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Re-Coil
Out on a salvage mission with a skeleton crew, Carter Langston is murdered by animated corpses left behind on this ship. Yet in this future, everyone’s consciousness backup can be safely downloaded into a brand-new body, and all you’d lose are the memories of what happened between your last backup and your death. But when Langston wakes up in his new body, he is immediately attacked in the medbay and has to fight once again for his life—and his immortality. Because this assassin aims to destroy his core forever.
Determined to find his shipmates and solve this evolving mystery, Langston locates their tech whiz Shay Chan, but two members are missing and perhaps permanently killed. Langston and Chan are soon running for their lives with the assassin and the corporation behind him in hot pursuit.
What Langston and Chan ultimately find would signal the end of humanity. What started as a salvage mission just might end up saving the world.
Determined to find his shipmates and solve this evolving mystery, Langston locates their tech whiz Shay Chan, but two members are missing and perhaps permanently killed. Langston and Chan are soon running for their lives with the assassin and the corporation behind him in hot pursuit.
What Langston and Chan ultimately find would signal the end of humanity. What started as a salvage mission just might end up saving the world.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 2020
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867 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
April 3, 2020
Philip K Dick meets Neal Asher this a dark hell ride of New AI book with space Zombies added for an extra thrill. Death is dead. As William Shakespeare says in Hamlet 'when we have suffered of this mortal coil' he quotes from it at bigning of the story.
Nicholas has created a world we're people don't die but if we don't die what then happens to children do we need to procreation any more no sex please it has surved it's use. Are.......
Nicholas has created a world we're people don't die but if we don't die what then happens to children do we need to procreation any more no sex please it has surved it's use. Are.......
June 15, 2021
i do WANT someone to write "altered carbon but the characters think much more about how it feels & what it means to them to be body-swapping constantly" but i also want it to be interesting
December 2, 2020
I'm fed up with new SF books that hold so much promise, yet end up disappointing. I really liked the premise of Re-Coil, and with cover art like that, how could you resist? Add to that glowing reviews. And I did enjoy the first half of the book; the backstory, settings and characters were all well-established and you were quickly thrown into a frantic adventure. But by the mid point, the pace dropped to a dragging crawl (or a stop in some parts), and some scenes were so drawn out, you could skip pages and not miss a thing. The underpinning concept was seldom explored, and only the surface scratched of the various ideas. Maybe there was too much going on in this book... the concept of being able to die, then have your being - or "coil" reinstalled into hi-tech bodies, albeit not knowing what you were going to get, was worth exploring much more. Instead we have assassins, space travel, space zombies and a nasty virus all battling for attention. Overall very frustrating. I'm going back to classics.
June 21, 2020
Fun little space-zombie/evil corporation/body-hopping, space opera that does a lot of stuff well but nothing truly spectacular. The pacing and the action were fast and fun, and I did like what the author did with his characterization. Some time is spent exploring identity and self-identification as humans are pretty much just "cores" that can be switched, re-coiled, into freshly grown bodies upon death, plus you don't ever get the same looking one twice, and I felt like the characters were full and real and I could see them very clearly because of this. The story maintained excitement throughout with enough dangling carrots and well-timed rewards that I was compelled to keep reading even though I probably should have been sleeping and the action scenes were smoothly written and realistically choreographed. I liked this enough to where I'll probably buy another book by the author at some point in the future.
May 29, 2022
the soundtrack
the only way this re-coiling/altered carbon-esque concept can be done right is if it's written by a queer person and you can't change my mind. i'm so sick of cis men trying to reinforce the binary gender roles through this concept.
anyway, RE-COIL sucked ass on so many levels and at first it was kind of amusing but then it just kept getting worse and i got tired so here's a list of things ranging from ridiculous to downright disturbing i found in here for your amusement:
* the amount of times it blatantly reinforces racist stereotypes after stating that racism is dead now: 5
* constant use of the "plumbing" euphemism. as in, genitals or any reference to them is described by the word "plumbing" every time, without fail. it's simultaneously hilarious and concerning. who edited this?
* this really fucking weird scene:
"Movement caught my eye and I turned in time to see Chan reaching back to pull the cable from her access jack. She stood too, stretching. I had seen her do it hundreds of times on the Persephone, and it had always been a guilty pleasure to watch, an exercise in elegantly arching the back and artfully extending her arms over her head, reaching so high that it seemed to pull her all the way up to her toes. Her new coil, while trim and graceful,didn't quite do it justice.
'Did you find anything?' I asked, the words coming out slightly rougher than intended.
Chan frowned slightly, probably wondering at the harshness of my tone. I kept my face neutral. After all, I couldn't exactly tell her that I used to get a cheap thrill out of watching her stretch, and now,in her new coil, that thrill was gone. There were lots of ways she could react to that, but none of them were good."
* so much shit like this throughout the book in the grossest straightest way imaginable:
"...Chan admitted with a small, distinctly female shudder. It looked so strange on the bio-male coil that it made me blink a few times in momentary confusion."
we get it Carter. you could NEVER be attracted to a male body.
*what makes it all the more hilarious and disgusting is this passage:
"The stigma around sexuality had long since faded--it hadn't made much sense to begin with, but when the ability to be re-coiled into another body came along, it died a quick and unlamented death. Even the most fundamentalist of people couldn't very well attach the essence of a person to their physical shell when they would wear many physical shells, some of them of a different biological sex, over the course of centuries. But that didn't change the fact that most people still tended to be wired to be attracted to a definable subset of the gender spectrum. I belonged firmly in the 'liked bio-females' camp--I had no sense of physical attraction to the coil that Shay now wore, handsome and well put together though it was."
* repeat references to Shay having "naughty little schoolgirl" expressions [count: 4]
* why the fuck is Shay so amazed at the fact that Carter had one (1) different life doing repo and calling him "a man with many layers" when they've all literally lived for centuries. obviously they'd all have had different things they've done over such a long period of time, there should literally be nothing novel or strange about this fact
* why does Carter suddenly care so much about the Persephone crew to the point of risking his life when he keeps reinforcing that he doesn't actually know any of them very well at all?
* so many random basic science plot holes. i'm not even going to bother listing them
* the amount of times characters shiver and shudder is beyond me
* for the amount of times Carter vehemently denies being attracted to Shay's male body despite lusting after her mental image of herself, Carter keeps nutting in his pants any time Korben does anything, especially when he's fighting the zombies.
* on that note, Carter keeps repeating how horrified he is to be killing all these zombie-turned coils while the author nuts all over himself at describing all the violence and guns.
* "I squeezed her back, aware on some level of the strangeness of her musculature, of the fact that she was taller than I in our respective coils, but also, somehow, feeling the woman that rode my mind's eye in that embrace."
...like, what?
* the fact that Shay's entire character is just that she's smart with computers (which imo should be a given when their world is so full of that kind of stuff) and that she's experiencing really bad body dysmorphia (because we would never want to imply that our male identifying mc could be attracted to anyone who's even 1% okay with not being a "bio-female"). that's it. that's all she is. absolutely zero depth.
* when Carter decides to do "... something between a jog and a sprint." you mean a regular run, J.T. Nicholas? is that what you meant?
* the amount of times a "mischievous smile" "hung poorly" on Ms Chan's new coil is frankly sickening. A "bio-male" face can still have an attractive mischievous smile, i don't get it.
* and the award for the most vile transphobic passage goes to:
"The infected before us was female--the skin-tight vacc suit made that clear..."
* when Carter gets told he has "a surprising aptitude for violence" and it's a compliment lmao
* the fact that the main editor for this was a woman, i'm so sorry honey
overall, this was absolute garbage. shame on the publisher for letting it see the light of day.
the only way this re-coiling/altered carbon-esque concept can be done right is if it's written by a queer person and you can't change my mind. i'm so sick of cis men trying to reinforce the binary gender roles through this concept.
anyway, RE-COIL sucked ass on so many levels and at first it was kind of amusing but then it just kept getting worse and i got tired so here's a list of things ranging from ridiculous to downright disturbing i found in here for your amusement:
* the amount of times it blatantly reinforces racist stereotypes after stating that racism is dead now: 5
* constant use of the "plumbing" euphemism. as in, genitals or any reference to them is described by the word "plumbing" every time, without fail. it's simultaneously hilarious and concerning. who edited this?
* this really fucking weird scene:
"Movement caught my eye and I turned in time to see Chan reaching back to pull the cable from her access jack. She stood too, stretching. I had seen her do it hundreds of times on the Persephone, and it had always been a guilty pleasure to watch, an exercise in elegantly arching the back and artfully extending her arms over her head, reaching so high that it seemed to pull her all the way up to her toes. Her new coil, while trim and graceful,didn't quite do it justice.
'Did you find anything?' I asked, the words coming out slightly rougher than intended.
Chan frowned slightly, probably wondering at the harshness of my tone. I kept my face neutral. After all, I couldn't exactly tell her that I used to get a cheap thrill out of watching her stretch, and now,in her new coil, that thrill was gone. There were lots of ways she could react to that, but none of them were good."
* so much shit like this throughout the book in the grossest straightest way imaginable:
"...Chan admitted with a small, distinctly female shudder. It looked so strange on the bio-male coil that it made me blink a few times in momentary confusion."
we get it Carter. you could NEVER be attracted to a male body.
*what makes it all the more hilarious and disgusting is this passage:
"The stigma around sexuality had long since faded--it hadn't made much sense to begin with, but when the ability to be re-coiled into another body came along, it died a quick and unlamented death. Even the most fundamentalist of people couldn't very well attach the essence of a person to their physical shell when they would wear many physical shells, some of them of a different biological sex, over the course of centuries. But that didn't change the fact that most people still tended to be wired to be attracted to a definable subset of the gender spectrum. I belonged firmly in the 'liked bio-females' camp--I had no sense of physical attraction to the coil that Shay now wore, handsome and well put together though it was."
* repeat references to Shay having "naughty little schoolgirl" expressions [count: 4]
* why the fuck is Shay so amazed at the fact that Carter had one (1) different life doing repo and calling him "a man with many layers" when they've all literally lived for centuries. obviously they'd all have had different things they've done over such a long period of time, there should literally be nothing novel or strange about this fact
* why does Carter suddenly care so much about the Persephone crew to the point of risking his life when he keeps reinforcing that he doesn't actually know any of them very well at all?
* so many random basic science plot holes. i'm not even going to bother listing them
* the amount of times characters shiver and shudder is beyond me
* for the amount of times Carter vehemently denies being attracted to Shay's male body despite lusting after her mental image of herself, Carter keeps nutting in his pants any time Korben does anything, especially when he's fighting the zombies.
* on that note, Carter keeps repeating how horrified he is to be killing all these zombie-turned coils while the author nuts all over himself at describing all the violence and guns.
* "I squeezed her back, aware on some level of the strangeness of her musculature, of the fact that she was taller than I in our respective coils, but also, somehow, feeling the woman that rode my mind's eye in that embrace."
...like, what?
* the fact that Shay's entire character is just that she's smart with computers (which imo should be a given when their world is so full of that kind of stuff) and that she's experiencing really bad body dysmorphia (because we would never want to imply that our male identifying mc could be attracted to anyone who's even 1% okay with not being a "bio-female"). that's it. that's all she is. absolutely zero depth.
* when Carter decides to do "... something between a jog and a sprint." you mean a regular run, J.T. Nicholas? is that what you meant?
* the amount of times a "mischievous smile" "hung poorly" on Ms Chan's new coil is frankly sickening. A "bio-male" face can still have an attractive mischievous smile, i don't get it.
* and the award for the most vile transphobic passage goes to:
"The infected before us was female--the skin-tight vacc suit made that clear..."
* when Carter gets told he has "a surprising aptitude for violence" and it's a compliment lmao
* the fact that the main editor for this was a woman, i'm so sorry honey
overall, this was absolute garbage. shame on the publisher for letting it see the light of day.
January 19, 2022
I really wanted to like this book. The story is super engaging and a very cool concept, but the way it was written made me feel uncomfortable throughout.
The story is great for anyone interested in sci-fi thrillers. Set in a world where humans have obtained immortality through being “re-coiled” (their personality and memories being put into a new body whenever their previous body fails), a salvage crew stumbles upon a dark secret. Upon being re-coiled they find themselves in dangers they’ve never before experienced. To survive, they dig deeper into the secret they found, and find themselves in more danger at every turn. The world is fairly well developed and I found it easy to imagine even though most of it is set in space in environments I’ve never experienced. The story begins with the feel of a mystery and then becomes more of a thriller with lots of action and high stakes.
This book is narrated by the main character, Carter Langston, and the way that he describes the world, himself, and the other characters continuously made me frustrated and uncomfortable. Early on it is explained that because of “re-coiling” gender and race aren’t seen in the ways they used to be because everyone in their immortal lives will eventually be put in a body that is different than the race and gender they were originally born in. Despite this, I feel like there were many stereotypes used in unflattering ways throughout. In addition to that, Carter seems to pine after the secondary character, Shay Chan, and describes her appearance and actions often in a sexual way. Due to these constant uncomfortable comments in the narration, I often was pulled out of the story and left feeling angry and frustrated rather than curious and excited about the story.
All in all, I really liked the concept and the way the story progressed, but I don’t recommend this book.
The story is great for anyone interested in sci-fi thrillers. Set in a world where humans have obtained immortality through being “re-coiled” (their personality and memories being put into a new body whenever their previous body fails), a salvage crew stumbles upon a dark secret. Upon being re-coiled they find themselves in dangers they’ve never before experienced. To survive, they dig deeper into the secret they found, and find themselves in more danger at every turn. The world is fairly well developed and I found it easy to imagine even though most of it is set in space in environments I’ve never experienced. The story begins with the feel of a mystery and then becomes more of a thriller with lots of action and high stakes.
This book is narrated by the main character, Carter Langston, and the way that he describes the world, himself, and the other characters continuously made me frustrated and uncomfortable. Early on it is explained that because of “re-coiling” gender and race aren’t seen in the ways they used to be because everyone in their immortal lives will eventually be put in a body that is different than the race and gender they were originally born in. Despite this, I feel like there were many stereotypes used in unflattering ways throughout. In addition to that, Carter seems to pine after the secondary character, Shay Chan, and describes her appearance and actions often in a sexual way. Due to these constant uncomfortable comments in the narration, I often was pulled out of the story and left feeling angry and frustrated rather than curious and excited about the story.
All in all, I really liked the concept and the way the story progressed, but I don’t recommend this book.
April 16, 2020
I had just finished watching Altered Carbon on netflix and had wanted something to read along those lines. This was it. A blend of great cyberpunk , and scifi thriller involving space zombies. First person POV which as always is my fave, great action scenes, well balanced level and use of tech/science. Explores some interesting ideas. Yes the coil thing has been done before ( i think the reason it gets compared to altered carbon is due the similarity between sleeves and coils, other than that its a completely diff novel). It was also a perfect length. I really hope this gets a sequel if not cant wait for the authors next novel. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a great scifi novel.
May 30, 2020
Imagine you were born and raised in a space habitat; served as a soldier—also, presumably, not only on a firm ground of one of the planets with breathable atmosphere; then spent several "lifetimes," so to speak, in salvaging space junk, your specialty being landing on the said junk in an EVA suit. Then, one unlucky day, you find yourself on a hull of a hijacked by the rogue AI passenger space liner, fighting off cyber-zombies, or meat-puppies, or whatever. ON the hull, that is, OUTSIDE. AFTER you vividly described air pumped out of the airlock. And the only words you find to picture the acrobatics performed by your former-assassin-turned-partner are "spinning into the AIR"?!
Really?
Really?
September 18, 2020
Not much to say here. Neat concept drowned in exposition, even in the middle of dialog. There is no character growth, and not much character in general really. The story is neat but seems rushed. Nothing has time to land.
Overall - Its fine. Nothing mind blowing. Very safe.
Overall - Its fine. Nothing mind blowing. Very safe.
July 29, 2020
A sci_fi that got me interested but failed to get the job done.. I liked the concept and characters but the zombie action lost my interest. Ok not great.
May 13, 2021
An interesting but wasted premise. Carter’s fixation with Shay’s coil just... didn’t sit right with me. Two stars only because of Korben.
May 9, 2023
★½
The idea was good, the execution was not. Utterly forgettable.
The idea was good, the execution was not. Utterly forgettable.
December 25, 2023
Fast paced and engaging. Felt a little unnecessarily repetitive with some parts, but overall enjoyable.
April 16, 2025
Fine. Basically Altered Carbon meets the Expanse, but a simplified, less thoughtful version of both. There’s so very very many implications of the coil process that we’re just waved over.
December 30, 2020
Fun but not a book I'll visit again. It did remind me of the Expanse, which I felt similarly about. I would have loved to see a more involved exploration of gender and sexuality in a world where you could end up in any kind of body. Especially considering the absent crew member in this book used they/them pronouns. I also had some feelings about the classes of bodies and what that means for disability in this world that weren't explored. This book brought up a lot of interesting issues and world building but only seemed to want to explore the most action-packed parts. Which is fine, I guess. It was a fun, quick read. I just feel like I didn't get to see the most interesting parts of the world.
March 14, 2020
I'm grateful to Sarah at Titan Books for an advance copy of Re-Coil and for inviting me to take part in the blogtour.
A smart, action filled SF adventure which blends zombie thriller, conspiracy theory and dystopia, Re-Coil takes us to the far-ish future (it's not clear just how far) where personalities, memories, souls - whatever you want to call them - can be backed up and then downloaded, after death, to new bodies or "coils". (As in Hamlet: 'When we have shuffled off this mortal coil...')
Nicholas writes intelligently and explores the consequences of this technology for future humanity, dwelling on the practical rather than the ethical or philosophical. So we learn that the solar system is becoming crowded, that coils are in greater and greater demand so those with less than top of the range insurance may have to wait before being 're-coiled' - and may suffer from less than ideal wetware. Our hero, Carter Langston, is a salvage expert, operating on the edges of safe space, on the edges of legality, to retrieve valuable stuff from drifting ships - and his number I concern is keeping up his payments so that if the worst happens, he will get a decent coil for his next chance at life. (Even the uninsured get something - eventually - but it may be undesirable in various ways, from having manufacturing defects to being the wrong gender).
This setup allows Nicholas to kill off his hero in the first few pages (not a spoiler, it's in the blurb) and then bring him back to, in effect, investigate his own murder. That's the conspiracy bit. The dystopia - well, Langston is pretty blithe about the whole scheme, seeing effective immortality as a prize worth the inconveniences we see here, but I did wonder. The need to keep up those insurance payments, and a system where your soul is effectively owned by a private corporation which can dictate what happens to you after death - well, I did wonder. (As the zombies: wait and see!)
It is a fun read. For much of the story, Langston and his crewmate, Shay, are on the run from whatever killed them at the start of the book, Shay having the added disadvantage of having been re-coiled into a body that is a long way from her ideal (and no, you can't simply ask for another go). Nicholas is very good on what this might feel like - not only the immediate effects such as suddenly having more muscle that one is used to, but deeper issues to do with body image and identity. Langston, who comes over at the start as a fairly unreflective man-of-action type, needs to up his game to support Shay and we learn more about both of them, the characters resolving from action man and nerdy hacker to much more nuanced personalities. (As does the assassin with whom they repeatedly tangle).
The conclusion of the story is an extended combat sequence very different in tone from the rest of the story, the stakes having been raised from immediate survival to a potential threat to the human race at large. Nicholas maintains the tension right to the end - an achievement given that the "re-coil" idea seems to take away a great deal of the jeopardy- giving us a gore-spattered and desperate finale. Very satisfying.
Throughout the book, Langston depends on his AI "agent", Sarah, to assist him with searching for information action, tracking things, and making quick judgements (as well as summarising documents and authenticating transactions). As well as being a plausible extension of your friend Alex or Siri, this allows the author to helpfully pass on facts without any too-obvious infodumps.
Overall I enjoyed this book, which convinces on its own level, in part by respecting aspects fo science which are often ignored: there is no FTL travel here, for example (though nor does Nichols make use of some obvious alternatives: how about transmitting your "back-up" across the aolar system to be inserted into a new coil? That doesn't happen here) and creates believable, engaging characters - who seem destined for further adventures?
A smart, action filled SF adventure which blends zombie thriller, conspiracy theory and dystopia, Re-Coil takes us to the far-ish future (it's not clear just how far) where personalities, memories, souls - whatever you want to call them - can be backed up and then downloaded, after death, to new bodies or "coils". (As in Hamlet: 'When we have shuffled off this mortal coil...')
Nicholas writes intelligently and explores the consequences of this technology for future humanity, dwelling on the practical rather than the ethical or philosophical. So we learn that the solar system is becoming crowded, that coils are in greater and greater demand so those with less than top of the range insurance may have to wait before being 're-coiled' - and may suffer from less than ideal wetware. Our hero, Carter Langston, is a salvage expert, operating on the edges of safe space, on the edges of legality, to retrieve valuable stuff from drifting ships - and his number I concern is keeping up his payments so that if the worst happens, he will get a decent coil for his next chance at life. (Even the uninsured get something - eventually - but it may be undesirable in various ways, from having manufacturing defects to being the wrong gender).
This setup allows Nicholas to kill off his hero in the first few pages (not a spoiler, it's in the blurb) and then bring him back to, in effect, investigate his own murder. That's the conspiracy bit. The dystopia - well, Langston is pretty blithe about the whole scheme, seeing effective immortality as a prize worth the inconveniences we see here, but I did wonder. The need to keep up those insurance payments, and a system where your soul is effectively owned by a private corporation which can dictate what happens to you after death - well, I did wonder. (As the zombies: wait and see!)
It is a fun read. For much of the story, Langston and his crewmate, Shay, are on the run from whatever killed them at the start of the book, Shay having the added disadvantage of having been re-coiled into a body that is a long way from her ideal (and no, you can't simply ask for another go). Nicholas is very good on what this might feel like - not only the immediate effects such as suddenly having more muscle that one is used to, but deeper issues to do with body image and identity. Langston, who comes over at the start as a fairly unreflective man-of-action type, needs to up his game to support Shay and we learn more about both of them, the characters resolving from action man and nerdy hacker to much more nuanced personalities. (As does the assassin with whom they repeatedly tangle).
The conclusion of the story is an extended combat sequence very different in tone from the rest of the story, the stakes having been raised from immediate survival to a potential threat to the human race at large. Nicholas maintains the tension right to the end - an achievement given that the "re-coil" idea seems to take away a great deal of the jeopardy- giving us a gore-spattered and desperate finale. Very satisfying.
Throughout the book, Langston depends on his AI "agent", Sarah, to assist him with searching for information action, tracking things, and making quick judgements (as well as summarising documents and authenticating transactions). As well as being a plausible extension of your friend Alex or Siri, this allows the author to helpfully pass on facts without any too-obvious infodumps.
Overall I enjoyed this book, which convinces on its own level, in part by respecting aspects fo science which are often ignored: there is no FTL travel here, for example (though nor does Nichols make use of some obvious alternatives: how about transmitting your "back-up" across the aolar system to be inserted into a new coil? That doesn't happen here) and creates believable, engaging characters - who seem destined for further adventures?
March 4, 2020
Well what can I say about Re-Coil other than it completely blew me away. I read this over two days as it drew me in so much I didn’t want to put it down, a huge thank you therefore to Titan Books for providing me with a copy of this cyber punk, sci-fi thriller for review. The cover quotes suggest that this is a story perfect for fans of Altered Carbon and I have to admit at the start I felt that there were perhaps a few parallels, however, I quickly moved away from that notion as it became clear that Re-Coil is very much it’s own entity. Langston is the perfect morally grey protagonist (which is always my favourite kind) a fringe personality having lived many lifetimes but seemingly content with his current lot, which makes his accidental fall into corporate crossfire feel more than a little unfair. Shay Chan is wonderfully complex and I often found myself feeling that she was the bigger narrative focus despite the two working together for much of the story. They fall back into old working rhythms easily, although somewhat awkwardly for reasons that will become clear when you read it.
By re-coiling, homophobia and xenophobia have all but been eradicated as the person you love can end up in a body of different gender or heritage and society has become entirely accepting of that. Coils are in such short supply you kind of have to get what your’re given. This also though brings about a heartbreaking introspective about learning to live with being in a body that you don’t identify with in regard to gender and race, even knowing that it can change again at any given time. The story looks starkly at how people treat immortality as either a means to self destruct on a regular basis with little consequence or just to keep on going until you simply find yourself bored with life. The depth of the social construct is just staggering looking back at it now, but the story deftly avoids being chin strokey or drenched in exposition, what you have are ideas and thoughts added into a commentary which make you stop and think without being hand held through it. This is all without touching upon the morality of the big twist which propels the story forward, but there is no way I can spoil that one for you!
Whilst the first two thirds of the book is a wonderful cat and mouse thriller, it’s the final act that just totally tops this, it’s full throttle, all out, space battle goodness. What makes this so great (and I’m saying this loosely in the terms of knowing it’s quite clearly science fiction) is that so much is done to make this read as realistically as possible, ammo runs out, countdown’s take time, people get tired and mistakes get made – leading to a “pain in the ass” joke which I just know a certain scene was written around! It all gives a sense of being in the moment with the characters as they finale plays out in real time.
J.T. Nicholas has an easy writing style and cleverly traverses super science and tech speak throughout in a way that doesn’t bog the story down, as a reader you’re made to feel okay with perhaps not fully getting it as actually neither does Langston but if you do you know that Chan has your back there too. The epilogue was nicely done with a heavy dose of the maybe’s that is right up my street and was the perfect way to end the book for me.
Re-coil is a fast paced, intelligent, and thought provoking read that left me with much to consider along with a racing heart, I thought it was fantastic and well deserving of 5 stars.
By re-coiling, homophobia and xenophobia have all but been eradicated as the person you love can end up in a body of different gender or heritage and society has become entirely accepting of that. Coils are in such short supply you kind of have to get what your’re given. This also though brings about a heartbreaking introspective about learning to live with being in a body that you don’t identify with in regard to gender and race, even knowing that it can change again at any given time. The story looks starkly at how people treat immortality as either a means to self destruct on a regular basis with little consequence or just to keep on going until you simply find yourself bored with life. The depth of the social construct is just staggering looking back at it now, but the story deftly avoids being chin strokey or drenched in exposition, what you have are ideas and thoughts added into a commentary which make you stop and think without being hand held through it. This is all without touching upon the morality of the big twist which propels the story forward, but there is no way I can spoil that one for you!
Whilst the first two thirds of the book is a wonderful cat and mouse thriller, it’s the final act that just totally tops this, it’s full throttle, all out, space battle goodness. What makes this so great (and I’m saying this loosely in the terms of knowing it’s quite clearly science fiction) is that so much is done to make this read as realistically as possible, ammo runs out, countdown’s take time, people get tired and mistakes get made – leading to a “pain in the ass” joke which I just know a certain scene was written around! It all gives a sense of being in the moment with the characters as they finale plays out in real time.
J.T. Nicholas has an easy writing style and cleverly traverses super science and tech speak throughout in a way that doesn’t bog the story down, as a reader you’re made to feel okay with perhaps not fully getting it as actually neither does Langston but if you do you know that Chan has your back there too. The epilogue was nicely done with a heavy dose of the maybe’s that is right up my street and was the perfect way to end the book for me.
Re-coil is a fast paced, intelligent, and thought provoking read that left me with much to consider along with a racing heart, I thought it was fantastic and well deserving of 5 stars.
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April 8, 2021When an author prefaces a novel with an epigraph from Shakespeare he (Nicholas in this case) is setting himself up for a fall. This book’s apparently oddly punctuated title arises from that quote. Coils here take the place that in Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels was occupied by what Morgan dubbed sleeves. Once you have shuffled off one mortal coil your backed-up personality, your core, is decanted, along with your memories (except of course those gained since your last back-up,) into another coil grown solely for these purposes. Hence Re-Coil. In effect people in this scenario are immortal. Unless something goes wrong. There are safeguards to the process. Supposedly. To guarantee quality control one corporation has the franchise and is held to exacting standards.
The economics of this are a bit obscure. Some sort of insurance means you are guaranteed back-up but not necessarily in a similar body or even one of the same sex. There are four grades of coil from the top-notch to the frankly worthless, used only to bank up credit for a better one next time. Nicholas does make a foray into the demographic implications of all this in terms of population increase but soon skates away from them. At the same time everyone has a connection to an internal AI, called an agent, which acts as a sort of personal internet, connected to the outside world. And nanites in the narrator’s bloodstream effect quick tissue repairs to any injuries.
That narrator, Carter Langston, is part of a spaceship salvage crew. He is the one tasked with entering derelict ships to determine whether there is anything worth salvaging. In one such he comes across scores of dead bodies, faceplates open. While he is engaged in the grisly task of retrieving the cores of the dead, one of the corpses reanimates and comes for him. The derelict, his coil and his ship are destroyed.
On reawakening in his new coil, he discovers there has been a glitch, data corruption, he nearly died for real. And then he narrowly escapes an assassin. Another of the crew did not survive. Someone is out to get them. Along with the crew’s computer whizz Shay Chan, a woman now uncomfortably re-coiled into a male body, he sets out to discover whom, and what is the big secret which needs such drastic protection.
Their investigations lead them to a megacorps called Genetechnic. It has created nanobots designed to seek out and remove bad memories from a coil. They called it Bliss. The nanobots between them formed an AI which decided any memories at all could be bad and wipes them all out, leaving behind blank coils. Worse, the nanobots can act like a virus and infect others - and they escaped the derelict ship. The Genetechnic operative sent to silence Langston and Chan decides their ship boarding expertise will be an asset in chasing Bliss down.
Langston affects to be sickened by the slaughter, indeed gore of any sort. Nevertheless the body count rises and rises and there is a certain fetishising of the mechanics of gun use. Nicholas here is attempting to disown his cake yet is still serving it up for wider consumption.
As in many other stories of this type the prose tends towards the utilitarian and a lot of the information dumping is clearly intended for a twenty-first century audience rather than being required for story purposes. Nicholas has also made several unexamined assumptions. Langston (and others) prowl spaceship hulls utilising magnetic boots, implying these spaceships are made of iron, a material surely too dense for the purpose. Despite being exposed to vacuum, a solvent, rather than evaporating instantly, still manages to dissolve a glue. In a fairly important scene set inside another depressurised spaceship the text implies oxygen (which the text acknowledges is absent) is a fuel. It isn’t. We are then told other fuels are available, running as gases through pipes on the walls. (Really? And to what purpose?) These gases are utilised to burn our heroes’ pursuers. Not without oxygen they wouldn’t. Missteps like these are detrimental to a suspension of readers’ disbelief.
If your tastes lie in the direction of shoot-em-ups rendered in the form of prose Re-Coil may very well satisfy your appetite. If you’re looking for anything even mildly approaching Shakespeare you should try elsewhere.
The economics of this are a bit obscure. Some sort of insurance means you are guaranteed back-up but not necessarily in a similar body or even one of the same sex. There are four grades of coil from the top-notch to the frankly worthless, used only to bank up credit for a better one next time. Nicholas does make a foray into the demographic implications of all this in terms of population increase but soon skates away from them. At the same time everyone has a connection to an internal AI, called an agent, which acts as a sort of personal internet, connected to the outside world. And nanites in the narrator’s bloodstream effect quick tissue repairs to any injuries.
That narrator, Carter Langston, is part of a spaceship salvage crew. He is the one tasked with entering derelict ships to determine whether there is anything worth salvaging. In one such he comes across scores of dead bodies, faceplates open. While he is engaged in the grisly task of retrieving the cores of the dead, one of the corpses reanimates and comes for him. The derelict, his coil and his ship are destroyed.
On reawakening in his new coil, he discovers there has been a glitch, data corruption, he nearly died for real. And then he narrowly escapes an assassin. Another of the crew did not survive. Someone is out to get them. Along with the crew’s computer whizz Shay Chan, a woman now uncomfortably re-coiled into a male body, he sets out to discover whom, and what is the big secret which needs such drastic protection.
Their investigations lead them to a megacorps called Genetechnic. It has created nanobots designed to seek out and remove bad memories from a coil. They called it Bliss. The nanobots between them formed an AI which decided any memories at all could be bad and wipes them all out, leaving behind blank coils. Worse, the nanobots can act like a virus and infect others - and they escaped the derelict ship. The Genetechnic operative sent to silence Langston and Chan decides their ship boarding expertise will be an asset in chasing Bliss down.
Langston affects to be sickened by the slaughter, indeed gore of any sort. Nevertheless the body count rises and rises and there is a certain fetishising of the mechanics of gun use. Nicholas here is attempting to disown his cake yet is still serving it up for wider consumption.
As in many other stories of this type the prose tends towards the utilitarian and a lot of the information dumping is clearly intended for a twenty-first century audience rather than being required for story purposes. Nicholas has also made several unexamined assumptions. Langston (and others) prowl spaceship hulls utilising magnetic boots, implying these spaceships are made of iron, a material surely too dense for the purpose. Despite being exposed to vacuum, a solvent, rather than evaporating instantly, still manages to dissolve a glue. In a fairly important scene set inside another depressurised spaceship the text implies oxygen (which the text acknowledges is absent) is a fuel. It isn’t. We are then told other fuels are available, running as gases through pipes on the walls. (Really? And to what purpose?) These gases are utilised to burn our heroes’ pursuers. Not without oxygen they wouldn’t. Missteps like these are detrimental to a suspension of readers’ disbelief.
If your tastes lie in the direction of shoot-em-ups rendered in the form of prose Re-Coil may very well satisfy your appetite. If you’re looking for anything even mildly approaching Shakespeare you should try elsewhere.
January 19, 2021
A good hard science fiction novel that asked the big questions science fiction novels are supposed to ask. In the case of this novel, the interesting conceit is how mankind will structure itself if they achieve a sort of technical immortality. The process of downloading your personality and memories-- your soul--the author argues into a coil, or type of organic hard drive that is limitless and that can upon your death, be uploaded into a new body.
The practical questions are what happens to murder when it essential becomes impossible and people only die when they want to? He also points out how the process of re-coiling or rebirth here is something that eliminated misogyny and racism since over the years you will inevitably be replaced into a body of the opposite sex, different race, body-type etc. Since we all will experience living in another person's shoes prejudices, such as those will die away.
The story itself is pretty familiar fare. A group of people stumbles on a corporate conspiracy that goes wrong and that unleashes a threat to the existence of humanity and they need to race against time to try and avert that fate. The characters are pretty broadly drawn and not individually as interesting as the idea of the world the author creates.
The practical questions are what happens to murder when it essential becomes impossible and people only die when they want to? He also points out how the process of re-coiling or rebirth here is something that eliminated misogyny and racism since over the years you will inevitably be replaced into a body of the opposite sex, different race, body-type etc. Since we all will experience living in another person's shoes prejudices, such as those will die away.
The story itself is pretty familiar fare. A group of people stumbles on a corporate conspiracy that goes wrong and that unleashes a threat to the existence of humanity and they need to race against time to try and avert that fate. The characters are pretty broadly drawn and not individually as interesting as the idea of the world the author creates.
June 6, 2020
Artificial Intelligence, Immortality, and Space Zombies!
d-n-f
August 25, 2025DNF page 110
How could the intrigue of this plot be SO BORING to read about??
How could the intrigue of this plot be SO BORING to read about??
July 23, 2025
⭐️⭐️ - **book club book, not a personal pick** This book had so much potential, but the execution was terrible. The plot was slow with not much happening. Shay’s new coil was brought up EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. The world building was also lacking. If you want to read a SCI-FI book, this is not the one.
March 14, 2022
a good start that just got less and less enjoyable for me. i have a lot of really strong feelings about this book, and i've been typing and deleting reviews for at least an hour. i just don't want to put a rant out into the world right now. if you genuinely want to know my thoughts, feel free to message me to discuss = )
not my least favorite book ever, but there are a LOT of problems here, and it had a lot of things i just don't enjoy seeing. personal preference and all. i liked some of the ideas but not the way they were handled or discussed. so really, just not a good match for me. which is extra disappointing because i started reading it in store before i bought it, and i'm usually better at telling early on if i'm going to vibe with a book/writing style. sigh.
not my least favorite book ever, but there are a LOT of problems here, and it had a lot of things i just don't enjoy seeing. personal preference and all. i liked some of the ideas but not the way they were handled or discussed. so really, just not a good match for me. which is extra disappointing because i started reading it in store before i bought it, and i'm usually better at telling early on if i'm going to vibe with a book/writing style. sigh.
March 16, 2020
The modern world is a scary place, one that's filled with upsetting news, scary threats, and the prospect that humanity might not have many generations left thanks to climate change. As such, a story that offers readers a future where humanity has not just escaped the confines of earth to spread ad survive, but also one where death doesn't really exist anymore is incredibly appealing.
This future is built around the concept of 'cores', a technology that allows people to create backups of their consciousness and memories. If someone has the unfortunate lucky to be killed these backups get put into a 'coil', a new lab grown body. This essentially means that people get to wake up in a brand new body and carry on with their lives.
This is a situation that Carter Langston finds himself in when his previous body is killed whilst on a deep space salvage mission. Unfortunately, this immediately highlights one of the biggest philosophical issues about this technology. You see, this version of Carter only has memories up to the point where his back-up was made, meaning that he has no idea what happened in the month between that and his death (information that the readers are given during the first chapter). This lack of information about what happened to him proves to be something of an issue when someone appears trying to kill him, permanently.
Carter finds himself in the centre of a conspiracy that has already led to one of his friends being killed and all back-ups of his memory deleted forever. Knowing that his death would mean a permanent end, and that there's something bigger going on Carter and one of his shipmates must try to figure out what happened to their past bodies, and why they're being hunted.
The central mystery of Re-Coil is very interesting, and gives enough information up front in the first chapter to know that something big is happening, but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. By the time that some of these mysteries get cleared up you'll have had enough time to come up with your own theories as to what's happening; but will probably be unable to guess exactly what is going on.
It's not just the mystery at the centre of the story that makes Re-Coil so interesting, but the world itself, especially the ability to be put into a new body when you die. However, this raises the question, is the Carter we follow for most of the book the same person as the one we see die at the start?
The people of the future of Re-Coil refer to these versions of themselves who die as 'branches', but don't really seem to be bothered that there are versions of themselves out there, versions that they have no memory of being. This is something that isn't really addressed in the book, and there seems to be a very casual approach to the deaths of older versions of people.
A casual approach to life seems to be something of a big thing in Re-Coil. Thanks to people changing bodies, bodies that most people don't have a say over, a person can change gender and ethnicity multiple times throughout their long life. This means that most people have a fairly laid back approach to things such as sexuality, and racism and sexism seem to be things of the past. There is some notion that perhaps not everyone is as comfortable in this new world, as one of the characters experiences body dysphoria after dying as a woman and then waking up as a man. This was one of the more interesting parts of the book for me, and I wish that more time could have been spent on it.
Whilst there were some elements of the world of Re-Coil that I'd like to have seen explored more, the central story was so engaging that I found myself not minding too much.
Re-Coil will thrill you with its action and mystery, as well as presenting you with a science fiction world filed with interesting ideas about how humanity and society could change. An absolutely thrilling read.
Read more book reviews at www.trans--scribe.blogspot.com
This future is built around the concept of 'cores', a technology that allows people to create backups of their consciousness and memories. If someone has the unfortunate lucky to be killed these backups get put into a 'coil', a new lab grown body. This essentially means that people get to wake up in a brand new body and carry on with their lives.
This is a situation that Carter Langston finds himself in when his previous body is killed whilst on a deep space salvage mission. Unfortunately, this immediately highlights one of the biggest philosophical issues about this technology. You see, this version of Carter only has memories up to the point where his back-up was made, meaning that he has no idea what happened in the month between that and his death (information that the readers are given during the first chapter). This lack of information about what happened to him proves to be something of an issue when someone appears trying to kill him, permanently.
Carter finds himself in the centre of a conspiracy that has already led to one of his friends being killed and all back-ups of his memory deleted forever. Knowing that his death would mean a permanent end, and that there's something bigger going on Carter and one of his shipmates must try to figure out what happened to their past bodies, and why they're being hunted.
The central mystery of Re-Coil is very interesting, and gives enough information up front in the first chapter to know that something big is happening, but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. By the time that some of these mysteries get cleared up you'll have had enough time to come up with your own theories as to what's happening; but will probably be unable to guess exactly what is going on.
It's not just the mystery at the centre of the story that makes Re-Coil so interesting, but the world itself, especially the ability to be put into a new body when you die. However, this raises the question, is the Carter we follow for most of the book the same person as the one we see die at the start?
The people of the future of Re-Coil refer to these versions of themselves who die as 'branches', but don't really seem to be bothered that there are versions of themselves out there, versions that they have no memory of being. This is something that isn't really addressed in the book, and there seems to be a very casual approach to the deaths of older versions of people.
A casual approach to life seems to be something of a big thing in Re-Coil. Thanks to people changing bodies, bodies that most people don't have a say over, a person can change gender and ethnicity multiple times throughout their long life. This means that most people have a fairly laid back approach to things such as sexuality, and racism and sexism seem to be things of the past. There is some notion that perhaps not everyone is as comfortable in this new world, as one of the characters experiences body dysphoria after dying as a woman and then waking up as a man. This was one of the more interesting parts of the book for me, and I wish that more time could have been spent on it.
Whilst there were some elements of the world of Re-Coil that I'd like to have seen explored more, the central story was so engaging that I found myself not minding too much.
Re-Coil will thrill you with its action and mystery, as well as presenting you with a science fiction world filed with interesting ideas about how humanity and society could change. An absolutely thrilling read.
Read more book reviews at www.trans--scribe.blogspot.com
July 19, 2020
Definitely fits the brief - for fans of Altered Carbon. I've not read the original 2002 novel of the show, but I have seen the 1st season & this reads like they were cut from the same cloth. It's a solid sci-fi foundation - which is one of the reasons I'm taking a star off. It feels derivative of a narrative we've seen plenty of before. The general jist just isn't original enough to make it a stand out for me.
In terms of tone, it's like The Martian, with less personality. The main character, whilst an excellent tool to drive the plot, with his no nonsense attitude, is bland. He could be any generic, out the box tank. There's nothing of note about him.
He has a sarcastic, almost brutish personality that's likeable in a default kind of way. He's not got any layers. There's nothing about this man to make him anything more than 2-dimensional & not enough is mentioned about his history to make you care where's come from.
However, there's a decent repertoire of side characters to keep you interested. Shay certainly makes up for depth where Carter lacks and it certainly feels that any emotional connection will come from her in the series going forward. Korben has an enticing flavour of danger to him, that I think will stand in good stead for adventures to come. He's the True Neutral of the group & I appreciate a morally gray influence to a party.
It was a bit too wordy to be truly engaging, but it was an interesting read. The scientific input was cool, though I've got absolutely no scientific expertise, so it could be total nonsense - but I appreciated it nonetheless.
I'm torn as to whether or not I'll continue with the series, but since there was a decently fulfilling conclusion to this first book, I'm not mad about it.
In terms of tone, it's like The Martian, with less personality. The main character, whilst an excellent tool to drive the plot, with his no nonsense attitude, is bland. He could be any generic, out the box tank. There's nothing of note about him.
He has a sarcastic, almost brutish personality that's likeable in a default kind of way. He's not got any layers. There's nothing about this man to make him anything more than 2-dimensional & not enough is mentioned about his history to make you care where's come from.
However, there's a decent repertoire of side characters to keep you interested. Shay certainly makes up for depth where Carter lacks and it certainly feels that any emotional connection will come from her in the series going forward. Korben has an enticing flavour of danger to him, that I think will stand in good stead for adventures to come. He's the True Neutral of the group & I appreciate a morally gray influence to a party.
It was a bit too wordy to be truly engaging, but it was an interesting read. The scientific input was cool, though I've got absolutely no scientific expertise, so it could be total nonsense - but I appreciated it nonetheless.
I'm torn as to whether or not I'll continue with the series, but since there was a decently fulfilling conclusion to this first book, I'm not mad about it.
April 1, 2020
Nicholas, J. T. Re-Coil. Titan, 2020.
If you liked Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon but wished it had less sex and more martial arts and gun battles with AI-controlled zombies, Re-Coil is the book for you. In a future where personality and memories can be easily uploaded and downloaded into bodies called coils, humanity has spread out through the solar system. Langston, our first-person narrator, is part of a deep-space salvage team. He runs into trouble when he cuts his way into a derelict spacecraft whose crew and passengers have died mysteriously. The problem, it turns out, is a rogue AI—and most of the novel deals with attempts to stop the bad nanotech that can revivify corpses for nefarious purposes. His efforts are hampered by corporate skullduggery and a very efficient assassin. The narrator is engagingly businesslike and adaptable. The action is graphic and fast-paced. But I do have some quibbles. First, we are never told why adult coils don’t have their own consciousnesses. Then, Because of the first-person point of view, we never get to know Langston’s crewmates as well as we should. Finally, someone needs to tell the posthumans that when Hamlet talks about shuffling off his “mortal coil,” he is not talking about his body but the trouble and strife that go with it. If there is a sequel, I hope some of the world-building gets spruced up, but I will know doubt read it in any case.
If you liked Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon but wished it had less sex and more martial arts and gun battles with AI-controlled zombies, Re-Coil is the book for you. In a future where personality and memories can be easily uploaded and downloaded into bodies called coils, humanity has spread out through the solar system. Langston, our first-person narrator, is part of a deep-space salvage team. He runs into trouble when he cuts his way into a derelict spacecraft whose crew and passengers have died mysteriously. The problem, it turns out, is a rogue AI—and most of the novel deals with attempts to stop the bad nanotech that can revivify corpses for nefarious purposes. His efforts are hampered by corporate skullduggery and a very efficient assassin. The narrator is engagingly businesslike and adaptable. The action is graphic and fast-paced. But I do have some quibbles. First, we are never told why adult coils don’t have their own consciousnesses. Then, Because of the first-person point of view, we never get to know Langston’s crewmates as well as we should. Finally, someone needs to tell the posthumans that when Hamlet talks about shuffling off his “mortal coil,” he is not talking about his body but the trouble and strife that go with it. If there is a sequel, I hope some of the world-building gets spruced up, but I will know doubt read it in any case.
August 22, 2023
When brain back-ups turn humanity into a nearly-immortal race, one of life’s greatest worries becomes the body one’s consciousness will be reuploaded into. Bodies are a commodity. Not every insurance plan guarantees its policyholder will end up in a body they’re comfortable in– not even their preferred sex. It’s a capitalist twist on a utopian concept, clever enough to build a whole world around and smart enough to drive a deeply personal story about gender, identity, and sexuality. But, disappointingly, Re-Coil turns into a shamblingly slow-paced cyber-zombie adventure that eats away all of the potential of its humantity-minded concept in favor of drawn-out action sequences and exasperating exposition.
Re-Coil is brimming with great ideas. Its opening sequence, an investigation of a derelict craft as it drifts towards the sun, does a good job at establishing the cold realities of backed-up brains and the world they’ve created, complete with AI assistants and cybernetic implants. After our protagonist, Carter, meets his sudden demise while scavenging the ship, he wakes up in a new body some months later and immediately finds himself under attack by an assassin. It becomes obvious that he stumbled upon some big secret on that derelict craft. Except, that version of Carter is dead, and so the new one doesn’t have any idea what his former self saw or why he’s being hunted. It’s a fun twist on classic noir writing that gets the plot moving in a familiar way while also fleshing out Re-Coil’s world.
The novel’s first half stays strong as Carter begins scouring the solar system for his lost crewmates. He flies from one space habitat to another until he finds Shay, the alluring tech wizard gal Carter has always had his eye on. But when Carter finds Shay, he learns that she’s been re-coiled (the term for one’s mind being uploaded into a new body) into a bio-male body. Shay experiences intense dysmorphia with her male form. She’s beside herself with grief and is deeply uncomfortable inside such a masculine body. Despite this, Carter never loses his eye for Shay. He sees her femininity in every smirk and sly look she gives him and can’t deny his fond feelings for her. Shay’s dysmorphia, coupled with Carter’s undeterred interest in her, makes for an interesting exploration of gender and identity as well as romantic attraction.
Unfortunately, Re-Coil’s exploration doesn’t extend much further than this initial presentation. Shay and Carter are both keenly aware of Shay’s dysmorphia. Neither shy away from the topic throughout the course of the novel, instead using it as a driving factor for their deal with the shady Genetechnic in the novel’s second half. Despite Carter’s pinings and Shay’s obvious reciprocation of Carter’s feelings, their relationship sees no development. I was hoping for their romantic feelings to blossom more fully by the end of the novel, but it’s not until Shay is re-coiled into a bio-female body that any progress is made. By which point, the most compelling aspect of their relationship has passed with neither party fully acknowledging it. This felt like a missed opportunity to more deeply explore the story’s social themes in a way unique to Re-Coil.
Lack of development is a big problem with Re-Coil. Carter and Shay see little development as characters, even after learning that the world is threatened by a zombie virus and that their mission may determine the course of all humanity. Neither is honest about their feelings towards each other, and they never are faced with obstacles that challenge their views on the world. For a story that carries such a strong emotional undercurrent through Shay’s dysmorphia, there’s agonizingly little emotional depth otherwise. Even the addition of Korben, a charming and lethal assassin, enemy turned ally, doesn’t spur any real change of heart or growth for Carter nor Shay (though he does inject the story with a much-needed dose of fun).
Where Re-Coil really misses is in its plot and pacing. What begins as an exploration of identity and gender, looking at how life goes on when no one can truly die, ends up turning into a schlocky cyber-zombie story. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good, schlocky zombie story. But this novel seemed like it was going in a much, much different direction than that. It felt smart and intimate. And the moment it becomes a zombie story, the zombie plot takes over so fully that all of the emotional depth the novel began with gets overrun by chapters and chapters of zombie fighting. It’s maddeningly slow-paced zombie fighting, too– slow-paced to a numbing degree. The chapters drag on, the whole conflict far-too drawn out to the point where I was tired of the whole thing and excited for it to wrap up. What’s even worse is that this zombie fight accounts for about one-third of the novel’s full 353 pagecount, making it an unfortunately substantial portion of the story.
Besides the fighting, an unnecessary level of exposition also pulls down the pacing. There are pages of exposition about the governing bodies of space habitats and Martian colonies, about the design principles that guide architecture beyond earth, and the scientific workings of corporate security systems. Now, like schlocky zombies, I love me a well-built world, (hell, I like a lot of the worldbuilding in Re-Coil), but few novels demand their world to be explained in intensely, exhaustingly granular detail, and Re-Coil is not one of them. When the novel regularly interrupts its own dialogue in order to go in on exposition that didn’t really need to be explained, it quickly becomes overbearing. Not only that, but Re-Coil is also guilty of repeating the same exposition several times over, making absolutely certain readers know how a body is re-coiled. It’s too much. At least one entire chapter was fully expositional– unnecessary exposition at that. Too much.
Re-Coil is a novel that’s built on an interesting concept that it uses to explore important themes. I was really excited to see where the story would go and how its characters would deal with the lots handed to them by a godlike Big Pharma corporation that controls both life and rebirth. But Re-Coil’s ultimate lack of character depth, sluggish pacing, and long-winded exposition makes it shamble along almost as mindlessly as the zombies that threaten its world.
Re-Coil is brimming with great ideas. Its opening sequence, an investigation of a derelict craft as it drifts towards the sun, does a good job at establishing the cold realities of backed-up brains and the world they’ve created, complete with AI assistants and cybernetic implants. After our protagonist, Carter, meets his sudden demise while scavenging the ship, he wakes up in a new body some months later and immediately finds himself under attack by an assassin. It becomes obvious that he stumbled upon some big secret on that derelict craft. Except, that version of Carter is dead, and so the new one doesn’t have any idea what his former self saw or why he’s being hunted. It’s a fun twist on classic noir writing that gets the plot moving in a familiar way while also fleshing out Re-Coil’s world.
The novel’s first half stays strong as Carter begins scouring the solar system for his lost crewmates. He flies from one space habitat to another until he finds Shay, the alluring tech wizard gal Carter has always had his eye on. But when Carter finds Shay, he learns that she’s been re-coiled (the term for one’s mind being uploaded into a new body) into a bio-male body. Shay experiences intense dysmorphia with her male form. She’s beside herself with grief and is deeply uncomfortable inside such a masculine body. Despite this, Carter never loses his eye for Shay. He sees her femininity in every smirk and sly look she gives him and can’t deny his fond feelings for her. Shay’s dysmorphia, coupled with Carter’s undeterred interest in her, makes for an interesting exploration of gender and identity as well as romantic attraction.
Unfortunately, Re-Coil’s exploration doesn’t extend much further than this initial presentation. Shay and Carter are both keenly aware of Shay’s dysmorphia. Neither shy away from the topic throughout the course of the novel, instead using it as a driving factor for their deal with the shady Genetechnic in the novel’s second half. Despite Carter’s pinings and Shay’s obvious reciprocation of Carter’s feelings, their relationship sees no development. I was hoping for their romantic feelings to blossom more fully by the end of the novel, but it’s not until Shay is re-coiled into a bio-female body that any progress is made. By which point, the most compelling aspect of their relationship has passed with neither party fully acknowledging it. This felt like a missed opportunity to more deeply explore the story’s social themes in a way unique to Re-Coil.
Lack of development is a big problem with Re-Coil. Carter and Shay see little development as characters, even after learning that the world is threatened by a zombie virus and that their mission may determine the course of all humanity. Neither is honest about their feelings towards each other, and they never are faced with obstacles that challenge their views on the world. For a story that carries such a strong emotional undercurrent through Shay’s dysmorphia, there’s agonizingly little emotional depth otherwise. Even the addition of Korben, a charming and lethal assassin, enemy turned ally, doesn’t spur any real change of heart or growth for Carter nor Shay (though he does inject the story with a much-needed dose of fun).
Where Re-Coil really misses is in its plot and pacing. What begins as an exploration of identity and gender, looking at how life goes on when no one can truly die, ends up turning into a schlocky cyber-zombie story. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good, schlocky zombie story. But this novel seemed like it was going in a much, much different direction than that. It felt smart and intimate. And the moment it becomes a zombie story, the zombie plot takes over so fully that all of the emotional depth the novel began with gets overrun by chapters and chapters of zombie fighting. It’s maddeningly slow-paced zombie fighting, too– slow-paced to a numbing degree. The chapters drag on, the whole conflict far-too drawn out to the point where I was tired of the whole thing and excited for it to wrap up. What’s even worse is that this zombie fight accounts for about one-third of the novel’s full 353 pagecount, making it an unfortunately substantial portion of the story.
Besides the fighting, an unnecessary level of exposition also pulls down the pacing. There are pages of exposition about the governing bodies of space habitats and Martian colonies, about the design principles that guide architecture beyond earth, and the scientific workings of corporate security systems. Now, like schlocky zombies, I love me a well-built world, (hell, I like a lot of the worldbuilding in Re-Coil), but few novels demand their world to be explained in intensely, exhaustingly granular detail, and Re-Coil is not one of them. When the novel regularly interrupts its own dialogue in order to go in on exposition that didn’t really need to be explained, it quickly becomes overbearing. Not only that, but Re-Coil is also guilty of repeating the same exposition several times over, making absolutely certain readers know how a body is re-coiled. It’s too much. At least one entire chapter was fully expositional– unnecessary exposition at that. Too much.
Re-Coil is a novel that’s built on an interesting concept that it uses to explore important themes. I was really excited to see where the story would go and how its characters would deal with the lots handed to them by a godlike Big Pharma corporation that controls both life and rebirth. But Re-Coil’s ultimate lack of character depth, sluggish pacing, and long-winded exposition makes it shamble along almost as mindlessly as the zombies that threaten its world.
November 30, 2020
I don't think the author of this book could decide on a genre. The prologue of the book is an Alien-style space horror, then it becomes a Bourne Identity-style mystery, then a plain old space shooter. The changes of pace are jarring at best and confusing at worst, and the mystery failed to engage me. A lot of the plot seemed entirely too convenient. The main character, whose name I have already forgotten despite finishing the book literally a moment ago, is a blank slate with no personality. The other two characters of note are far more interesting but don't really get a chance to shine. It ends unsatisfyingly and with the promise of a far more interesting story, one that I would love to read, but I don't think there is a sequel. What a shame.
In short - a whole bunch of potential in the world building, characters, concepts and story that was poorly executed in the end. It's passable as a trashy sci-fi paperback which is what I picked it up as, but I found myself really disappointed and had to force myself to the end.
In short - a whole bunch of potential in the world building, characters, concepts and story that was poorly executed in the end. It's passable as a trashy sci-fi paperback which is what I picked it up as, but I found myself really disappointed and had to force myself to the end.
April 9, 2021
The plot reminded me of swiss cheese, and the writing really got to me. Most of humanity is now hundreds of years old, but this one guy is THE best EVA expert, and in a surprising coincidence his shipmate is also the preminent hacker in the solar system? So much so that the megacorps needed to work with them instead of just buying their own experts? Felt like Armageddon, wouldn't it have been easier just to teach astronauts to drill rather than training blue collar workers to be astronauts? The first quarter of the book was doable. The initial premise was interesting enough, and the setup on the salvage wreck was interesting. After the first recoil things went downhill quickly. Phrases like "the fruit glistened wetly" were more pervasive than I would have liked.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2021
Well I broke my streak of phenomenal reads… I was actually concerned that somehow my standards had fallen 😂 but no, just had a lucky(well chosen?) run. Well this one had promise…. The idea could have been cool? Based on the blurb, like it wanted to use the idea of sleeving from altered carbon to explore gender identity and fluidity… or at least that’s what I got. Instead it’s a very old timey “space” adventure which could have just as easily taken place in the here and now. The body changing aspect reinforces traditional gender identity, and the voice sounds like something from 75 years ago. The closest thing I’ve read to it was The Stars My Destination, and that had both more interesting ideas, and a better plot.
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