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Phoberia
Phoberia (Paperback) by H.B. Kurtzwilde
- GenresCyberpunkM M Romance
First published January 1, 2009
29 people want to read
About the author
H.B. Kurtzwilde
17 books6 followersH. B Kurtzwilde lives deep in the wet, sticky, mosquito-ridden depths of Florida. When not busily avoiding alligators, he scribbles out futuristic and paranormal romance, as if this is any way for a grown person to behave. His works include Phoberia, Guide to Survival, and Sea Turtle Inn, among others. Drop by his Livejournal or his personal blog at hbkurtzwilde.circlet.com to say hello, or to make a donation in support of his artistic efforts.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 28, 2014
Love and freedom in the between.
This is hardcore biotech science with a double serving of computer geek. The book reads as science fiction with an undercurrent of erotic MM romance. If tech geek is your thing then this will definitely turn the crank. Talk of upgrades, defragging systems and integration with the biological unit. Essentially, computers as biosimulations of human anatomy, and as humans become augmented it becomes harder to tell which is which.
Cultural differences in Dix and Athen's upbringing account for an adjustment period in their carnal interactions. While younger, Athen is driving and definitely veering towards power bottom. Their interactions are erotic and play between psychological and physical, which facilitates the virtual interactions beautifully.
True to science fiction, there is social discourse going on ranging from what constitutes life, internet policy, and corporate overreach. These are nice touches, but the strenuous part of the story for some readers will be the intense descriptions and roadmapping of the systems as Dix works and ghosts through them. It is a heavy mix of computer networking and biology, and can be alienating. Frankly, visualizing the systems to understand the work they do is not effortless.
There's space for a sequel as we exit with hints Athen's origins with a visit--I hope. I'm definitely invested in Phoberia, Dix and Athen, and really want another.
Overall, a tasty Dos Manos' burrito of biology, computer science, and sex.
4.5 Stars
~~A copy was provided to me for a No Glitter Blown review~~
~~~Reviewed for Hearts On Fire Reviews~~~
This is hardcore biotech science with a double serving of computer geek. The book reads as science fiction with an undercurrent of erotic MM romance. If tech geek is your thing then this will definitely turn the crank. Talk of upgrades, defragging systems and integration with the biological unit. Essentially, computers as biosimulations of human anatomy, and as humans become augmented it becomes harder to tell which is which.
Cultural differences in Dix and Athen's upbringing account for an adjustment period in their carnal interactions. While younger, Athen is driving and definitely veering towards power bottom. Their interactions are erotic and play between psychological and physical, which facilitates the virtual interactions beautifully.
"But I can’t make it be anything more than sex until you let me."
True to science fiction, there is social discourse going on ranging from what constitutes life, internet policy, and corporate overreach. These are nice touches, but the strenuous part of the story for some readers will be the intense descriptions and roadmapping of the systems as Dix works and ghosts through them. It is a heavy mix of computer networking and biology, and can be alienating. Frankly, visualizing the systems to understand the work they do is not effortless.
There's space for a sequel as we exit with hints Athen's origins with a visit--I hope. I'm definitely invested in Phoberia, Dix and Athen, and really want another.
Overall, a tasty Dos Manos' burrito of biology, computer science, and sex.
4.5 Stars
"We must walk free, live free, so that when the time comes, we’re free to die.”
~~A copy was provided to me for a No Glitter Blown review~~
~~~Reviewed for Hearts On Fire Reviews~~~
March 13, 2010
In this hard edge, technologically driven story, Dix is hired to fix the core systems of Cadrose Corporation of the Cadrose colony on the planet Cadrose. While that may sound confusing, it doesn’t begin to touch the complicated maze-like writing this author has introduced into the plot. Once Dix arrives at Cadrose, he advertises for help that comes in the form of another human, Athen. Together Athen and Dix must correct the core problems within the systems of Cadrose Corporation, cover up numerous illegal activities on behalf of their employer, rescue and return a fleeing operator, and finally make it out alive with their reputations intact. It’s a tall order for these two and they run into numerous problems with only the wary trust of one another and a growing attraction neither can explain.
While this book certainly has elements of a classic cyberpunk book, the language and writing fail to deliver evenly on that level. The pacing was very rocky containing long sections of dense language with confusing maze-like details and then tight, concise writing with clear descriptions. The plot is interesting and clever yet the language falls prey to the over exuberance of created tech terms. These terms are heavily interspersed within the writing and given little to no context for the readers to discern the meaning of these terms on their own. While a certain number of these are expected, the sheer volume of unnecessary terminology and detail overwhelms the beginning of this book and unfortunately will turn a great number of readers away. The hard edge and intricate style doesn’t actually begin until further into the book when the plot picks up speed, as do the characters, creating the fast paced, edgy thrill the book was lacking up until then.
A fan of the genre and numerous authors that write it, cyberpunk style is not simply made up words for technology sewn together in an unending litany, which the author has unfortunately done in the opening few chapters. However, “Phoberia” shows promise in its writing and several areas raised the enjoyment of the reading and story. Once Dixon and Athen meet, their interaction along with the particular lengthy scene in which they discover and fix the inherent problems within the Cabrose Corporation core was riveting, interesting and thrilling. The vivid description provided made it easy to understand the terminology used while creating an entirely artificial environment yet still clear to the imagination. The virtual work and trips Dixon and Athen took through cyber space were intriguing and well done, keeping the detail to the necessary minimum while showing the strength and promise of the book.
The pace lagged some with side trips regarding Dixon’s past and his overly logical personality. Dixon is a created human versus Athen’s natural born upbringing and the two are completely different despite a shared species. Dixon is wounded, physically and mentally for all his brilliance and has no concept of human emotions. He struggles with his sexuality and needs against his superior tech work while covering his shame from a past he can’t quite remember. Though Dixon is a complicated character, his cold and logical answers often reminded me of a robot with nonsensical answers to emotional questions. He grows during the course of the story thankfully, mostly due to his interaction with Athen, showing a more fully developed personality. With the support, loyalty, and unwavering love of another human, Dixon finally experiences and believes in emotions again.
Athen is a great complex character that added a much-needed lightness to the dark intensity of both Dix and the heavy techno setting. His instant rapport with Dix, compassion, and light nature are the perfect opposite. Athen’s belief in love ultimately conquers his own fears of the unknown and the repercussions of the new life he now leads. His brilliance certainly compares to Dix’s, if not overshadows his older lover. At nineteen, he may appear to be carefree and willing to do anything for anyone but his personality is much deeper than surface appearances. Athen’s impassioned plea to help Duibne was touching, if naïve, epitomizing the dual emotions conflicting often within the younger man. Ultimately his love for Dix and complete faith and trust in his partner give them a happy ever after, but certainly at a price.
This is somewhat of a difficult book to read, varying with the density of the language and action. The interactions between Dix and Athen tend to lighten the writing and move the plot along quickly while the overly indulgent beginning and several side trips to the plot lag the story. There are certain tidbits of humor and references to pop culture hidden within the dialogue that lend a light-hearted manner yet jar the fluidity of the story by yanking the reader back into the present time. Without a doubt, the author is obviously imaginative and clever but limiting the all-inclusive nature would help streamline and tighten the story and writing. This certainly won’t be for everyone and ultimately worth the effort to read the book. I can easily recommend this interesting story for those that enjoy the hard edge cyber punk style but skip the first two chapters. If you can get by the excessive and unnecessary terminology from there, the story gets much better and creates an engrossing tale.
While this book certainly has elements of a classic cyberpunk book, the language and writing fail to deliver evenly on that level. The pacing was very rocky containing long sections of dense language with confusing maze-like details and then tight, concise writing with clear descriptions. The plot is interesting and clever yet the language falls prey to the over exuberance of created tech terms. These terms are heavily interspersed within the writing and given little to no context for the readers to discern the meaning of these terms on their own. While a certain number of these are expected, the sheer volume of unnecessary terminology and detail overwhelms the beginning of this book and unfortunately will turn a great number of readers away. The hard edge and intricate style doesn’t actually begin until further into the book when the plot picks up speed, as do the characters, creating the fast paced, edgy thrill the book was lacking up until then.
A fan of the genre and numerous authors that write it, cyberpunk style is not simply made up words for technology sewn together in an unending litany, which the author has unfortunately done in the opening few chapters. However, “Phoberia” shows promise in its writing and several areas raised the enjoyment of the reading and story. Once Dixon and Athen meet, their interaction along with the particular lengthy scene in which they discover and fix the inherent problems within the Cabrose Corporation core was riveting, interesting and thrilling. The vivid description provided made it easy to understand the terminology used while creating an entirely artificial environment yet still clear to the imagination. The virtual work and trips Dixon and Athen took through cyber space were intriguing and well done, keeping the detail to the necessary minimum while showing the strength and promise of the book.
The pace lagged some with side trips regarding Dixon’s past and his overly logical personality. Dixon is a created human versus Athen’s natural born upbringing and the two are completely different despite a shared species. Dixon is wounded, physically and mentally for all his brilliance and has no concept of human emotions. He struggles with his sexuality and needs against his superior tech work while covering his shame from a past he can’t quite remember. Though Dixon is a complicated character, his cold and logical answers often reminded me of a robot with nonsensical answers to emotional questions. He grows during the course of the story thankfully, mostly due to his interaction with Athen, showing a more fully developed personality. With the support, loyalty, and unwavering love of another human, Dixon finally experiences and believes in emotions again.
Athen is a great complex character that added a much-needed lightness to the dark intensity of both Dix and the heavy techno setting. His instant rapport with Dix, compassion, and light nature are the perfect opposite. Athen’s belief in love ultimately conquers his own fears of the unknown and the repercussions of the new life he now leads. His brilliance certainly compares to Dix’s, if not overshadows his older lover. At nineteen, he may appear to be carefree and willing to do anything for anyone but his personality is much deeper than surface appearances. Athen’s impassioned plea to help Duibne was touching, if naïve, epitomizing the dual emotions conflicting often within the younger man. Ultimately his love for Dix and complete faith and trust in his partner give them a happy ever after, but certainly at a price.
This is somewhat of a difficult book to read, varying with the density of the language and action. The interactions between Dix and Athen tend to lighten the writing and move the plot along quickly while the overly indulgent beginning and several side trips to the plot lag the story. There are certain tidbits of humor and references to pop culture hidden within the dialogue that lend a light-hearted manner yet jar the fluidity of the story by yanking the reader back into the present time. Without a doubt, the author is obviously imaginative and clever but limiting the all-inclusive nature would help streamline and tighten the story and writing. This certainly won’t be for everyone and ultimately worth the effort to read the book. I can easily recommend this interesting story for those that enjoy the hard edge cyber punk style but skip the first two chapters. If you can get by the excessive and unnecessary terminology from there, the story gets much better and creates an engrossing tale.
February 15, 2015
Review can be read at It's About The Book
Dixon Sinonyx is a bit of a physical and mental disaster. As he travels to his next job he does his best to start healing his body. Once he gets to the Cadose colony he’ll begin the actual repairs he needs. He’s lonely but is convinced he’s inherently deviant. After he arrives at Cadose colony and gets some upgrades to his personal augmentation, he finds he needs a lot more work done and is introduced to Athen Dendrophile. Athen is beautiful, young, human, and very willing to have sex. Dix can’t help but feel he’s some kind of corrupting influence. The job on Cadose is more than Dix can handle on his own, though. Athen is hired. When Dix and Athen start work on the pillars that allow the transfer of all data on Cadose colony they rapidly learn Cadose was not fully honest when they hired Sinonynx Services and the problems are much worse than anyone suspected. The contact with Cadose isn’t happy at how much Dix is going to charge Cadose to fix it’s problems, but he’ll do it. And I’d just like to say the Cadose employee is sleazy and ends sentences by saying, “Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!” I was convinced someone was coming to take him away. But anyway, Athen is an incredibly skilled technician, but also charmingly naïve in some ways while also shockingly experienced in others. It’s pretty evident he wants some kind of sexual relationship with Dix and wants Dix to be in control of it. Athen wants that for both political and sexual reasons. They’ll have to deal with that after they deal with the disaster that is the Cadose colony. The disaster that is all linked back to one operator. It rapidly becomes apparent the Cadose colony was quite close to a complete shutdown and was functionally being controlled by one man, Corca Duibne. Dix is pretty sure it’s completely illegal and suspects Duibne is no longer truly alive but simply being kept as a zombie to keep the planet functioning.
It takes a lot of work to repair the colony. Several days worth of work, during which Dix and Athen manage to have a fun interlude. Dix has a lot of trouble dealing with his responses to Athen. Dix knows he did something wrong that landed him in prison. He doesn’t want to hurt Athen and is convinced he’ll manage to somehow. Unfortunately, he deleted all the memories that would help him prevent any crime he may commit against Athen. It’s patently obvious there were a lot of illegalities going on at the Cadose colony that led to an almost disaster and complete failure. It’s also patently obvious there will be a cover up. Dix and Athen really need to find Corca Duibne. What Dix wasn’t expecting was the local organized crime syndicate getting involved. They manage to rescue Corca and get him medical attention. It’s about that time Athen finally begins to realize the gravity of the situation and what he believed to be mythology and fantasy is actually reality.
This book was information dense! There was a lot of world building in a very short time. Or, more appropriately, the reader was dropped into the deep end of an already built world and left to sink or swim. I actually expected that as I’ve had that experience with other books by Kurtzwilde. I kind of enjoy it. I also really enjoyed the concept of a zombie being a slave to the machines. The take on traditional mythologies of Vampires, Witch Doctors, Ghosts, and Zombies was interesting and not something I had yet encountered. It was paranormal yet not. The classic scene of a young, fresh faced character finally learning the cold hard realities of a universe full of creatures meant to be myth was well done with a Cyberpunk twist. I also like that the government was the PCU.
I enjoyed the characters of Dix and Athen. I felt Athen’s naiveté was charming even if I also felt it was a little clichéd. It was interesting that he was also the more sexually experienced of the couple. Dix was so completely in denial about what he needed as a human. That they both were able to lead at least one aspect of the relationship was refreshing.
The story took its title from an autonomous country that existed out of step with and in the static of the real world. I had expected it to be a bigger part of the story. That Dix was able to introduce Athen to Phoberia and help him establish citizenship was interesting, but I didn’t feel it was particularly germane to the plot. It was interesting and added to the overall feel of the story, though. All in all, this was a fun bit of science fiction with an interesting and unique take on some classic monster myths.
Dixon Sinonyx is a bit of a physical and mental disaster. As he travels to his next job he does his best to start healing his body. Once he gets to the Cadose colony he’ll begin the actual repairs he needs. He’s lonely but is convinced he’s inherently deviant. After he arrives at Cadose colony and gets some upgrades to his personal augmentation, he finds he needs a lot more work done and is introduced to Athen Dendrophile. Athen is beautiful, young, human, and very willing to have sex. Dix can’t help but feel he’s some kind of corrupting influence. The job on Cadose is more than Dix can handle on his own, though. Athen is hired. When Dix and Athen start work on the pillars that allow the transfer of all data on Cadose colony they rapidly learn Cadose was not fully honest when they hired Sinonynx Services and the problems are much worse than anyone suspected. The contact with Cadose isn’t happy at how much Dix is going to charge Cadose to fix it’s problems, but he’ll do it. And I’d just like to say the Cadose employee is sleazy and ends sentences by saying, “Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!” I was convinced someone was coming to take him away. But anyway, Athen is an incredibly skilled technician, but also charmingly naïve in some ways while also shockingly experienced in others. It’s pretty evident he wants some kind of sexual relationship with Dix and wants Dix to be in control of it. Athen wants that for both political and sexual reasons. They’ll have to deal with that after they deal with the disaster that is the Cadose colony. The disaster that is all linked back to one operator. It rapidly becomes apparent the Cadose colony was quite close to a complete shutdown and was functionally being controlled by one man, Corca Duibne. Dix is pretty sure it’s completely illegal and suspects Duibne is no longer truly alive but simply being kept as a zombie to keep the planet functioning.
It takes a lot of work to repair the colony. Several days worth of work, during which Dix and Athen manage to have a fun interlude. Dix has a lot of trouble dealing with his responses to Athen. Dix knows he did something wrong that landed him in prison. He doesn’t want to hurt Athen and is convinced he’ll manage to somehow. Unfortunately, he deleted all the memories that would help him prevent any crime he may commit against Athen. It’s patently obvious there were a lot of illegalities going on at the Cadose colony that led to an almost disaster and complete failure. It’s also patently obvious there will be a cover up. Dix and Athen really need to find Corca Duibne. What Dix wasn’t expecting was the local organized crime syndicate getting involved. They manage to rescue Corca and get him medical attention. It’s about that time Athen finally begins to realize the gravity of the situation and what he believed to be mythology and fantasy is actually reality.
This book was information dense! There was a lot of world building in a very short time. Or, more appropriately, the reader was dropped into the deep end of an already built world and left to sink or swim. I actually expected that as I’ve had that experience with other books by Kurtzwilde. I kind of enjoy it. I also really enjoyed the concept of a zombie being a slave to the machines. The take on traditional mythologies of Vampires, Witch Doctors, Ghosts, and Zombies was interesting and not something I had yet encountered. It was paranormal yet not. The classic scene of a young, fresh faced character finally learning the cold hard realities of a universe full of creatures meant to be myth was well done with a Cyberpunk twist. I also like that the government was the PCU.
I enjoyed the characters of Dix and Athen. I felt Athen’s naiveté was charming even if I also felt it was a little clichéd. It was interesting that he was also the more sexually experienced of the couple. Dix was so completely in denial about what he needed as a human. That they both were able to lead at least one aspect of the relationship was refreshing.
The story took its title from an autonomous country that existed out of step with and in the static of the real world. I had expected it to be a bigger part of the story. That Dix was able to introduce Athen to Phoberia and help him establish citizenship was interesting, but I didn’t feel it was particularly germane to the plot. It was interesting and added to the overall feel of the story, though. All in all, this was a fun bit of science fiction with an interesting and unique take on some classic monster myths.
November 30, 2024
A satisfying interweaving of hard-tech sci fi and erotic friendship.
September 14, 2012
My first cyberpunk book. It was a bit of a difficult read for me since I've never read anything from this specific sci-fi genre before and was not use to the writing style (e.g. sentence structures...) and some of the terminology. The story is well detailed and the plot is interesting if you can get pass the way the story was written and the terminology.
I found that I understood the story better when I compared it to the movie Tron (or for those who haven't watched that, Tron:Legacy). It's not exactly the same thing but it helped me envision the type of world the MC's lived in and to understand the type of work they were doing.
I found that I understood the story better when I compared it to the movie Tron (or for those who haven't watched that, Tron:Legacy). It's not exactly the same thing but it helped me envision the type of world the MC's lived in and to understand the type of work they were doing.
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January 9, 2019*DNF*
(42%)
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