Lengthy, immersive cyber-SF that puts fresh life into a familiar operating system.
A troubled cybernetics “mechanic” is forced to join an elite squad of government agents to halt the insidious spread of deadly software in Weald’s sci-fi thriller.
The impressive debut of author Weald (aka Michael Woodworth) is set in the Chicago megapolis, year 2195. Lee Hall is a brilliant but obscure “mechanic” IT expert who services the cybernetics essential to human life throughout the solar system. Everyone has “bots,” and even the North American government runs in tandem with a regulating AI, maintaining society through ubiquitous surveillance. But after a renegade software update goes broadband, robots act erratically, even homicidally, by exhibiting forbidden traits of anger and free will. Lee is on the crime scene of one murder-by-machine and winds up forcibly recruited to join agents Ren and Jace, physically and mentally enhanced operatives of the elite Division 13, to learn what’s behind the dangerous Qualia Code now viral throughout civilization and how to stop it. For Lee, abandoned by parents who fled to deep space rather than live on a roboticized Earth and feeling heartbroken after divorce, the investigation comes dangerously close to home. The robot-uprising SF plotline is, literally, as old as robots in literature. The concept of a tech-soaked urban sprawl with overlay environments of virtual- and augmented-reality enjoyed by citizens wired directly into the digital mesh is cyberpunk 101. Weald does not radically reinvent such concepts, but thinks their aspects through with a seriousness of purpose and nuanced characterizations. Throughout, one finds the efforts of a serious literary novelist lavished on material that otherwise would fuel scores of sci-fi potboiler paperbacks and Japanese anime. Quad-core-rapid action/combat scenes (“Some of the soldiers were torn apart by metal hands so fast their last thoughts were lively curses towards the attacker”) should sate fans, while those who find cyberpunk a 1990s fad long obsolete can salute how the material transcends a self-referential pastiche of retro-noir cliches, one of the form’s pitfalls.
Lengthy, immersive cyber-SF that puts fresh life into a familiar operating system.Pub Date: June 22, 2023
ISBN: 979-8987879801
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.
Like a truck with no brakes speeding down a steep mountain road, Islington’s latest is an adrenaline-fueled SF thrill ride that follows a biomechanically enhanced assassin as he tries to understand his mysterious origins.
The chaotic opening scene gives readers a clear indication of what they’re in for: Contract killer Azure, attempting to complete a mission, is involved in a life-or-death battle with a multieyed biomachine called an Argos. “The thing’s bipedal but has six gorilla-like arms that end in half-metre-long claws,” he complains. After Azure barely dispatches the monster and kills his target, his AI assistant, Atti, informs him of his next job: protecting an elderly—and incredibly rich—woman living in a sprawling underground bunker in the middle of nowhere. “Old Woman,” as Azure calls her, isn’t forthcoming with personal details; all Azure can suss out is that she may be the target of a powerful organized crime syndicate—the same organization that employs him! Is Azure’s ultimate goal to save her or kill her? Although the worldbuilding could’ve been more comprehensive, Islington’s editing choices are brilliant—he strips away the insignificant narrative content to create a streamlined, action-packed adventure with seemingly one goal: to keep the reader furiously turning pages. The various mysteries—Azure’s murky beginnings, the tragic death of his best friend years earlier, Old Woman’s true identity, etc.—maintain the momentum and intensity. The takeaway here is the narrative potential of the characters as well as the plethora of subjects that could be explored more deeply, like immortality for the rich, cloning, and the potential to create bioengineered nightmares for “security.” Islington leaves the conclusion tantalizingly ambiguous. This novel could be the jumping-off point for a memorable series.
Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781668239247
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.
Jack Ryan Jr. and company race to stop a killer wave in this Tom Clancy thriller.
The ship Meridian Star departs eastern Russia unknowingly carrying a pair of containers with radioactive cesium chloride. The vessel is hijacked and scuttled in Micronesia near the Mariana Trench, and the crew is murdered. A huge insurance claim results, and Jack, an accomplished deep-sea diver who works for Hendley Associates, is there to investigate. The hostile Chinese learn it’s there and want that illicit cargo. Meanwhile, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center discovers a huge, mysterious object in 600 feet of water. At that depth, the pressure is unsurvivable without complex special equipment, which is vintage Tom Clancy. Whatever the strange object is, it’s “not a ship…not a submarine…not an aircraft.” On the side is a faded hammer and sickle and Cyrillic letters that spell Siren. Ryan teams up with Navy divers, and they look for a way to safely enter and explore the object. They discover that the underwater contraption has thermonuclear warheads attached, left and long forgotten by the USSR. If the warheads explode, they could still achieve their apparent purpose—to trigger a tsunami and destroy Guam, which is strategically important to the U.S. The Chinese know it too, and the race is on to take control. The result is plenty of high-stakes undersea action, where death can come from a bullet, a knife, or a sliced air hose. But there’s action on land, too. Navy master diver Carla Bennett and Jack take on a surprise assault in a hotel where Carla shows off stellar fighting skills—better than Jack’s. These two aren’t the only heroes here, as there’s a well-balanced cast of characters, all brave and likable. And of course—of course—where there’s a bomb, there’s a ticking clock.
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798217183166
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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