Firebreak

FIREBREAK is a heart-pounding story of scarcity and danger in a place controlled by warring corporations. Mal is a young streamer trying to impress her viewers enough to make it through each day and avoid ending up in the company dehydration clinics, when . 

Because major parts of the plot revolve around resource control and water scarcity, there’s a lot of discussion of water-insecurity and shortage. That was stressful to read but also deepened my immersion in the story. The way Mal’s thoughts did or did not revolve around this essential resource at any given moment matters to the story. The book involves an in-universe MMORPG (multiplayer online game that most people are either playing or watching when they’re not working), and at first I thought that the plot would focus on some objective in the game world, but a little ways in it reveals that the main stakes are bigger and more important than the game, while simultaneously retaining the game’s importance to the story. I loves the shift where technically the game doesn’t matter, but what the game belies means everything.

The world-building is really good, both for the game and the real world. They mutually reinforce each other both in terms of narrative events and the actual structure of life under the Corporation. The idea and reality of resource scarcity is constant, especially early but it never goes away and is very important to the plot. 

My favorite character's very description is a spoiler so I can't talk about him much, but I loved the strange rapport between him a Mal, a kind of uneasy peace from someone losing everything and everyone he trusted (which was a short list to begin with). 

The ending is emotionally devastating, coming together in a strange blend of bleak and hopeful. It perfectly cements this as the kind of book where I need everyone to read it so they know what it put me through. There's a sense of finality, inevitability, which suffuses the latter part of the story. Watching everything play out and hoping it won't quite end up as bad as it looks. 

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley

Mal is a streamer for a Virtual Reality video game in a dystopian future United States where two megacorporations have split the US between them and wage war over what's left. She stumbles upon secrets about the SecOps Operatives, genetically engineered heroes that are pop culture celebrities for refugees from the war between the corporations.

I really enjoyed this book, the way it portrays the relationships between Mal and her partner Jessa and between the operatives. There's a real message of "Your real friends and family are the people who've got your back" woven throughout the book. There's a lot of action and a lot of intrigue and the pace is pretty quick.

It reads to me like what Ready Player One could have been if it had done more of an exploration of the corporate-owned dystopia it envisioned.

This book has city wreaking mechs that are fought by super soldiers with swords and is fueled by the power of friendship. It's a great read.