E.S. Wynn

This novel was okay. The futuristic setting seemed interesting, but the execution of the novel wasn't the best. The dialogue of the foreign characters was really cringeworthy, with Cylea continually having "und" attributed to her instead of "and" (like, when I'm speaking Spanish, I never say "and" instead of "y", you know?) and Jack speaking in the most hackneyed, clichéd Strine that no one's ever spoken in over a hundred years, probably. The novel swapped between the minds of a few different characters, but not cleanly. And there was too much description and the action scenes dragged on for sooo long.

The worst conceit of this novel, though, is that so much of it revolved around this one mystery — why is there a sixty million dollar bounty on Cylea's head? — and we never got an answer to this. I gather that maybe the answer comes later in the trilogy, but basically it means that the conclusion doesn't really conclude much of anything, and is extremely unsatisfying. I can't say I'm compelled to sell out the next instalment.… (plus d'informations)

Cyberpunk has traveled a long beautiful road, but most people who have ridden it are too plugged in to even notice the scenery. Normally, when the layman is looking out the window, the cyberpunk enthusiast is either jacked into a device or dreaming of jacking into a device…. of which both perspectives sound very perverted.

Informatics has made great leaps, especially in the area of machine/human interaction. Gone are the days of simple calculation enhancement via abacus. The overly complex arithometer is a thing of the past. Our Bandai Tomagotchi digital pets have all died, been buried, and are taking a thousand hours to decompose in the landfill. The Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator that my high school friends most commonly reprogrammed to use as a TV remote has been replaced with complex cellphone Apps.. Skipping ahead to later next generations.

Pink Carbide, E.S. Winn’s opening novel to his self titled trilogy, takes place in the twenty-second century (the 2160′s to be more precise). Cylea launches the novel in a dance club, her technologically enhanced flesh is pulsating to the beat the electronic music, tunes that our time is not yet media saturated enough to appreciate. A man walks into the bar, his liver filtration enhancements not functioning properly, as he gets drugged from the chemical enhanced air. He locates Cylea and approaches her. Dancing around him, she interfaces directly with the port on the man’s head, and prepares to transfer the goods. Then she learns he is FBI, and bolts for the door, heading for a safe house.

What follows is a strange amalgam of action and sci-fi. The Protagonist, Cylea is caught in a web of situations which cause her to question who and WHAT she actually is. By the end of the novel, you are amped and curious as to what will occur next. Cylea, is overflowing with Badassitude in one moment, a sniveling broken woman the next. To her credit, I would be far worse off if i were physically beat-down as badly as she is throughout.

Fans of Cyberpunk fiction will have a high probability of enjoyment here. It is well worth the time invested in reading. Look into adding this to your “Should be read” piles.

Currently, Pink Carbide is available as a physical book as well as ebook format. If you are interested in previewing it, go download the first half of the book via http://pinkcarbide.com … There is also some cool (and lame) fan art to check out.

I actually read this book for free, finding it on Feedbooks, mistakenly made available in it’s complete form (this has since been corrected), instead of only a portion. Though it cost me nothing to read, I plan to buy and read the two follow up sequels in this series. This was just too damn entertaining. It seems as if the author is mainly sticking to print and PDF format. E-reader fans may be better served waiting until the novel is put back onto Feedbooks (should be soon) so that they can choose the format you would prefer to read it in.
… (plus d'informations)