Over the past month, we’ve seen the release of a number of cyberpunk books, from contemplative travelogues, to brutal, bloody criminal odysseys. Below we take a look at July’s cyberpunk and dystopia book releases.

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep

The beginning of the month saw the release of near-future sci-fi/psychological horror Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, written by Paul Tremblay, published by William Morrow & Company in the US, and Bloomsbury Publishing in the UK and internationally.

Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer takes on a rather random job: Julia must accompany a man she calls Bernie across the US Why? Because Bernie is in a vegetative state, his mind trapped in an AI construct. Using a specialized controller, Julia literally has to maneuver Bernie’s physical body along their journey, whilst Bernie undergoes his own mental journey.

Dead But Dreaming.. is a curious mixture of buddy road comedy, and existential horror. Whilst Julia’s struggles initially revolve around maneuvering her charge around the country, Weekend at Bernies style, Bernie’s own are much darker and frightening, mentally cast adrift within an artificial environment that he can’t quite grasp or understand.

Paraphrasing the title of Philip K. Dick’s iconic novel is certainly bold, but fear not, Tremblay is attempting not innovate, not imitate. Dead But Dreaming… has a unique dual perspective, and the narrative choice he has made is certainly clever in terms of thrusting the reader into the more horrific elements of the story. Playing on the title of Dick’s novel seems more a clever way of drawing the attention of the novel’s target audience than it is an attempt to retell a similar story. The book is very clearly a statement against the rise and proliferation of AI, and a very timely one at that.

Tremblay’s previous work includes A Head Full of Ghosts, The Pallbearers Club, Horror Movie, and The Cabin at the End of the World, which was adapted into the 2023 M. Night Shyamalan film Knock at the Cabin. We see a lot of cinematic opportunity with this latest novel, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it was adapted at some point.

You can find out more about Paul Tremblay on his website, www.paultremblay.net, and Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is available in hardback from all good book retailers now, and in digital format.

Killswitch Protocol

July also saw the release of M.J. Kuhn’s cyberpunk thriller Killswitch Protocol. M.J. Kuhn is the internationally bestselling author of fantasy duology Among Thieves and Thick as Thieves, and has now turned her attention to cyberpunk with this anti-capitalist thriller. Told from three viewpoints, it hits many of the big cyberpunk tropes, including rebellion, corporate control, and body augmentation.

Synopsis from the publisher –

In New Avarita, every person is born with a purpose. Once fulfilled, they are eligible for Ascent, a peaceful passing and assumed rebirth on the next plane of existence, celebrated for having left their perfect mark upon the world.

At least, that’s what the powers that be want them to believe.

When Liv Spencer’s husband reaches Ascent under more than suspicious circumstances, she doesn’t feel like celebrating-she wants revenge. Her path takes her deep into the neon-drenched streets of New Avarita’s seedy underbelly, a world filled with black-market cybernetics, synthetic drugs, and people who see Ascent for what it truly is: a killswitch.

Liv is soon embroiled in an anarchist plot to overthrow the ruling body of New Avarita, but the further she sinks into this world, the blurrier the line between “righteous rebellion” and “terrorism” begins to grow. With hundreds of thousands of innocent lives on the line, Liv must find a way to strike back against the fascist rule of the shadowy figures controlling New Avarita without getting flagged for Ascent herself.

Killswitch Protocol is available in hardback, paperback, and digitally, published by Cade and Camda Press, and also as an audiobook, by Tantor Media. It has a rating of 4.73 stars on Goodreads at time of writing, and we’re looking forward to checking out the book. M.J Kuhn is also a co-host of the excellent SFF Addicts podcast, and you can find out more about her other works at https://www.mjkuhn.com/

Human Code

Next came the release of sci-fi author Vee Lozada’s exciting new novel, Human Code. The story follows an android trying to find his place in the world, whilst grappling with his tendency towards human motivations. With the rise of AI, and technology developing at an alarming rate, it is a very timely tale.

From the publisher –

When Javier Morales tragically dies in 2016, his family cannot accept it. During their grief, they sign an advancing deal with Bionics Pharmaceuticals, and Javier is recreated as an android. What was salvageable from his memories was transferred into a new computer. His likeness is unbelievable. But after a while, everyone realizes he cannot be the same.

They refuse to accept him.

Reality sets in.

To protect himself, Javier gravitates to the only person who shows him love, and that is his adopted younger sister, Wendy. He vows to protect her and stay by her side.

But the unthinkable happens. Androids break down without reason. Androids attack without cause. And when Wendy is kidnapped by a group of “defective” machines, Javier rushes to find and save her.

He just doesn’t expect to have to save himself, too. Javier is too human for his own good, and there is someone who will do anything to steal a copy of his code…

The themes at the heart of Human Code conjure some important questions. With the proliferation of technology and AI programming, and its increasing integration into our everyday lives, what happens when tech goes wrong? Do we rely too much on it? Is an artificial intelligence capable of human emotion, and of even caring about the value of human life MORE than some humans do? Or is it all just sophisticated programming?

Human Code is available now in paperback, and digital formats. Vee has another cyberpunk novel, tech thriller Double Edge, also available now. You can find out more about Vee and her work at her website, https://authorveelozada.wixsite.com/my-site

No Future Tonight

Also this month, 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/

The Worst Survive

Phil Williams’ dystopian action thriller The Worst Survive was released on July 28th. The first of a planned action thriller series, the book sees protagonist Scully, a man used to working in the shadows and under the radar, sticking his neck out and coming to the attention of some very dangerous people.

From the publisher –

The Worst Survive is a frenetic, self-contained action thriller in which Scully is unwittingly thrust into a conspiracy of militant corporations hunting down a man with the potential to save the world.

Scully is mostly just interested in getting paid, so he can buy more booze – but when he sets his mind to something like getting paid, he’ll let no one stop him.

Along with his band of eclectic mercenary friends, Scully embarks on a madcap roadtrip from New Oak City’s slums out to the decaying wasteland and back, piecing together a puzzle that could spell hope or doom for the American Remnant. With a lot of violence along the way.

The first of a planned series of action thrillers titled the Faergrowe series, The Worst Survive is set in an alternate future that diverged from our timeline in the 90s, when a violent war broke out. Scully is a remnant from that war, and makes his way in the world by working as a mercenary, hoping each time to earn just enough to keep himself in copious amounts of booze.

The worst survive is best described as a modern western. Scully hangs out in a bar in a fairly rural area, with alcohol running through his veins at all times. Scully has done some questionable things, killed a lot of people, and on the surface is only a little bit troubled by that, though his alcoholism suggests it has affected him a lot more than he would like.

The world around him is laid out slowly over the course of the book rather than by a lot of upfront exposition, which is great for keeping the pace of the story moving,t hough may leave some readers wanting a little bit more hand-holding. Much like its main character, though, the book doesn’t want to waste time with that, and what we get is a quickly escalating situation that goes from bad to worse real quick.

If you need your protagonists to be likeable, you may struggle a bit with The Worst Survive, because at best Scully could be called a bit rough around the edges. He has a quick temper, doesn’t always work well with others, and is definitely his own worst enemy. Thankfully, he has some ‘better’ people around him to help out, which makes it easier to route for the good guys, and gives the story a lot more depth. Everyone has their own reasons for being invested in the outcome. And the stakes ARE high. The mission has risks, actions have consequences, and the damage is permanent. Williams has built a well thought out, interesting future dystopia, and the plot of the story is relevant within it, so all the world building feels necessary, and the whole thing keeps moving forwards throughout.

Author Phil Williams has an impressive backlist of novels, including dark military fantasy series The Blood Scouts, urban fantasy series the Sunken City Trilogy, contemporary fantasy The Ikiri Duology, steampunk dystopia in The Estalia series, and more. You can find out all about his books, and buy them, on his website at https://phil-williams.co.uk/

Hard Carry

Finally, the latest novel from author J.S. Holloway, Hard Carry, was released. Hard Carry, like Holloway’s previous The Veil novel trilogy, is a gritty, hard boiled cyberpunk novel. The author has a keen interest in how humans live alongside technology, and how that will evolve, and this latest novel continues to explore that subject.

From the publisher –

The job looked simple: take the data, make the drop, collect the money, and be back in time to get the girl.

But when the clinic gets hit, the broker dies, and the route burns behind him, Felix has one night to cross Neu Berlin’s underbelly before the package leaks and cooks his brain from the inside. Hunted by a corporate recovery team, revolutionaries, and the Mob, can Felix survive this hard carry, or will he end up as just another body on the streets of a City that doesn’t care?

Neu Berlin is the city they promised would save the future. But only one thing is certain: you fight back, or you leave in a body bag.

Hard Carry is fast-paced, gritty and fun Cyberpunk that hits the “punk” hard and never lets up.

Neu Berlin.

The city they promised would save the future.

But one thing is certain: you fight back, or you leave in a body bag.

Felix is a human courier, using the most secure data storage method available – his own body, by way of a courier implant in his arm. The problem with this, though, is storage space isn’t infinite, and when someone is intent on stealing your cargo, it’s your own personal well-being at risk – there’s no option to cut and run. So when the situation goes immediately south, Felix is forced to endure an odyssey, of sorts, as he navigates the shady streets, canal paths, and underground trails around Neu Berlin.

In the process, Felix encounters friends who might be foe, and foe who might be friends. When you’re a courier working for the undesirables in a big city like Neu Berlin, you’re forced to negotiate with some powerful and unpleasant characters. The data in his courier implant begins to take its toll on him, and as time threatens to run out, he has big decisions to make. Who can he trust? Who DARE he trust?

Hard Carry’s first scene is an intense race against time, and from that point on the novel never lets up. Hard Carry is a relatively short novel, which allows Holloway to turn the screws tight on his protagonist, and keep the story moving along at a clip. Hard Carry is quick and dirty, cyberpunk the hard way, just how we like it. The plot forces Felix to be constantly on the run, moving ever forward. Any time he thinks he might find some respite, his grim situation comes crashing back in on him, literally. 

This is the very definition of a bad night. Not only does our hero have to make his way to the arranged drop point, he has to dodge bullets, placate some powerful people, and as the story progresses, get to grips with an increasingly complicated situation. Each event is more brutal than the last, and political intrigue is introduced, a broader conspiracy comes to light, all building to a fitting climax.

Felix is not your over-the-top ass kicking hero. He’s an average, by criminal underworld standards, working man. He’s a flawed hero, with a complex past, relationships that fall far below functional, and an increasingly difficult physical impairment to deal with in the form of the overloaded implant.

Alongside the blistering pace of the story, one of the book’s great strengths is in J.S. Holloway’s visceral description of the world. You can see it, you can feel it, you can smell it. The locations are obviously very clear and real in the author’s head, and he has a talent, and a real turn of phrase, for putting that vision down on the page so the reader can share it.

There are more books to come in the setting of Neu Berlin, starting with the next novel, Hard Traffic, and there are plenty enough threads woven through Hard Carry to be pulled in subsequent books.

J.S Holloway’s previous cyberpunk novels include The Veil Trilogy of Neon Veil, the Ascendant, and Analogue Dreams. 

Hard Carry was released on 31st July, and is available to order, at his website, www.jsholloway.com