I had high hopes for this one, but it ended up not quite working out for me. The writing style didn't quite for me (which made me very sad as I was quite excited for the cyberpunk vibes). It's one I would definitely give another try.

-- This review is several years past the release date due to the many issues of 2020, but a huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early copy of the book.

I received an early electronic copy for honest review from the publisher.
The synopsis and idea of Repo Virtual really pulled me in. I heard a heist was going to happen and I was all for it. The futuristic sounding world really intrigued me too. It definitely had enough to hook me.
This was okay. It kept my interest, it kept me turning pages, but I didn't find myself enthralled. The world sounded interesting enough, but I don't know if I 100% understood it.
The characters were okay, but it felt like we only got the surface of them. It seemed that we learned more about how they identified themselves then who they really were, what made them tick.
I was also never sure of what the plan was for anything. The heist was announced and happened over the course of a day, there was hardly any planning that went into it. They just went full throttle into all the situations, but they were just going by the seat of their pants. I feel like I was supposed to care about them more, and I didn't. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the AI voice. I would have rather seen the AI through the other characters' eyes.
There were a lot of rambling bits in this, mostly coming from the AI about what it means to be. I just didn't really care that much. I found the AI's voice to be a little dull.
I thought this had a cool concept, it kept my interest. It wasn't exactly the kind of heist story I wanted though. It's a fine book, and I bet a lot of people will enjoy it. I just want a little something more when it comes to a heist story. Maybe less talking and more doing, but with a concrete plan in mind.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.4/5
Not Bad

I so badly wanted to love this because Corey is an absolutely amazing person and I will never stop shouting the praises of the Voidwitch novellas from the top of my lungs. I honestly think this whole thing went over my head so its not a novel thing, its a me thing.

It has amazing NB rep in the form of one of the MC most trusted companions and normalises the whole thing in a way that is truly remarkable; there's never discussion of why they present as they, they just are.

The whole thing is set in the future after the world as we know it has fallen and Korea seems to have taken over as the main power. Pretty much everything has been eastern-ised (I think thats a word) so its all video games, kimchi and some epic sounding tech.. Its cyberpunk at its finest but unfortunately, I just couldn't really get into it no matter how hard I tried.

Now I am not saying this is a bad quality novel because its not. The writing style is excellent and it is quite obviously a work of the heart. It creates vivid imagery with the turn of every page and I really feel like I could love it if I could just wrap my head around half the references.

Overall a great read if you are into cyberpunk. A kind of confusing one if you are oblivious to technology like me.

Corey J. White is an author that's been in my TBR thanks to the intriguing premise behind his Voidwitch novella series, and although I haven't gotten to those books just yet I certainly wish I had given how much I ended up enjoying Repo Virtual.

Man, I'm really glad I didn't dismiss this book as yet another run-of-the-mill litRPG knock-offs that have flooded the sci-fi market in the wake of Ernest Cline's nostalgia-based listicle, Ready Player One. White introduces us to his lead character JD via an online virtual gamescape, and I was almost stupid to call it quits before I ever finished the first chapter.

Thankfully I pushed on, gave White the benefit of the doubt, and found myself almost immediately rewarded. Although JD is a gamer, he's also a repo man and that's where this book's focus lies almost entirely. Accustomed to stealing what isn't his on behalf of his employers, JD is almost the perfect mark, and he gets roped into a job by his sibling to steal a datacube from the wealthy genius who have built the corporate-government Korean city he lives in, and whose game he routinely inhabits. It wouldn't be much of a sci-fi thriller if things didn't go sideways, and needless to say they, in fact, do.

Pretty soon JD has a corporate mercenary hunting him, along with the people who hired him to pull off his latest caper. Since this is a cyberpunk novel first and foremost, White gives us plenty of electronic whizzbang at a street-level view, primarily through the augmented-reality eyes of JD himself. The city itself is largely hidden behind glossy holographic projections that hide the tarnish and poverty of an otherwise blighted area, as the corporate overlords running the show present the citizens with a nifty illusion - a lie they can believe is the truth.

Nothing in Repo Virtual is quite what it seems at first, as aspects of the story, the characters, and their motivations are hidden behind artifices. As these facades are knocked down one by one, we get a deeper and grittier understanding of White's future forecasts. We also get a pretty intriguing meditation on family and child rearing along the way.

White's a capable story teller, and I found myself fully invested in these characters and the world of Repo Virtual. Now it might be finally time to dust off White's The Voidwitch Saga and see what I've been missing there.

Copy provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

7/10, rounded up.

I'm a little conflicted on how to review this book. So let's dive in, and see how we go. Repo Virtual (RV) is the story of JD, and how he finds himself at the centre of events which will define the city he calls home. RV is set in the nearish future, where VR is immersive and corporations have the power to control whole cities. As a whole, it's a very inclusive and diverse book; the setting is a multicultural city with people from around the world, and the characters themselves range the spectrum of diversity.

Character wise, we have JD. He's our protagonist who sets everything in motion, when he takes a job to 'recover' a virus from the cities foremost technology company. But, turns out it's actually a burgeoning AI, and all hell breaks loose. He's a fairly solid character, but he has these flashes of espoinage like duplicity and I never really seemed to believe he was as capable as he was made out to be.

Our other main character is Edna, a PI hired by Big Company to recover the stolen 'data'. She quickly finds herself in the middle of shootouts, and an increasingly complex situation. She's got a shady past, and isn't adverse to violence, but deep down she cares. Again, I found myself a little bit at odds with this, but on the whole I found easier to go along with.

The thing I liked the most about the characters was seeing how much they cared, both for others and for society in general. There's this big back and forth of 'should we hand over this possible sentient technology', there's the family bonds between JD and his brother that he'll do anything for. Edna's remorse around her past lives. It made them all feel very human.

The story I really enjoyed; a heist, a sentient AI, corporate espionage, gang wars. All set in this high tech future city were corporations controlled what you saw and how you saw it. Again, this wasn't perfect; the pacing left a little to be desired. It took quite a while for the story to get going, but once it had, it felt rather breakneck speed. While I suppose that in some ways the resolvement of villain one was actually fairly realistic, it did feel rushed. And the way villain two was resolved strained my sense of believability . BUT! I still enjoyed the ride.

While there were a few things that didn't quite work for me, the writing still shone; I felt like I was in the city, travelling around it with the characters. The dialogue never felt strained, I could imagine the characters in those situations reacting like that. This review is a little all over the place, but as I said, conflicted about it. All in all, I think I would recommend this to a friend if they were after an AI or heist type novel. Or even just a SF story.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Macmillian-Tor/Forge for allowing me to receive this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Repo Virtual
by Corey J. White

"I hate money, I despise it. It has twisted a beautiful and creative species and turned us into a ravenous, all-consuming virus."

"The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities — augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive.

Enter Julius Dax, an online repo man, and a real-life thief. He’s been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he’s stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated."

▷ Representation: JD is black, queer, and has a chronic knee injury; Troy is black, queer, and has vitiligo; Enda is a sapphic trans woman; Soo-Hyuan is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns; other queers, disabled and POC in the story as well.

I have not read very much cyberpunk but now I want too! I thought this was such as interesting take on a heist plot and the world and ideas presented were so interesting. I loved that the trope of the evil AI was turned on its head and given this fresh look. The conversations on humanity and acceptance were powerful and really loved all the different identities that were explored and celebrated without the book being centered around what their identities were.

I would like to note one of the queer protagonists is blackmailed to investigate a crime by a man with documents that would out her as a trans woman, but it also is focusing on her past as a spy, which is talked about being the main reason it would be deadly for the information to be leaked.

If I was to blurb this it would be a modern take on the cyberpunk genre with a flare of Ready Player One but for adults!


Characters 7
Atmosphere 7
Writing 6
Plot 7
Intrigue 7
Logic 8
Enjoyment 7

RATING SYSTEM CREATED BY BOOK ROAST
1-2 REALLY BAD 3-4 MEDIOCRE 5-6 GOOD 7-8 REALLY GOOD 9-10 OUTSTANDING

Overall 7.00
4 Star Rating

Repo Virtual is the latest novel to come out of the mind of Corey J. White, and it is a piece of speculative fiction involving augmented realities, heists, and sentient software.

Julius Dax survives in a world of technology and danger by maintaining two jobs. One involves him repossessing ships online, and the other? Well, let's just say that in the real world, he's a bit of a thief. You do what you have to do to survive, right?

That's where this story begins. A heist has been dropped in his lap, courtesy of his estranged sibling. Naturally, that means that things are about to go to hell, but the adventure will certainly change JD's life forever.

“Kali wrote a piece of software that will change the world but someone stole it from her. All you've got to do is steal it back.”

Repo Virtual was a thrilling whirlwind of an adventure. The combination of augmented realities with real-life thievery and sentient programming was superb, and I found myself adoring every moment of this novel.

I honestly loved everything from the pacing to the characters, as well as all of the little details within. JD was a fascinating character, one who was shockingly complex, with a full backstory and multiple jobs that I personally would have loved to see more about.

To be honest, when I read the description, I thought a good chunk of the novel would be set in the augmented side of this world. While that did happen, it wasn't nearly as much as I expected. Oddly enough, I'm okay with that. The secondary characters introduced throughout the novel added to the complexity, making the world feel richer and more alive. Each little detail rounded out the world.
I love how the distinction between the two worlds would seem to blend at times. This is not an easy thing to portray, especially not in a novel, but I think that White did a solid job of it here. In fact, I'm secretly (okay, not so secretly) hoping to see another novel in this world at some point.

I also really adored the A.I. in this novel. It would have been easy to include one and leave it like that, but that isn't what happened. White explored the concept of a developing A.I., and everything that would include. It was introspective and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed the perspective provided here.

What shocked me was how hard this novel hit me. The conclusion in particular really impacted me, emotionally speaking. But there were other moments along the way that surprised me, both good and bad. I guess that just goes to show how attached I became while I was reading.

I'll confess that this is actually the first novel I've read by Corey J. White, but you can officially consider me hooked. I'm absolutely adding him to my list of authors to keep an eye on, and if I can make some time, I'd also like to dig into his backlog. I hope that fact says enough about how much I enjoyed this novel.

In the not too distant future, Korea has been overtaken by greedy companies. The populace forgets its poverty and hopelessness by playing a massively multiplayer online game, VOIDWAR. People are so obsessed with buying virtual goods for VOIDWAR that now they buy them with real money on credit. If they fail to pay their loan, JD does a Repo Virtual and takes back their virtual goods to their lender—for euros—not game currency.

Real life is hard. Capitalism has laid a beautiful and clean augmented reality over the city’s actual grime, graffiti and crime. But JD lives beneath the facade and makes his living as a thief. When JD’s sibling, Soo-hyun, asks him to steal back a stolen software program for its designer, Kali, he agrees.

I really want to keep explaining the plot from there—as that is the best part—but no spoilers here. However, know that Repo Virtual is much more than just the promised cyberpunk world-building and heist novel of its first half.

I don’t read much science fiction anymore as all the plots seem either all fun or all deeply meaningful and philosophical about life. Repo Virtual rather awkwardly combines them into one plot. Part one is fun and the rest is proving a point about “how we must change society before we end up like this”-type of plot. Here’s an example of what I mean from the book:
“Corporate capitalism is built on a foundation of infinite growth despite our very finite resources. We’re on track to consume our way to an unlivable planet, and no one seems to care.”

By the nature of this schism, many people may be disappointed in the overall plot. However, I enjoyed the variety of voices within this book once I overcame my disorientation. I also liked the seamless merging of LGBTQIA realities into the future’s culture. 4 stars!

Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

First things first (I'm the realest). Sorry, whenever I say that phrase, that lyric from Fancy always pops into my head. Anyway!! My point was I first wanted to focus on the premise - a heist? An AI? Yes. Two of my favorite things. I went into this book being pretty sure I would love it. Sadly I didn't quite LOVE it, but I still did enjoy it a lot.

The book is split into three parts, but I would say the split is more like two main arcs. The first is the heist part, which lasts about the first third of the novel. The second is the post-heist, the investigation of the heist and exploration of the AI.

I thought for sure I'd be hooked by the beginning - I mean, it's a heist! I love heists. But it draaagged and I wasn't that invested!! I had a hard time connecting and feeling anything for the characters. The world was also super interesting, but confusing! As the book went on I kind of got more of a feel for it, but at the beginning I was confused and couldn't picture it well.

However, the second part felt TOTALLY different. I LOVED it. The main difference was that there was the introduction of two characters - Enda and the AI - who really made the difference for me. I love them both. Enda is a badass bitch and takes no shit and is totally awesome - and flawed in a way that is realistic and makes her interesting to read about. The AI character is also great. For one, because I just love AIs. But two, because since you get to read from its perspective, you get to literally watch it develop a personality. That was honestly so interesting and cool to read.

Also, the pacing in the latter 2/3 felt much more even, and I wanted to keep reading to know what happened. There were more pieces and it was more complex than the simple beginning heist, and I think that made a big difference in it just being more interesting. As I said, the world also became clearer, probably just because of having been immersed and reading about it for longer.

I think my main issue with this book that prevented me from loving it was really the characters. As I said, I only really connected with Enda and the AI, and they don't show up until at least a third of the way through the book! That makes a large part of the book hard to enjoy.

I also want to talk about one particular character, Soo-hyun, who is nonbinary. Having that sort of diversity and representation on page is great, however what isn't great is that I felt like this character didn't have much agency of their own. They seemed to exist to only be used by other characters, namely one of the antagonists. This isn't a good thing for any sort of character, but it makes me especially uncomfortable when it's the one nonbinary person.

I think many people will be able to love this book, and I'm sad I'm not one of them! But as I said, I still did enjoy reading it and I do want to try more from this author!

Australian science fiction author Corey J White showed he could write science fiction action in his Voidwitch trilogy of novellas (Killing Gravity, Void Black Shadow and Static Ruin). Those novella’s were breathless in their pacing – short and sharp and yet anchored by some memorable characters. Repo Virtual, White’s first full length novel, takes some of the skills he showed in the shortened form and shows that he can apply them successfully over the longer form.
JD lives in Neo-Sogndo, a coastal Korean city close to Seoul, sometime in the near future. He works as a robot repairer but makes his money as a repo-man in the worlds largest on-line multiplayer game Voidwars, owned by the massive Zero Corporation. JD has a bit of a criminal past, which has left him with a gammy knee and is pulled right back in by his step brother Soon-Hyung who tempts him to participate in “one last job” a heist which will net him enough money to have his knee fixed and set his mother up in a new apartment. The job involves stealing from the dying head of Zero Corporation on behalf of Soon’s spiritual leader, a charismatic woman called Kali.
The first half of the novel is the heist. Getting the team together, planning it all out and then having to go earlier than planned to time the job with the Soccer World Cup final. While nothing goes exactly as planned, JD gets away but that is actually when the story really begins as JD keeps the prize for himself and tries to use it to blackmail Kali for more money. The second half of the book introduces Enda, an operative hired by a Zero executive to find the stolen item. At the same time, Kali is sending teams of violent, trigger happy youths out to track JD down. Meanwhile the object that JD has stolen, a small data cube, turns out to have a mind of its own.
Repo Virtual is almost a classic cyberpunk tale – band of street punks with computer skills who like spending time in virtual space, take on a giant corporation with a nascent artificial intelligence thrown in. Readers familiar with the genre will easily pick homages to classics like Blade Runner, Neuromancer and Snowcrash. But clearly fascination with the subgenre has not gone away with one of the most anticipated video games of 2020 being a title called Cyberpunk 2077. And while he leans on these traditions, White reshapes them to his own ends. His Korean setting is believable, as is the technology that characters employ or that is employed against them. And as noted above, White has a flair for writing action that comes through strongly here.
Repo Virtual, shows Corey J White taking some classic science fiction tropes and making them his own. He clearly shows a capacity to move to long form story telling with believable, engaging characters and a propulsive story that manages to pause for breath but never flags. The Coda clearly marks this as a stand alone novel, another breath of fresh air in a market filled with prequels and sequels and leaving an intriguing question mark as to what White will tackle next.

Repo Virtual takes the reader on an action packed cyberpunk adventure which is perfect for fans of William Gibson and Ready Player One. Part speculation on a very plausible future where multiple realities are controlled by a single Corporate Entity, part sci-fi thriller with a crunchy combination of technology and violence, with a backbone of philosophical questions around AI, Repo Virtual provides a thoroughly enjoyable ride from start to finish.

One of the biggest draws for me on a personal level was the diversity. The protagonist, JD, is a queer Black man, and his relationship with his ex-boyfriend Troy plays a significant role in the story. Other characters that feature prominently include a non-binary person, an older queer woman, and a trans man, among others. Though we see character archetypes common in this kind of science fiction, like the jerkface kid genius hacker and the drifting grifter, I felt each protagonist in the novel was developed enough to have their own unique presence on the page.

In addition to the diversity, I loved the vivid, precise pictures created of Neo Songdo, the hybrid physical-virtual city where the events of the novel take place. Every scene immersed me and allowed me to clearly visualize the environment and the action both. The ending is, in my opinion, thought provoking and impactful; though I can see others disagreeing, it has the potential to generate discussion either way.

My only critique of Repo Virtual resides in the pacing. The first half of the novel felt slow with some extraneous scenes. The back half by contrast felt rushed—some plot threads were resolved in an unsatisfying manner as a result.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend Repo Virtual for people looking for an entertaining cyberpunk thriller with a diverse cast, topped with considered messages about the consequences of capitalism and the nature of AI.

Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

I don’t know much about Corey J. White. Based on the back covers of his books, I can tell he lives in Australia and has good taste in hats. I first learned of his writing when he wrote a novella published by tor dot com publishing, Killing Gravity. I borrowed it from the library and thoroughly enjoyed the story of Mariam Xi, Voidwitch. The “space opera starring a mysterious woman with telekinesis” who didn’t know much of her past plot seemed like a 21st century remix stitched together from old comic books and Star Wars. It has a sense of fun an some interesting world building. I enjoyed it so much that I bought the two sequel novellas as ebooks so I could finish reading the tale. The story took a odd left turn in the second book but overall all three novellas were a fun read.

So when I found out that he has a debut novel, Repo Virtual, coming out, I quickly requested it from NetGalley. The blurb describes as a cyberpunk heist of the first sentient AI by an online repoman. And it certainly does include all of that and so much more, but not in a good way. While I enjoyed this book, I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed those three prior novellas. I think the best way to explain it is that Repo Virtual is five pounds of book ideas crammed into a one pound bag.

The main protagonist is JD, who spends his time doing digital repossessions in a giant online multiplayer space opera video game that is reminiscent of the Oasis in Ready Player One. This idea alone, of a society where online repossession of purely digital assets is a viable career option, could sustain a story by itself. But not this story - White barely spends any time on this aspect of the story.

Then this book pivots into heist - JD’s sibling hires him for one last job. (One nice thing in this book is the representation - JD is gay, his sibling uses “they” as their pronoun, another minor character is casually noted to be transgender - and it is all treated as normal, commonplace, and entirely unremarkable - as it should be! Well done.) But before we get to the heist, we take a detour into a weird quasi-religious cult that JD’s sibling has fallen into. The cult’s existence and role as villain is a complete unnecessary diversion and detracts from the story.

Then we finally get to the heist. For a book billed as a heist novel, the heist itself is neither central to the plot or interesting in and of itself. Seriously, if the entire heist had happened off-stage before page one it would not have detracted from the plot. This is supposed to be a near-future with more advanced technology then on the present day, but the characters act like they have never heard of forensic evidence like DNA or fingerprints. JD and his sibling brutally kidnap multiple people during the course of this heist, utterly eviscerating any good feelings I had for the protagonist. Their plan was so foolhardy that I was rooting for them to get caught.

And then, for reasons left unexplained, JD decides to plug the stolen computer chip (which we learn contains the world’s first real generally smart AI) into his phone to see what happens instead of giving it to his sibling as he promised. Why does he do this? The plot requires it but there is no satisfactory explanation.

Also unexplained is why JD’s exboyfriend, a philosophy professor, ever dated or respected him in the first place or why he takes him back at times throughout the story. I would expect a philosophy professor who is so concerned about ethics that he can teach an AI to behave well to be more concerned about his romantic partner’s violent felonious activities.

After the first third of the book, we take a hard pivot to Enda, a private investigator with a mysterious past who is a much more interesting protagonist, even if she is a walking collections of tropes. She is hired by the company JD stole from to retrieve the AI. Of course, she and JD and the AI eventually all meet up and become friends, because although she is a killer, she also has a heart of gold and is willing to sacrifice profit and her own safety for a computer program and a man she just met.

I know the last several paragraphs may seem snarky and critical. I don’t want you to think I didn’t enjoy this book. I did! The writing style is clever and sophisticated- it is a book clearly in conversation with its cyberpunk predecessors, going all the way back to Neuromancer. But it’s just trying to do too much. Emergence of the first smart general AI could be a book by itself. Enda’s story could fill a book on its own. And, as the title suggests, a virtual repoman is a great concept for a story. This book is just trying to cram too much in and it ends up feeling overstuffed and unbalanced.

Corey J, White, the author behind the Voidwitch Saga, brings an exciting and interesting cyberpunk world for readers to enjoy. Augmented Reality and other virtual technologies take center stage in this heist/escapism novel, and the main characters are full of idealism and philosophy, which are both questioned heavily in this book, which I particularly enjoyed. This title is chock-full of cyberpunk and science fiction tropes, but does just enough to stand out on its own. In addition, White does a great job of finding ways for the reader to feel they are connected with the characters by the difficulties of living in a world controlled by a company who controls the virtual, and real world as well.

White, does an excellent job with the pacing of the novel, but at times, the book lost focus slightly, or the clarity of the story was much better in the second half of the novel than the first. I felt that the age of the characters in relation to the story, allow this title to be accessible by teens and adults alike. The actions scenes were fantastic and full of energy and the conclusion was a good ending. There is also good LGBTQ representation in this novel, so keep that in mind. This title comes out April 21st, 2020.

All in all, this is a welcome addition to modern science fiction readers, and public libraries alike. An enjoyable story, not too dry, and some unique takes of questions of self-identity and what truly matters to you.

Repo Virtual follows JD, a 27 year old just trying to get by. He enjoys playing VOIDWAR and completing repo jobs of robots that have more or less taken over menial jobs. But when his brother contacts him about a job that could land him some big money, JD thinks things might be looking up. But this job involves stealing a virus from one of the biggest corporate heads in the world, and there are a lot of factors that could make this job go wrong. But you've got to do something big to get places in this futuristic world, even if it means putting yourself and others at risk.

I thought the synopsis for this book sounded really promising. I always love a good heist story, since there is always so much planning and hidden obstacles that can crop up. To be honest, I felt it fell a little flat for me. It seemed like the initial heist was rushed, with hardly any obstacles, and the aftermath just didn't feel that believable. There wasn't a ton of character development or setting development, so I didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters or feel what could have been at stake for them if they failed. The events that followed the initial heist also just felt very cut and dry with easy solutions for the main characters. I really wanted to feel something for them, fear, pity, ANYTHING, but I just didn't care what happened to them one way or another. I wanted more of a villain character which I didn't really feel from Kali or Yeun, but they were just soft in their threats. I did enjoy the idea of the AGI, especially since we saw the last part of the book from its point of view, which was pretty unique. I just wish that more of that had come through for the other characters. I also wanted more information about what happened to the rest of the world because there were hints here and there of collapsed societies but no real explanation.

The book did have a few really good points to it, like how diverse it was, the realistic feel of a futuristic world, and some of the technological advances that were explained were cool. I loved the idea of the robotic police dogs, the contex people had on their eyes, and the ability for people to have a transportation choice of a driver-less car, walking, or having their own cars. I tried really hard to find things about the cast of characters to connect to and feel for them, but it just didn't work out that way for me. I wish that they had had a little more growth throughout the story and more emotion to be able to connect and feel more for them.

Overall, I would give Repo Virtual 3/5 stars because it was a cool idea, but it just fell a little flat in the development of the characters, settings, and overall complexity of what was being accomplished through the story.

A little bit Blade Runner and a little bit Ready Player One, Repo Virtual starts out on slightly shaky ground before diving deeply into ideas of what it means to be a person while being wrapped up in an action packed heist story.

The villains of the story aren't hard to pick out, both for their obvious characteristics - corporate big wig and casual cult leader - and their cartoony motivations. It's that cartoony quality that makes them so entertaining after a bit though, and they're precisely the kinds of characters you hope will get their comeuppance.

The heroes are given more depth thankfully, so the story doesn't come off as silly, but it's a surprise character that gives this novel a very intelligent and fascinating sub plot. When the story looks into what it means to be a person, and the various emotions and sensations we may overlook on a daily basis, it takes on another life.

It's entertaining and thought provoking, and definitely one of the better futuristic novels I've read in recent years.

A decent neo-cyberpunk tale with some interesting takes and where it thinks we are going in the future. I liked the inclusion and diversity of the queer and gender fluid characters, but they still never felt completely fleshed out to me. Particularly Soo-Hyun's loose cannon characteristics and propensity to violence and arson popped up at opportune times yet never seemed to be a constant thread through the character in other interactions.

If you’ve read the Philip K Dick story where the guy has to swipe his way out of his own apartment, conning the AI into extending him enough credit to use his own john and thought, oh yeah, that’s exactly how the future’s gonna be, then you’ll understand when I say that White has built one of the most realistic futures I’ve ever read. Every scene is grounded and alive with sensory details that aren’t cynical, tropey, or preachy. They are absolutely believable and sensible and never separate from the people who inhabit the setting, and this foundation makes the whole book an immersive thrill ride.

If you’ve read any Robin Hobb books and been astounded that you could care about fictional people so much, wait until you meet the messy bunch of individuals tangled up in this drama. I love a book that makes me talk out loud to the characters, and White delivers this with every twist and turn. The compassion in this book was a welcome surprise – no 80s cyberpunk coldness here and hallelujah! the smooth and relaxed representation! I may have cheered once or twice.

If you’ve read Neuromancer and felt a little baffled and out-of-touch, White has cracked the code on making a tech heist concrete and understandable without losing any of the excitement or wonder. The stakes are clear, the mission impossible, and the people flawed. It’s a gorgeous, enthralling read, and I can’t wait to shove Repo Virtual into people’s hands and tell them…read this! It’s magnificent.

I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In all complete honesty, I have been a fan of Corey’s since his first entry into the (brilliant) Void Witch Saga. I have proudly shouted his name as a fellow Australian, and fantastically inclusive writer. I have sent copies of his books across the globe. I thought that I knew what I was getting when I started Repo Virtual, but I had ABSOLUTELY ZERO IDEA WHAT I WAS IN FOR!

In a future not to far away, after the collapse of most of the world governments, after the commodification of everything that you can think of, within the diaspora of a reunified Korea, something is about to change EVERYTHING.

If I could give this book more stars, I would. It is simply breathtaking. It’s clever, brilliantly queer, beautifully detailed, and shows a future that seems eerily possible.

I gasped out loud at the reveal at around40%, and I may have actually cried during the epilogue.

This is an extraordinary piece of work. 1392 stars please