Pacific Storm

by Linda Nagata

Ava Arnett is a Honolulu cop, captain of the night shift in the autonomous Waikiki District. Nine years ago a massive hurricane hit the island. Ava remains haunted by the mistakes she made and the lives she failed to save during that disaster. Since then, she relies on HADAFA, an AI designed to observe, analyze, and predict human behavior. HADAFA monitors her actions, and its assessments guide her decisions.

Now, another Category 5 hurricane is approaching Honolulu… In the hectic hours before landfall, Ava stumbles into a terrorist conspiracy – and HADAFA begins to glitch. She can no longer rely on the AI. She must decide on her own whether or not to trust a mysterious federal agent named Lyric Jones – knowing the wrong choice could lead to greater devastation... and a war no one will win.

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Fiction

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2020

About the author

I'm a writer from Hawaii best known for my high-tech science fiction, including the near-future thriller, The Last Good Man , and the far-future adventure series, INVERTED FRONTIER.

Though I don't review books on Goodreads, I do talk about some of my favorite books on my blog and those posts are echoed here. So I invite you to follow me for news of books and many other things. You can also visit my website to learn more about my work, and to sign up for my newsletter.

Reviews

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda Nagata’s new near-future thriller contains significant elements of science fiction and political speculation. It is set in on a future Hawai’i, previously devastated by a cat-5 hurricane, rebuilt using Chinese investment and advanced technology, now facing another incoming cat-5. The US is governed by an investor-driven political party, who has agreed to cede sovereignty of O’ahu in a 99-year lease to China. Ava Arnett is a middle-aged officer of the Kahanamoku Coastal Park Security, an agency whose jurisdiction covers reclaimed land built on the ruins of Waikīkī, where the action begins. The tension spins up rapidly as unexplained violence and data system subversion reveal the involvement of government/military conspiracies and Hawaiian separatist groups – even as the winds and wave action increase. Provocation of global war hangs in the balance as Ava must decide what is the truth and where her loyalties lie. Nagata skillfully dovetails Ava’s personal relationships into the narrative and the suspense. However, there are a few reversals in fortune which occur at opportune times, maintaining the level of tension, but felt a little unlikely to me. Still, it’s an exciting fast-paced adventure that incorporates unexplained technological speculation in information, surveillance, genetic engineering, and bio/tech organisms that will be familiar to readers of SF, but perhaps not to others.

Nagata is a long-time resident of Hawai’i, and as you may have noticed uses native spellings of Hawaiian words, as well as the directional references makai and mauka. It’s not difficult to understand, and the myriad of specific geographic references (that I did not recognize, never having been there) were also not an obstacle. In style, this writing reminded me more of Nagata’s 2001 novel Limit of Vision than her far-future Nanotech Succession (such as her 1995 The Bohr Maker).

I read a free Digital Review Copy of Pacific Storm in kindle format, which I received from Mythic Island Press through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title had already been released on 8 October 2020.

[Sherwood Smith]

I read this in draft. It was so vivid, so gripping, that I kept forgetting I was supposed to be typo-hunting, and I'd go back . . . and then get immersed all over again.

Terrific female characters especially, featuring a slowly, remorselessly accelerating mystery with rising stakes against a disturbingly intense description of a hurricane about to hit. Great action, but Nagata never forgets the personalities, or the personal costs.

So many oh shit moments, which is what you want in a thriller--and it was such a pleasure to watch events unfold.

No details--so much fun to get the surprises as the pacing ramps to maximum overdrive.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waikiki Cop Ava Arnett is chasing down some perpetrators and a conspiracy, in the days before a severe Pacific storm hits the island of O‘ahu. Years before this event the island was already ravaged by another massive hurricane and Waikiki is a walled-off tourist resort, bordered by destroyed buildings infested with a killer fungus.

We are in an unspecified near future, where the USA is about to sign away Hawaii to China in a 99-year lease. Climate change is happening, temperatures have gone up by several degrees, the economic situation of the US is not good. I am guessing that Nagata is not a fan of her country‘s (lack of) climate protection policies.

This is a fast moving cop/secret agent/conspiracy thriller, with a touch of SF, nanopunk, some bots, climate fic and sporror. I liked the sporror part and would have loved for it to play a bigger part in the narrative. The setting was well done, I liked the writing. It was atmospheric, with believable action scenes. I could see this as a fun action movie.

Ava was a likable character, same as her side kicks. It‘s nice to read a well drawn, mature, female main character, who stands on her own.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher/author through NetGalley in 2020. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review. I am really very late with reviewing this, mea culpa!

Nagata‘s website: https://mythicisland.com

My Nagata reading list:
The Martian Obelisk, read in 2018, free Tor online story
The Snow Chanter, another very overdue Netgalley, not read yet, start of a trilogy
Limit of Vision, not read yet

[Bart · Rating 2 out of 5]

(...)

If you like the blurb of the novel, and if you enjoy reading that has more in common with Mission Impossible than with Tinker Tinker Soldier Spy, by all means, go for it.

I don’t want to accuse Nagata of having written a superficial popcorn book. She did try to infuse the book with a certain depth: the political climate of the novel is a critique of where things stand right now in the USA, and the protagonist has a backstory that involves personal climate trauma. On top of that, the basic mystery of the novel is epistemic: can Ava trust all the data her AI smart glasses constantly feed her? How far up the chain of command does the corruption reach? Who can she trust, and who is part of the terrorist plot?

Sadly, all of these things have just one layer to them: it is all straightforward and transparent conceptually, even if the plot of the book retains part of this epistemic uncertainty until the end.

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a page turner, a thriller, and perfect for the plane trip to a wintery Europe. The author has done some really interesting world building here - an AI that can predict crime and anti-social behavior, a future society with a "social" rating used for jobs and housing, and a Hawaii that was hit devastated by a tornado and about to be hit by another. The politics in this novel is also interesting - an insular US government only concerned with the continental US, a Chinese government that stepped in to eventually take over, and Islanders who are caught in the middle. The author is one of these Islanders in real life, and I bet her take on this is accurate.

This book is more near-future thriller than full science fiction. Nagata has written that also, a far-future series, and I look forward to reading another of her books soon.

[Joel Dane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody writes near-future thrillers better than Nagata; her world-building is impeccable and seamless. The plot is propulsive, the action is exciting, the setting is immersive, and the layering of conflict atop mystery atop twist atop betrayal atop, well, even *more* conflict, makes PACIFIC STORM unputdownable.

The writing is top-notch, but that's not a surprise. Nagata is incapable of anything less. What I'm trying to say here is: nobody writes near-future thrillers better. So good!

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Another) Excellent near future thriller

Another book by Linda Nagata, and again I am delighted by it. The key characters are well drawn and evolving, the story is too close to what might happen to ignore, and the plot and action really moves along. I actually found it very hard to put down. One bit of advice, have a map of the books setting nearby as that increases the visceral closeness of the heroine and her living and working space.

[Clyde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a good near-future techno-thriller with plenty of action. The main character, Ava, is one tough cookie. She gets quite a workout as she simultaneously deals with a dangerous conspiracy and a major storm.
As the story moves along, Nagata just casually slips in bits of cool "just around the corner" new tech.
4.5 stars rounded up.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Global warming has made the weather more extreme (this I think is unspoken), and nine years ago, Oahu had a giant storm that caused extreme damage and many deaths. Some parts have been rebuilt, including Waikiki and its beaches, with massive financial help from China. Now, the right-wing element of the US wants to give Hawaii to China (after all, much of the population is nonwhite) in exchange for a big debt write-off.

Another Category 5 storm is approaching, and this time the island is more prepared. Ava works for the Kahanamoku Coastal Authority, which seems like a police force with military overtones, and is preparing to be part of the emergency response. From here, almost everything about the plot would be spoiler, so I won't go into it. Let's just say, there's a conspiracy, or more than one, related to the probable handover to China. And it's impossible for Ava to tell which of the people trying to get her to do stuff are trustworthy.

I always love Linda Nagata's writing, and this is one of her many best. The book is gripping. It's a thriller - it has cops, military, and possibly one or more shadowy government agencies. The future technology is plausible and at times fun (e.g., colorful engineered sea serpents that eat jellyfish but not surfers). The action is nonstop, as Ava and associates are racing against the start of the big storm, an implacable deadline.

A few questions were left unanswered, and that's okay, though who knows? Maybe Nagata will revisit this world sometime, and we'll find out how Ava is doing and more about Lyric, the mystery woman.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intense political thriller

This caught my attention early, and I didn’t want to put it down. The convergence of weather, politics, secret societies, and action was compelling!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I was expecting. And how things end happily, well sort of, and the reason why disturbs me story-wise. That probably makes no sense but I can't explain without revealing pretty big spoilers. Taken as a whole it's not bad it just leaves me with some questions without answers and I think it could have been a better book if certain changes had been made. Just my two cents.

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda Nagata, one of the best science fiction writers on the planet, once again, delivers. Set in a near-future world, Ava, a Honolulu police officer stumbles upon a terrorist conspiracy, and the terrible implications if this plot were to come to fruition. Amongst this, a category 5 hurricane is approaching and makes finding answers to this conspiracy even more difficult. With excellent dialogue, great action scenes, a strong female lead character,fascinating technology, great backdrop of Honolulu and a fantastic premise on the possible failures of AI, Pacific Storm provides the intriguing, fast-paced sci-fi thriller you’ve been looking for. Definitely give this book a read!

[John Folk-Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put off reading Linda Nagata’s Pacific Storm for a while because I was so enamored of her far future epics that I wondered about a nearish-future thriller set in Hawai’i awaiting the arrival of a powerful hurricane. Well, once I got into the story, I couldn’t let go. Pacific Storm has that feel-it-in-yours-bones tension that pushes you toward its resolution with the literary equivalent of hurricane-force winds. It’s compelling and not to be missed.

The Hawai’i of Pacific Storm is a place on the edge: still recovering from a devastating hurricane a couple of years earlier, awaiting the arrival of a new one expected to be just as violent; largely abandoned by the federal government and on the verge of being signed off to China under a 99-year lease; torn between separatists, the results of climate change, the smothering grip of Chinese “benevolence” in rebuilding the island of O’ahu in return for accepting Chinese social surveillance.

In the midst of a broken society where people are living in dome neighborhoods amid the ruins of earlier housing, where your social rating means everything for job prospects and political fights at the national level are cutting Hawai’i loose from the union, Ava Arnett clings to her duties as a cop on Waikiki. She tries to focus on her immediate job to keep at bay a disturbing recurrent dream about her failure to save children from drowning in the last terrible hurricane and her broken marriage.

Read the full review at SciFi Mind.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel follows Ava Arnett, a Hawaii police officer. She’s just trying to do her job right before a category 5 hurricane hits Honolulu. However, she stumbles across a conspiracy that she must foil before millions are lives are lost.

I loved the beginning of the novel but I found the middle third was hard to get into. I loved reading about Arnett’s preparations for the hurricanes arrival by helping stranded tourists and ensuring the publics safety. However, I had trouble getting intothe initial investigations into the conspiracy. Not entirely sure why but I just wasn’t intrigued. Once the investigations and action started then I couldn’t put the novel down.

The characters were great, I loved every one of them. I could really understand their motives and inspirations behind their actions. The emotional ending between Kaden and Ava hit me harder than I thought it would. Only a truly excellent author can write a complex protagonist in which a reader gets to witness their downfall but also feel troubled by their demise.

The world building was the best part, not that the other parts weren’t enjoyable. But the technology and social consequences of the past few decades play a big role in this novel. Climate change has wrecked havoc on the world and environmental disasters, such as hurricanes, are now a consequences of this. The technology was realistic and I could honestly see most of these making an appearance in the near future. From social ratings determining your statues to bioengineered lifeforms to smart glasses.

Overall this was a great thriller/sci-fi novel that I would strongly recommend to fans.

Thank you to Mythic Island Press and NetGalley for the free ebook.

[Kris Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A year after her infant son was taken from his crib while she and her husband slept, Isabelle Drake's life still revolves around trying to uncover the truth about what happened to him. As she fights insomnia and copes with the breakdown of her marriage, Isabelle is relentless in getting her story out there until she finally crosses paths with a true-crime podcaster with an obsessive interest in her case.

To be honest, when I read the description, I was a bit put off. I'm over the podcast angle. It's been done a lot recently and never seems especially unique. Still, I love the author and was really excited about reading the books so I jumped in.....and couldn't put it down. I listened to two days. It's compelling and intricate without being complicated to the point where it's confusing to keep track of. The characters are unique and likable, the plot moved at an unbelievable pace without feeling rushed. The book kept me guessing right to the end and didn't disappoint! As an added bonus, the narrator was phenomenal; she's my new favorite!

This was hands-down the best book I've read this year. I can't wait for it to come out so we can all talk about it.

[MICHAEL BALLARD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hawai'i being leased to China for debt relief, a Cat 5 hurricane and maybe a nuclear missile...

Sometime in the near future: global warming has messed up the weather in Hawai'i; the U.S. is negotiating with China to lease the islands to them in exchange for debt relief; a cat 5 hurricane is about to hit Oahu. Will this in just the first few pages.

Ava is a cop who gets dragged into a mess that should be way above her pay grade. When she finds out that there may be a group planning to launch a nuclear missile in order to start a war, she doesn't want to believe it and her command structure won't believe it.

You'll have to read the rest for yourself to find out what comes next.

Gritty detail, believable characters that draw you into their story, small scale world building in the form of a near future that is significantly different from today yet similar enough to see the steps that could make it reality.

Highly recommended.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nagata's worlds are unsettlingly familiar places where you can see the promise and the peril in our social trends unfold. They are surprising yet almost immediately believable. If you liked her "The Red" trilogy, this is very much in that vein.

One caveat: she does indulge in a (very) brief, entirely unnecessary rant about right-wing politics at one point. I'll respond to her complaint about the right by noting that there are more than enough nut-jobs at every point on the political spectrum to do us in if we let them. No need to go nut-picking when we really need all hands in the harvest. But the rant is over within a page and she gets back to the business of car chases, catastrophe, and AI-enabled conspiracy. Manages to be both thought-provoking and really fun.

[Boyd Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a Near-future Hawaii, Perfect Surveillance is a Perfect Storm

Chinese developers rebuilt a Honolulu devastated by hurricane. In glittering Waikiki, police are expected to keep the peace - and the return on investment - in a manner befitting their new landlords. AI agents monitor every movement, every conversation, to identify possible troublemakers.

Now on the eve of another storm, one cop must face an even greater threat - and learns how augmented rea!ity can give way like shifting sand.

[Timothy McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

It looked like Poseidon Adventure meets Waikiki hurricane from the promo materials but NOT AT ALL!! This novel has everything thrill seekers lust for. Romance, future tech weapons, omniscient nerds, corrupt government and a threat to world peace. We follow a protagonist character that I fell in love with and she is tough, competent, empathetic, professional, and relentless. This is LN at her best and I highly recommend it!!

[Melissa BikePretty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A supremely satisfying read

Linda Nagata is one of my favorite writers. Every book of hers that I’ve read has been a masterpiece of its genre. Pacific Storm is like the best airport read you could want. Snappy and fast-paced without whiplash. Immersive and descriptive in a way that never slows down the action. It got me out of my head for a few hours when I really needed to take a break from day 300+ of shelter in place. Can’t wait to buy my next Linda Nagata book!

[Andrea Frankel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting and disturbing

The technological, ecological, and political threats all rang true for me, the characters were well written, and the plot twists kept me up late as I couldn't put it down until the very end! I really felt the anguish of the MC as she tried to figure out which version of things was true and who or what she could trust. Throw in a class 5 hurricane, and the excitement was off the charts. Highly recommended.

[Denman G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid near-future science fiction techno-thriller set in Hawaii. The author lives in Hawaii, which means the novel is chock full of believable details that made me wish I was there (aside from the imminent hurricane and climate change effects). The characters were likewise well-drawn, and the plot was fast-paced. Think Daniel Suarez. I recommend if you like this style of novel.

[Paul M. Sivak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hit the mark again

I have been reading Ms Nagata's books for a long time and love her story telling art. This newest addition does not disappoint! Wonderful character development and a great story that is relevant in our own struggle to address the climate crisis. I hope you like it as much as I did.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 4 out of 5]

side item - humanity has a certain blood-sucking insect under control as is brought to our attention several times in the story. Linda Nagata. Libby kindle book. Nightmare politically financially motivated Pearl Harbor 007 failure story of an everyday cop. AI also fails in a supportive role due to conflicts in control. Tech is somehow accommodated by the masses of humanity.

[Mikael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from Linda Nagata. A strong female protagonist, and a mystery set in a believable near future, with strong messages of what is wrong with contemporary politics, especially in regards to climate change.

[John May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing convincing, detailed, near future sci-fi is really hard and Linda Nagata does it so well! On top of that this is a face paced action thriller that is both 20 years in the future while being 100% 2020 - right down to the violent white supremacist plots

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost more of a techno-thriller than straight SF. There was a lot of political machinations, which I personally HATE, but that's me. The action never really let up. There were two women protagonists, who were both kick-ass.

So probably 3 or 3.5 stars really, bumped up for the propulsive action and strong female leads.

[Owen Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always crystal clear writing, fast paced, interesting and, like Neal Stephensons latest, not complimentary of the global swing to the right wing of the powerful towards crypto-fascism.

Probably more YA than some of the other series

[Roy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good, near future tale set on Hawaii. The islands are partially recovered from a past cat 5 hurricane years back with another one on the way.
Interesting characters (like always in Linda's books) work together to keep people safe while peeling back the layers of a plot.

[Jesse C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not the best Linda Nagata, but still a fun near future thriller. The most interesting part of the book is the tension about which faction is telling the truth and when that basically gets resolved mid-book, a lot of the air goes out of the story.