#nanoshock

[vreditioned]

I did a NanoShock drawing for my wife.

[rolaplayor101]

Some art I did for KC Alexander's/@kacealexander 's amazing sci-fi cyberpunk book Necrotech! Highly recommend!

[a-wlw-reads]

SINless series by K.C. Alexander

8/10

Do the wlw end up together : No

Riko wakes up with months of memory vanished, her hard-worn street reputation gone, and her girlfriend a robotic walking corpse. For those like Riko who’ve gone off the grid in this post-apocalyptic version of Earth, their cred and their squad are all they’ve got. And now that her friends think she sold her girlfriend out and went corporate, she’s got nothing left to rely on but her (mechanic) fists and a whole lot of weaponry. These books are a ride and half; they start going and there isn’t a dull moment from there on out. 

Riko’s got a motto:

“Kill whoever fucks with me. Fuck whoever doesn’t.”

and man, does she stick to it. This series is as vulgar and violent as the best pulp sci-fi novels but comes through with the bisexual representation that none would dare. But for real, this is not the one for the faint of heart, it’s for those who want the book equivalent of a live wire. From the dichotomy of sinners and saints (otherwise known as those who find their entire lives commercialized to make mega-corporations a buck or those who give up any hope of protection to live free) to the subtle nods to the destruction of global warming, Alexander creates a dystopic world that feels like the natural extension of our own. There isn’t a throw-away line in here, just as there isn’t a second to put the book down and take a break (which is a real downside when you’ve got a Thermodynamics midterm coming up). So if y’all need to step away from the world for a bit, this book will drag you down with it and not let you go until you’re reeling.

[tymp3st]

Fall Into Books 10/8

Fall Into Books 10/8

Hey, remember that big post I had about how the SINless books are criminally underrated? Yeah, the character of today might be a big part of that for me. Heads up for spoilers for Nanoshock, they’re past the Spoiler.

So, sometimes authors try to have a twist at the end with their antagonists. A character who was set up as an ally to the hero or as a protagonist in their own right turns out to…

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[tymp3st]

Fall Into Books 10/6

Fall Into Books 10/6

So, I’m running a bit late posting this. It’s been something of a nothing day.

That said, underrated books, I have so many words about that given that I tend towards genre fiction. But, the prompt is just asking for one book that deserves more attention.

What book would I ever pick?

I make no secret of how much I enjoyed Necrotech and its follow up Nanoshock. I have so many words to throw at…

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[kacealexander]

Big News: Riko’s Fighting Back!

But she’s gonna need some help, and she ain’t picky from where—saints and sinners alike.

The Catch Up

Necrotech and Nanoshock started with a hangover and rolled right through to [motherfucking redacted; read the book]. Riko hit hard, she got hit harder, and all in all, she’s up to her ass in trouble. So, so much trouble.

And that isn’t even the worst of it.

Nanoshock ended with a bang. Deathwish will open with a [motherfucking redacted; you thought Nanoshock’s first line was awesomebad]. Unfortunately, Angry Robot’s chosen to let go of Riko, leaving her in one hell of a lurch.

Bright Eyes Full Art - Nanogyn by Eddy-Shinjuku

The Now

I’d thought Riko’s story dead for good. I was prepared to let her go ahahaha who am I kidding. I refuse. Riko’s as much a part of me as this N7 tattoo I’m rocking and I’m going to keep fighting for her. One way or another.

But I’m straight up gonna need some help.

The Mall by Phade01

I’ve got a plan! Riko can’t stay where she is—there is too goddamn much to figure out, and too much of a clusterfuck brewing to leave it there. I know what the next three books look like. I know where she’s going and what she’s doing, and what’s happening to make her days an unending amounts of pure unfiltered shit.

Right now, I’m living hand to mouth—and I wish this was hyperbole. Finding a job as an invisibly disabled person with a service dog is proving hard. Them’s the breaks; not fair, but all I can do is zen it.

Zen it, that is, and make a living doing what we all love best: Riko.

Yeah, I said what I meant. 

Underground passage light correction by Damnagy

The Plan

I have a Patreon. As of this writing, I make ~$171 a month. Until I can miraculously find a job that will hire me, this means I’m having to pick and choose what bills I pay when. Frankly, I’m on the brink of bankruptcy. But here’s the deal: I’m not giving up. 

So here’s my bargain; a barter, if you will:

Goal #1: $500/mo I pay all my bills monthly and have some leftover for groceries. That takes a load off. We reach this, I record a dance video for y’all. A shitty, shitty thank you dance.

Goal #2: $750/mo This is bills and my share of rent. This is insurance for #frankenpup, so that he is always, always safe and taken care of no matter what. It’s the equivalent to a part time job at 12 hours a week. This is where I start serializing Deathwish, Riko’s next book, every month. As long as we remain at $750/mo, I’ll be releasing chapters. And y’all, this isn’t a large contribution: $5.00 pledge. That’s it. Just $5, and you get to read the initial draft before anybody else.

Goal #3: $1000/mo This is my full share of rent. It’s healthy groceries, higher payments to my bills to get rid of them sooner, and the ability to stock some away for health/veterinary care deductibles. We reach this goal and I'll do a video of me eating an entire ham roast off the bone. In one sitting. LIVE.

Goal #4: $1500/mo Cover artists. Editor. Marketing. Everything I’ll need to compile the chapters and get them polished up to professional quality.  We stay here and I’ll open up all rewards to all patrons—INCLUDING DEATHWISH SHARES. All for $1! What’s more: every patron will get the fully finished and polished ebook.

Anything beyond that is frosting, and as we go, I’ll add stuff to the project and come up with new goal rewards. But for now, here’s what we have.

Cyberpunk 2077

So what do you say? You in? You wanna share this?

You wanna read more Riko and her bloody bullshit?

Let’s do it.

You Prefer Gumroad?

You can still be in! The way Gumroad works is different—the shop pays out every week instead of month, and it can be skewed by the one-offs I offer there. Sometimes, somebody purchases a tarot read, sometimes art, but it’s not regular.

This means I’m going to have to balance out the Patreon goals with my subscribers on Gumroad behind the scenes. Right now, everything there goes direct to bills, so I’ll keep patrons posted every month. 

[michaelpatrickhicks]

Review: Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander (SINless #2)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars 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.] View all my reviews

[tymp3st]

Nanoshock

I’m back! This one’s given me a lot to chew on and I’m hoping to work on that in the near future. Courtesy of the awesome folks at Angry Robot, this is Nanoshock. Enjoy! Riko’s got no clue what she did wrong or what happened to her six months ago. She’s got no clue if she actually sold out Nanji like everyone says she did. Worse, that’s killed her cred and her reputation. With leads colder than…

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