Anna Mocikat

Shadow City is a gripping story set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, several decades after the Glitch. No one truly knows what the Glitch was, but due to a cataclysm that released toxic radiation, the world was damaged beyond repair. The dystopian world Anna created gives off a mixture of Mad Max and Resident Evil vibes.

“We don’t know exactly. We can only speculate. It came out of the blue, surprised us in our sleep. Probably a nuclear disaster that started a chain reaction... but as I show more said, it’s unclear. All government and communications structures were gone, there was no one to tell us what had happened, and there was no help. We were left on our own.”

After the Glitch, “endless thick clouds” hid the sun from the world and life went on in the shadow. That allowed vampires to come out once daylight was no longer a deterrent. Hard to believe but they’re the good guys in this story; most of them anyway. The few humans who survived the Glitch made a pact with the vampires. They live together in a protected area they call The Zone and have a blood bank set up where every healthy person above 12 years old has to donate blood for vampires.

In exchange, the vampires protect the Zone from monsters: radioactive mutants, gangs of raiders, and Dark Ones - mysterious beings that feed on human pain and agony and got here through a crack in the earth at LA s City Hall.

We experience the story from multiple POVs. Eric, the brooding vampire leader, Bombshell the cyborg (that Eric affectionately calls Bombie or tin can), Colton who has no memory of his past or his name (he was named Colton after the street he was found on) and Vincent who is possessed by another being and falls for a rogue vampire. That’s quite a team!

You’re thrown into the action from the get-go when a couple of teenagers fight mutants to save a stranger. Little by little, we get to meet the other characters and see them in action.
What I loved most in this book, aside from the action and quirky characters, was the relationship between the vampire and the cyborg and their constant banter:

“That’ s Bombshell,” Eric lifted his glass towards her. “We couldn’t manage without her.” “I know,” she said with a grin. “But it’s always a pleasure to hear it from your lips, vamp.”

When they’re under attack and need reinforcements, we learn that vampires can contact one another telepathically.

“He’ s calling for reinforcements,” Bombshell explained. “Don’ t look at me like that. I have no clue how this hocus-pocus works, but all vamps seem to be mentally connected somehow. One of the reasons we have so many of them in the HF. They’re like undead walkie-talkies.”

I loved Shadow City and I can’t wait for the sequel! I think Anna Mocikat did a great job creating a gripping dystopian world, well-developed characters, relatable villains and an action-packed plot.
Another thing that got my attention were all the music references throughout the story. The fact that I have them on my playlist made me appreciate Anna even more (Metallica, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails are the first that come to mind). Reading Shadow City was like watching an action movie with an awesome soundtrack. It was a good story with unexpected twists and a few emotional moments. You know it’s a good book when even after you finished the story you still think about it.
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This is substantially darker than the preceding Neon books. Detectives Siro Ferreira-Nunes and Kate Spader solve the crime with morally unsatisfying results. Mocikat hints that a resolution is to be found in her Behind Blue Eyes series of which this series is a spinoff.

We start with a dead woman: the beautiful, twenty-four-year-old Alysa Rivera. Apparently, she jumped off a skyscraper except Siro’s intuition says it was murder. An intuition confirmed shortly after when a cursory autopsy show more shows fatal stab wounds on her body. (This is a bit of plot weakness in the book. Given all that follows, why bother to stage a suicide that doesn’t withstand cursory examination?)

Rivera was a “registered companion”, in essence a legal sex slave. Men and women of the lower class, in desperate circumstances, are cleaned up and groomed and sold in contracts which can include clauses allowing beatings and neural implants and specifying particular sex acts and partners. Those contracts are perfectly legal, enforceable, and quite openly sold with glossy marketing.

The cynical Kate is particularly bothered by this because, unlike the usual crimes they investigate, this exploitation is quite open and legal. Think of it as the libertarian concept that anything is ok as long as consenting adults signed the appropriate paperwork. She almost attacks their suspect, Robyn, who was Alyssa’s owner. Siro continues to largely smooth things over with his good looks and charms though he is still a bit naïve and open to sob stories as Kate points out when questioning one suspect.

As with the previous novels in this series, this is a police procedural, heavy on description and dialogue without constant violence and takes you through the sleaze of Olympias City, but here it’s at the highest levels. Kate and Siro start the novel not suffering any delusions they’re anything but private security guards for a totalitarian corporate state.

They’ll end the story with even fewer delusions. show less

Rating
Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat is definitely a 5-star novel for me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

First impression
Having enjoyed Shadow City so much, I was overjoyed when Anna Mocikat offered me an ARC of Behind Blue Eyes, a cyberpunk noir novel. It was much darker than I anticipated and my first cyberpunk experience.

As a first-timer, the grit and gore took me aback and I had mixed feelings about it for a while. I had a John Wick moment right at the beginning of the book, you’ll know when you read show more it. But once you get accustomed to the bleak dystopian world, the action will suck you in completely.


About the plot
The action takes place in 2095, in a dystopian setting where what’s left of the world in the aftermath of a big war, was divided into three parts. Each part was ruled by a conglomerate. What was left of America was now called Olympia and was ruled by cyborgs who call themselves guardian angels and have neon blue eyes.

We see everything through Nephilim’s eyes. If you’re familiar with angel mythology, consider this as foreshadowing — fallen angel. She’s a 60% machine – 40% human hybrid apparently tasked to protect the Olympias. In reality, her sole purpose is to seek and destroy anything Metatron (their supreme leader) deems a risk to the conglomerate.

You have to appreciate the irony of giving angelic code names to such killing machines. Nephilim, true to her name acts as a fallen angel. She’s a guardian angel and like her fellow guardian angels, she’s content with her life awaiting the biggest promotion of her life — archangel.

She’s the best at what she does and although she doesn’t question her orders at first, she starts to, especially after an EMP attack that gives her glitches, moments of freedom when she becomes disconnected from the grid.

Themes
There are many themes intertwined in this story. The world-building evokes a mixture of Ready Player One and Alita, except more gritty. It’s a reality of contrasts: a web of truths and lies, right and wrong, humans and machines, love and duty, and ultimately devotion and defiance where Metatron is concerned.

At the heart of the story, there’s a quote from George Orwell:

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that can be given a name.”

- George Orwell

Throughout the second part of the story, we see a lot of parallels to the “Big Brother” mentality from Orwell’s 1984.

What I liked best
The best part of this novel was Nephilims’ character arc, which was magnificent considering the starting point. The second best part was how fast-paced and action-packed it was along the way. There was no saggy middle in this book. And when you think you figured out what’s going on — plot twist. Even the plot twists have plot twists! It will haunt you.
Read the full review here: https://www.summonfantasy.com/book-reviews/behind-blue-eyes-by-anna-mocikat-book.... show less

I think War Games is the best book in this series so far, albeit a little darker. I really loved the first two books too. The story picks up right at the end of book 2, delving straight into that cliffhanger. Yes, we find out who the murder victim was.
Although I don't usually like multiple points of view of the same story, I think Anna Mocikat did a great job here and it gives depth to each character's growth story. I was happy to see more of Finwick in this installment and surprised at show more Jake's character arc.
If you love morally gray characters, this series has them in spades. There are no good guys/bad guys here. It all depends on whose POV you're watching unfold.
I can't say much about the plot without giving away spoilers, so I'm only going to say that if you enjoyed the first two books, you must read War Games. Anna Mocikat knows how to build up tension, compelling characters, and fascinating stories with plot twists you won't see coming.
Be warned though, it ends with a cliffhanger, so be prepared! show less