First published 2014
Flynne lives where legitimate work barely exists outside drug dealing. Her brother Burton survives on military benefits after neural damage from his service with the USMC's elite Haptic Recon unit. One evening Burton needs Flynne to cover his side job. He describes it as beta testing for a new game. The task sounds straightforward enough. Guard the perimeter of a tower building. Small bug-shaped objects appear. Push them back. Keep them away. Burton offers decent pay for what seems like easy work. Flynne agrees to substitute for him. What she encounters through the interface defies Burton's description completely. The experience might be just another game. The violence she witnesses might be something else entirely. Flynne must determine whether she's playing or watching someone die.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, action, 21st-century, alternate-history, cyberpunk
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: United States
Period: 21st Century
485 pages · Hardcover · Berkley
Content warnings: violence