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Busted Synapses
The world of tomorrow holds wonders unlike anything humanity has ever seen! But only for those lucky few.
Alicia, a runaway New Woman, comes to small-town Wheeling, West Virginia, and gets entangled with Jess and Dale, throwing their lives of pointless work and drug-fueled virtual reality into chaos. Meanwhile, truths are uncovered of the nation’s rewritten history—truths powerful corporations would rather leave hidden.
Rural cyberpunk of frustrated ambitions mixed with life-altering changes and cyber-mystery!
Alicia, a runaway New Woman, comes to small-town Wheeling, West Virginia, and gets entangled with Jess and Dale, throwing their lives of pointless work and drug-fueled virtual reality into chaos. Meanwhile, truths are uncovered of the nation’s rewritten history—truths powerful corporations would rather leave hidden.
Rural cyberpunk of frustrated ambitions mixed with life-altering changes and cyber-mystery!
104 pages, Paperback
First published November 3, 2020
4 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Erica L. Satifka
36 books51 followersErica L. Satifka is the author of over forty published short stories, which have appeared in such places as Clarkesworld Magazine, Shimmer, Interzone, and The Dark. Her debut novel Stay Crazy (Apex Publications). won the 2017 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer, and her rural cyberpunk novella Busted Synapses was released in 2020 by Broken Eye Books. Originally from Pittsburgh, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband/editor Rob and an indeterminate amount of cats.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 7, 2020
I was reluctant to start reading Erica L. Satifka's novella Busted Synapses, because I knew it'd be over quickly, one way or another; this book's only 95 pages long—a lot shorter than Satifka's first novel, Stay Crazy, which I ran across and rather enjoyed back in 2016.
And I was right to delay... I dragged it out as long as I could but, even so, this one was over too damned soon.
It's nice to think that, in some far-off future, humanity will come together as one, and all will share the inevitable bounty that technology can bring. That's a nice thought... but it doesn't seem very realistic, does it? Most likely, the future will remain just as unevenly distributed as the present, just as William Gibson observed—there will be Haves, and Have-Nots.
Busted Synapses is all about those who have not—and about the sick feeling that we pathetic meatbags have set processes in motion that we can no longer hope to control at all, much less halt.
Satifka packs a lot of themes and technologies into this brief story—environmental disaster and corporate greed are two of her larger themes; the impacts of drug-mediated virtual reality and handy androids who have climbed out of the Uncanny Valley receive more individual scrutiny.
We see all this through the eyes of perfectly ordinary people, like Dale, who works at the BurgerMat, sells drugs on the side, and lives for virtual-reality game sessions where he gets to play gladiator; Jess, whose line at the Solfind Remote Call Center rarely if ever rings; Terry, who has serious anger-management issues... they're all struggling to keep up in a world that has largely left them behind. They live in Wheeling, West Virginia—a town I actually know something about (my wife is from there), a town which at one point was actually the state capital of both West Virginia and Virginia. Right now, it's a shrinking, aging community of fewer than 30,000 people. In Satifka's future, Wheeling is... an Undeveloped Zone, utterly eclipsed by the high-tech domed Island of Pittsburgh, an enclave of Haves just a few miles to the east.
And then... Alicia, a New Woman, comes to town, her sleek android physique unmistakable as soon as Jess and Dale catch sight of her on a downtown Wheeling street. Before long, Alicia is taking a job at the call center where Jess works—a job that a human being used to have—and living (or, shall we say, sheltering) at Dale's place.
Alicia's rapid intrusion into Wheeling's slow decay marks a turning point, for Jess and Dale and, maybe, even for the town as a whole.
*
Music is—again, as it is so often—integral to a science-fiction story. In this case, the songs of "Johnny Eternal" (I think we can assume that's not his legal name) transport Jess' younger sister Louisa—and many others—out of their dead-end lives. At least for awhile.
*
Busted Synapses was published by Broken Eye Books, which also put out the Lovecraft-adjacent anthology Ride the Star Wind, a book I rather enjoyed as well in December 2019. For what that's worth.
There were some things about Busted Synapses that I didn't like, I'll admit. I came away with no vivid sense of place—Satifka's Wheeling could be any decaying Rust Belt town, really. The book wasn't really hard science fiction, either; although Satifka plays with cyberpunk tropes in entertaining ways, it's not especially rigorous extrapolation. And... I don't usually comment on author photos, but in this one Satifka's perfunctory portrait looks like a screen grab from a Zoom session—appropriate for this pandemic year, perhaps, but I'd recommend using a more carefully staged image for the next book.
But even so, on the whole... my main complaint about Busted Synapses is that there just wasn't enough of this one—and I am still glad I laid out the simoleons for it.
And I was right to delay... I dragged it out as long as I could but, even so, this one was over too damned soon.
Living in an Undeveloped Zone doesn't have many perks, but there's one: the government doesn't really care what you do.
—p.21
It's nice to think that, in some far-off future, humanity will come together as one, and all will share the inevitable bounty that technology can bring. That's a nice thought... but it doesn't seem very realistic, does it? Most likely, the future will remain just as unevenly distributed as the present, just as William Gibson observed—there will be Haves, and Have-Nots.
Busted Synapses is all about those who have not—and about the sick feeling that we pathetic meatbags have set processes in motion that we can no longer hope to control at all, much less halt.
"Things are so much worse than any of us can possibly know."
—Alicia, p.46
Satifka packs a lot of themes and technologies into this brief story—environmental disaster and corporate greed are two of her larger themes; the impacts of drug-mediated virtual reality and handy androids who have climbed out of the Uncanny Valley receive more individual scrutiny.
We see all this through the eyes of perfectly ordinary people, like Dale, who works at the BurgerMat, sells drugs on the side, and lives for virtual-reality game sessions where he gets to play gladiator; Jess, whose line at the Solfind Remote Call Center rarely if ever rings; Terry, who has serious anger-management issues... they're all struggling to keep up in a world that has largely left them behind. They live in Wheeling, West Virginia—a town I actually know something about (my wife is from there), a town which at one point was actually the state capital of both West Virginia and Virginia. Right now, it's a shrinking, aging community of fewer than 30,000 people. In Satifka's future, Wheeling is... an Undeveloped Zone, utterly eclipsed by the high-tech domed Island of Pittsburgh, an enclave of Haves just a few miles to the east.
And then... Alicia, a New Woman, comes to town, her sleek android physique unmistakable as soon as Jess and Dale catch sight of her on a downtown Wheeling street. Before long, Alicia is taking a job at the call center where Jess works—a job that a human being used to have—and living (or, shall we say, sheltering) at Dale's place.
Alicia's rapid intrusion into Wheeling's slow decay marks a turning point, for Jess and Dale and, maybe, even for the town as a whole.
*
Music is—again, as it is so often—integral to a science-fiction story. In this case, the songs of "Johnny Eternal" (I think we can assume that's not his legal name) transport Jess' younger sister Louisa—and many others—out of their dead-end lives. At least for awhile.
*
Busted Synapses was published by Broken Eye Books, which also put out the Lovecraft-adjacent anthology Ride the Star Wind, a book I rather enjoyed as well in December 2019. For what that's worth.
There were some things about Busted Synapses that I didn't like, I'll admit. I came away with no vivid sense of place—Satifka's Wheeling could be any decaying Rust Belt town, really. The book wasn't really hard science fiction, either; although Satifka plays with cyberpunk tropes in entertaining ways, it's not especially rigorous extrapolation. And... I don't usually comment on author photos, but in this one Satifka's perfunctory portrait looks like a screen grab from a Zoom session—appropriate for this pandemic year, perhaps, but I'd recommend using a more carefully staged image for the next book.
But even so, on the whole... my main complaint about Busted Synapses is that there just wasn't enough of this one—and I am still glad I laid out the simoleons for it.
January 15, 2024
This was set in a well-constructed sci-fi world wherein the human workforce is almost entirely replaced by "New Human" androids. Multi-faceted in its approach, we follow two humans in a sorta will they/won't they relationship as one of these New Humans enters their lives and things begin to unravel. Heady themes abound, but it is all handled with a very personal touch, so the ideas this book wants to express are "felt" more than they are told, if that makes sense, and to me, this was the exact right approach to this kind of story, focusing on the minutia of these characters, and building towards an emotional climax rather than a society-changing one. A breezy read at only 100 pages, it took me two sittings to get through it. Lots of good stuff in here.
August 13, 2022
This is an SF dystopian novella, originally published in 2020.
The near-future USA. The land is separated into Developed and Undeveloped Zones, the former with a notably higher quality of life than the latter. This is a result of a series of environmental disasters, that led to the decision that the whole territory cannot be saved, so if you have money you move to a safer place, if not, it’s your problem.
Low-paid unskilled workers are outcompeted by New People – robots (?) or cyborgs (?) or gene-modified humans (?) – it is unclear at the beginning, but what is clear, these New People are hated by workers, whom they sometimes replace, even if these creatures are helpful and compassionate.
Jess looks the New Woman over. No gray skin on this model but an even brown tone designed to appeal to average consumers, even in the somewhat racist Undeveloped Zones. Facial features imperfect enough to get past the uncanny valley. Silver eyes, which they all have regardless of their skin or hair color. Inside she’s just meat, Jess speculates, and whatever programming they’ve put into her.
In order to get out from the routine of work, people are playing VR games, usually bloody team sports, where the winner can get real money. Therefore, competition in these games is high and some performance-enhancing drugs are used, some with deleterious effects.
There is some hatred turned friendships, some drug deals gone awry, flights and conspiracies, well spiced with a critique of capitalism and inequality, greedy corps and people w/o rights, all that in a style that sometimes reminded me of Philip K. Dick. I cannot say that I enjoyed the story – it was fine but not really memorable.
The near-future USA. The land is separated into Developed and Undeveloped Zones, the former with a notably higher quality of life than the latter. This is a result of a series of environmental disasters, that led to the decision that the whole territory cannot be saved, so if you have money you move to a safer place, if not, it’s your problem.
Low-paid unskilled workers are outcompeted by New People – robots (?) or cyborgs (?) or gene-modified humans (?) – it is unclear at the beginning, but what is clear, these New People are hated by workers, whom they sometimes replace, even if these creatures are helpful and compassionate.
Jess looks the New Woman over. No gray skin on this model but an even brown tone designed to appeal to average consumers, even in the somewhat racist Undeveloped Zones. Facial features imperfect enough to get past the uncanny valley. Silver eyes, which they all have regardless of their skin or hair color. Inside she’s just meat, Jess speculates, and whatever programming they’ve put into her.
In order to get out from the routine of work, people are playing VR games, usually bloody team sports, where the winner can get real money. Therefore, competition in these games is high and some performance-enhancing drugs are used, some with deleterious effects.
There is some hatred turned friendships, some drug deals gone awry, flights and conspiracies, well spiced with a critique of capitalism and inequality, greedy corps and people w/o rights, all that in a style that sometimes reminded me of Philip K. Dick. I cannot say that I enjoyed the story – it was fine but not really memorable.
October 24, 2020
I've read a couple of Erica L Satifka's short stories now, and her debut novella Stay Crazy, and this sticks to her style, of old school cyberpunk fused with stream-of-consciousness surrealism; it is an odd-mix, but reading this reminded me of John Shirley's A City Come A-Walkin'.
With the standard cyberpunk tropes of a secretive corporation and an end-of-the-world event, Satifka takes these elements from the last 40 years into a 95 page novella that focusses on a pair of twentysomethings - Jess and Dale - living an all-too contemporary life of graduate debt and precarious employment.
Then, Alicia, wanders into their lives... a New Woman.
Superbly written, and wrapped up in some great design - one of the best looking print-on-demand books I've seen (and a front cover illustration by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor that deserves recognition).
If you're partial to cyberpunk and new writing, then this is thoroughly recommended.
With the standard cyberpunk tropes of a secretive corporation and an end-of-the-world event, Satifka takes these elements from the last 40 years into a 95 page novella that focusses on a pair of twentysomethings - Jess and Dale - living an all-too contemporary life of graduate debt and precarious employment.
Then, Alicia, wanders into their lives... a New Woman.
Superbly written, and wrapped up in some great design - one of the best looking print-on-demand books I've seen (and a front cover illustration by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor that deserves recognition).
If you're partial to cyberpunk and new writing, then this is thoroughly recommended.
February 10, 2021
This isn't really a sci-fi novel, per-se, if you're expecting a thriller. It's a novel about characters that just happens to be set in the future, more in the realm of many of PKD's novels. (Although Satifka's style is uniquely her own, off the top of my head I can't think of many people writing more about interpersonal relationships set in the sci-fi setting).
This novel is about the disproportionate equality that can arise if we don't regulate our innate tendency for power as our technology improves. It's about feeling helpless and stuck in a world that is quickly leaving you behind, and how even the "chosen" are slaves to power beyond their control.
My only real issue is that I wish the novel had been longer. I felt many of the threads of the story were wrapped up too quickly, maybe in an effort to keep it below a certain wordcount. Or even better, maybe we're going to get a sequel?
This novel is about the disproportionate equality that can arise if we don't regulate our innate tendency for power as our technology improves. It's about feeling helpless and stuck in a world that is quickly leaving you behind, and how even the "chosen" are slaves to power beyond their control.
My only real issue is that I wish the novel had been longer. I felt many of the threads of the story were wrapped up too quickly, maybe in an effort to keep it below a certain wordcount. Or even better, maybe we're going to get a sequel?
May 28, 2021
So yeah, I’m all caught up on my streaming shows and have to wait another day before the next episodes drop. This new episode release strategy is killing me bro. I prefer to binge a whole season in a single sitting. Get off the couch at 5am and be all covered in crumbs from the seven different snacks I devoured. Just an outline of Doritos, sour patch kids, and popcorn surrounding where I sat for the past 10 hours. So anyways, I had a few hours to burn and figured I’d rip through this book. It’s like 98 pages long which is about as high as I can count on a good day. Yeah, right, the book, let’s do it.
Dale and Jess are living in a dead-end town with dead-end prospects hoping for something better. Jess was a pretty smart cookie and went to the college in the Developed Zone Pittsburgh only to get massively crushed by student loan debts that she could likely never repay. She is looking for an escape for sister and her but is stuck. Dale flips burgers and deals drugs to fuel his escape in virtual reality gaming. Dale and his buddies pop these Solfind pills and do these rad VR gladiator battles. “Are you not entertained!” Reminds me of when we’d steal my buddy Kyle’s Ritalin and play Super Smash Bros for 10 hours straight. That upbringing must be why I binge watch tv to 5am.
The whole east coast was destroyed in these freak storms. The Midwest big cities were rebuilt and run by the big evil Solfind corporation. Solfind seems to have their fingers in every aspect of life even though these little dumpy towns in the Undeveloped Zone aren’t under their direct control. Their main jam is creating androids though. They started as rescue bots after the storms but eventually started taking over everything. I don’t trust ‘em, definitely something sinister with these bros.
Anyways, this android Alicia comes to town and just stirs everything up. It’s like when that one chick shows up at the party that slapped Misty at that last kegger. Something’s up and shit is going to go down. Alicia is trying to escape her own problems too but just opens up a whole new can of worms for everyone else in Wheeling. Oh yeah, the setting is the town of Wheeling, which has the best hockey team name ever, “Wheeling Nailers”, HA! I wonder if they’re still around in this book? Probs not, oh well.
Yeah, so everyone’s life basically sucks. They’re all losing their jobs and are trying to escape life. They all face the same problems most of today’s America but in the future. Student loans, insane medical costs, automation, addiction, unemployment, need for purpose, yada yada yada. The more the world advances the more it stays the same.
This book was a fun rip but I ended up with too many unanswered questions. They created this massive futuristic world with evil corporations, mysterious androids, cultish folk singers, travelling circus acts, and lost VR communities, but were all left to titty twist in the wind. It was a true slice of life tale but a pure tease on the rest. I guess that was the point and I give a single-hand clap to the author who left me wanting more.
Well, that's all I got. Adios Amigos!
Oh wait, check out my rad site for more content like this: The SciFi Book Guy
Dale and Jess are living in a dead-end town with dead-end prospects hoping for something better. Jess was a pretty smart cookie and went to the college in the Developed Zone Pittsburgh only to get massively crushed by student loan debts that she could likely never repay. She is looking for an escape for sister and her but is stuck. Dale flips burgers and deals drugs to fuel his escape in virtual reality gaming. Dale and his buddies pop these Solfind pills and do these rad VR gladiator battles. “Are you not entertained!” Reminds me of when we’d steal my buddy Kyle’s Ritalin and play Super Smash Bros for 10 hours straight. That upbringing must be why I binge watch tv to 5am.
The whole east coast was destroyed in these freak storms. The Midwest big cities were rebuilt and run by the big evil Solfind corporation. Solfind seems to have their fingers in every aspect of life even though these little dumpy towns in the Undeveloped Zone aren’t under their direct control. Their main jam is creating androids though. They started as rescue bots after the storms but eventually started taking over everything. I don’t trust ‘em, definitely something sinister with these bros.
Anyways, this android Alicia comes to town and just stirs everything up. It’s like when that one chick shows up at the party that slapped Misty at that last kegger. Something’s up and shit is going to go down. Alicia is trying to escape her own problems too but just opens up a whole new can of worms for everyone else in Wheeling. Oh yeah, the setting is the town of Wheeling, which has the best hockey team name ever, “Wheeling Nailers”, HA! I wonder if they’re still around in this book? Probs not, oh well.
Yeah, so everyone’s life basically sucks. They’re all losing their jobs and are trying to escape life. They all face the same problems most of today’s America but in the future. Student loans, insane medical costs, automation, addiction, unemployment, need for purpose, yada yada yada. The more the world advances the more it stays the same.
This book was a fun rip but I ended up with too many unanswered questions. They created this massive futuristic world with evil corporations, mysterious androids, cultish folk singers, travelling circus acts, and lost VR communities, but were all left to titty twist in the wind. It was a true slice of life tale but a pure tease on the rest. I guess that was the point and I give a single-hand clap to the author who left me wanting more.
Well, that's all I got. Adios Amigos!
Oh wait, check out my rad site for more content like this: The SciFi Book Guy
March 29, 2021
Busted Synapses is described as ‘ruralpunk’ which is pretty much perfect. This is more lo-fi cyberpunk set in a not too distant future. Set in a decaying town, largely forgotten by the corporate overlords who rule the midwest and the east (or what remains of it) after a catastrophic disaster, the story follows Jess and Dale, two people on the edge of what remains of society, as their lives become interwoven with a New Woman, a corporate android. The novella, short it may be, has an interesting setting and worldbuilding.
Satifka is darkly biting with her characters, building up a story that depicts a world that could be a hop-step away from our own. Jess, overwhelmed by student loan debt after striving for a better life, lives with her absent addict mother and disillusioned much younger sister who is obsessed with the music of Johnny Eternal. Jess works a dead-end job - overqualified for the few jobs available in her satellite town due to her degree. Dale makes ends meet by flipping burgers, small-time drug dealing and gaming, always listening to the music of Johnny Eternal. Enter the New Woman, the corporate creation who calls herself Alicia, starts to disrupt Dale and Jess’ lives - and the conspiracy that will go far to keep certain truths hidden.
The vibe, to quote the youth, reminds me of Margaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain series and the early scenes of KM Szpara’s Docile. The music of Johnny Eternal that starts to beat slowly through the story starts to build momentum, reminding me in echoes of We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix.
The plot is more meandering. Though very much focus on the working class inhabitants and their lives. They are largely, but not exclusively, inferred to be white. I note that because a black character is noted as ‘black’ which seems more exceptional than it should be for the setting, but perhaps that is part of the dystopian elements. Like many novellas, there seems to be various plot points and themes that are not fully explored due to the lack of space. While a mystery is alluded to, the new true mystery remains the New Woman, not quite human, but perhaps too human for her reality.
There’s a moment when Jess encounters someone further on the edge of society and thinks, “you don’t fit the aesthetic,” which is such a line that resonates with the social media image obsessed present. Eventually the story builds to a scene where Dale is hosting another ill-fated games night, hosted by the New Woman herself, but the story steps into a more surreal landscape before cutting away to Jess. And Jess, always at the edge of the story while occupying the centre, ultimately reconciles her choices. A sharply disorienting story with a compelling protagonists and absorbing worldbuilding.
Thanks to NetGalley and Broken Eye Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Satifka is darkly biting with her characters, building up a story that depicts a world that could be a hop-step away from our own. Jess, overwhelmed by student loan debt after striving for a better life, lives with her absent addict mother and disillusioned much younger sister who is obsessed with the music of Johnny Eternal. Jess works a dead-end job - overqualified for the few jobs available in her satellite town due to her degree. Dale makes ends meet by flipping burgers, small-time drug dealing and gaming, always listening to the music of Johnny Eternal. Enter the New Woman, the corporate creation who calls herself Alicia, starts to disrupt Dale and Jess’ lives - and the conspiracy that will go far to keep certain truths hidden.
The vibe, to quote the youth, reminds me of Margaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain series and the early scenes of KM Szpara’s Docile. The music of Johnny Eternal that starts to beat slowly through the story starts to build momentum, reminding me in echoes of We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix.
The plot is more meandering. Though very much focus on the working class inhabitants and their lives. They are largely, but not exclusively, inferred to be white. I note that because a black character is noted as ‘black’ which seems more exceptional than it should be for the setting, but perhaps that is part of the dystopian elements. Like many novellas, there seems to be various plot points and themes that are not fully explored due to the lack of space. While a mystery is alluded to, the new true mystery remains the New Woman, not quite human, but perhaps too human for her reality.
There’s a moment when Jess encounters someone further on the edge of society and thinks, “you don’t fit the aesthetic,” which is such a line that resonates with the social media image obsessed present. Eventually the story builds to a scene where Dale is hosting another ill-fated games night, hosted by the New Woman herself, but the story steps into a more surreal landscape before cutting away to Jess. And Jess, always at the edge of the story while occupying the centre, ultimately reconciles her choices. A sharply disorienting story with a compelling protagonists and absorbing worldbuilding.
Thanks to NetGalley and Broken Eye Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
April 26, 2024
A solid, too-short probably, cyberpunk offering about a few have-nots in a world ruled by a megacorp that manufactures New People, which are replacing normal humans in the work place, despite their being out of designated revitalized areas sponsored by said megacorp. The people intersect in a believable way and is good at kitting out through dialogue, worldbuilding and characterization.
It seems particularly wary of showing not telling and info dumps, making the prose fairly solid but feeling somewhat sophomoric, as the dialogue comes off as only half natural. There’s no nuances to the New People, as far as what exactly they are and how they are constructed, nor other aspects of the setting. There just isn’t time. Nor is it interested in situating time and place, making it feel generic but also applicable to anywhere.
As someone who enjoys a high amount of specificity, I got on with the book, but didn’t really get attached to any aspect of it. But the fact that I wanted more of it, means I was interested enough in what was offered to like it, overall.
It seems particularly wary of showing not telling and info dumps, making the prose fairly solid but feeling somewhat sophomoric, as the dialogue comes off as only half natural. There’s no nuances to the New People, as far as what exactly they are and how they are constructed, nor other aspects of the setting. There just isn’t time. Nor is it interested in situating time and place, making it feel generic but also applicable to anywhere.
As someone who enjoys a high amount of specificity, I got on with the book, but didn’t really get attached to any aspect of it. But the fact that I wanted more of it, means I was interested enough in what was offered to like it, overall.
March 4, 2021
3.5/5
A solid cyberpunk novella.
A solid cyberpunk novella.
May 2, 2023
A quick read that packs a punch. What do you do when the world around you is crumbling and the reality as you know it might be built on lies?
April 12, 2021
Busted Synapses is a quick & excellent read. Satifka's crisp prose propels the reader through the "rural cyberpunk" future of Wheeling, WV. And while the cyberpunk tropes may be familiar -- the parallel VR world, the mega-corporations, the drugs and grittiness -- the way the author plays with those tropes in a rural setting makes them feel fresh. Not just a rehash of Gibson or Sterling, but instead a commentary on the present-day poverty, drug epidemic, and hopelessness ravaging rural America. In a future divided between the Solfind Corporation's high-tech urban (and android-populated) Development Zones and the undeveloped everywhere else, Busted Synapses clearly holds up a mirror to the darkest parts of the present, showing us the folks who are already being left behind.
January 5, 2025
I'm mixed between 3.5☆ and 4☆. This was an interesting novella. It's packed with so many ideas in the short amount of pages. I love the concept, of what it's like to live outside of the big fancy new age city, and how that effects normal people. They share similar struggles with us, and even the ones that are different (like dealing with androids/new people) are presented in a way that feels similar enough that it is relatable. There were some small things that I feel could have been explored more (like what was that thing with Rachel?) But overall I enjoyed this!
August 1, 2021
Depression future history, where the cities have been wiped out, and the shiny new technology means people have lost interest in living as robots and automation take their jobs, except for one discordant musician everyone seems to listen to. I believe some parts of this (the nefarious corporate motives) but I think people don't lose hope quite so much as this.
I'm not sure what the ending of this means.
I'm not sure what the ending of this means.
Read
September 2, 2022I don't quite know what to make of this book, though I think I can say this: while it may not have worked for me, it's clearly a work that's doing what it wants to be doing.
What is it doing? First, it takes a bunch of cyberpunk/sf tropes --
--the gleaming arcology-city (here, certain economic development zones called Islands),
--the consensual hallucination of some VR space (here, where people can play gladiatorial games for the violent delights of others, which of course have violent ends),
--the cyborg/robot/AI (here, the New People, originally used as rescue workers, but now more-or-less replacements for regular/real folk),
--the cool musician (here, Johnny Eternal),
--the drugs (here, Trancium, used, natch, to get into the VR space),
--and the dwindling of the state, only to be replaced by the corporation (here, Solfind, creator of the New People)
--and it mashes those tropes up with a consistently anti-heroic story, verging on anti-story.
Like: Jess is working a dead-end job at a Solfind call center, crushed by student debt, wishing she could get back to one of those economic development zones; her buddy Dale is working at an almost entirely automated BurgerMat (also owned by Solfind, I think), making extra money by running some VR games. No one is starving, no one is a hacker, no one just wants to pull one last score. People are barely eking by, but they are managing.
Until Alicia, one of the New People, comes into town and gets a job at the call center where fiercely anti-New People Jess works; and until one of Dale's games goes sideways, and someone seems to glitch out. And then--well, Alicia is on the run from Solfind, but not really, because she gets a job at the Solfind call center; and Dale's game group discovers--well, nothing really. The person who glitched out wasn't exactly caught by the Net or killed in a VR game that was just regular R. What turns out to be the big antagonist for most of the book is this one guy from Dale's game group who is violent, but really just a goon. Nothing seems terrible, and nothing seems terribly exciting.
There's little glimmers of another type of story peeking through: part of this dystopia is that some superstorms wiped out the East Coast, and a VR game gone weird reveals some evidence that maybe Solfind did that, but it doesn't really seem believable and it's not information that really affects much in the story. In some other story, maybe something like this would be a bombshell and there would be a big mission to broadcast this information. But here, people say "let's do this thing, no, I won't want to," and then just sort of meander into that thing or another thing.
Like: In a climactic scene, Jess tries to rescue her little sister by taking her to one of those Islands, and then cancels the trip when she runs into these caravan/carnival folk and decides to go back to Wheeling (where the story is more-or-less set -- I say more-or-less because the story doesn't bother with anything like sense of place) just to get a truck in order to take her sister to these caravan/carnival folk who, again, don't seem like they're really hurting in the new world order of Solfind.
I think I've got it: this is mumblecore-cyberpunk.
There's a bunch that interesting and fun here; and the recurring idea that Johnny Eternal's music is special both reminds me of something Lukacs says about the historical novel and magical thinking; and makes me wonder about the gnostic epiphany Dale has in a VR world that may or may not be inside New People. I don't know, I guess I went in thinking I was reading something interested in science fiction, but really it feels more interested in deploying tropes as metaphors.
What is it doing? First, it takes a bunch of cyberpunk/sf tropes --
--the gleaming arcology-city (here, certain economic development zones called Islands),
--the consensual hallucination of some VR space (here, where people can play gladiatorial games for the violent delights of others, which of course have violent ends),
--the cyborg/robot/AI (here, the New People, originally used as rescue workers, but now more-or-less replacements for regular/real folk),
--the cool musician (here, Johnny Eternal),
--the drugs (here, Trancium, used, natch, to get into the VR space),
--and the dwindling of the state, only to be replaced by the corporation (here, Solfind, creator of the New People)
--and it mashes those tropes up with a consistently anti-heroic story, verging on anti-story.
Like: Jess is working a dead-end job at a Solfind call center, crushed by student debt, wishing she could get back to one of those economic development zones; her buddy Dale is working at an almost entirely automated BurgerMat (also owned by Solfind, I think), making extra money by running some VR games. No one is starving, no one is a hacker, no one just wants to pull one last score. People are barely eking by, but they are managing.
Until Alicia, one of the New People, comes into town and gets a job at the call center where fiercely anti-New People Jess works; and until one of Dale's games goes sideways, and someone seems to glitch out. And then--well, Alicia is on the run from Solfind, but not really, because she gets a job at the Solfind call center; and Dale's game group discovers--well, nothing really. The person who glitched out wasn't exactly caught by the Net or killed in a VR game that was just regular R. What turns out to be the big antagonist for most of the book is this one guy from Dale's game group who is violent, but really just a goon. Nothing seems terrible, and nothing seems terribly exciting.
There's little glimmers of another type of story peeking through: part of this dystopia is that some superstorms wiped out the East Coast, and a VR game gone weird reveals some evidence that maybe Solfind did that, but it doesn't really seem believable and it's not information that really affects much in the story. In some other story, maybe something like this would be a bombshell and there would be a big mission to broadcast this information. But here, people say "let's do this thing, no, I won't want to," and then just sort of meander into that thing or another thing.
Like: In a climactic scene, Jess tries to rescue her little sister by taking her to one of those Islands, and then cancels the trip when she runs into these caravan/carnival folk and decides to go back to Wheeling (where the story is more-or-less set -- I say more-or-less because the story doesn't bother with anything like sense of place) just to get a truck in order to take her sister to these caravan/carnival folk who, again, don't seem like they're really hurting in the new world order of Solfind.
I think I've got it: this is mumblecore-cyberpunk.
There's a bunch that interesting and fun here; and the recurring idea that Johnny Eternal's music is special both reminds me of something Lukacs says about the historical novel and magical thinking; and makes me wonder about the gnostic epiphany Dale has in a VR world that may or may not be inside New People. I don't know, I guess I went in thinking I was reading something interested in science fiction, but really it feels more interested in deploying tropes as metaphors.
March 12, 2021
Erica L. Satifka's Busted Synapses's is a near-future slice-of-life cyberpunk novella that takes a lot of present-day concerns and naturally inflates them to their logical dystopian end-points: the crush burden of student loans and medical debt, job insecurity, bigotry, and the fracturing of America after a massive climate change-induced cataclysm.
Our main viewpoints into this all-too recognizable world are Jess and Dale. The former is a recent college grad stuck in a dead-end job to pay off the sizeable debt her education has left her with before it destroys her family. The latter is a fast-food worker unknowingly facing his last days flipping burgers as his corporate masters seek to automate the business with cybernetic workers.
Satifka employs a lot of pointed commentary about the future state of this world, one that is very clearly built on the problems of present-day America and will be easily recognizable to a broad segment of readers (especially those who, like me, are struggling to pay off student loans to fund that increasingly murky promise of a mythical "better future" that higher education was supposed to offer). It's difficult to call Satifka's work prescient, though, as so much of it hinges on our own present-day corporate and economic dystopians, even if she does exacerbate these issues to a somewhat higher level and gussies it up conceptually with the advancement of robotic laborers pushing human workers out of a job.
Busted Synapses is more about the characters and the world they inhabit, so the plot isn't particularly heavy. Mostly it's about the search for, and reclamation of, a better life in a ruined world overtaken by an evil corporation. It's deliberately paced, but never ploddingly so, although it did take a while for me to warm to the story, such as it is, and these characters and their plights.
Our main viewpoints into this all-too recognizable world are Jess and Dale. The former is a recent college grad stuck in a dead-end job to pay off the sizeable debt her education has left her with before it destroys her family. The latter is a fast-food worker unknowingly facing his last days flipping burgers as his corporate masters seek to automate the business with cybernetic workers.
Satifka employs a lot of pointed commentary about the future state of this world, one that is very clearly built on the problems of present-day America and will be easily recognizable to a broad segment of readers (especially those who, like me, are struggling to pay off student loans to fund that increasingly murky promise of a mythical "better future" that higher education was supposed to offer). It's difficult to call Satifka's work prescient, though, as so much of it hinges on our own present-day corporate and economic dystopians, even if she does exacerbate these issues to a somewhat higher level and gussies it up conceptually with the advancement of robotic laborers pushing human workers out of a job.
Busted Synapses is more about the characters and the world they inhabit, so the plot isn't particularly heavy. Mostly it's about the search for, and reclamation of, a better life in a ruined world overtaken by an evil corporation. It's deliberately paced, but never ploddingly so, although it did take a while for me to warm to the story, such as it is, and these characters and their plights.
September 20, 2023
This was interesting, but in the end, I was merely whelmed by it. Neither over or under, just kind of... whelmed.
It starts strong enough, introducing characters and the world clearly and setting the stakes (there are none, the world is over and endless pursuit of profits has ended work for people without proving support or money). The two inciting incidents take place within the first thirty pages, and then the story just kind of keeps going, building to a climax of sorts.
The novella is only 95 pages, and it just blows by. It either needed to be 30 pages shorter or 30 pages longer, however, as it provides too much information to just not answer questions that arise in the middle third. It's too specific to end as openly as it does, so it either needed to create fewer questions or add in an epilogue or a little more plot.
It's enough that I would be curious about a full novel set in this world. This would be a terrific first third of a book, but as it stands, as a novella it's just perfectly fine.
I do have the author's book of short stories from the library, so I will be reading at least two of those, just to see. If I end up not posting about it, then I didn't finish it.
It starts strong enough, introducing characters and the world clearly and setting the stakes (there are none, the world is over and endless pursuit of profits has ended work for people without proving support or money). The two inciting incidents take place within the first thirty pages, and then the story just kind of keeps going, building to a climax of sorts.
The novella is only 95 pages, and it just blows by. It either needed to be 30 pages shorter or 30 pages longer, however, as it provides too much information to just not answer questions that arise in the middle third. It's too specific to end as openly as it does, so it either needed to create fewer questions or add in an epilogue or a little more plot.
It's enough that I would be curious about a full novel set in this world. This would be a terrific first third of a book, but as it stands, as a novella it's just perfectly fine.
I do have the author's book of short stories from the library, so I will be reading at least two of those, just to see. If I end up not posting about it, then I didn't finish it.
July 9, 2022
It seems that when a book ends considerably more abruptly than I expected, I need to take a while to consider if I'm satisfied. 😁 The ending was quite open-ended, but I think it was fine.
However, the book's not quite what I signed up for. The author herself said this in a blog post:
> But the spirit of alienation, techno-pessimism, and anti-corporatism are still there. If walled-off (either physically or economically) cities are our future, then the real revolutionaries have to be located outside of them, in the places where the neo-aristocrats of the very near future fear to tread. Bruce Sterling once called cyberpunk a combination of low life and high tech, and in this light _Busted Synapses_ is about a gang of low lives dealing with the highest tech that capitalism lets trickle down to them, which isn’t much.
I get what she's going for, and she succeeded. It's a valid approach. But in the same stroke, the book lost a lot of the charm that I like in cyberpunk, and moved into 'pessimistic/dystopic sci-fi'. Which is a bit of a problem for a book that is always marketed as cyberpunk.
However, the book's not quite what I signed up for. The author herself said this in a blog post:
> But the spirit of alienation, techno-pessimism, and anti-corporatism are still there. If walled-off (either physically or economically) cities are our future, then the real revolutionaries have to be located outside of them, in the places where the neo-aristocrats of the very near future fear to tread. Bruce Sterling once called cyberpunk a combination of low life and high tech, and in this light _Busted Synapses_ is about a gang of low lives dealing with the highest tech that capitalism lets trickle down to them, which isn’t much.
I get what she's going for, and she succeeded. It's a valid approach. But in the same stroke, the book lost a lot of the charm that I like in cyberpunk, and moved into 'pessimistic/dystopic sci-fi'. Which is a bit of a problem for a book that is always marketed as cyberpunk.
February 23, 2021
I found this book profoundly sad. The "New Person" cyborg, the college graduate forced to return home, the friends with dead-end jobs progressively being eliminated, all looking for an escape from a world wrecked by corporatism and the climate catastrophe. Or the interplay of the two, as is hinted.
Seems a bit like this year in the real world. Except without the escape.
With something this short, Satifka does an excellent job of drawing compelling characters as well as avoiding the pitfalls of the "heroes journey"-type narrative. There are no heroes, only victims. An ensemble cast dances with a disaster that smells of reality, ultimately bailing,
I read this in one sitting in less than three hours. The pace is rapid--a real feat without a huge amount of action. The action that does happen is almost a summary, reminiscent of Le Guin. Also like Le Guin, Satifka is more interested in ideas and in the interplay of characters.
I enjoyed visiting her world. I sense there are many more stories there to be told.
Strongly recommended.
Seems a bit like this year in the real world. Except without the escape.
With something this short, Satifka does an excellent job of drawing compelling characters as well as avoiding the pitfalls of the "heroes journey"-type narrative. There are no heroes, only victims. An ensemble cast dances with a disaster that smells of reality, ultimately bailing,
I read this in one sitting in less than three hours. The pace is rapid--a real feat without a huge amount of action. The action that does happen is almost a summary, reminiscent of Le Guin. Also like Le Guin, Satifka is more interested in ideas and in the interplay of characters.
I enjoyed visiting her world. I sense there are many more stories there to be told.
Strongly recommended.
January 18, 2025
"Busted Synapses" by Erica Satifka is a glimpse at one possible dark future where AI has impacted lives and finances.
Jess and Dale live in a West Virginia town that is down on its luck. Jobs are disappearing, at least for folks like Jess and Dale. Jess works in fast food, and unemployed Dale makes money by taking a strange drug and playing a virtual game with groups of strangers. When a mysterious AI woman shows up in town amidst a cloud of suspicion and distrust, Jess and Dale see the continuation of their bleak future in a world of economic despair and one of them decides to try and disrupt that.
This is a good story, but it is pretty depressing. I like the themes of technology that strips humanity, ongoing economic issues and general inequality. It was an engaging and thought provoking read.
Jess and Dale live in a West Virginia town that is down on its luck. Jobs are disappearing, at least for folks like Jess and Dale. Jess works in fast food, and unemployed Dale makes money by taking a strange drug and playing a virtual game with groups of strangers. When a mysterious AI woman shows up in town amidst a cloud of suspicion and distrust, Jess and Dale see the continuation of their bleak future in a world of economic despair and one of them decides to try and disrupt that.
This is a good story, but it is pretty depressing. I like the themes of technology that strips humanity, ongoing economic issues and general inequality. It was an engaging and thought provoking read.
July 30, 2022
I have been a fervent consumer of cyberpunk, but always big mainstream books like Neuromancer and Snow Crash. Busted Synapses was my first foray into contemporary cyberpunk, and it absolutely did not disappoint.
It is a prescient glance into a corporate-ruled future America, with a focus on small towns instead of neon cities. Satifka shows us small town ennui magnified by ever-increasing income inequality, exacerbated by the march of automation (coupled with a complete disregard for the normal folks left behind by said automation).
If you like more quiet, character driven science fiction, this book is absolutely for you. Prepare to knock through it in a matter of a few hours, but think about it for weeks thereafter.
It is a prescient glance into a corporate-ruled future America, with a focus on small towns instead of neon cities. Satifka shows us small town ennui magnified by ever-increasing income inequality, exacerbated by the march of automation (coupled with a complete disregard for the normal folks left behind by said automation).
If you like more quiet, character driven science fiction, this book is absolutely for you. Prepare to knock through it in a matter of a few hours, but think about it for weeks thereafter.
December 27, 2020
Busted Synapses holds all the trappings of a post-corporate takeover cyberpunk centered on the lives of two characters who have struggled to build their lives among societal decline.
I really loved this story. Don’t expect everything to be answered for you, as this comes across as almost a slice-of-life story. People move forward and things change, and it feels very true-to-life.
Pick it up, give it a read. I definitely recommend it.
I really loved this story. Don’t expect everything to be answered for you, as this comes across as almost a slice-of-life story. People move forward and things change, and it feels very true-to-life.
Pick it up, give it a read. I definitely recommend it.
June 29, 2021
Short but powerful. As someone who grew up outside a big city in the rust belt I immediately felt attached to the setting. I could easily have read more of this story/something in this world!
August 8, 2024
Great read, imaginative but it goes by too quickly
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December 1, 2024Author Interview:
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January 21, 2025
This was a fun, imaginative read. Great worldbuilding and dialogue but would be better as a longer story. The ending felt rushed compared to the pacing throughout and I just needed a bit more.
December 16, 2022
Very good sci -fi/addiction/multi-verse story with AI robots taking all the jobs and humanity now lives in the “slums” barely getting by. Crime is pretty much legal and people use a drug to escape reality and fight arena style for money within their own psyches. But who is watching? And what happens when you die? Where does the money come from? Read it if ya want to know👀
August 28, 2024
I love sci-fi Pittsburgh ✌️🖤💛
A mega storm "breaks" the east coast. Android-human hybrids are optimizing ever field from the military to fast food. One folk singer speaks for the masses, and drugs seems to be the only escape. Jess and Dean are just trying to survive.
Satifka did a great job of pacing out how we learn about the New People but I do wish the trancium equipment was explained in more detail- I'm intrigued.
A mega storm "breaks" the east coast. Android-human hybrids are optimizing ever field from the military to fast food. One folk singer speaks for the masses, and drugs seems to be the only escape. Jess and Dean are just trying to survive.
Satifka did a great job of pacing out how we learn about the New People but I do wish the trancium equipment was explained in more detail- I'm intrigued.
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