Delirium (Debt Collector #1) by Susan Kaye Quinn #cyberpunk #urbanfantasy

Title: Delirium (Debt Collector #1)
Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: Cyberpunk/Urban Fantasy
Publisher: self
Available: Amazon $0.99 (Kindle) 44 pages
Rating: 4*
Rater: Pippa




Blurb:
What's your life worth on the open market?
In this sexy, gritty future-noir, debt collectors take your life energy and give it to someone more "worthy"... all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat and jackboots—he's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

What I liked:
I love tortured, damaged heroes who aren't portrayed as alpha a-holes, and Lirium is definitely one of these, as well as being a kind of futuristic Grim Reaper showing signs of an unfortunate conscience. The writing is excellent, as is the pace and world-building. I had no trouble with the first person perspective.

What I didn't like:
I'm not a fan of serialized/episodic stories even if they don't finish on a cliffhanger. This reads more like a prologue/first chapter, while I want a complete story, be it short, novella or novel. On that basis I'm unlikely to pick up the rest of the episodes.

In conclusion:
This kind of reminds me of Looper with a side order of Dark City/Bladerunner in feel. If you like a blend of urban fantasy with cyberpunk, tortured anti-heroes, and enjoy serials, this is for you. If this ever comes out as a complete novel, I'll pick it up. In the meantime I'm off to see what else this author has that isn't serialized.

Unacceptable Risk by Jeanette Grey

Title: Unacceptable Risk
Author: Jeanette Grey
Genre: Science Fiction Romance/Cyberpunk
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Available: $3.50 at Samhain Publishing
Rating: 5 stars
Rater: Pippa








Plot Summary:

She may learn to live for love…if vengeance doesn’t kill her first.

Plix spends her lonely, gritty life trying to solve the mysteries her father left behind. Armed with a variety of cybernetic enhancements and a talent for getting into places she shouldn’t be, she searches for clues to his murder—and who’s responsible for poisoning her city.

Waking up on a street corner with her brain wiring fried to a crisp, she figures she must have gotten close this time. There’s only one man she trusts to pull her back from the brink: a tuner who can retrieve the evidence hidden deep in the recesses of her mind. A man she dares not let too close to her heart.

When Edison downloads a secret SynDate schematic from Plix’s burnt-out circuitry, he knows with dreadful finality that nothing—not even the fiery kiss he’s been holding back for years—will stop her from pursuing her quest past the point of insanity.

All he can do, as he helps her plan her final mission, is ease her pain, watch her back…and hope one of them doesn’t pay with their lives.

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Product Warnings

Contains a heroine intent on kicking ass and taking names, a high-tech dystopia, cybernetic body modifications, and emotionally charged, sensual romance. 

The Good:

This is a sad but sweet story, with a dark, gritty edge, that made my heart ache for the two central characters. Plix isn't the usual kick-ass heroine - she's quietly but irrepressibly determined, tolerating huge amounts of pain and grief to fulfil a goal, denying herself anything remotely like a normal life. Edison is geeky but strong, and while Plix's blind stubborness drives him to despair, he still does his best to help her even as it carves out his heart every time. Their struggle to repress their obvious feelings for one another had me in tears.

The Bad:

I struggled to find anything to criticise. There is a slight element of repetition in Plix's two forays for information that made me wonder if the opening was a flashback and now I was seeing the events in real time, but the fact that she gained something new told me it wasn't.

In Sum:

This book absolutely tore my heart out. None of the technology is overdone if that's something you struggle with in reading scifi, and yet it's comprehensive and believeable. There's an equal balance between the romance and the science fiction elements. Loved it and want more.