Cyberpunk Book Review: The Wrath of Leviathan (BetterWorld trilogy #2)

The Wrath of Leviathan is book two of the BetterWorld Trilogy by T.C. Weber, which is available on Amazon now as part of the three-book set called The War for Reality. It continues the story of the Cyberpunk crew from book one, this time set mostly in Brazil but also covering what happens to Waylee as she’s left to fend mostly for herself back in the US. Wrath of Leviathan is based on the crew’s attempts to avoid the wrath of BetterWorld and the US government after the events of Sleep State Interrupt unfolded. As a result, it continues with the thrilling, oppressive atmosphere of our heroes being on the run, but this time includes a villain’s perspective. Also, some spoilers ahead since I’ll be referencing a couple things that happened in book 1, so be warned!

Still Varied, Some Old, Some New

Wrath of Leviathan has a couple new characters that play a major part, while leaving some old characters we saw from Sleep State Interrupt left behind (like M’Pat, Dingo, and Shakti). We also get to know Kiyoko much better, as she’s become the main character of sorts and has her own arc, while Waylee has a lot less to do this time around. Secondary characters remain Charles and Pel, but they’re still central to the story as well.

The cast in order of importance/relevance are Kiyoko, Gabriel, Pel, Charles, Waylee, and Dalton Crowley (the new villain of Wrath of Leviathan). While the main villain’s character seemed relatively shallow, his motivations were believable enough and his cold, vicious nature made him a compelling villain. And although the bodyguard Gabriel’s motivations felt somewhat surprising, I really enjoyed the action and agency that he brought to the story.

Going from the Offensive to the Defensive

There was a lot less of BetterWorld, the virtual online world, in Wrath of Leviathan. Most of this novel was set in Brazil, where Charles, Pelopidas, and Kiyoko are living in exile with newcomer to the team, Brazilian local and bodyguard Gabriel. The parallel narrative, meanwhile, follows Waylee in jail as she copes with being a prisoner and attempts to prepare for her upcoming trial.

Like book 1, there was still some hacking present, but considerably less so. This made sense from a narrative standpoint, but it also unfortunately made the novel feel a little more removed from the standard cyberpunk genre than the first one did. There’s less hacking and less subversion in general as the crew simply try to stay alive, while mostly living abroad in a new country that’s (mostly) friendly or neutral to them.

The New Setting: Sao Paolo

While the first novel had a very strong sense of paranoia and suspense, this novel had more of a sense of cat-and-mouse action mixed with a background sense of despair. The reason for this is that we are given access to the villain’s mind and his thoughts. As a result, when he acts against the main characters, it’s never a surprise, since we’ve already read Crowley’s plans up until that point. On the other hand, it also means we get to revel in seeing Crowley’s frustrations when the team outflanks him in whatever ways they can. Allowing the reader this kind of omnipotent understanding of what was going on was definitely fun at times. The background sense of despair, however, is telegraphed through Waylee’s thoughts and limited options as she mostly languishes in her prison cell for most of the novel. This really helps build up MediaCorp as a kind of undefeatable enemy, especially when the police and government are working on MediaCorp’s behalf. Which I’m hoping will lead to a more satisfying end or comeuppance for MediaCorp in book 3, hopefully.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

T.C. Weber’s strengths continue to lie in his pacing, storytelling, and varied cast of believable characters. Wrath of Leviathan is a fun story filled with its fair share of intrigue and action, but if you want a 100% cyberpunk story filled with VR, hacking, and future tech, Wrath of Leviathan probably isn’t what you’re looking for. This novel definitely continues to feel very punk at times, but if I had to sum up the story in one sentence, it would be that it’s a tale on how to watch your back while living in a foreign country as a political refugee. I liked the more developed action scenes compared to Sleep State Interrupt, they were a lot of fun to read and definitely a welcome change. Weber also finally starts writing some sex and more romance into his novel, although on the whole it’s all still relatively PG-13, nothing too gory or explicit like you might find in Altered Carbon or other more mature novels.

So make sure you don’t miss reading this fun on-the-run cyberpunk tale, and if you’ve already read it, let me know what you thought of the book in the comments below!

P.S. One of the many fun additional features you can find on T.C. Weber’s page includes a kickass recipe on how to make the perfect Caipirinha, that staple Brazilian cocktail! You can check it out here:

https://www.tcweber.com/how-to-make-a-capirinha

And as always, if you liked what you read and want to help the Cyberpunk Matrix going, you can show your support over on Ko-Fi. Help contribute to the costs of website upkeep, or simply buy me a simu-latte. https://ko-fi.com/cyberpunkmatrix

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Cyberpunk Book Review: Sleep State Interrupt (BetterWorld trilogy #1)

Sleep State Interrupt is book one of the BetterWorld Trilogy by T.C. Weber, which is available on Amazon now as part of the three-book set called The War for Reality. It follows a motley Cyberpunk crew of characters set in a more near-future but focuses on Waylee, an ambitious but downtrodden, recently unemployed, Baltimore journalist who wants to bring down the oppressive corporations around her to help change the world for the better. To do so, however, she will have to enlist the help of Charles, an amateur teenage hacker who just recently wound up in juvenile detention.

Less High-tech, more Low-Life Hacking & Journalistic Espionage

BetterWorld is an advanced version of our present-day Metaverse. It’s a place where people shop, make friends, play games, and interact in a virtual world, a bit like Ready Player One. And just like Ready Player One, there’s high-tech and low-tech immersion gear, depending on how wealthy the user is. But unlike Ready Player One, a lot of the action in this novel takes place in the real world, while only a small number of things happens in the BetterWorld virtual universe. I like reading a variety of near-future and distant-future cyberpunk tales, so this was a nice variation for me. In this sense Sleep State Interrupt felt a lot closer to our current world, and a lot less high-tech as the technology described doesn’t feel so far-fetched at all. There are data glasses that record (much like Google Glass was supposed to be) but other than that, very little cyborgs or advanced tech you might find in similar Cyberpunk stories like Ghost in the Shell. And so far, no androids to speak of (we’ll see if any pop up in books 2 or 3 of the trilogy).

But where the novel lacked in high-tech, it made up for in low-life punk hacking. The novel is filled with hacking jargon and events, which makes sense considering the plot surrounds the team breaking a hacker out of juvie to help them with the greatest hack of all time to expose the malicious plans that the mega-corporations have. Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, server rooms, malware and viruses, clone and shadow programs running routines and subroutines within the BetterWorld network…it was great reading a hack-focused cyberpunk novel with language I could actually understand. For those that aren’t familiar with the lingo, the novel does a great job explaining the terms as the lead hackers explain what they’re doing to the other non-hackers of the group.

A Fun, Varied Cast

Unlike other Cyberpunk novels that tend to focus on just a couple main characters (such as Neuromancer, Ready Player One, Snowcrash, etc.) Sleep State Interrupt has a very fun, believable, and varied cast. And although I pictured them differently in my head, Ted Weber actually commissioned an artist to create digital renderings of what they look like, so take a look for yourself.

The cast in order clockwise are Waylee, Pelopidas, Shakti, Dingo, M’Patanashi, Kiyoko, and Charles. Each one has their own motivations, eccentricities, strengths and weaknesses. The novel’s chapters are often labeled with one of these seven characters, which gives the reader a chance to understand which point of view they are reading from, but also to follow different characters to understand them. While other writers might struggle with this writing style, Weber is able to make this work, as a lot of the story unfolds with the members above all living and working together at the time. So the change in perspective or storyline isn’t confusing, and the reader is able to follow along and also understand the thoughts or emotions of each character, without the story feeling too explanatory or confusing.

A Strong Sense of Paranoia and Suspense

While there is some action in this novel, the main overwhelming feeling in the story is a strong sense of paranoia and suspense. I’ve never felt quite as uneasy (in a good way) following the characters in a story as I have with Sleep State Interrupt. Ever since the team bust the hacker out of juvie (which happens at the beginning of the novel), from that point on the authorities are hot on their tail, and the reader really feels it. It makes one imagine what it must have felt like for the likes of Edward Snowden to be on the run from the government.

Final Verdict: 8.5/10

With a steady pacing, good writing, a varied cast and an interesting storyline, T.C. Weber’s Sleep State Interrupt is a Cyberpunk novel that you won’t want to miss. It’s a brilliant futuristic hacker story, and a fun thriller for those who enjoy that style. My only complaint might be it lacks a little imagination or depth of ideas, but that only applies if you like stories set in a distant future, so it’s not even something that I can really hold against the book, it just explains why I’m not giving the novel a perfect 10. I prefer more futuristic tech and brutal action (a la Altered Carbon), but that’s just a personal preference.

So make sure you don’t miss reading this fun hacker tale, and if you’ve already read it, let me know what you thought of the book in the comments below!

P.S. Many of the main characters are members of a band called Dwarf Eats Hippo. On Weber’s website you can find a fun interview of the band here.

And as always, if you liked what you read and want to help the Cyberpunk Matrix going, you can show your support over on Ko-Fi. Help contribute to the costs of website upkeep, or simply buy me a simulatte. https://ko-fi.com/cyberpunkmatrix

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The New Prometheus: A fast-paced Cyberpunk thriller

The New Prometheus is the first novel of the 5-book series of the same name by Andrew Dobell, a Cyberpunk series starring Frankie, an unwilling cyborg who wakes up one day with a human brain and cyborg body after a ruthless attack. Thrust into a fight against the mega-corporations that control her world, she teams up with local detective Gibson to regain a semblance of normalcy and freedom from the corporations who will stop at nothing to regain their property.

Familiar Cyberpunk Influences

The influences for this author here aren’t subtle. Detective Gibson is clearly inspired by William Gibson, writer of Neuromancer, which helped start the Cyberpunk genre. The main character, Frankie, also seems to be almost a perfect copy of the Major from Ghost in the Shell. Both of which are excellent influences to have, so I don’t blame him.

Nonstop fast-paced action

The strength of Dobell’s novel, which isn’t his first but is the first of his cyberpunk and sci-fi novels, is definitely the way he writes his action and pacing. I loved reading his descriptions of the weapons, armor, cyber-hacking, and mechs, as well as how each one of these are used or destroyed as the story progresses. This novel was hard for me to put down, with a fun fast pace and non-stop action, his writing flowed easily and it was a very fun read.

Likeable, if simple, characters

Dobell writes Frankie and Gibson in a way that makes them easy to like, and quick for the reader to care about their safety, which is great. There were moments where I felt shocked when the main characters get hurt, or seem about to get hurt, which showed I really felt and sympathized for them.

But beyond that, I felt disappointed by the lack of complexity I saw in the characters. Dobell has a tendency to explain to the reader how his characters are feeling and thinking, instead of showing his readers and trusting them to figure it out on their own. This, along with dialogue from the characters that lacked too much distinction from each other, made the characters seem rather simple. I liked the nuance Dobell brought to Frankie’s character as she considered her torn feelings about being in her new cyborg body, but the motivations behind Gibson, the doctor, and other characters they run into along the way felt lacking. I felt this especially when Gibson decides to help Frankie–like there needed to be more behind why he decided to do what he did.

Interesting new High Tech

What I really liked about this story was Dobell’s depiction of nanobots and cyborg implants being a corporation’s property, extending the lives of its citizens but only as long as they kept the payments coming. Corporations demanding their bio-property back isn’t a new concept, but nanobots being accessed remotely or being hacked was a fun new concept for me to read, and a grim warning of what our future may one day look like. Which is exactly what Cyberpunk is supposed to be.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Andrew Dobell’s The New Prometheus is a by-the-numbers Cyberpunk thriller, a fun, fast paced ride, but with some forgettable characters and at times lacking depth. It’s a good start to a fun promising story, though, and I look forward to reading more from Andrew Dobell in the future. Perhaps in his later books he will flesh out an already promising plot, improving both the depth and quality of the story.

And as always, if you liked what you read and want to help the Cyberpunk Matrix going, you can show your support over on Ko-Fi. Help contribute to the costs of website upkeep, or simply buy me a simulatte. https://ko-fi.com/cyberpunkmatrix