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Sleepwalker
Riley's sleepwalking is getting worse, threatening her simple life as a science-teaching nun in Brazil. When Thomas, a mysterious man shows up and claims that she is not who she believes herself to be, she finds herself caught in the middle of a political conspiracy and she is the key person of interest. Determined to uncover the truth of her identity, Riley finds herself pursued by a mysterious woman, Arisu, who insists they had worked together in her previous life.
Riley must decide who to trust: the man who injected her with nanomachines designed to help her retrieve her memories or the woman who claims Riley wanted to blow the whistle on the corrupt project before she was reprogrammed. Is there more to her past with Arisu than she's being told? Can anyone be trusted? Can such a secretive project with deep government ties truly be brought to justice? Can Riley accept oblivion if her true identity is to reclaim her body?
Complex and dark, this action-packed near-future cyberpunk thriller dives into human augmentation and its long-term effects upon our identity.
Riley must decide who to trust: the man who injected her with nanomachines designed to help her retrieve her memories or the woman who claims Riley wanted to blow the whistle on the corrupt project before she was reprogrammed. Is there more to her past with Arisu than she's being told? Can anyone be trusted? Can such a secretive project with deep government ties truly be brought to justice? Can Riley accept oblivion if her true identity is to reclaim her body?
Complex and dark, this action-packed near-future cyberpunk thriller dives into human augmentation and its long-term effects upon our identity.
- GenresThrillerScience Fiction
324 pages, Hardcover
Published December 11, 2018
30 people want to read
About the author
Mikel J. Wisler
13 books15 followersHi, I'm Mikel J. Wisler and I am a storyteller.
By day, I'm a documentary and corporate videographer. By night, I'm a science fiction author. Night or day, I live for great stories. Why? Because stories are one of the key ways we make sense of life. Science fiction is a genre uniquely equipped to get philosophical. Through my blog and podcast, I explore how we encounter and wrestle with meaning of life questions in the stories we love.
In addition to writing novels and short stories, I have written & directed many short films that have played at festivals domestically and abroad. Several of those shorts even snagged some nominations and awards.
I was born in Brazil, South America, where I spent most of my childhood, and now live on the south shore of Boston, Massachusetts, with my wife and daughter. When I'm not making documentaries and writing novels, I listen to audiobooks like my life depends on it. Because it sort of does.
I invite you to sign up for my mailing list on my website and grab a free copy of my novel, Unidentified. My mailing list is a great way to keep up with my latest blog posts (2-3 per month), engage me in discussions about stories that you love, and find out about new books and short stories I'm releasing. Let's explore life through stories together!
Thank you so much for stopping by!
By day, I'm a documentary and corporate videographer. By night, I'm a science fiction author. Night or day, I live for great stories. Why? Because stories are one of the key ways we make sense of life. Science fiction is a genre uniquely equipped to get philosophical. Through my blog and podcast, I explore how we encounter and wrestle with meaning of life questions in the stories we love.
In addition to writing novels and short stories, I have written & directed many short films that have played at festivals domestically and abroad. Several of those shorts even snagged some nominations and awards.
I was born in Brazil, South America, where I spent most of my childhood, and now live on the south shore of Boston, Massachusetts, with my wife and daughter. When I'm not making documentaries and writing novels, I listen to audiobooks like my life depends on it. Because it sort of does.
I invite you to sign up for my mailing list on my website and grab a free copy of my novel, Unidentified. My mailing list is a great way to keep up with my latest blog posts (2-3 per month), engage me in discussions about stories that you love, and find out about new books and short stories I'm releasing. Let's explore life through stories together!
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 13, 2020
A science fiction thriller that will have you questioning Riley’s identity as much as she does. The author writes a compelling novel that will have you thinking about memories and the mind.
March 6, 2021
tl;dr – a near-future sci-fi thriller, with a hard science theme taken from the frontiers of science. I enjoy a novel that entertains and makes me think. Sleepwalker succeeds with both, combining a sci-fi thriller with thoughtful reflections on what makes us, us.
You can stop reading here: from this point I’m going to geek out on the hard science theme relating to consciousness studies. I won’t use spoilers.
Wisler has dug deep into neuroscience for this novel, but avoided the trap of explicating any of that in a way that would interrupt plot, or bore readers, or both. Instead, it’s carried in the ‘show not tell’ approach of a character dealing with a truly existential crisis. Although many of the tropes represented have been used before, Wisler rather cleverly engages us in a character we know isn’t ‘real’, but who defies expectation to fight for her own reality. If ‘she’ even exists.
In Sleepwalker, we’re obliged to consider what makes us the person we think we are. Are we really just collections of memory fragments, perpetually restrung in a loose personal narrative? Are ‘we’ just the mood we’re in at any given moment? Do ‘you’ even exist as some kind of coherent single entity?
Let’s say I hypnotise you to believe you’re a truck-driver in traffic. Are you still the ‘you’ that you and others know or are you someone fundamentally different? What if I, the hypnotist, tell you, the truck driver, that you must swerve, dangerously, because of some idiot in a car? You almost crashed! Someone could’ve been killed! Suddenly, you’re angry. In that moment, that is your whole identity – aggrieved truck driver. If I, as the hypnotist, tell you to pull up, just in time to rescue a puppy, and assure you that the gathering crowd are applauding, suddenly you’re a smiling, happy truck driver who did a really nice thing. That’s your identity. In that moment, you are nothing beyond a kind, happy truck driver.
Then I click my fingers and you’re back. Is the familiar ‘you’ more authentic in that moment than the manufactured ‘you’? Yes, of course, you reply. But later, driving home, you experience road rage of your own. That night you make love to your partner. Next morning you console a friend. Later you problem-solve a difficult issue with work colleagues. After work. you go to art class, and lose yourself in life-drawing. On the weekend, on a surfboard, your focus is physical joy and connecting with the natural world. In each of these moments you would say you’re entirely present, but each is an entirely different ‘you’ and entirely separate from each other.
In story terms, this happened, then this happened, then this happened, etc. Each ‘this’ is you behaving and thinking in an entirely different way. Raging, loving, caring, focused, physical, etc. If each you is identifiably different, and you are a metaphorical village of personalities, where is the ‘you’ in you?
And that’s some of what Wisler explores in Sleepwalker.
You can stop reading here: from this point I’m going to geek out on the hard science theme relating to consciousness studies. I won’t use spoilers.
Wisler has dug deep into neuroscience for this novel, but avoided the trap of explicating any of that in a way that would interrupt plot, or bore readers, or both. Instead, it’s carried in the ‘show not tell’ approach of a character dealing with a truly existential crisis. Although many of the tropes represented have been used before, Wisler rather cleverly engages us in a character we know isn’t ‘real’, but who defies expectation to fight for her own reality. If ‘she’ even exists.
In Sleepwalker, we’re obliged to consider what makes us the person we think we are. Are we really just collections of memory fragments, perpetually restrung in a loose personal narrative? Are ‘we’ just the mood we’re in at any given moment? Do ‘you’ even exist as some kind of coherent single entity?
Let’s say I hypnotise you to believe you’re a truck-driver in traffic. Are you still the ‘you’ that you and others know or are you someone fundamentally different? What if I, the hypnotist, tell you, the truck driver, that you must swerve, dangerously, because of some idiot in a car? You almost crashed! Someone could’ve been killed! Suddenly, you’re angry. In that moment, that is your whole identity – aggrieved truck driver. If I, as the hypnotist, tell you to pull up, just in time to rescue a puppy, and assure you that the gathering crowd are applauding, suddenly you’re a smiling, happy truck driver who did a really nice thing. That’s your identity. In that moment, you are nothing beyond a kind, happy truck driver.
Then I click my fingers and you’re back. Is the familiar ‘you’ more authentic in that moment than the manufactured ‘you’? Yes, of course, you reply. But later, driving home, you experience road rage of your own. That night you make love to your partner. Next morning you console a friend. Later you problem-solve a difficult issue with work colleagues. After work. you go to art class, and lose yourself in life-drawing. On the weekend, on a surfboard, your focus is physical joy and connecting with the natural world. In each of these moments you would say you’re entirely present, but each is an entirely different ‘you’ and entirely separate from each other.
In story terms, this happened, then this happened, then this happened, etc. Each ‘this’ is you behaving and thinking in an entirely different way. Raging, loving, caring, focused, physical, etc. If each you is identifiably different, and you are a metaphorical village of personalities, where is the ‘you’ in you?
And that’s some of what Wisler explores in Sleepwalker.
July 7, 2019
Look what came to Space and Time magazine’s mailbox—Sleepwalker by Mikel J. Wisler.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy Sleepwalker when it showed up in S&T‘s mailbox, but that mindset changed from a few pages in. Thrillers are not my go-to genre generally, but Wisler managed to catch my attention and hold it through the entire book.
I do enjoy some violence, chaos and destruction in my light reading and the back cover sounded a bit tame for me. About a science teaching nun in Brazil who gets caught up in a convoluted intrigue of false identity and political conspiracy, I expected to read a few pages in and lose interest. The opposite was true. It probably helps a lot that the first word of the prologue is blood.
The plot was well-developed with plenty of action to keep me engaged. I liked how Wisler portrays the not-too-distant future. He gives just enough innovation to bring the reader to another time without bogging us down with technology. I liked the romance triangle he develops.
The story went beyond being simple entertainment for me by bringing up some ethical questions by introducing some different scientific and spiritual concepts. Throw in some philosophy and politics, and there is fuel for some existential blues.
Because S&T was sent an uncorrected ARC, I wasn’t paying attention to any typos and errors, but there were few. I do want to compliment the interior formatting. I loved the chapter heading art and the vertical title/author on every page. It was different without being a distraction. I’d recommend Sleepwalker to readers who enjoy some gritty science and tech in their thrillers. Thanks to Mikel J. Wisler for sending Sleepwalkers. I liked it.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy Sleepwalker when it showed up in S&T‘s mailbox, but that mindset changed from a few pages in. Thrillers are not my go-to genre generally, but Wisler managed to catch my attention and hold it through the entire book.
I do enjoy some violence, chaos and destruction in my light reading and the back cover sounded a bit tame for me. About a science teaching nun in Brazil who gets caught up in a convoluted intrigue of false identity and political conspiracy, I expected to read a few pages in and lose interest. The opposite was true. It probably helps a lot that the first word of the prologue is blood.
The plot was well-developed with plenty of action to keep me engaged. I liked how Wisler portrays the not-too-distant future. He gives just enough innovation to bring the reader to another time without bogging us down with technology. I liked the romance triangle he develops.
The story went beyond being simple entertainment for me by bringing up some ethical questions by introducing some different scientific and spiritual concepts. Throw in some philosophy and politics, and there is fuel for some existential blues.
Because S&T was sent an uncorrected ARC, I wasn’t paying attention to any typos and errors, but there were few. I do want to compliment the interior formatting. I loved the chapter heading art and the vertical title/author on every page. It was different without being a distraction. I’d recommend Sleepwalker to readers who enjoy some gritty science and tech in their thrillers. Thanks to Mikel J. Wisler for sending Sleepwalkers. I liked it.
March 13, 2021
Do you have any favorite themes for books to explore?
Sleepwalker by Mikel J Wisler is based around themes that are right up my alley. What is the nature of personality, mind, and even consciousness itself? What does it mean for humanity, spirituality, society, and the individual once personalities and memories can be hacked? Like the best explored themes in fiction, Wisler poses hard questions without forcing the answers on you.
Sleepwalker by Mikel J Wisler is based around themes that are right up my alley. What is the nature of personality, mind, and even consciousness itself? What does it mean for humanity, spirituality, society, and the individual once personalities and memories can be hacked? Like the best explored themes in fiction, Wisler poses hard questions without forcing the answers on you.
January 4, 2021
Mike Wisler does a great job at using an action, cyberpunk thriller as a vessel to explore and wrestle with philosophical questions; such as, what does it mean to be human? This book is a real page turner, that keeps the reader engaged throughout, and sticks with them even after the final page. Great stuff!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews