Nanoshock is KC Alexander's brutal, slick second novel in the SINless cyberpunk series (sequel to Necrotech).

Fast-paced, sometimes shocking, quite violent, and quite well-composed, it's an interesting novel. Didn't work for me on all levels (the momentum sometimes flagged, for me), but it has plenty of interesting elements and ideas. Not among my favourite cyberpunk fiction, but pretty good.

I gave a really great review to the first book in this ("SINless") series. In fact I gave a rare five out of five stars to the first book (see review<a href="http://lookingforagoodbook.com/2017/02/16/necrotech-k-c-alexander/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> here</a>). So I am tremendously disappointed to write a review that is so significantly less than stellar.

Riko, the street-tough, rough-around-the-edges non-hero cyborg hasn't changed too much except now every street rat who wants to raise their own status figures that the easy way to do it is to take Riko down. But Riko is still tough as nails and she's got some things to prove and her good name to restore ... well, maybe not a <em>good</em> name, but she can't afford to lose any credibility. She takes a corporate job, expecting to get shafted, and not disappointed, but she needs the opportunity and not many others are giving it to her since the murder of her lover and companion.

There's no finesse with Riko, just in-your-face attacking, but then that's why she's hired, isn't it?

The book starts off with one of the most outrageous (and shocking?) sentences I've come across and it really does set the tone for what will be in the book (warning...devout Catholics, you may not approve). But it instantly reminded me why I liked the first book so much (the character of Riko) and I was excited to get inside this volume.

But nothing happens.

Well, not exactly nothing, of course, but nothing worthwhile.

She swears a lot and has some pretty irreverent sex and swears some more, and flexes some muscle and swears some more and has more sex while swearing.

The character really hasn't changed much from the last book. She was a curse machine then too, but she was surrounded with purpose and her mouth reflected her reactions to what was happening. Here her mouth <strong><em>is</em></strong> what is happening and that just doesn't work. It grows tiresome quickly when there's not much else to read about.

In the first book Riko was an anti-hero who had to rise above what was expected of her in order to climb out of the problems around her. Here she appears determined to remind the reader that she's not a hero and she does everything she can to stay down among the dirt, even though she says she wants to rise above it. It's kind of the opposite of that first book, which is appropriate since my reaction is pretty much the opposite as well.

Riko was a fresh (if vulgar) face in Alexander's first book in the series and I was really hooked, but this was a real let-down. Where, I wonder, will the third volume fall...?

Looking for a good book? <em>Nanoshock</em> by K. C. Alexander is the second book in the SINless series and the main character is every bit as rude and ruthless as she was in the first volume but here she's without purpose and the character wears thin.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

After the shitshow she went through trying to find out what happened to her and her necro-converted girlfriend, Riko isn't quite sure what exactly she did that tanked her mercenary cred quite this badly.

She's got to figure it out though, or she's done for.

Nanoshock is the next book in the SINless series (first book was Necrotech), and it carries the same groin-punch dose of action peppered with all the grit and swearing you could ever ask for. Alexander delivers no-holds-barred at a barreling pace through a dark and mean future world. We get more adventures of Riko--the mercenary who will do whatever she feels like and whatever she has to, to Get Shit Done. Yes, we like Riko.

An optimistic reach to resemble a mix between David Gunn and the witty, dirty humour of Deadpool, Nanoshock falls dreadfully short on finding its own style of narration. The entire first 10 pages are slathered in redundant curses and vulgarity in which the writer obviously tries too hard to sound "bad-ass", the only result of which it achieves is an ensemble of irrelevant graphic images, unnecessary verbal cues, and an excessive amount of gusto which isn't backed by a relatable character - even for a cyberpunk novel.

Nanoshock, the second in K.C. Alexander's SINless series, finds foul-mouthed Riko on the outs with both her corporate sponsor and her street-level gang of killers, her credibility shattered (likely beyond repair) for the murder of her teammate and lover, and an enemy operating in the shadows with the express purpose of killing her.

Alexander kicks things off in grand fashion with what might be the best opening line of 2017, and perhaps ever, with Riko musing, “You haven’t lived until you’ve fisted a nun under the cheap light of a neon Jesus.” It's the kind of wonderfully sacrilegious moment that makes my heart flutter, and lets readers know right off the bat what kind of book they're in store for. Yes, Nanoshock is irreverent, highly sexualized, and packed to the rim with over-the-top violence. Riko's particular brand of murder has her placed as a splatter specialist, the kind of job description that lets you know there won't be any clean, quiet kills to come. The action here is big and loud, much like Riko's mouth.

Frankly, though, Riko's mouth wears thin after a while. She's antisocial, presents more than her fair share of psychological and emotional disorders, makes a number of rash (and oftentimes poor) decisions, and if she's not busy killing would-be allies she's going out of her way to alienate everyone she comes into contact with in the most vulgar terms she can manage. I don't need my antiheroes to be all soft and cuddly, but Riko's shtick gets awfully tiresome awfully quick. While Alexander gives us a few moments of insight, digging beneath her character's rock-hard hide to show flashes of her softer side, they're few and far between. Most of the attention is on Riko being the biggest, the baddest, and the most hot-headed, hurting everyone she comes into contact with. She's unsympathetic to the max, and I found myself wondering why anybody in her world wants anything at all to do with her.

The attitude that defines and encapsulates Riko makes the book a bit of a slog to get through, and that's even before we get to the muddled narrative. Although the plot is fairly one-note, there's a load of back-and-forth violence to muddy the waters and give it the appearance of being more complex than it actually is.

As with Necrotech, solid answers to the Why of it all are sparse, but the climax is a well constructed and violent tour-de-force. In addition to staging some terrific action sequences and moments of wonderful gruesomeness (the infectious cybernetic blight of necrotech itself is a marvelous invention, and Alexander gives us plenty of gory details about it over these two novels, I'm still left wanting more), the author has constructed a beautifully dreary cyberpunk world. The dark and grimy streets Riko inhabits are well realized, the city itself so heavily polluted post-climate change that sunlight can't make it through the ever-present smog. In fact, it's a setting that is a perfect metaphor for Riko herself. Personally, I wouldn't mind a little bit more light getting through come book number three.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]

Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow.

What a ride! I mean, I'm a die-hard fan of anything cyberpunk, but this one takes things to a whole new level of pacing, action, great story, great characters, and above all, a rip-roaring fun time.

I will not spoiler this, but I can say that it's even better than the first book. I'm not saying the quality is all that different, but so much more seems to happen in this one. More development, more emotional backlash, more tension, more mindblowing implications.

It picks up our nearly cred-less hero spiraling down the social pariah hole and doing everything she possibly can to survive, including working for corporate c***s, and it just goes downhill from there. Am I feeling it? Oh yeah. Do I blame her for her shell-shocked existence? Not at all. Is she f***ed? I do believe so.

I just can't believe how much solid story follows this, just how cool the turns are, or how much I love the tech, nano and otherwise, nor how awesome are the pitfalls. Necros are when the nano colonies inside your heavily modded body replicate out of control and eat you alive and turn you rabid. Everyone puts you down at that point. Nanoshock is the state of going into full conversion.

These titles aren't just for show. It's the one-two step toward total f***ing meltdown. :)

So F***ing Cool. :)

And yeah, the voice and the insults and the curses are just as good in this one as in the first one. I'm totally rocking to Riko. She's gotta be one of my very-most-favorite cyberPUNK characters in a very long time... maybe ever.

I'm still reeling with the end of this. Just wow.