Koko Uncaged

EBK #3

by Kieran Shea

The third and final instalment in the fast-paced kick-ass Koko trilogy described by Booklist as "[A] futuristic wild ride... Great fun". Surviving job loss, an unsettled vendetta, a submarine wreck, heartbreak, and mortal carnage on a tokusatsu scale, Koko P. Martstellar (ex-corporate mercenary and saloon/brothel owner) is trying to reassemble what's left of her life. Being hired to protect global industrialist Bogart Gong seems like as good a place to start as any, but bodyguard work isn't the cakewalk Koko thought it'd be. Throw in some autocratic malfeasance, a hatchet man with a flair for the dramatic, a South American despot, lovers back from the grave, and a high-speed race at a prison, and you've a brain-melting cocktail of cyberpunk satire that's impossible to put down.

Genres: Science Fiction

351 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2018

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all the other Koko books this was a fast paced wild ride! Basically, if you've made it this far into the Koko series you're not going to be disappointed in this story at all. Koko Uncaged finishes up the story that was first laid out in Koko the Mighty.

First off, I will say that I felt like this story was a bit better than Koko the Mighty, because it felt far less forced. Koko the Mighty felt like an excuse to get to this book at times and some of the situations from Koko the Mighty felt a little forced, just to make the story narrative work a specific way. The problems that I had with all of that disappeared with Koko Uncaged! This adventure picks up right where we left off with Koko on her way to the Moon. As usual some bad stuff happens and the ship she is on gets high jacked. Now this is really an excuse to get us from point A to point B, which is the main bulk of the story. Bogart Gong runs the Itokawa Corporation and with Koko's exploits on the high jacked ship behind her, Gong wants a new body guard and Koko will fit that bill very nicely. Koko secures herself a good deal and with her new corporate backing revives the dog Gammy from the prior novel. I loved having Gammy back and the whole synthetic pet thing is such an homage to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick.

However, Koko may have bit off more than she bargained for because Gong gets himself into a beef with the President of the South American Coalition (SAC), Mermao. Mermao is a crazy man through and through, with delusions of grandeur and everything. It's funny, because when I was reading his character I couldn't help but recall an episode of Parks and Recreation called "Sister City" where a delegation of Venezuela came to visit the small town. In this episode the main delegate, Raul, is played by comedian Fred Armisen and he is exactly how I imagined Mermao the entire time. Anyway, Mermao and Gong agree to have a high speed terrasled race to settle their business problems. Meanwhile Jackie Wire has gotten herself back together and is still on the hunt for Martstellar, but first she returns to the Commonage from the prior book to find out exactly what happens.


So here's where I'll get into some spoiler parts that I didn't like as much. This is very much a sort of everyone dies at the end type of story. Just in case people really hate those. Now, I certainly don't mind characters dying off, but just having everyone die is also a bit excessive in my opinion. I was, honestly, shocked by what Wire did to Flynn and I'm not surprised at his end fate, but I guess it was fully in line with Wire's character. I think I'm more disappointed in Gong's fate, because I think it would have been pretty interesting if he stayed around.


With these three moving parts of the story converging at the most critical of moments it is quite a ride on the way there. I didn't like everything that happened to the characters, but I still tore through this book as I did with all the others. Kieran Shea sure does write a page turner for my tastes. One thing I found interesting is that the book is left somewhat open ended. Perhaps learning his lesson a bit from the first book where the first book felt very stand a lone, but Koko Uncaged leaves things open for a possible follow-up. Naturally, if one does come along I will absolutely read it.

[Kevin Chou · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you liked the other Koko books with their fast-paced action, over-the-top characters, and bloody cyberpunk, you'll follow the same tried-and-true method here.

However, what concerns me isn't the writing, plot, or characters which all had me glued in. The problem is the description that this the "third and final instalment[sic]". This is not because I'm going to give you the ol' "I need more of Koko" (which I do), but rather because the ending is terrible - spoiler alert: everything is bad at the end. Everyone is miserable. Almost everyone dies a terrible death. I can understand bittersweet endings (like the Mistborn Trilogy), and even some sad endings.

This is entirely different. There is miserable/horrible endings, and then there is this. This is not a way to end this otherwise awesome book series. If it is actually the last Koko book, then then I sincerely regret ever picking up the series in the first place.

If it isn't and the description is inaccurate (I hope like hell it is), I'll gladly read what comes next! Until then, I'll have to just tolerate the awful, bitter taste in my mouth that this might be the end.

[Terry Marine · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked the previous Koko books, you'll like this one. As in book #2, it is more urban action/fantasy, than the rockets and robots of book #1. This book CAN be tedious to read, because there are many scientific terms used; and many untranslated sentences in Spanish, French, and German.
Also, I take hardcopy books to read at my worktime lunchbreak, so I don't have access to an online dictionary. The author reaches into the deepest recesses of the thesaurus to use the most obscure, alphabet soup words in the English language. Words such as "misoneism" and the like, although impressive, if this stuff comes off the top of his head, aren't at the front of mine. It adds unnecessary snark, which can be annoying in "Cyberpunk".
Still, it had engaging action, and was fun to read.

[Shrike58 · Rating 2 out of 5]

With what is apparently the final book in the tale of Koko P. Martstellar we find our heroine getting an offer she can't refuse from one of the corporate overlords of her world to be his bodyguard, but that doesn't mean that this is a turn for the better. This is between Koko's new boss getting sucked into a test of wills with a political despot (displaying great stupidity on the part of both men) and how Koko's wannabe nemesis Jackie Wire is far from willing to throw in the towel in terms of collecting the bounty on Koko's head. I'm not giving away any spoilers but you can only jump so many sharks until the story takes a turn for the stupid, even if the climax has a certain grim but logical realism about it. I still think that the first book in the trilogy (...series?) "Koko takes a Holiday" is great though.

Originally written: October 9, 2018.

[Sheldon Wiebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koko Matstellar is a bar/brothel owner with a very dangerous past - a past that has almost bitten her on the ass in two previous tales and looms large over her in Koko Uncaged.

Still pursued by Wire, an unhinged assassin whose life Koko has made very difficult, has decided that she has to kill her (a vendetta, really).

Somehow, in spite of herself, Koko has fallen in love with a former cop who had planned on a ritual suicide because of what he thought to be a medical condition - before learning its true cause).

Kieran Shea writes hardcore, almost apocalyptically paced fiction with plenty of attention to detail and superb character and world building.

His creation of a seeming utopia that harbors Koko (and contributes to her materially in a unique way) is splendid.

The entire series is well worth looking into.

[Leeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to great

I loved the intelligent world-building and wordplay in the first Koko book. The second one... well... it was basically on a farm. This volume gets us back to the fun sociology of what the future of society could look like. Yeah, not all the questions are answered (could there be a fourth book being planned?), but this one is still quite satisfying. Having a Trump knock-off character was just gravy.

[Groucho42 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Either a late sophomore jinx or the series has run its course. The other two books were cartoonish, but this goes full bore Sunday morning cartoons with sex and violence. The characters seem too cardboard, especially the villains, and it's not so much a plot as a series of vignettes that bored me to tears.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little weaker than some in the koko series, but a nice transition into whatever comes next in her story. Had to clean up loose threads.

[Alex French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as much fun as everything by Kieran Shea.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the others in the series this was fun, fast, and bloody, however, it got pretty dark (usually the body count is disposable non-entities)...trigger warning for torture porn.

[Josh Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series kind of lowered in quality with each sequel. Sad. I loved "Koko Takes a Holiday."

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT'S THE HOTTEST THING A WOMAN'S EVER SAID TO YOU? FOR ME IT'S "HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE TODAY"

[Viktorija B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Koko Uncaged was just as exciting as its predecessors, and I found myself flipping through the pages as quickly as I could! It's still an absolutely absurd bucket of fun. My only issue would be the seemingly rushed climax, that, won't lie, annoyed me a little bit; as with the second book, the "happy ending with an imminent threat" cliffhanger is abandoned for "we're done with this shit, but everything still sucks, hard" sort of cliffhanger.

Also, poor, poor Flynn.