Book 6 of 2024 - Counterweight

Counterweight

Author: Djuna

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 176

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8/10

Counterweight is a slick techo-noir thriller set in the near future, on the fictional island of Patusa. Our narrator, Mac, LK's Chief of Internal Affairs, gets caught up in a truly Byzantine plot of corporate intrigue and transhumanism that would make William Gibson proud.

Counterweight is a tight sub-200 page novel with plenty of cool ideas and action, complete with red herrings, twists, turns, pirouettes, twirls, etc, etc you get the idea. The plot involves the world's first space elevator, with a secret hidden inside the counterweight that uh, anchors the elevators cable in space I guess. The counterweight is more than a collection of space junk though, as it holds a potentially dangerous secret.

Djuna is a pseudonymous South Korean author that I had never heard of before reading Counterweight. I believe this is the first and only novel of theirs that has been translated into English. According to Google, the novel was originally conceived as a short film.(which I'm sure would have been awesome). Counterweight really whet my appetite for more of Djuna's work, so I hope more of it is translated in the future.

Game 11 of 2024 - Jack Move

Jack Move

Developer: So Romantic
Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
Platform: PC
Genre: JRPG

Difficulty: Moderate
Hours: 7.1

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8.4/10

Jack Move is slick, bite-sized JRPG that satisfies without giving you the meat sweats. My playthrough was a little over seven hours, which includes some light grinding towards the end, and I feel that was the perfect length. It was enough to get a sense of the world , the characters, and the conflict, and the shorter length really helped keep the story grounded.

You control Noa, hacker extraordinaire and resident of Bright Town. Most of the game takes place in the Bright Town's surrounding areas, which helps anchor the story and give it a sort of cozy feel. Bright Town is your standard cyberpunk neighborhood, lit with neon and a chrome veneer that just barely disguises poverty. You'll explore sewers, slums, corporate buildings, and virtual reality, and meet a crew of colorful, beautifully animated characters.

Bright Town

Jack Move's pixel art is gorgeous and colorful, and each sprite is meticulously animated, accentuated by a solid soundtrack. The story isn't particularly groundbreaking or challenging, which might be a letdown to some fans of a genre that often explores some heavier themes. That being said, it's fun, paced well, and short; it's not trying to be something it's not. It's more about the parent-child relationship than transhumanism (touches on this one though), income inequality, or drug culture.

That's not to say Jack Move doesn't have heart; the developers clearly put a lot of care into their world. Most NPCs are named and at least have the framework of a personality rather than being info dumps, graffiti decorates the walls of buildings, and the world is sprinkled with small businesses just trying to get by. It's a story with characters in a world that feels lived in.

Plus jigawatts.

Combat is the meat and potatoes of most JRPGs, and I think Jack Move (mostly) delivers here. It doesn't bog you down with overly complex systems and gambits and whatevers. Nora has different types of attacks at her disposal: hacks (physical), wetware (purple stuff), electroware (blue stuff), and cyberware (green stuff). These come in the form of software that you install in your cyberdeck. Your cyberdeck is limited by the amount of RAM it has, but you can upgrade this during the course of the game. Most enemies are weak to a specific type of attack and they are usually color-coded to give you a hint. Your cyberdeck can be upgraded with hardware as well; this gives you more RAM, boosts to attack or defense, or some other ability.

You should sit this one out, Executive Power Dresser.

Be warned: Jack Move uses random encounters. You can tweak these and even turn them off (although you shouldn't because money and xp). Despite that, combat is mostly pretty easy. There are a few enemies here and there that give you a run for your money, but you level pretty quickly and money was never an issue so I was able to hang without really grinding (until the end).

If I had to complain about something, it would be the final boss. Without spoiling anything, the final boss has a HUGE difficulty spike and the fight took me something like 45 minutes. I feel like a boss battle shouldn't be like an 8th of your game's run time.

Anyway Jack Move is decent and you should check it out.

Book 4 of 2024: Transmetropolitan: Book 2

Transmetropolitan: Book Two

Author: Warren Ellis (writer) Darick Robertson (art)

Genre: Cyberpunk, Transhuman, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction

Pages: Beats me

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

Transmetropolitan: Book Two collects issues #13-24 of the acclaimed dystopian cyberpunk saga.

As Spider's star continues to rise, we come to find what it is he hates most about being Spider Jerusalem: fame. As his column grows more and more popular, he finds himself in the same cycle he was only able to break by leaving the city and going into self exile.

Spider wants so badly to leave, but he can't work unless he's in the city, and it just happens to be an election year. Once again, Mr. Jerusalem seems to be the only member of the media keen to get the truth about each candidate, but even he might not be able to handle what he uncovers.

Check it out, it's great.

Book 2 of 2024: Transmetropolitan: Book One

Transmetropolitan: Book One

Author: Warren Ellis (Writer), Darick Robertson (Artist)

Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk

Pages: No clue

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

I know I'm about 25 years late to the party, but I finally got around to reading the first volume (issues 1-12) of Warren Ellis's classic transhumanist graphic novel, and you know what? It's pretty great and has aged surprisingly well.

Transmetropolitan follows Spider Jerusalem, a retired gonzo journalist in the mold of Hunter S. Thompson. Jerusalem is living in a mountain compound in self-imposed exile, having grown contemptuous of city life and all it represents. Mr. Jerusalem is something of an acquired taste, given his propensity for guns, drugs, and an almost zealous hatred of authority.

Jerusalem is called back from retirement by threat of lawsuit; see, he still owes his publisher two books and they are looking to collect. Having burned through the advance, he needs to move back to the city he hates to fulfill his obligation. He obviously needs money, so he takes a job as a journalist working for an old acquaintance. Book One follows the stories Jerusalem writes for the city paper, introducing the reader to the the City and it's diverse inhabitants while getting Jerusalem mixed up in political corruptness at the highest level.

For all his faults, Jerusalem is very, very good at what he does. He is always in the middle of the action, be it speeches by corrupt politicians or police brutality in the slums. He is the most contentious person alive, acrimonious impossible to get along with, hates dogs with a passion (wtf), but is never, ever boring and has a true gift for journalism and getting to the truth, no matter the danger to his well-being.

Also he makes the president shit himself with a bowel disruptor gun. No notes.

Gamedec - Game 19 of 2023

Gamedec

Developer: Anshar Studios
Publisher: Anshar Publishing
Platform: PC
Genre: RPG

Difficulty: Easy
Hours: ~4

Finished: No
Final Rating: 6/10

In Gamedec, you take on the role of a... Gamedec. A Gamedec is short for Game Detective, someone who traverses the virtual worlds of the near future and solves crimes.

Fletcher Garrett, my Gamedec

Gamedec takes place in future Warsaw; it immediately throws a shitload of jargon and worldbuilding at you and never freaking stops. You have a journal where you can look this stuff up, but that doesn't really do you a lot of good when you're in dialog and one of the options is "Use Screen Jibba Jab Matrix" and you don't know what the fudge that is because it's never come up before.

Honestly, I wish we spent a little more time in future Warsaw because it seems like a really interesting place. Instead, we are originally thrust into an extreme S&M virtual game (it's not really racy or anything). Following that, we visit Harvest Time, the future's version of Farmville, I guess.

The areas you explore are rather small and self-contained. What you have is a very linear story; once you're done in Farmville Harvest Time, you won't be coming back. The story, at least what I experienced, seemed decent. Both meatspace and the virtual worlds you traverse are populated with some interesting folks. You'll come across characters that are exploiting children for cheap labor (and pumping them full of stims), the spoiled, psychopathic scion of a wealthy businessman, and some cross between Cthulu and uh, It?

Subtle.

All in all, Gamedec isn't bad, but I just couldn't make myself finish it. Awkward dialog, limited exploration, and what I felt was a clunky deduction system all kind of took away from the interesting world I felt was there, but just out of reach.