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Halcyon
What can you do when a computer virus starts infecting people?
For years, a virus that targets cybernetics has plagued people with any sort of computerized implant in their bodies. It is untraceable, unpredictable, 100% fatal and infecting more people every day.
Politics tore apart Project Requiem, a highly-funded military endeavor meant to create an antivirus to save humanity. A ragtag group of programmers and visionaries is trying to pick up where Requiem left off, but their resources are limited, they're hounded by the army and corporate mercenaries and a key engineer with the only remaining copy of the antivirus is missing. As the virus grows more powerful by the day, all they can do is hope that they can finish before it becomes powerful enough to attack the entire city at once.
For years, a virus that targets cybernetics has plagued people with any sort of computerized implant in their bodies. It is untraceable, unpredictable, 100% fatal and infecting more people every day.
Politics tore apart Project Requiem, a highly-funded military endeavor meant to create an antivirus to save humanity. A ragtag group of programmers and visionaries is trying to pick up where Requiem left off, but their resources are limited, they're hounded by the army and corporate mercenaries and a key engineer with the only remaining copy of the antivirus is missing. As the virus grows more powerful by the day, all they can do is hope that they can finish before it becomes powerful enough to attack the entire city at once.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Fitzsimmons
9 books16 followersI was born in New Hampshire and now live outside Toronto by way of Germany, Belgium, Seattle, and Austin. After working for a number of evil empires, I decided to forgo things like a salary and regular human interaction to start publishing company Brain Lag, which has now published over fifty titles by twenty different authors from across North America and Great Britain. I try to find time for reading, writing, art, gaming, baking, playing guitar and piano, photography, and more at home with my husband, daughter, and two crazy tabbies.
I don’t use Goodreads much, it’s merely a convenient method of keeping track of the books I read. Feel free to go to the About section on my website if you want to contact me.
I don’t usually write detailed reviews because I don’t have to. But I’m happy to get into more detail if you’re interested or would like to discuss anything. I also tend not to mark when I’m reading a book because I don’t want to mark books as DNF.
My rating guide:
⭐️: I don’t use this rating, as any book I might rate 1 star I DNF
⭐️⭐️: I read this to the end, but I wasn’t impressed/I didn’t enjoy it
⭐️⭐️⭐️: It had promise and I enjoyed reading it, even if it was flawed, OR it was pure fluff and I enjoyed it as such
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: I thoroughly enjoyed this book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: World-shattering
I don’t use Goodreads much, it’s merely a convenient method of keeping track of the books I read. Feel free to go to the About section on my website if you want to contact me.
I don’t usually write detailed reviews because I don’t have to. But I’m happy to get into more detail if you’re interested or would like to discuss anything. I also tend not to mark when I’m reading a book because I don’t want to mark books as DNF.
My rating guide:
⭐️: I don’t use this rating, as any book I might rate 1 star I DNF
⭐️⭐️: I read this to the end, but I wasn’t impressed/I didn’t enjoy it
⭐️⭐️⭐️: It had promise and I enjoyed reading it, even if it was flawed, OR it was pure fluff and I enjoyed it as such
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: I thoroughly enjoyed this book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: World-shattering
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 15, 2012
Halcyon is the name of a virus that is infecting cybernetic implants that have for several generations been used not only to enhance how a person looks, but also to improve their quality of life by eliminating genetic diseases and disorders. That is the premise of the novel, and its setting is a generic multi-level metropolis in America that has been placed under quarantine to prevent possible outbreaks of Halcyon beyond the city.
Whilst the setting and premise of the novel is generic cyberpunk, it is still original enough to merit attention. The story is told from multiple character point of views, but is centred around Elya, a girl that holds the key to destroying Halcyon but is suffering from amnesia, and Zander, a former soldier who has brought together a disparate band of people to tackle Halcyon.
However, the story is marred by clumsy sentence structures, missing words and lazy plotting. The entire story could have easily been told from Elya's and Zander's POV, but Fitzsimmons has instead brought in other viewpoints, presumably to flesh out the characters back stories. The problem is that none of the characters, besides Elya, have a story arc of their own to develop them into anything beyond being literal NPCs (non-playable characters) that actually serve as little beyond providing a backdrop for Elya's story. Each chapter is inter-cut with a flashback to something that happened in the past, which gives the reader a bit more background to who Elya is and how the other characters have become involved in the fight against Halcyon. Instead, these flashbacks slow down the plot and fail to add a substantial reason beyond vague notions of each having lost someone to Halcyon at some point.
Overall, I was disappointed with this book. The hope that it would improve or somehow makeup for the major flaws in the plot was never realised. Therefore, I have no choice but to rate this with a generous 2/5. **
Whilst the setting and premise of the novel is generic cyberpunk, it is still original enough to merit attention. The story is told from multiple character point of views, but is centred around Elya, a girl that holds the key to destroying Halcyon but is suffering from amnesia, and Zander, a former soldier who has brought together a disparate band of people to tackle Halcyon.
However, the story is marred by clumsy sentence structures, missing words and lazy plotting. The entire story could have easily been told from Elya's and Zander's POV, but Fitzsimmons has instead brought in other viewpoints, presumably to flesh out the characters back stories. The problem is that none of the characters, besides Elya, have a story arc of their own to develop them into anything beyond being literal NPCs (non-playable characters) that actually serve as little beyond providing a backdrop for Elya's story. Each chapter is inter-cut with a flashback to something that happened in the past, which gives the reader a bit more background to who Elya is and how the other characters have become involved in the fight against Halcyon. Instead, these flashbacks slow down the plot and fail to add a substantial reason beyond vague notions of each having lost someone to Halcyon at some point.
Overall, I was disappointed with this book. The hope that it would improve or somehow makeup for the major flaws in the plot was never realised. Therefore, I have no choice but to rate this with a generous 2/5. **
December 31, 2020
A fun easy to read story. I found this enjoyable, the characters were memorable. I picked this book up a couple of years ago at Can-Con and I'm glad I did. Sorry it took me so long to read it. I did enjoy every part of the story, it is not perfect but that did not distract from the story. Reads like a YA novel or teen not sure if it is, but that genre is very recognizable in this story. The descriptions were clear and easy to picture. I could truly visualize it like watching a movie. I don't know if there are more books in this universe but if so I wouldn't mind reading more about these characters. Thank you for the good read.
January 30, 2019
Good universe, characters could have grown a little more, good story, needed a little more editing but a very fun read.
October 31, 2020
The publisher approved my reading this book on netgalley.com.....apocalyptic novella told from several survivors....the end had some grammatical errors, so deducted a star
September 21, 2012
Look for my review soon to appear at http://reviews.futurefire.net
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews