This past week, Phil Stitelmann’s cyberpunk novella, No Future Tonight: A Cyberpunk Story of Rage Against the System, was released. Set in his Digital Gods and Fallen Angels universe, it tells the story of two young gang members who cross the wrong people, and have to fight to live through the consequences.

From the publisher –

Neo Los Angeles: the city that takes everything and gives nothing back .

When cybernetic illness, gang violence and betrayal shatter their fragile lives, two young street lovers must fight through one brutal night to survive in a city that devours the weak.

A standalone cyberpunk novella set in the world of Digital Gods and Fallen Angels, No Future Tonight asks a simple question: what happens when people born without power try to escape a system designed to crush them?

Kaia and Jaxn are young lovers, and members of a gang in the shadows of Neo Los Angeles. Jaxn has health problems, and when he runs out of meds, the two of them vow to do whatever it takes to get the necessary medication.

It turns out an acquaintance can hook them up, but the payoff won’t be easy. They are tasked with retrieving medical shots, originally stolen from the military, from very much the wrong part of town. What follows is a string of bad luck, encounters with malevolent forces, and as Jaxn’s condition quickly deteriorates, a race against time to access the life saving medical supplies.

Stitelmann wastes no time in introducing the reader into his universe. Neo Los Angeles is, on the face of it, a technologically advanced, growing city. Our protagonists, however, live life well on the fringes of that. Life in the shadier parts of the city is a lot harder, and with his description and narration, the author makes this very clear. As Kaia and Jaxn’s night takes a turn for the worse during an encounter with some of the worst of the worst, Stitelmann lays out exactly what the heroes have to be afraid of, pulling no punches in the process. He isn’t afraid to paint with a dark brush, giving the terrifying reality of the characters’ situation an authentic, visceral feel.

The actions of the characters are believable, and you really sense their desperation as their situation continues to deteriorate. The world and characters feel real, because it isn’t just about heroic characters against black and white villains. The police are uncompromising in their treatment of the street kids, but are also pragmatic in their approach. Where they could sit back on their laurels, and book the two youths on a string of offences, they do accept the offer of a bigger fish. The police detective in the story isn’t just a dick for the sake of being a dick, it’s made clear he does have a sense of civic responsibility, and mobilizes to take down a bigger threat. That does not, however, mean he won’t do what is necessary to achieve his objectives.

No Future Tonight is a mantra throughout the book, a shorthand for the hopeless situation the protagonists find themselves in, and apt description for the dangerous underworld at large. As an introduction into the world and setting, No Future Tonight is more than successful, both brutal and thrilling, long enough to tell a full story, but with enough left on the table to leave you wanting more. It’s easy to see how many tales there are to tell on the streets, both main and back, in the city of Neu Los Angeles, and No Future Tonight is just a small part of Phil’s cyberpunk universe, Digital Gods and Fallen Angels. 

No Future Tonight is available on Amazon Kindle. You can find out more about the Digital Gods and Fallen Angels universe, and where to buy the books, at www.digital-gods-and-fallen-angels.com/