"Cyber Squad Level 2" by A.K. Mocikat--Fiction Review

Today Obscurists, we’re returning to one of A.K. Mocikat’s worlds with “Cyber Squad Level 2.” Oh, boy, I hope nothing goes wrong in virtual reality this time. I’m sure Kai and his friends test awesome games, and everything is just grand in this cyberpunk LitRPG.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

Things nearly immediately go wrong in virtual reality.

Anyway, I said something similar in my review of the prior “Cyber Squad” book in this series, but I’m even more impressed with Mocikat’s ensemble cast of characters in this novel. Sure, I’m engaged with what the protagonist is doing and his struggles with life, love, and work, but I really appreciate the depth Mocikat gives her supporting characters. I was genuinely worried when something terrible would happen to one of Kai’s coworkers.

The mystery of what is going on at Heltek intensifies nicely in the book. As the story progresses, it often feels like Kai is just an unfortunate critter caught in the most insidious pitcher plant in human history. He’s even tacitly aware of it, I think, but torn by a loyalty to his friends, his love of the job, and an unattainable girl—keep him rooted in the trap. It’s an interesting dilemma to watch a young man try to navigate.

Mocikat, per usual, shines in her intense and varied fight scenes in this action-packed sci-fi story. As that action was playing out in this novel, though, I became aware of how much I enjoyed her aesthetics for settings in this book. Kai and the rest of Cyber Squad work and play in some of the most exciting VR scenarios, which helps. It’s when shit starts going wrong, though, that the awesome environmental effects happen. A lot of the imagery, such as a sky ripping open, for example, has a biblical flavor of terror behind it that I enjoyed.

What I don’t love about this book:

I’m not sold on Kai’s main obsession—Alice. She seems nice enough, but when Kai works himself up into a good and frothy pout about not being with this woman whilst building yet another level to the pedestal he’s put her on—I often think, “kid, there are other girls. Nice ones too.” I think, though, why I don’t like these bits is more about me than any defect in the story because it uncomfortably reminds me of myself in my early twenties. The only part of this primarily one-sided attraction where I’m totally on Kai’s side in this endeavor is that I also don’t like Alice’s boyfriend because I hate bullies.

I wish I understood the evil AI’s motivations a little better other than it’s an evil AI and does evil AI stuff. It doesn’t quite fit my criterion for enjoying unknowable malicious entities because one would have to assume it’s at least made in part by human-designed systems. Sure, humans can be malicious dickheads for little to no reason, but for a supposedly vast machine intellect to be bad for—well, because it makes it happy, I guess, isn’t too satisfying an answer.

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

Author’s Website: https://www.annamocikat.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Kai, fresh from the first novel and barely surviving his encounter with a malicious AI in the dark web of VR, returns to work at Heltek after a lengthy hospital stay—clearly a glutton for punishment. In any case, he gets a promotion, a swanky new apartment, and a brand spanking new VR implant. So there were some incentives, which were all gifted to him by one of the cofounders of Heltek, who seems to have taken a particular interest in Kai’s career.

"Cyber Squad" by A.K. Mocikat--Fiction Review

Strap in Obscurists, we’re going to a new world in today’s book—a virtual one—with A.K. Mocikat’s fast-paced sci-fi novel “Cyber Squad.”

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

“Cyber Squad” is a really fun book, especially compared to Mocikat’s “Behind Blue Eyes” series, which may be more intellectually engaging and is a kind of fun built upon complexity—but “Cyber Squad” is a more straightforward sort of fun. It’s a Lit-RPG that poses the concept of, “Hey, wouldn’t ‘The Matrix’ level authentic VR video games be fun?” As a gamer, to which I respond, “of course!” And then we set out on that adventure, with Mocikat whispering in the subtext nearly immediately, “but they might also nuke your brains.”

So, it’s an easy and engaging concept to get your mind around, and that’s what I mean by straightforward fun.

The supporting cast of characters, major and minor, see an upgrade in this book. Compared to my prior experience with her work, in this novel, Mocikat doesn’t reserve her talents in character voice to just her principles—i.e., the protagonist, the antagonist, and major supporting characters. I believed every minor character, no matter how quickly sketched, and they didn’t ever feel samey.

As always, Mocikat delivers many exciting fight scenes in this book, and because of the nature of this subgenre, she gets to shine in multiple different settings and modes of conflict. Since we’re talking about hyper-realistic video games, there can be a high fantasy sword and sorcery battle followed by a sci-fi shoot-em-up only a couple of pages later in the story.

What I don’t love about this book:

This is my third Mocikat book, and I just realized the true nightmare in these books that I’ve been missing all along—everyone seems to live at work. It’s worse than that! Everyone seems to want to live at work. This isn’t an element that I dislike in the novel per se; it just gives me the willies. The collapse of traditional society? Sure whatever. The rise of corporatocracy over democracy? Scary, but sure, got you. Living on the same campus as my boss—never!

“Cyber Squad” reminded me of exactly why I don’t like MMORPGs—and yes—I realize this is more of a me problem than the book’s problem. This has to do with who I am in a video game, which is, in my mind, the hero—because I have a hero complex. When I’m playing a game, I want to be immersed in the story of that game, which is difficult in multiplayer games because my suspension of disbelief keeps getting snapped by some mouth breather on a microphone ordering me about—on how best to do “a raid.” Maybe that makes me anti-social, but it also makes it my least favorite part of books like this—reading about people playing these sorts of games. I don’t get the appeal with first-hand experience, even less so experiencing them vicariously. 

I know—weird—in a book about characters playing super-realistic video games, my favorite parts were almost always when the characters interacted outside of that context. I did appreciate the whole testing angle to this story, though.

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

Author’s Website: https://www.annamocikat.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Our adventure begins with Kai also on an adventure of his own—in VR, that’s virtual reality for you Luddites. Anyway, Kai is playing a fantasy game with his guild that includes all of his closest online friends. They’re playing a defend the base situation against other teams of players, who end up ganging up on Kai’s guild. After a valiant struggle, Kai is killed.

"Fallen Angels" by Anna Mocikat--Fiction Review

Today Obscurists we’re returning to Anna Mocikat’s cyberpunk dystopian future in “Fallen Angels” book two of the “Behind Blue Eyes” series.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review*** 

What I love about this book:

I’ve said this before, elsewhere out in the interwebs, but “Fallen Angels” is really more of everything I loved about the first book in the “Behind Blue Eyes” series—with a few caveats.

Mocikat explores all new territory in the book, not just with locations but with seeing characters in different circumstances than we’re accustomed to. This isn’t really too much of a spoiler—but I never thought I would see a vulnerable Metatron. My paranoia is such with that character that I kept thinking, “this isn’t happening, not for real-real. This is all some elaborate miss direction.” It was right about when I was starting to think about saying something about a false flag that I had to stop myself and think, “wait a minute, what have I become? Now I’m the crazy conspiracist? Oh—fuck you, Metatron, you magnificent bastard.” I guess what I’m saying here is that I love to hate this guy, and he gave me plenty of opportunities to do that.

So in my review of the first book in this series, I mentioned that Nephilim was by far my favorite character. And without going too much further, let me say I still have a soft squishy organic part of my heart for her—but Detective Siro Ferreira-Nunes is my new favorite. I was surprised by this because typically, with any book series, I make my imaginary friends early on and am standoffish toward any new characters introduced. My internal wiring is very much—I have my friends, I don’t want new friends, which is probably a deep-seated character flaw of mine. 

In any case, Siro won me over quickly, sort of like Pedro Pascal did with his interpretation of Prince Oberyn Martell in “Game of Thrones.” Siro isn’t any less self-absorbed or constantly horny like any other Olympias citizen, but he is authentically who he is all the time. It’s not that Siro is above lying or deception—he isn’t. It’s that his motivations are clear, and he makes them clear to everyone around him. He loves his job, he moved to Olympias I for a better life, he likes coffee and getting laid. In a world full of duplicitous super assassins working all the angles, there’s blessed Siro, entirely out of his depth, doing the job of a homicide detective just because he loves doing it and being himself.

What I don’t love about this book:

This pains me to say this because she was my girl all of “Behind Blue Eyes,” but Nephilim 2.0, the good company girl of the Angel Corps, I just don’t like her as much. I loved Neph the rebel, the idealist, the freedom fighter—even though given this novel’s universe, that’s super impractical. But alas, the darlings grow up, and sometimes they become middle management at the cyborg assassin factory, and I guess that’s OK too. I still love Neph for all her exciting action scenes in this book, and even though she’s towing the company line more these days, she still finds little ways to remain loyal to those she cares about—even if that includes Metatron now.

There is some repetitiveness in this book, beats that repeat from the first book, which I’ll discuss in more detail in my analysis, but mainly I found it to be in the dialog between the characters. There are many “you’re super hot” or “incredibly sexy” and variations of that, and the first time a character expresses that about another, sure, valid. The second time OK, we’re cementing that point. The third time and on—we know. They’re hot. Can we get onto the next order of business, please? Also, there is an inordinate number of “are you OK?” questions even when not in battle or fresh from one—and I consider myself a caring individual—but she’s a killer cyborg! I love her to pieces, but she can’t possibly be that emotionally frail, or she wouldn’t be the best damn killer cyborg in the corps.

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

Author's Website: https://www.annamocikat.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

“Fallen Angels” starts on a beat underscoring how literal the title is because someone is hunting, mutilating, and murdering members of the Angel Corps. We’re introduced to two human homicide detectives, Ferreira-Nunes and Spider—rare is it that I think spider and detective at the same time outside of “Along Came a Spider,” but I digress.

Micro Mention "Behind Blue Eyes"

The scariest thing about sublime sci-fi books like Anna Mocikat's "Behind Blue Eyes" is the subject matter it addresses; the technological enhancement of humans, be it through mechanical or biological means, will have to be addressed—soon. And we dare not get it wrong.

I loved this story from the jump. As a long-term science fiction geek, I've always liked cyborgs. Plus, I'm always a sucker for rebels against a dictatorial regime, so Mocikat's protagonist Nephilim, who is both in this novel, had me drawn in pretty early. For me, in this particular character study, Neph is never more beautiful than toward the end of this book. It's then that she fights for what she wants and those people who she cares for, not for what she's told to care about or who—no matter how hard—no matter how impractical.

If you'd like to read my full review of this book you can find it here. Also, I recently finished the second book in this series so I will be putting up a full review of that here on WIO on a Friday coming soon. 

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://www.annamocikat.com/

"Behind Blue Eyes," by Anna Mocikat--Fiction Review

Get ready for a fast-paced cyberpunk sci-fi adventure in today’s review of Anna Mocikat’s “Behind Blue Eyes.” The Angels of Olympias aren’t just perfect. They’re indestructible. 

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

As a fan of the Deus Ex games and the cyberpunk subgenre, this novel has a lot in terms of my usual wheelhouse, and I appreciate it a lot for those qualities. I also enjoy a good romantic subplot in my sci-fi, and it doesn’t disappoint in that regard either.  

This is an odd thing to care about—I realize—but I really liked the verticality of some of the fight scenes. Since I was a kid reading R.A. Salvatore’s sword and sorcery fantasy novels, I’ve always been a fan of well-told fight scenes in books. Some people don’t go in for that sort of thing, but I do, and what I find—to commit to maximum nerdom—is most authors, like Kahn, in “The Wrath of Kahn” neglect the third dimension in their fight scenes. What I mean by this is all the action seems to take place on a flat plane, in two dimensions. Mocikat makes terrific use of up and down in her action scenes, especially when Nephilim utilizes her drone, but my favorite fight has to be the one underwater where Nephilim has to fight another cyborg at a disadvantage because of her heavier frame. 

I like that the arch-villain, the prime antagonist of the story, has motivations, that while not laudable, are understandable. Metatron as a character has a certain level of complexity to him and not a little pinch of hypocrisy, made evident by one of his favorite books, “Animal Farm,” from which he takes precisely the wrong lesson.  

What I don’t love about this book:

So everyone is so very horny nearly all the time. It’s a bit distracting because every scene for me becomes, and when does this scene take a turn into sexy time? A certain amount of this observation has to be moderated because the overemphasis of meaningless sex in Olympias is an intentional story beat. In fact, it’s precisely this beat that makes me feel like this is less a spiritual successor of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and more closely related to “Brave New World.” 

Nephilim is by far my favorite character in this book, but that might be because I’m primed to like protagonists. I especially liked her banter and working relationship with her partner Adriel, but Adriel became conspicuously absent for most of the story’s middle. Instead, we end up getting a lot of a character called Finwick, who is less of a partner to Nephilim, so much as a mascot aspiring at being a sidekick. He’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like having BBQ potato chips. We’re having chips, which’s good—but we could have been having salt and vinegar chips, which are amazing.  

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://www.annamocikat.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

“Behind Blue Eyes” starts off with a bang with the Angels of Olympias—killer cyborgs—descending on a small settlement out beyond the fringe filled with dissidents. Nephilim—one of the angels—and her compatriots make short work of the unmodified humans, dispatching all of the adults. They take the children back to Olympias, though, after Nephilim promises one young girl a better life there within society.