One young woman faces down an all-powerful corporation in this
all-too-near future science fiction debut that reads like a refreshing
take on Ready Player One, with a heavy dose of Black Mirror.
Ready Player One meets Cyberpunk 2077 in this eerily familiar
future.
"Twenty minutes to power curfew, and my kill counter's stalled at eight
hundred eighty-seven while I've been standing here like an idiot. My
health bar is flashing ominously, but I'm down to four heal patches, and
I have to be smart."
New Liberty City, 2134.
Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country's remaining
forty-five states (five have been submerged under the ocean) between
them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. There are nine supercities
within the continental US, and New Liberty City is the only amalgamated
city split between the two megacorps, and thus at a perpetual state of
civil war as the feeds broadcast the atrocities committed by each side.
Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis's wargame SecOps on BestLife, spending
more time jacked in than in the world just to eke out a hardscrabble
living from tips. When a chance encounter with one of the game's rare
super-soldiers leads to a side job for Mal--looking to link an actual
missing girl to one of the SecOps characters. Mal's sudden burst in
online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about
BestLife's developer, and puts her in the kind of danger she's only
experienced through her avatar.
Author Kornher-Stace's adult science fiction debut--Firebreak-- is
loaded with ambitious challenges and a city to save.
