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<p>Review copy provided by the publisher.</p>
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<p>Once upon a time in the Before-Times, I traveled to New York City. (Pause to stare off into space and consider how distant this now feels.) And while I was there, I went to a reading that featured Nicole Kornher-Stace reading a section of <em>Firebreak</em>, and I got really excited, because it was really good. I was recovering from a bad bout of influenza and did not have the energy to stick around after and enthuse about the book. But! I received it in eARC form and have that opportunity now!</p>
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<p>I'm really glad that I heard the late section of the book early, because the beginning of the book is the characters' work in computer games, and I am a hard sell on computer game books. One of the reasons, though, is that a lot of books that feature computer games struggle with how to make them important and resort to silly melodramatic tropes like "if you die in the GAME you die in REAL LIFE." Kornher-Stace, on the other hand, understands that games are important because they are an art form humans invest with importance, and <em>Firebreak</em> reflects that on every level.</p>
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<p>("If you die in the opera you die in real life," come on, nobody feels the need to do this. Ahem. Anyway.)</p>
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<p>The other half of this book, besides involvement with online gaming, is water scarcity, and it is vivid and dystopic for sure. As a very water-focused person I found this just horrifying and needed to have a glass of water by my side the entire time I was reading this book, because oh wow, yikes, Kornher-Stace makes you really feel every detail of this system.</p>
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<p>I feel like <em>Firebreak</em> deals with tropes and themes that cyberpunk wanted to handle, but in a way that's taken the last 30-40 years of human politics and culture into account. Corporate behemoths focused on their own profit to the exclusion of human well-being? Check. Online life providing both respite and sinister problems? Check. But unlike most cyberpunk, <em>Firebreak</em> is well grounded in environmental change and in the desperation that can come from humans being ground down in a system that pits them against each other for the barest necessities. <em>Firebreak</em> is not anybody's-movement-punk. It's just plain punk. And I for one am here for it.</p>
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I really love dystopian thriller books set in the future. This book also has a bit of a sci-fi element too. This was set in 2134 where there are only 45 US states remaining because they were lost to rising water levels. I would not say this is a main character that is central to the story, but Mal seems to be the reluctant hero. There are two large global companies that control everything: food, water, electricity, utilities, etc. A few people that are computer hackers are trying to fight back against the large corporations, what could possibly go wrong? This was better than I thought it was going to be and was kind of frightening. What if that happens to our future generations? Scary and relatable. This just did not strike me as much because of other thrillers and nonfiction I have been reading, but still a solid read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Nicole Kohmer-Stace and Gallery Book Saga Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 5/4/21

Book provided via Netgalley for review
This is not exactly what I was expecting but it was still quite good! I didn't know much about this going in and I hadn't read anything else by this author but I had a pretty good time with this.

I wanted to read this when I saw it on Netgalley because it seemed to be about issues with monopolies and technology that I've been concerned with. The cover did make me think this was going to be more about technology than it was. Mostly, this was about the issues of powerful corporations and viewing people only as customers. There's an element of future tech, but that's not really the main thread, so don't go in expecting that. I did like this exploration of issues with massive and powerful corporations and the power they may hold. While I think the problem was probably made as massive as possible for illustrative purposes but I don't think it was ever unrealistic, especially given the power some corporations already have. When I first started reading and saw there was a gaming element, I was a bit worried that this would be more of a Ready Player One type book, which doesn't really interest me so I'm glad this book didn't go in that direction.

Outside the themes of the book, I did enjoy the plot. There were a few times it felt a bit meandering. Every part of this book has necessary information that furthers the plot but something about some plot points felt a bit drawn out to me. There were several times where I was surprised there was so much left in the book because it felt like the story was wrapping up. Generally the pacing was fine and the plot moved along really well, there were just a few points where it felt a little overly slow. The ending was also a bit abrupt to me. I think it fit well into the tone of the book so I definitely don't think it was a bad ending, I just personally like to have more of a conclusion than we got here.

I think part of the reason it might have felt a bit slow was because there wasn't too much character development. I did enjoy Mal as a main character and I liked how her actions were used to illustrate what kind of person she was. I also really enjoyed her friend, Jessa. Jessa was the character I felt like we got to know best and I enjoyed her characterization as well as her relationship to Mal. I did want a little bit more development from the SecOp characters and I would have liked to see more introspective character development for Mal. I think having us find out about her from her actions is a good way to show, not tell, and it does work well here. I think I just wanted to learn a bit more about Mals background and daily life before the events of the of this book.

This was a great first book by this author and I'm definitely interested in reading more. Even though this was a little different than I was expecting, I still really enjoyed it and it's compelling take on the issues of corporate power.

I received a arc of this book from another site and was surprised to see that it was available to read now from NetGalley as I was under the impression that it was a "big release", not the kind of book that is generally available to read now. None the less I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick, fun, read. It wasn't very deep, but not all books need to be. The blurb says that the story is a cross between Ready Player one and Cyberpunk 2077, however I would say if anything it reminded me of the movie Gamer. With the book Necromancer thrown in. More to come closer to publication.

I give very few books 5 stars, but this is one of them. It was great, action packed, and immersive fiction. This book feels like the best of Ready Player One, Hunger Games, and Divergent, if you were a fan of those books you will love this dystopian novel. It’s a quick read with a complex, if not reluctant, heroine.

Note: I received a ARC from NetGalley for review of this book.

Remember how you felt when you read Hunger Games or The Martian? That wonderful feeling that this is a great book you want to share. Firebreak is impossible to put down. Mallory lives in a dystopian world, sharing a hotel room with eight other young adults who survived bombings that killed their families a dozen years in the past. They work multiple jobs to afford water and play an on-online battle game where if they can livestream with a superhero type celebrity they may earn enough tips to maybe buy enough water to avoid kidney failure. After one amazing encounter, Mallory and her teammate each wake up to find 25 gallons of water in their accounts and the offer of a sponsor the flings them into a mystery involving a grand conspiracy. Outstanding!

This is a solid book about resistance and group action. Set in a dystopian world where two enormous corporations that control everything including water, housing, and food are always at war, a professional gamers and gig workers uncover the secrets of one of the corporations and decide to make them public. While the characters were basically just names and had no real development or even descriptions, the story is compelling and the tech believable enough for the setting to make this an enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Galley Books for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

In the year 2134 two major corporations, Stellaxis and Greenleaf, each control half of the remaining 45 states of the USA that haven't been lost to rising waters.

Mallory is a young woman who was orphaned as a child due to the fighting between the two companies. Mal lives in a hotel room with eight other orphans and has multiple menial jobs. Her main job streaming on Stellaxis' war game with her friend and roomie Jessa. The two women meet one of the 12 super-soldiers in the game which leads to a job offer to find a missing child. There is more the super soldiers than anyone expected.

It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of the book and then I was hooked. I liked Mal as a MC a great deal. She is kind and generous even when she has almost nothing. I love her willingness to fight for what is wrong and to help others. There is a wonderful friendship between her and Jessa.

The underlying theme of exploitations of the masses for profit and to control them is so relevant today. Everyone in old town works to pay for water and food and it is impossible to get ahead. It also helps to mask who the real enemies are.

Highly recommend Firebreak. I will have to go back and read Nicole Kornher-Stace's other books.

I would say it is more like Black Mirror than RP1. It has moments that will make you scratch your head and then go “what? What!!! Huh?”. Check it out.

Netgalley provided me with an advance copy of this book, and I'm very happy they did.

If you're unfamiliar with Kornher-Stace's work to this point (the very excellent "The Archivist Wasp" and "Latchkey"), you'll love this book because it's the tale of a professional video game player (and dog walker) in a dystopian landscape of war and water rationing. Mallory (aka Nycorix in-game) chases through her virtual open world in search of sponsors who keep her feed in credits and water coupons. Dotted throughout the game are the analogs of real-life supersoldiers, grown in vats and waging war on behalf of the government. Catching up to them means guaranteed viewers, which means more in the bank.

Until she meets two of them in the flesh, and realizes that what she thought she knew isn't real at all.

If you're familiar with Wasp and Latchkey, you just gasped. With good reason. Oh, yes. :makes shooing motion: Go pre-order it.

It's an amazing and heart-wrenching story about exploitation, and how those who do the exploiting have a vested interest in keeping folks at one another's throats so they don't recognize who their actual enemies are - and how deep friendship is the key to building the kind of community that can oppose exploitation.

It's amazing, and you should read it.