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The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. After a devastating war and a biotech revolution, all its inhabitants want is peace, no one more so than Yat Jyn-Hok, a reformed-thief-turned-cop who patrols the streets at night. Yat has recently been demoted on the force due to 'lifestyle choices' after being caught at a gay club. She's barely holding it together, haunted by memories of a lover who vanished and voices that float in and out of her head like radio signals. When she stumbles across a dead body on her patrol, two fellow officers gruesomely murder her and dump her into the harbor. Unfortunately for them, she wakes up. Resurrected by an ancient power, she finds herself with the new ability to manipulate life force. Quickly falling in with the pirate crew who has found her, she must race against time to stop a plague from being unleashed by the evil that has taken root in Hainak.… (more)
User reviews
I described this elsewhere as 'weird-tech fantasy', it could also be equally unhelpfully pigeon-holed as a 'far future/second world science fantasy with cyberpunk overtones and superhero/magicians'. Although the tech is bio-tech, there was so much about the way it was incorporated into the story, and the way that it affected the story telling that is very reminiscent of William Gibson's early cyberpunk works.
I love that Stronach has incorporated aspects of New Zealand speech patterns, possibly against their editors preferences, given the author's note at the beginning (which, I loved so much I've read it out to multiple people).
At the superficial level, this is a city devolving into religious control, and possibly civil war. It is also an amazingly pointed commentary on policing, and our protagonist, Yat, has a whole lot of learning to do about their complicity as a police-officer.