Review of Escapology by Ren Warom
Wednesday, October 19th, 2016
Escapology is a vivid, unique and engrossing work of dystopian cyberpunk.
In a future where most of the lands we know have sunk, where survivors eke out an existence on “land ships’ of floating islands, or the overcrowded, unforgiving city on the single remaining piece of dry land, run by either a rigid social order or vicious crime lords, dreaming of escape to the orbiting cities above, the characters try to carve out a life. The Slip, a virtual world of avatars and hacks contrasts and blends and tangles with the real world as we follow hacker Shock Pao on a seeming suicide mission to steal what may bring the whole system down, Amiga, a cleaner working for the most savage boss in the city and Petrie, officer on a land ship whose newest crewmember might just hold the key to the whole sordid situation.
Ren Warom has built a world with echos of Gibson, or of Philip K Dick, but in prose darkly and beautifully poetic. Edgar Allen Poe writing cyberpunk with a foul mouth. This is the kind of book you don’t so much read as sink into and give yourself over to.
Get your copy here.
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