Waikiki Cop Ava Arnett is chasing down some perpetrators and a conspiracy, in the days before a severe Pacific storm hits the island of O‘ahu. Years before this event the island was already ravaged by another massive hurricane and Waikiki is a walled-off tourist resort, bordered by destroyed buildings infested with a killer fungus.

We are in an unspecified near future, where the USA is about to sign away Hawaii to China in a 99-year lease. Climate change is happening, temperatures have gone up by several degrees, the economic situation of the US is not good. I am guessing that Nagata is not a fan of her country‘s (lack of) climate protection policies.

This is a fast moving cop/secret agent/conspiracy thriller, with a touch of SF, nanopunk, some bots, climate fic and sporror. I liked the sporror part and would have loved for it to play a bigger part in the narrative. The setting was well done, I liked the writing. It was atmospheric, with believable action scenes. I could see this as a fun action movie.

Ava was a likable character, same as her side kicks. It‘s nice to read a well drawn, mature, female main character, who stands on her own.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher/author through NetGalley in 2020. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review. I am really very late with reviewing this, mea culpa!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is not hevy science fiction but it tells an interesting story of a near future Hawiian distopian society.. This story explores a post storm devastated Honolulu and the relationship between law enforcement and the military. A fun read.

Ava Arnett is a police officer working with AI technology that observes and predicts human behavior. The AI should help police, but when it starts to glitch at the same time a massive hurricane is barreling towards the island, Ava quickly finds herself in the middle of a very serious conspiracy.

I had been trying to finish this one since I downloaded it in 2020. The blurb sounded amazing but for some reason it just didn't grab me and I couldn't figure out why. Then I got to a scene where Ava is in a shady market and she and one of the vendors are discussing whether or not they're evacuating....and I realized I was 53% of the way through "Pacific STORM" and the storm still hadn't started (the metaphorical storm was still only brewing as well). It does eventually pick up, but it just didn't keep me reading the way I'd hoped.

Not quite the middle-of-a-hurricane thriller I wanted, but I would definitely recommend this one for fans of Minority Report or other Sci Fi/Near Future books!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

I have previously enjoyed this author's work..  Sadly this was just okay.  It is categorized as a near-future thriller.  Climate change is ongoing.  Hurricanes are devastating Hawaii.  The United States is on the decline.  AI is used in everyday life.  And China is going to lease Hawaii.  Ava is a cop working for a Chinese corporation on Waikiki.  On the eve of the next big hurricane, she gets drawn into a conspiracy she wasn't expecting.  

I really did enjoy the world building and main character, Ava, in this one.  I particularly liked how technology is used and how Hawaii has changed. While this was a quick read, it was one of those books where Ava spends the whole book not understanding what is going on.  I have to admit that after finishing it, I am still not sure what exactly happened.  I don't fully know who all the bad guys were or what they really hoped to accomplish.  I also felt that the plot points themselves were rather unrealistic and there were quite a few loose threads left at the end.  Didn't like the ending either really.

This was one where the concept and world building were fun but the execution didn't work for me.

So lastly . . .

Thank ye Mythic Island Press!

This novel follows Ava Arnett, a Hawaii police officer. She’s just trying to do her job right before a category 5 hurricane hits Honolulu. However, she stumbles across a conspiracy that she must foil before millions are lives are lost.

I loved the beginning of the novel but I found the middle third was hard to get into. I loved reading about Arnett’s preparations for the hurricanes arrival by helping stranded tourists and ensuring the publics safety. However, I had trouble getting intothe initial investigations into the conspiracy. Not entirely sure why but I just wasn’t intrigued. Once the investigations and action started then I couldn’t put the novel down.

The characters were great, I loved every one of them. I could really understand their motives and inspirations behind their actions. The emotional ending between Kaden and Ava hit me harder than I thought it would. Only a truly excellent author can write a complex protagonist in which a reader gets to witness their downfall but also feel troubled by their demise.

The world building was the best part, not that the other parts weren’t enjoyable. But the technology and social consequences of the past few decades play a big role in this novel. Climate change has wrecked havoc on the world and environmental disasters, such as hurricanes, are now a consequences of this. The technology was realistic and I could honestly see most of these making an appearance in the near future. From social ratings determining your statues to bioengineered lifeforms to smart glasses.

Overall this was a great thriller/sci-fi novel that I would strongly recommend to fans.

Thank you to Mythic Island Press and NetGalley for the free ebook.

Linda Nagata is a gifted writer and has the ability to weave a story of a terrorist plot and an on coming deadly hurricane.

This was not my typical genre but it sounded interesting and was definitely thrilling throughout.

Linda Nagata’s new near-future thriller contains significant elements of science fiction and political speculation. It is set in on a future Hawai’i, previously devastated by a cat-5 hurricane, rebuilt using Chinese investment and advanced technology, now facing another incoming cat-5. The US is governed by an investor-driven political party, who has agreed to cede sovereignty of O’ahu in a 99-year lease to China. Ava Arnett is a middle-aged officer of the Kahanamoku Coastal Park Security, an agency whose jurisdiction covers reclaimed land built on the ruins of Waikīkī, where the action begins. The tension spins up rapidly as unexplained violence and data system subversion reveal the involvement of government/military conspiracies and Hawaiian separatist groups – even as the winds and wave action increase. Provocation of global war hangs in the balance as Ava must decide what is the truth and where her loyalties lie. Nagata skillfully dovetails Ava’s personal relationships into the narrative and the suspense. However, there are a few reversals in fortune which occur at opportune times, maintaining the level of tension, but felt a little unlikely to me. Still, it’s an exciting fast-paced adventure that incorporates unexplained technological speculation in information, surveillance, genetic engineering, and bio/tech organisms that will be familiar to readers of SF, but perhaps not to others.

Nagata is a long-time resident of Hawai’i, and as you may have noticed uses native spellings of Hawaiian words, as well as the directional references makai and mauka. It’s not difficult to understand, and the myriad of specific geographic references (that I did not recognize, never having been there) were also not an obstacle. In style, this writing reminded me more of Nagata’s 2001 novel Limit of Vision than her far-future Nanotech Succession (such as her 1995 The Bohr Maker)

I read a free Digital Review Copy of Pacific Storm in kindle format, which I received from Mythic Island Press through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title had already been released on 8 October 2020.