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Ghosts of Tomorrow

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Ghosts of Tomorrow

By: Michael R. Fletcher
Narrated by: Rosa B. Watkinson
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Summary

The Brain Trade: Grown in crèches and programmed with a tribal warrior code, the minds of children are harvested by the black market. Sold to the highest bidder, they're installed in deadly combat machines and assassin chassis.

Griffin, a junior Investigations agent for the North American Trade Union, is put on the case: Find and close the illegal crèches. Installed in a combat chassis, Abdul, a depressed 17-year-old killed during the Secession Wars in Old Montreal, is assigned as Griffin's Heavy Weapons support. Nadia, a state-sanctioned investigative reporter working the stolen children story, pushes Griffin ever deeper into the nightmare of the brain trade.

In the La Carpio slums of Costa Rica, the scanned mind of an autistic girl named only 88 runs the South American Mafia's business interests. But 88 wants more. She wants freedom. And she has come to see humanity as a threat. She has an answer: Archaeidae. He died when he was eight. At 14, a six-gun slinging, katana-wielding machine of death, he is the deadliest assassin alive.

Two children against the world. The world is going to need some help.

©2017 Michael R. Fletcher (P)2018 Michael R. Fletcher Science Fiction
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Given the authors reputation, I thought this might be even grimmer, but I actually warmed to the characters, and their commitment to the fight. Still not for the squeamish, this presents a bleak but believable picture of a future where minds - whole people - can be scanned into the system, doing everything from piloting robotic combat chassis to playing puppet master with he world economy. The plot careers from one disaster to the next, with plenty of action and a fair bit of humour. The narration also won me over, doing a good job with a largely male cast and a lot of technical detail (though there were a few odd pronunciations and a couple repetitions?). Overall a fun - if dark - sci-fi thriller.

Frighteningly conceivable

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Okay, let’s set the record straight ‒ that cover? Inside the chassis (the six-limbed samurai sword-wielding robot) is the brain pattern of a young teenage boy. And there lies the premise of the book. Not the chassis, but the virtual copy of the child’s mind. Raised inside a crèche, murdered, butchered would be a better word, and their mind copied while the body is thrown into the garbage ‒ if they’re lucky. This is an unflinching examination of the inhumanity of humanity in the never-ending search for profit. Greed, sold to the public as immortality, used to run the macabre machines of the future.

And what does big industry do? They sell the concept to the people, while finding the cheapest, most malleable sources for their brain-patterning ‒ children. Illegally birthed, grown, butchered and discarded. I know I repeated this, but the allegory needs hammering home. Money over life, and Fletcher revels in ramming that home. Bravo.

So, once the premise is set, the author goes about fracturing that concept. First, we have a god-like figure (in their own mind) who seeks to save everyone, and of course to do that, they need control. Control means money, influence, and dirty hands. Then we have 88, the brain-patterned mind of an autistic child, whose existence and subsequent growth sweeps across the story. And among this mix, Griffin, a newly arrived trainee (think FBI) whose first mission involves the remains of an illegal creche that blinkers his mind ever afterwards.

This is not all guns and grim violence. There are clever concepts at play, and 88’s development is the true core of the book. Her creation of mirrors of herself as her stilted understanding flowers is crucial, especially as she grapples with her own death and her need to survive. Her evolution is the foundation around which the story swirls. There are times these sections can bog the story down. Not because of its nature, but the style, which differs from the rest of the book by necessity.

Overall, this is just what I needed. A shot of cyberpunk caffeine taken black. Be warned, it’s not all guns-blazing all the time as the cover suggests, but by hell it’s a ride.

Badass

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The audiobook is a cyberpunk story . The intrigue is very good, along with a great sense of wonder in this crazy future in 2046. High violent scenes, good portrayal of characters and funny dialogues

Ghosts of tomorrow

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It was my first time listening to this genre so didn’t know what to expect, it was good. It kept pulling me back to listen to it, I thought there would be much more violence but there wasn’t as much as I’d have liked.

It took a while to get into the narrator and by the end of the audiobook I still said to myself that it should’ve been read by a man with so many male voices. Don’t get me wrong the narrator did a great job and you could distinguish between the voices.

I’d highly recommend this audiobook if you like your cyberpunk audiobooks, I’m away to try and find another good one !

First Time

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This was a fantastic cyberpunk story and an excellent dark sci-fi in general. Fletcher has an engaging storytelling style and his take on virtual reality and an emerging post-human world was a fascinating one!

I felt like a big strength for this story was that Fletcher got the tone and balance of the story perfect. The story was very dark at times but never got too depressing!

A memorable fast paced 5 star read for me. Hopefully we get more Fletcher stories in audio soon.

I was not a giant fan of Rosa B. Watkinson's narration. Mostly just because I was not a fan of her accent or character voices. I get that is a subjective thing and others might love both. For me she was passable but nothing special and definitely did not detract from my ability to enjoy the happenings of this story.

Great Dark Sci-Fi!

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