize with the other characters in the book for having to put up with her shit all the time. I understand she is looking for answers and nobody gives them to her but she is locked into bitch-mode throughout the entire book. I hope in future novels the author dials it back a bit and lets us see a different side to her because I honestly did not like the character.
Speaking of, there’s one other point that irritated me and that was the authors style. She has this habit of every time there’s a line of dialogue she follows it up with numerous paragraphs of exposition or explanation making it feel like the conversation lasts forever when really it’s only a few lines of dialogue. Not a huge deal just a little quirk that bugged me.
It’s a decent book. One that cyberpunk fans should definitely check out. I just hope we see a different Riko next time. I’ll grab the next in the series for sure eventually.
December 29, 2017
NECROTECH is probably the most entertaining novel I read in 2017 and is the best way I can finish off this year. I say this as a huge cyberpunk fan and someone who has often felt the genre has suffered since The Matrix. Basically, the original cyberpunks grew up to become thirty something year old people who had to work for a living and were briefly deluded by the tech of Steve Jobs as well as the Clinton Administration into believing the world was getting better.
It took the War on Terror to remind us the world was a scary place with violent chaos on one side along with the politicians as well as corporates willing to take advantage of it. Even so, I wrote my first cyberpunk novel (AGENT G: INFILTRATOR) with the cultured assassin of the super-rich rather than the penniless hacker on the ground.
In a way, Necrotech is a throwback to the original cyberpunk novels of Case and Molly. Riko is a Runner and professional thief who wakes up in a laboratory one day with months missing of her life. The rude, irreverent, and crude heroine doesn't make it out of the laboratory without some serious damage. Not only does she find her reputation in tatters, all of her old allies having abandoned her, and missing time but she's also lost her girlfriend to whoever was experimenting on her.
Riko can't conclusively prove she didn't sell out her girlfriend as while that's not something she would normally do, their relationship had also fallen apart. Instead, she soon finds herself surrounded by men who want to use her and manipulate her. The secrets of the laboratory she escaped from have a substantial credit amount and everyone wants her to guide them back to find out its secrets--government quarantine or not.
The future described in Necrotech is a true cyberpunk one with society on the verge of collapse. The government still exists but corporations have disproportionate power, organized crime is utterly vicious, and the police are corrupt as hell. Riko is a product of the streets and feels authentically punk in a way which very few authors are able to claim.
I love Riko's complicated and fascinating relationships with the characters around her. Bisexual representation in fiction is rare enough but she's a character who is active in her sexuality as well as unapologetic. Love is not in the cards for her and that's okay. I will say I think the book was a bit sexless despite large amounts of innuendo. I could have used a bit more Riko getting to act on those urges. What can I say.
The action is great in the book but I mostly appreciated the hard edged negotiations and characterizations of the book's first half. The second half of the book is mostly action and a heist story with a team of dangerous hackers as well as mercs hitting the laboratory. That part felt a bit too long and didn't have enough interaction but it still worked.
In conclusion, Necrotech is a great novel for fans of cyberpunk and I immediately picked up the sequel. It's a truly punk novel which has a character who embodies the "give no ****s" attitude of the movement and serves as one of its iconic characters almost immediately out of the gate. I hope the author writes many more installments.
9/10
It took the War on Terror to remind us the world was a scary place with violent chaos on one side along with the politicians as well as corporates willing to take advantage of it. Even so, I wrote my first cyberpunk novel (AGENT G: INFILTRATOR) with the cultured assassin of the super-rich rather than the penniless hacker on the ground.
In a way, Necrotech is a throwback to the original cyberpunk novels of Case and Molly. Riko is a Runner and professional thief who wakes up in a laboratory one day with months missing of her life. The rude, irreverent, and crude heroine doesn't make it out of the laboratory without some serious damage. Not only does she find her reputation in tatters, all of her old allies having abandoned her, and missing time but she's also lost her girlfriend to whoever was experimenting on her.
Riko can't conclusively prove she didn't sell out her girlfriend as while that's not something she would normally do, their relationship had also fallen apart. Instead, she soon finds herself surrounded by men who want to use her and manipulate her. The secrets of the laboratory she escaped from have a substantial credit amount and everyone wants her to guide them back to find out its secrets--government quarantine or not.
The future described in Necrotech is a true cyberpunk one with society on the verge of collapse. The government still exists but corporations have disproportionate power, organized crime is utterly vicious, and the police are corrupt as hell. Riko is a product of the streets and feels authentically punk in a way which very few authors are able to claim.
I love Riko's complicated and fascinating relationships with the characters around her. Bisexual representation in fiction is rare enough but she's a character who is active in her sexuality as well as unapologetic. Love is not in the cards for her and that's okay. I will say I think the book was a bit sexless despite large amounts of innuendo. I could have used a bit more Riko getting to act on those urges. What can I say.
The action is great in the book but I mostly appreciated the hard edged negotiations and characterizations of the book's first half. The second half of the book is mostly action and a heist story with a team of dangerous hackers as well as mercs hitting the laboratory. That part felt a bit too long and didn't have enough interaction but it still worked.
In conclusion, Necrotech is a great novel for fans of cyberpunk and I immediately picked up the sequel. It's a truly punk novel which has a character who embodies the "give no ****s" attitude of the movement and serves as one of its iconic characters almost immediately out of the gate. I hope the author writes many more installments.
9/10
September 22, 2020
Where to begin? This book is a fucking POWERHOUSE of awesome. I'm always on the prowl for a seriously kickass female lead. I've found a few who've come close to the level of badass I'm jonesing for, but never one like Riko in NECROTECH. She is all I've ever wished for in a heroine and all I'll ever need. Riko is my guurrrrrlllll!
Okay, so the plot was cool and neat-o and twisty, yeah. Cyberpunked characters with cool tech specialties, raucous-ass hardware, and self-healing nanos brought to mind the computer games my boys play. Bring in some shitty corporate assholes trying to own the entire world (kinda like, yanno, the real-life corporate assholes trying to own the entire world) and mix it into a little paste of paranoia, mindfuckery, and tested loyalties, and you have NECROTECH.
The writing is superb. The characters are visceral. My adrenaline-riddled heart is content, having exploded and restitched itself back together with the help of nanos and a green-sludge recharge pack chaser. I'll be reading the next book in the series as soon as I catch my breath.
God DAMN, I loved this book!
Okay, so the plot was cool and neat-o and twisty, yeah. Cyberpunked characters with cool tech specialties, raucous-ass hardware, and self-healing nanos brought to mind the computer games my boys play. Bring in some shitty corporate assholes trying to own the entire world (kinda like, yanno, the real-life corporate assholes trying to own the entire world) and mix it into a little paste of paranoia, mindfuckery, and tested loyalties, and you have NECROTECH.
The writing is superb. The characters are visceral. My adrenaline-riddled heart is content, having exploded and restitched itself back together with the help of nanos and a green-sludge recharge pack chaser. I'll be reading the next book in the series as soon as I catch my breath.
God DAMN, I loved this book!
January 21, 2025
I love strong female characters, and with Cyberpunk 2077 being my favorite game, I was so ready to love this book.
The story even opens in a way that made me think of Sarah Connor and her escape from the mental facility in Terminator 2 .. and I'm thinking to myself, this is gonna be awesome, I'm so here for this!
And I was, at least for a while. But u can only hear Riko say c*nt and f*ck for so many times before it becomes ridiculous, borderline childish almost .. just like how her solution to everything was violence, preferably brutal and bloody.
In the end tho, my biggest issue, was that I couldn't give two fucks about what happened to Riko, bc she was a selfish and unlikable c*nt
The story even opens in a way that made me think of Sarah Connor and her escape from the mental facility in Terminator 2 .. and I'm thinking to myself, this is gonna be awesome, I'm so here for this!
And I was, at least for a while. But u can only hear Riko say c*nt and f*ck for so many times before it becomes ridiculous, borderline childish almost .. just like how her solution to everything was violence, preferably brutal and bloody.
In the end tho, my biggest issue, was that I couldn't give two fucks about what happened to Riko, bc she was a selfish and unlikable c*nt
April 5, 2022
(DNF at about 33%)
I really feel it's a shame that cyberpunk hasn't made more of a comeback lately. The genre's interplay of out-of-control corporations and technology that can track your every move provides a wealth of opportunity for commentary on modern society. Unfortunately, the only question Necrotech seems to be interested in exploring is "what if I made my Cyberpunk* tabletop campaign into a trilogy of novels?" The book does do a little bit of its own worldbuilding, but it mostly feels like reskinning of the game's underlying mechanics. The serial numbers are only half filed off. It honestly feels a bit ironic for something that's trying to portray itself as any kind of punk to say "forget being original or subversive, I'm just going to take the most commercial example of the genre and copy it."
This is annoying because it's lazy, but also because it means the book isn't saying anything actually relevant and feels really dated. About the only message it has is "capitalism sucks," which, sure, but I would argue that it sucks in a somewhat different way now than it did in the '80s. It was interesting to read this book at the same time as I was reading Song for a New Day, which is not at all cyberpunk in aesthetic but is very much interested in the intersection of capitalism and technology in a way that does feel informed by the current state of those things. '80s cyberpunk, for example, is (in my experience) more likely to have cutthroat competition between multiple corporations, as indeed Necrotech does. It is a significant plot point that the heroine was kidnapped and experimented on by a corp, but doesn't know which one. In the world of Song for a New Day, inspired by the monopolistic tendencies of the twenty-first century, you couldn't make a plot thread out of trying to figure out which corporation did something, because there's only one. (And I didn't even really like Song for a New Day, so the fact that I'm going "wow, that was so much better than this" is saying something.)
Additionally, the fact that the corporations of Necrotech's universe need an ID number (the series-titular SIN) embedded in an implanted chip to track your activities and serve you targeted ads and so on seems laughably naive for a recent novel. There's plenty of tracking happening right now that doesn't require an SSN or other national ID number to be involved anywhere along the line. It seems odd for a future dystopia to have a method of doing this that's both more convoluted and easier to evade. There's also not much of a sense that not having an SIN is inconvenient or limiting. Yes, it's illegal, but in practice that mostly amounts to a justification for random combat encounters in which our heroine can show off how badass she is. Otherwise she pretty much gets the benefits of being off the grid with none of the drawbacks. I didn't get the sense that this made it harder for her to communicate with people, for example, or to buy things, or to get around town, or any number of other things that I could imagine being an issue for someone in the present-day real world who wanted to avoid being tracked.
The book also has a strain of Orientalism and general tendency to exoticize people of color that I found uncomfortable, though I'm not qualified to comment on it in depth.
With all of this bugging me, about a third of the way into the book I checked out the Goodreads page to see if anyone else was complaining about any of these things, because I'm fantastically petty and I feel great validation when other people don't like books I don't like for the same reasons that I don't like them. This was not the case, but I did find someone saying that the book ends with pretty much nothing resolved and no questions answered. I might have been interested enough in the characters and plot to finish out this book, but I definitely don't have it in me to read the whole trilogy, so with the knowledge that book 1 doesn't actually have a complete plot arc of its own, I decided to cut my losses.
* As in the franchise that spawned the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077, not as in the genre.
I really feel it's a shame that cyberpunk hasn't made more of a comeback lately. The genre's interplay of out-of-control corporations and technology that can track your every move provides a wealth of opportunity for commentary on modern society. Unfortunately, the only question Necrotech seems to be interested in exploring is "what if I made my Cyberpunk* tabletop campaign into a trilogy of novels?" The book does do a little bit of its own worldbuilding, but it mostly feels like reskinning of the game's underlying mechanics. The serial numbers are only half filed off. It honestly feels a bit ironic for something that's trying to portray itself as any kind of punk to say "forget being original or subversive, I'm just going to take the most commercial example of the genre and copy it."
This is annoying because it's lazy, but also because it means the book isn't saying anything actually relevant and feels really dated. About the only message it has is "capitalism sucks," which, sure, but I would argue that it sucks in a somewhat different way now than it did in the '80s. It was interesting to read this book at the same time as I was reading Song for a New Day, which is not at all cyberpunk in aesthetic but is very much interested in the intersection of capitalism and technology in a way that does feel informed by the current state of those things. '80s cyberpunk, for example, is (in my experience) more likely to have cutthroat competition between multiple corporations, as indeed Necrotech does. It is a significant plot point that the heroine was kidnapped and experimented on by a corp, but doesn't know which one. In the world of Song for a New Day, inspired by the monopolistic tendencies of the twenty-first century, you couldn't make a plot thread out of trying to figure out which corporation did something, because there's only one. (And I didn't even really like Song for a New Day, so the fact that I'm going "wow, that was so much better than this" is saying something.)
Additionally, the fact that the corporations of Necrotech's universe need an ID number (the series-titular SIN) embedded in an implanted chip to track your activities and serve you targeted ads and so on seems laughably naive for a recent novel. There's plenty of tracking happening right now that doesn't require an SSN or other national ID number to be involved anywhere along the line. It seems odd for a future dystopia to have a method of doing this that's both more convoluted and easier to evade. There's also not much of a sense that not having an SIN is inconvenient or limiting. Yes, it's illegal, but in practice that mostly amounts to a justification for random combat encounters in which our heroine can show off how badass she is. Otherwise she pretty much gets the benefits of being off the grid with none of the drawbacks. I didn't get the sense that this made it harder for her to communicate with people, for example, or to buy things, or to get around town, or any number of other things that I could imagine being an issue for someone in the present-day real world who wanted to avoid being tracked.
The book also has a strain of Orientalism and general tendency to exoticize people of color that I found uncomfortable, though I'm not qualified to comment on it in depth.
With all of this bugging me, about a third of the way into the book I checked out the Goodreads page to see if anyone else was complaining about any of these things, because I'm fantastically petty and I feel great validation when other people don't like books I don't like for the same reasons that I don't like them. This was not the case, but I did find someone saying that the book ends with pretty much nothing resolved and no questions answered. I might have been interested enough in the characters and plot to finish out this book, but I definitely don't have it in me to read the whole trilogy, so with the knowledge that book 1 doesn't actually have a complete plot arc of its own, I decided to cut my losses.
* As in the franchise that spawned the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077, not as in the genre.
May 9, 2017
Brutal, calculated, and violent
This is cyberpunk done right. The world is reminiscent of bleak cyberpunk of the 80s. There's nothing pretty about the world because we've screwed it all up, the corps are in control, and nothing is alright.
K C Alexander has written the best cyberpunk I've read in the past decade. In fact I had been avoiding the genre for at least five years and only picked up Necrotech on a whim. I was quite prepared to be disappointed but the let down never came. I'm completely amazed at the harshness that I feel has been absent from the genre.
If you've ever enjoyed cyberpunk then don't pass up this one.
This is cyberpunk done right. The world is reminiscent of bleak cyberpunk of the 80s. There's nothing pretty about the world because we've screwed it all up, the corps are in control, and nothing is alright.
K C Alexander has written the best cyberpunk I've read in the past decade. In fact I had been avoiding the genre for at least five years and only picked up Necrotech on a whim. I was quite prepared to be disappointed but the let down never came. I'm completely amazed at the harshness that I feel has been absent from the genre.
If you've ever enjoyed cyberpunk then don't pass up this one.
March 10, 2017
They weren't kidding when they said Necrotech reads like a punch to the gut. This book is relentless in the best way.
Necrotech has all the cyberpunk themes I love. Opulent corporate wealth versus the down and dirty world of the runners. And as you'd expect, the corps basically control the government.
Riko is a great character, broken in all the worst ways but still one of the best at her job. There's a constant sense that she's in it only for her self, except when her friends are involved--unless they get in her way.
One of my favourite aspects of Riko is her inability to communicate her emotions. This kind of trait usually frustrates me, feeling like a way to pad out conflict, but it is such a well developed part of her character that I was nodding along thinking: of course she wouldn't tell them that.
When shit hits the fan, it hits hard. And it's great.
I loved this book from beginning to end. If you're looking for a cyberpunk read that'll get its cybernetic hooks in you, definitely check out Necrotech.
Necrotech has all the cyberpunk themes I love. Opulent corporate wealth versus the down and dirty world of the runners. And as you'd expect, the corps basically control the government.
Riko is a great character, broken in all the worst ways but still one of the best at her job. There's a constant sense that she's in it only for her self, except when her friends are involved--unless they get in her way.
One of my favourite aspects of Riko is her inability to communicate her emotions. This kind of trait usually frustrates me, feeling like a way to pad out conflict, but it is such a well developed part of her character that I was nodding along thinking: of course she wouldn't tell them that.
When shit hits the fan, it hits hard. And it's great.
I loved this book from beginning to end. If you're looking for a cyberpunk read that'll get its cybernetic hooks in you, definitely check out Necrotech.
November 10, 2016
Riko is just the unrepentant, angry, vicious bitch I needed right now. She takes a beating and keeps going. She lives fiercely, and on her own terms. She defends her companions tooth and nail. She makes mistakes and owns the consequences. So must we all, now more than ever.
November 25, 2020
Zombies, cyberpunk, and AI craziness all in one book? It's a pretty good combination, but it didn't quite work for me as much as I hoped it would. I wish I was more invested in the main character and that there was more of a wrap up at the end. I guess I just have to read the sequel now.
September 17, 2016
NECROTECH is Killjoys starring Miriam Black, hold the space and magic, add in a side order of crazy-WTF cybernetics. It's crass, violent, and gloriously, unapologetically fun.
January 28, 2023
all reviews in one place:
night mode reading ;
skaitom nakties rezimu
About the Book: Riko woke up in a strange, lab-like place, and immediately got to witness her girlfriend turn full Necro as the tech in her body, so illogical, wrong, and new, wrecking havoc on her mind and body. Escaping the place wasn’t easy, but it appears to be just the first step through this swamp of shit she got into. There’s gaps in her memory. Her vital merc rep. is in shambles. Contacts, friends, colleagues blame her for what happened. And in her own brain there’s strange, worrying things…
My Opinion: A great, logical and very interesting world, with great lore on how it changed, what it’s like now, and why’s that so. Truly good, and slightly different cyberpunk setting. The only things lacking were the character personalities. Something to make them human, something to explain why they are the way they are that could’ve differentiated them, made them more real than a bunch of others reader forgets about due to having forged no bonds, no relations. But I can overlook that thanks to stable paced interesting plot, smooth and constant moving forwards. Good writing, and staying true to how cyberpunk is, the humans, the humanity, the society, how those things make it worth while surviving the hellscape.
night mode reading ;
skaitom nakties rezimu
About the Book: Riko woke up in a strange, lab-like place, and immediately got to witness her girlfriend turn full Necro as the tech in her body, so illogical, wrong, and new, wrecking havoc on her mind and body. Escaping the place wasn’t easy, but it appears to be just the first step through this swamp of shit she got into. There’s gaps in her memory. Her vital merc rep. is in shambles. Contacts, friends, colleagues blame her for what happened. And in her own brain there’s strange, worrying things…
My Opinion: A great, logical and very interesting world, with great lore on how it changed, what it’s like now, and why’s that so. Truly good, and slightly different cyberpunk setting. The only things lacking were the character personalities. Something to make them human, something to explain why they are the way they are that could’ve differentiated them, made them more real than a bunch of others reader forgets about due to having forged no bonds, no relations. But I can overlook that thanks to stable paced interesting plot, smooth and constant moving forwards. Good writing, and staying true to how cyberpunk is, the humans, the humanity, the society, how those things make it worth while surviving the hellscape.
October 5, 2016
A cybernetics-enhanced mercenary wakes up with no memory of the past few months, in an unknown facility, and as a dangerous situation is about to erupt that costs the
life of her girlfriend. While trying to piece things together, she finds that her own reputation is in the toilet and has to do her best to uncover what happened.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free through a giveaway on Goodreads. I don't think it affected my review.
Okay, this is a book in the subgenre of cyberpunk. And I should probably state up front that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Cyberpunk. I love the technological milieu, the general idea of it, but a few of the tropes I really don't care for at all. Some merely need to be done well, others I outright dislike.
It's also a genre that's well past its prime. But that actually gives me hope, because, my reasoning goes, a new book might avoid some of the pitfalls and overdone aspects of the genre. So, when I first heard about this book, I was excited to try it.
Unfortunately, it still hit a few too many of my cyberpunk "hates."
But let's start with the good. I think that author handles action pretty well (although high-action pieces typically aren't things I look for... I often glaze over in fight scenes). The worldbuilding (with a couple exceptions below) also felt pretty interesting, instead of relying on the typical Cyberpunk "like urban sprawl, only worse", there actually is a more significant difference to the "world" everyone lives in, and I appreciated that novelty. Also I have to give some respect to writing an unlikable protagonist.
Of course, the last is also a problem. Unlikable protagonists are one of those cyberpunk things that have to be done very well for them to not count as a negative for me. Because, while they may be disagreeable, if I don't find something to care about, why do I care what happens to them? In this case, I never really found it. Yes, her dead-girlfriend opening was somewhat sympathetic, but undercut by the fact that the relationship didn't seem to be much more than a pleasant diversion rather than a true-love. Often she seems more broken up over the fact that her reputation was ruined than that someone she cared about was one. She's also violent and crude, with again, somewhat par for the course in a cyberpunk book, and sometimes entertaining, but in this book she kills someone in the first few pages without even really understanding what's going on... that they turned out to be into something nefarious seems to be almost an accident, and it made it hard for me to root for them. Again, in other hands, an unlikeable protagonist can be fascinating (for example, Kameron Hurley's Nyx), but here it just fell flat for me.
Another big annoyance was some of the worldbuilding elements. To illustrate, I'm going to talk about a plot element that is NOT in any way in this book, but is a little easier to explain. In many stories (and especially TV shows) involving virtual reality, there's often this twist... "If you die in VR, you die FOR REAL!" I hate that twist, because it makes no sense to me. Maybe in a certain rare set of circumstances, custom equipment designed for that purpose by a psychopath, that can be justified, but if you use it as a natural condition of really, really good VR, the kind of VR that's used by most of society... you've lost me. I understand why they do it, to give stakes to a scene that would otherwise be a "game" but it comes off so false that it's actually counterproductive.
In this book, they didn't have that, but they had an element I hate almost as much, the concept that there's a magical "limit" of technology you can have implanted in you. Everyone's limit is different, but if you go over this limit... you turn into a rampaging zombie. You can also go into this limit if you don't get enough power to the cybernetic systems you do have, including stuff that's in every single human being alive. I mean, seriously? Doesn't that seem like a design flaw to be removed in beta-testing? Not to mention this bizarre idea that if you remove your leg and get a replacement somehow your brain is less human.
I've seen this concept used often in RPGs, where it has an obvious purpose... to keep players from loading up on Cybernetics and becoming unstoppable killing machines. I understand it. I loathe it, and that loathing affected my opinion of the rest of the book. (Incidentally, this element, combined with the treatment of "rep" as a score that goes up or down for the streets as a whole, makes me suspect that the author played similar Cyberpunk-themed RPGs as I did).
Unfortunately, this plot element is so deeply embedded in the world that it's existence tainted my whole reading experience (and yet, oddly enough, it could have fairly easily been removed or mitigated without affecting the plot overly much... but the fact that they didn't meant I was reminded of it almost everywhere). Maybe without it, I might have warmed more to the character. Or maybe if I liked the character more, I might have just rolled my eyes and gone with the silly concept of there being a "threshold" of technology you can get implanted in you before you start chewing on faces. But both of them together made me just not care for the book or the world very much.
I'd almost give it a one star, but I think everything else is just good enough that I'd push it up to two. I won't hold it against the author for future books, but I probably won't read any more in this series either (which is a bit of a shame because it did leave in a place that I kinda wanted to see where it would go from there).
life of her girlfriend. While trying to piece things together, she finds that her own reputation is in the toilet and has to do her best to uncover what happened.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free through a giveaway on Goodreads. I don't think it affected my review.
Okay, this is a book in the subgenre of cyberpunk. And I should probably state up front that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Cyberpunk. I love the technological milieu, the general idea of it, but a few of the tropes I really don't care for at all. Some merely need to be done well, others I outright dislike.
It's also a genre that's well past its prime. But that actually gives me hope, because, my reasoning goes, a new book might avoid some of the pitfalls and overdone aspects of the genre. So, when I first heard about this book, I was excited to try it.
Unfortunately, it still hit a few too many of my cyberpunk "hates."
But let's start with the good. I think that author handles action pretty well (although high-action pieces typically aren't things I look for... I often glaze over in fight scenes). The worldbuilding (with a couple exceptions below) also felt pretty interesting, instead of relying on the typical Cyberpunk "like urban sprawl, only worse", there actually is a more significant difference to the "world" everyone lives in, and I appreciated that novelty. Also I have to give some respect to writing an unlikable protagonist.
Of course, the last is also a problem. Unlikable protagonists are one of those cyberpunk things that have to be done very well for them to not count as a negative for me. Because, while they may be disagreeable, if I don't find something to care about, why do I care what happens to them? In this case, I never really found it. Yes, her dead-girlfriend opening was somewhat sympathetic, but undercut by the fact that the relationship didn't seem to be much more than a pleasant diversion rather than a true-love. Often she seems more broken up over the fact that her reputation was ruined than that someone she cared about was one. She's also violent and crude, with again, somewhat par for the course in a cyberpunk book, and sometimes entertaining, but in this book she kills someone in the first few pages without even really understanding what's going on... that they turned out to be into something nefarious seems to be almost an accident, and it made it hard for me to root for them. Again, in other hands, an unlikeable protagonist can be fascinating (for example, Kameron Hurley's Nyx), but here it just fell flat for me.
Another big annoyance was some of the worldbuilding elements. To illustrate, I'm going to talk about a plot element that is NOT in any way in this book, but is a little easier to explain. In many stories (and especially TV shows) involving virtual reality, there's often this twist... "If you die in VR, you die FOR REAL!" I hate that twist, because it makes no sense to me. Maybe in a certain rare set of circumstances, custom equipment designed for that purpose by a psychopath, that can be justified, but if you use it as a natural condition of really, really good VR, the kind of VR that's used by most of society... you've lost me. I understand why they do it, to give stakes to a scene that would otherwise be a "game" but it comes off so false that it's actually counterproductive.
In this book, they didn't have that, but they had an element I hate almost as much, the concept that there's a magical "limit" of technology you can have implanted in you. Everyone's limit is different, but if you go over this limit... you turn into a rampaging zombie. You can also go into this limit if you don't get enough power to the cybernetic systems you do have, including stuff that's in every single human being alive. I mean, seriously? Doesn't that seem like a design flaw to be removed in beta-testing? Not to mention this bizarre idea that if you remove your leg and get a replacement somehow your brain is less human.
I've seen this concept used often in RPGs, where it has an obvious purpose... to keep players from loading up on Cybernetics and becoming unstoppable killing machines. I understand it. I loathe it, and that loathing affected my opinion of the rest of the book. (Incidentally, this element, combined with the treatment of "rep" as a score that goes up or down for the streets as a whole, makes me suspect that the author played similar Cyberpunk-themed RPGs as I did).
Unfortunately, this plot element is so deeply embedded in the world that it's existence tainted my whole reading experience (and yet, oddly enough, it could have fairly easily been removed or mitigated without affecting the plot overly much... but the fact that they didn't meant I was reminded of it almost everywhere). Maybe without it, I might have warmed more to the character. Or maybe if I liked the character more, I might have just rolled my eyes and gone with the silly concept of there being a "threshold" of technology you can get implanted in you before you start chewing on faces. But both of them together made me just not care for the book or the world very much.
I'd almost give it a one star, but I think everything else is just good enough that I'd push it up to two. I won't hold it against the author for future books, but I probably won't read any more in this series either (which is a bit of a shame because it did leave in a place that I kinda wanted to see where it would go from there).
April 16, 2017
Reads like Resident Evil turned up to eleven with no fucks to give. You've got a street thug who had established herself the hard way waking up to find that where she's used to being full of piss and vinegar, now she's got a big, fat hole in her memory and all these irritating feelings. In addition, somewhere in that hole is the reason that she's got a dead teammate and a crew that wants her dead. Riko's tough, but that dynamic hurts to read. She copes by kicking the shit out of people who get in her way.
Competing brokers (information, tech, bodies, etc) and mega-corporations add to the mystery and up the stakes, and while the worldbuilding is layered and complex it doesn't bog the story down. Necrotech reads fast. The action is complex and delivered in an almost cinematic fashion. Nothing comes easy, not from Riko's opposition and definitely not from her friends. I really liked that aspect. Nobody rides in to drop the magic knowledge that Riko needs to figure out her fucked up situation, and nobody helps out for old times sake.
While there's just enough back story to show in part why Riko is the way she is, Necrotech is queer, profane, angry Riko's origin story. I expect the next book will be positively psychotic.
Competing brokers (information, tech, bodies, etc) and mega-corporations add to the mystery and up the stakes, and while the worldbuilding is layered and complex it doesn't bog the story down. Necrotech reads fast. The action is complex and delivered in an almost cinematic fashion. Nothing comes easy, not from Riko's opposition and definitely not from her friends. I really liked that aspect. Nobody rides in to drop the magic knowledge that Riko needs to figure out her fucked up situation, and nobody helps out for old times sake.
While there's just enough back story to show in part why Riko is the way she is, Necrotech is queer, profane, angry Riko's origin story. I expect the next book will be positively psychotic.
could-not-finish
August 7, 2017I got to page 47 and found all kinds of excuses not to pick up this book. I'll give it a try at some later date.
January 2, 2023
Originally reviewed at Thoughts Stained With Ink:
**Copy of Necrotech by K.C. Alexander graciously sent in exchange for an honest review by agent Lisa Rodgers of Jabberwocky Literary Agency**
And honestly, I think the best summation of this book is simply this: holy shit. What a whirlwind of emotions this book takes you through. Though I didn’t empathize with Riko–and gladly didn’t, because I can’t imagine surviving the hell she went through in my own life, nor being as much of a hard-earned badass that she is–I sympathized with her the entire time. The blows she was dealt, no one should have to endure. I was frustrated when she was frustrated, just wanting to know what was going on–but memory loss has a bad habit of making that near impossible. And then as the situation continued to deteriorate to the point of where I had no idea how Riko was staying sane, let alone surviving and continuing to push forward, my sympathy skyrocketed. And then the book ended and I just stared at my hands, wondering why the sequel didn’t magically appear within them. Isn’t that how books work?
(Hint: that’s not how they work. Dammit.)
(Second hint: notice how purposefully vague I’m being about what Riko is actually dealing with and what she actually goes through? Yeah, I’m giving away nothing. Go read it for yourself. You won’t regret it.)
Image result for necrotech
Since I’m not going to tell you anything about the plot or give away any truly juicy details, I will share the main aspect that of the book that I thought made it such an interesting read: Riko herself and her personality and how she juxtaposed to me. Which is to say, we are the exact opposite in practically every regard. Riko is a badass. I’m lame. Riko is sexually experienced and enjoys it. I’m a virgin and absolutely terrified to experience sex for the first time. Riko puts a sailor’s vulgarity to shame. I actually get slightly uncomfortable when a person’s vocabulary consists of using “fuck” as a noun, adjective and verb. Riko is dealing with the complete and totally ruining of the harsh life she’s built for herself within an even harsher world. I’m just a kid struggling to pay bills and chase writing dreams at the same time. Riko’s greatest strength is her toughness, her perseverance, her cold calculations. My biggest strength is my positivity. Riko is fit as hell. I’m will go to my grave attempting to run off all the second helping I eat. She has a metallic arm. I have a metallic screw that holds my elbow together.
We are both tatted, though, so there are similarities.
What I’m getting at, though, is usually, I enjoy a book so much because of how invested I get into the characters. And that investments stems from forming connections with those characters, usually through seeing pieces of myself within them. I don’t think I’ve ever read about a character like Riko, who was so totally and utterly different from me, yet still found myself drawn to her and invested in her story, in her life, even though I couldn’t connect with her in ways I usually hope to connect with characters. I still rooted for her, even though sometimes her mannerisms or choices made me uncomfortable or how negative her outlook could be made the positive soul in me feel both foolish and defensive. But the most amazing part that happened, after I closed the book and waited for the second book to suddenly appear, to no avail?
I still feel like I understood her.
And I think that is just really impressive.
Necrotech is a thrill ride. You got action, you got advanced tech, you got vibrant, fearless, reckless, intriguing characters (though I didn’t talk about him here, I really, really loved Indigo). Akin to Rob Thurman’s Cal Leandros series (one of my favorite series), this is a book you should be reading for both pure fun yet also so your emotions are pulled a little bit. Because it’s impossible not to both feel for Riko, yet at the same time, eagerly await whatever shit she has to go through next, if only so you can watch her kick ass one more time.
Read on!
**Copy of Necrotech by K.C. Alexander graciously sent in exchange for an honest review by agent Lisa Rodgers of Jabberwocky Literary Agency**
And honestly, I think the best summation of this book is simply this: holy shit. What a whirlwind of emotions this book takes you through. Though I didn’t empathize with Riko–and gladly didn’t, because I can’t imagine surviving the hell she went through in my own life, nor being as much of a hard-earned badass that she is–I sympathized with her the entire time. The blows she was dealt, no one should have to endure. I was frustrated when she was frustrated, just wanting to know what was going on–but memory loss has a bad habit of making that near impossible. And then as the situation continued to deteriorate to the point of where I had no idea how Riko was staying sane, let alone surviving and continuing to push forward, my sympathy skyrocketed. And then the book ended and I just stared at my hands, wondering why the sequel didn’t magically appear within them. Isn’t that how books work?
(Hint: that’s not how they work. Dammit.)
(Second hint: notice how purposefully vague I’m being about what Riko is actually dealing with and what she actually goes through? Yeah, I’m giving away nothing. Go read it for yourself. You won’t regret it.)
Image result for necrotech
Since I’m not going to tell you anything about the plot or give away any truly juicy details, I will share the main aspect that of the book that I thought made it such an interesting read: Riko herself and her personality and how she juxtaposed to me. Which is to say, we are the exact opposite in practically every regard. Riko is a badass. I’m lame. Riko is sexually experienced and enjoys it. I’m a virgin and absolutely terrified to experience sex for the first time. Riko puts a sailor’s vulgarity to shame. I actually get slightly uncomfortable when a person’s vocabulary consists of using “fuck” as a noun, adjective and verb. Riko is dealing with the complete and totally ruining of the harsh life she’s built for herself within an even harsher world. I’m just a kid struggling to pay bills and chase writing dreams at the same time. Riko’s greatest strength is her toughness, her perseverance, her cold calculations. My biggest strength is my positivity. Riko is fit as hell. I’m will go to my grave attempting to run off all the second helping I eat. She has a metallic arm. I have a metallic screw that holds my elbow together.
We are both tatted, though, so there are similarities.
What I’m getting at, though, is usually, I enjoy a book so much because of how invested I get into the characters. And that investments stems from forming connections with those characters, usually through seeing pieces of myself within them. I don’t think I’ve ever read about a character like Riko, who was so totally and utterly different from me, yet still found myself drawn to her and invested in her story, in her life, even though I couldn’t connect with her in ways I usually hope to connect with characters. I still rooted for her, even though sometimes her mannerisms or choices made me uncomfortable or how negative her outlook could be made the positive soul in me feel both foolish and defensive. But the most amazing part that happened, after I closed the book and waited for the second book to suddenly appear, to no avail?
I still feel like I understood her.
And I think that is just really impressive.
Necrotech is a thrill ride. You got action, you got advanced tech, you got vibrant, fearless, reckless, intriguing characters (though I didn’t talk about him here, I really, really loved Indigo). Akin to Rob Thurman’s Cal Leandros series (one of my favorite series), this is a book you should be reading for both pure fun yet also so your emotions are pulled a little bit. Because it’s impossible not to both feel for Riko, yet at the same time, eagerly await whatever shit she has to go through next, if only so you can watch her kick ass one more time.
Read on!
April 17, 2022
Information Overload
Whenever I read a book that's just..."meh" I can't help but point out all the wrong things. It's hard for me to shine a brighter light on all the good things.
Here's my crappy good things to praise, effort.
💫 Riko was a badass character. Loved her language. The necrotech world was pretty kick ass too.
Here's my "everything else sucks" list.
🍭 Too much information! OMG please stop going on and on and on about...nothing. This was beyond page filler. It was annoying.
🍭 When writing an action scene never, ever, everevereverever... EVER stop the scene for information overload. Jim Butcher had once said something to the effect "Follow the ball. That's where the action is." Don't stop the game to describe the goal post to me.
There you have it! You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both and there you have...my lame review.
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November 18, 2016
I...didn't expect this book to hit me nearly as hard.
I can't tell if I was just fascinated by the HARD edged female protagonist that acted a lot more...I dunno. On the edge? Over the edge? Than I expected her to? Or if it was something else, but I got sucked into this one really hard.
LoveLOVED the worldbuilding. All that stuff about nanoshock, necrotech, the corporations and the difference between living in the slums and living in C-land?
Loved it. Can't wait for book 2.
I can't tell if I was just fascinated by the HARD edged female protagonist that acted a lot more...I dunno. On the edge? Over the edge? Than I expected her to? Or if it was something else, but I got sucked into this one really hard.
LoveLOVED the worldbuilding. All that stuff about nanoshock, necrotech, the corporations and the difference between living in the slums and living in C-land?
Loved it. Can't wait for book 2.
October 12, 2016
It's not that this is a bad book per se, but it was not one that I could really connect with. Too much like the OG cyberpunk stuff, but without the shock of the new.
http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2016/1...
http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2016/1...
June 18, 2016
Placeholder review but short version is I LOVE IT
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