This is the second book in the Techxorcist series. I recently read the first book Artificial Evil again. The author has re-worked the second half of the book so if you were an early reader you might want to download it again. For instance if you have a Kindle head to the ‘Manage Your Kindle’ page and find the book and choose on the download option in the actions list. The new ending makes much more sense moving on to the second book.
This is a Cyberpunk series but it is less about fancy avatars and showy battles and more about traversing networks and overloading nodes with data. In short it is more realistic but without being too obviously rooted in modern technology. There are lots of different kinds of post-humans in this book. From those with a simple interface system to advanced artificial intelligences.
Poor Gerry and Petal don’t get a break in this book. Everything I thought could go wrong ended up being a much worse situation. Despite all the pain and suffering in this dystopian setting it somehow manages to exude a desperate hope that thins can and will get better for all. Not just the haves but everyone, well most people anyway.
The story starts with a bang and then is quite slow with a lot to take in during the first half of this book. The second half just flies by those. The final quarter was so punchy and gripping that I had to read it all in one sitting. I cried at the end. I don’t normally do that but the fate of Petal and Gerry hit me quite hard. This is a really good read and is one of a clutch of modern cyberpunk books to revive what I thought was becoming a tired and clichéd genre. Not so.
Tony's Thoughts 
2 thoughts on “Assembly Code by Colin F. Barnes”