Corey J. White

Mars Xi evaded capture by the military research team who shaped her, and honed her psychic abilities into near god-like powers. But can she rescue her friend from a max security military prison before he loses his mind and his identity?

This is a small book with a big story to tell, but it's remarkable how thoroughly White manages to (re-)establish characters and set the scene before the explosions begin. Void Black Shadow homes in on the horrific processes the government uses to craft its show more super soldiers and ups the ante by making the stakes personal.

Our villains are military doctors who refuse to consider that even criminals and dissidents have rights, and prison guards who enjoy the sharper end of their job a little too much …and the prison turns out to be perfectly designed to protect them from Mars’s inhuman abilities. I’m not a big fan of prison narratives (and Shadow adopts many familiar tropes), but having established Mars as an unstoppable force, White does well to rein her back in, injecting tension back into the proceedings.

Where Gravity simply stacked up the bodies with a merciless, remorseless Mars at the centre, Shadow – thankfully – begins to turn the lens on how monstrous her actions are. Mars almost always reaches for violence as a solution and never embraces half-measures. Does fighting a deeply dystopian force really excuse the mass murder she routinely engages in?

I appreciated that Corey was prepared to step back and critically examine his protagonist's hard-boiled choices - and I look forward to seeing how that theme is developed in the final instalment.

Full review show less

Pros: interesting characters

Cons: lots of swearing, lots of violence

Mariam Xi knows she’s a danger to the new ship that picks up her distress beacon. So she’s keen to leave them when they stop at a station. She’s not surprised when MEPHISTO troopers show up. But Mariam doesn’t want to go back to the program that gave her psychic powers - and she has the means to refuse.

I loved the characters. They had a lot of personality and verve. I especially liked the experimental cat thing, show more Seven, who’s just so cute. Mariam is quite powerful, but that’s in keeping with what was done to her in the past. It might take some readers a bit of effort to remember that Squid gets they/their pronouns, but how Mariam reacts to them, and the positive sexuality of some of the characters, makes the future feel like it’s progressed in some good ways from our own time.

The novella length means you don’t get to know the characters as much as I’d have liked. Mariam doesn’t get to interact with the crew that much so while you get the feeling that they’re starting to become friends, they don’t really have the history of working together, being there for each other, etc. that the ending requires.

I did find the amount of swearing a bit jarring, especially as it came from Mariam. For some reason I couldn’t reconcile how I pictured her with the language she often used. Which is weird because I didn’t have the same disconnect regarding the amount of violence and destruction she causes.

It’s a quick, interesting read. show less

This review and others posted over at my blog.

Not only was this a fantastic follow-up to Killing Gravity, but this book exceeded my expectations and the ending really threw me for a loop!

Mars – lovable, smart-mouthed, powerful, thieving, murderous Mars – is back and I’m in love. I’m a fan of fucked-up antiheroes, so it didn’t take long for Mars to worm her way into my heart. She makes rash decisions, has incredible telekinetic powers that she uses to murder hoards of people, but show more she’s got some morals in there and she’s stuck by her new friends because it’s the right thing to do but also because inside she’s secretly really lonely.

You need to read the first book before you read this one, because the plot picks up where the first leaves off. The gang needs to save Mookie and he’s been banished to a prison planet, due to the fact that he went AWOL years before – but he was only caught because Mars was taken in by Squid and his crew. Mars harbors a lot of guilt over that and decides the best way to break Mookie out of prison is to land herself in a cell.

The plot kept up a good pace and I loved watching (er, mentally visualizing) Mars friggen destroy everything around her. We meet a few more members of MEPHISTO to hate and get a look at another planet. The ending also kicked my ass. I kept trying to guess how Mars would fix everything and I’ll tell you right now, I was wrong, dead wrong. This book took some hard turns and they felt natural and right (well, in an awful way for the characters.)

If you liked the first book and you like prison breaks, I think you’ll like this book. If you’re interested in prison breaks and telekinetic space witches, then you should check out the series. I’m so upset I have to wait for November for more! show less

White, Corey J. Repo Virtual. Tor, 2020.
In an interview, Corey J. White denies that William Gibson’s Neuromancer was an “inspiration” for Repo Virtual but says that Gibson’s novel was a “touchstone” for it. That seems to be a distinction without a difference, because the influence of Gibson is everywhere present in White’s novel. Set in a future multicultural South Korean city dominated by big tech corporations, the world of the novel certainly resembles Gibson’s Chiba City show more with echoes of his Sprawl. His hacker JD is a less conflicted character than Gibson’s Case, but they are both denizens of a tech underworld with some dangerous antagonists. The central caper of White’s story is a burglary to steal (perhaps repossess) a computer virus from a corporate mogul. The virus turns out to be an emergent strong AI that takes part in its own kidnapping. Along the way there is some lively discussion of the Turing test and what it takes to qualify as a person. There is also some fun future tech. I especially liked the robotic police dogs. They are not always good dogs. show less