Cyberpunk, Old Style
Review: Iconoclast by Dave Walsh
This book is a cyberpunk romp. Yes, it deals with identity, but it never gets that serious about it...or, to be honest, anything else. We have dolphins on the board of major companies, cyborgs in space, a propaganda story that turns out to actually be important, and the New Catholic Church.
I did have one somewhat significant problem with it: I'm not sure how the NCC ended up taking over Europe. We aren't told. We aren't even given the tiniest little hint as to how it happened.
This worldbuilding/timeline hole didn't have the best impact on my suspension of disbelief, just saying. Ultimately, it doesn't matter for the actual story, which is solid, goofy, and has elements of the classic heist, not to mention multiple iterations of people...who's real?
It's fun...not great literature, but fun, and if you need a bit of escapism, it's worth checking out.
Review: Neuen by Sheri Singerling
Everything about this book screames "old Ace Double," including the cover art. I have to assume Singerling did it on purpose. The length is about right too...my ebook copy is only 192 pages.
No, this is not a long book, and on the face of it it looks like a vaguely LeGuin style exploration of a weird and exploited human society. Of course, there's a bit more to it than that.
Levi is a Reisende, forced to live on the not really habitable surface of a nearly tidally-locked world orbiting a red dwarf...for the crime of having been genetically engineered. The Dipoli, who are pure human, are keeping the Reisende down. But their representative, Lyn, has no memory of their world.
If you're already thinking all is not as it seems, you'd be right, but more details would be spoilers. But if you like old school SF, this is a great example of it.