CENTRICITY

Various factions in a tech-choked future nation-state compete ruthlessly for possession of an enigmatic, revolutionary device that could change everything.

Henderson—a professed admirer of William Gibson’s trendsetting Neuromancer (1984)—launches an ambitious cyberpunk SF series via this high-density download of digital intrigue, violent action, and radical body modification. The setting is the nation-state of Naion, roughly situated near today’s Singapore. The multitiered, cobbled-together—partially out of cargo containers—metropolis/environment is hermetically sealed against the toxic atmosphere of a future Earth reset by war, pollution, and plague. The millions inhabiting the roiling Naion, linked by the internetlike “Nebula,” range from artificial intelligence entities and humanoid robots to post-humans laden with cybernetic implants and upgrades. Seemingly all are subject to the machinations of powerful corporations and the government. Enforcing law and order falls to competing interests—from street-level “vigilants” to the state agency called Capca, which suffers a blow early on with the death of Yiju Gainen, an ambassador’s kidnapped little daughter, in a botched raid. The tragedy turns out to be one of a number of feints and schemes within schemes centered on possession of the Acorn, a mystery item promising amazing new mind-machine technology or incriminating data on a brewing scandal—or both, or neither, or more. While corporate mercenaries, minions, and idealists loyal to Capca try to trace the Acorn’s trail of murder and deceit through the “arcology,” it is Neon Nik, an obscure, down-on-his-luck hacker, who becomes the plot’s fulcrum when he inherits this MacGuffin from a deceased priest. Numerous key characters are dead even before the narrative commences, not helping with lucidity. But with the nature of the Acorn still unresolved at the end, the complex storyline offers enjoyable gigabytes of what SF fans used to call k-kewl: disintegrating urban environments; dives into virtual reality (including a dandy description of what social media might resemble); noirish attitude; sinister malware; transnational, multicultural mélanges for characters; and a knowledge base thicker than Windows 10 OS requirements to “grok” (decipher) the lingo. (“Upon command, Jilly’s friend list extruded from the sky. He locked onto Castir Shea’s puck coordinates and sent off his mote. He moved at light speed across an ocean of nonspace, from his data island to Castir’s, in a gust of infinite nothing.”) A prologue enumerates the sizable cast, a Tolstoy-size pantheon of major players.

This intricate, big-data blast delivers a thrilling ride for cyberpunk SF fans.