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.