Book Review - 36 STREETS by T.R. Napper

 

(Title: 36 Streets / Author: T.R. Napper / Publisher: Titan Books / Publication Date: January 18, 2022 / Total Pages: 448)

Book Blurb

Altered Carbon and the Wind-Up Girl meet Apocalypse Now in this fast-paced, intelligent, action-driven cyberpunk, probing questions of memory, identity and the power of narratives.

Lin "The Silent One" Vu is a gangster and sometime private investigator living in Chinese-occupied Hanoi, in the steaming, paranoid alleyways of the 36 Streets. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, everywhere she is an outsider.

Through grit and courage Lin has carved a place for herself in the Vietnamese underworld where Hanoi's crime boss, Bao Nguyen, is training her to fight and lead. Bao drives her hard; on the streets there are no second chances. Meanwhile the people of Hanoi are succumbing to Fat Victory - a dangerously addictive immersive simulation of the US-Vietnam war.

When an Englishman comes to Hanoi on the trail of his friend's murderer, Lin's life is turned upside down. She is drawn into the grand conspiracies of the neon gods - of regimes and mega corporations - as they unleash dangerous new technologies.

Lin must confront the immutable moral calculus of unjust wars. She must choose: family, country, or gang. Blood, truth, or redemption. No choice is easy on the 36 Streets.

Review

Cyberpunk is a subgenre that I don't get a chance to delve into much. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but for some reason books that fall into this category rarely come across my radar. I really enjoyed T.R. Napper's short story collection Neon Leviathan, so when I heard he had a brand new full-length novel coming out, and one that has been praised by none other than legendary cyberpunk author Richard K. Morgan, well I simply had to acquire an advance copy. Publisher Titan Books was nice enough to provide one for me and I thank them for the opportunity to read this one a little early.

Once 36 STREETS kicked off, I definitely got a distinct Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, Norylska Groans vibe. We are introduced to the morally gray main character Lin Thi Vu and right away it's obvious that she is harboring some deeply-rooted shit and is involved with people who are not really the most savory of individuals. Couple that with an obviously fractured family situation and yeah, I knew this wasn't going to be a tale that would play out in the usual warm and fuzzy tropey manner.

The thing that really endeared me to this book is the multi-layered story dealing with not only Lin's hardened gangster life, but also the murder mystery that takes root about a quarter of the way in. In that regard, it really elevated the story from simply a one-dimensional character study to a deeply complex plot that branched out in a number of different directions that I didn't expect. 

And then there were the passages that depicted the VR simulation Fat Victory, which admittedly were extremely raw, violent, and difficult to get through at times to be quite honest. Fair warning, the language used by many of the army grunts and commanders are about the most cruel and hateful that you can imagine, especially toward certain groups of people. At the same time I realized what the author was trying to do. Napper doesn't sugarcoat anything from that period of history and that particular war. Eventually I got used to the fact that this wasn't going to be a pretty portrayal and it made it easier to focus on the overall story.

As far as that story goes, I found it to be very engrossing and that was only compounded by how the murder mystery plays out. In the end, I found 36 STREETS to be an unforgiving and unapologetic story about the harsh realities of war and how people in society can be marginalized in the worst of ways. And yet, the main character in this story refuses to allow this to define or defeat her. Yes, she's not the most likable "protagonist", but having been put through the things that she has, we can understand that even the most flawed can find redemption.

36 STREETS is due to be released on January 18th, but definitely get your preorders in now because you aren't going to want to let this one slip by you. Challenging at times, but the moments of brilliance are worth sticking with it until the end.

Overall Rating: