Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace shows a dystopian futuristic America in which people are reduced to their consumer status, even more so than our current world. Water costs a dollar an ounce and a single quart is what is allotted to most consumer citizens for an entire week. A quart to drink, bathe, make food, flush the toilet. There is a constant war between Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf Industries, who fight for control over the remaining megacities that haven’t been drowned by water or destroyed by the war. Mal fights for her place, sharing a hotel room with eight other people, including her best friend, Jessa.

Mal and Jessa are both parts of a duo fighting for fame inside a virtual game. Within the game, there are avatars called SpecOps, of which there are a dozen, of various numbers. These SpecOps are based real people. Well, real enough considering everyone thinks they were grown in a lab. They protect the city from Greenleaf and the warfare that wages in the streets and that protection translates over into the game, where people sight them and can interact with them. After Mal sights one of them in game, her and Jessa’s streaming channel blows up overnight and they are contacted by a woman named B. She tells them that the SpecOps are not lab grown after all, but are children who were stolen in the chaos of war and tortured and changed to become the operatives everyone worships. Mal can’t just let this happen, not now that she knows. She needs to use the power of her voice to spread the word and let everyone know that Stellaxis is even more horrible than any of them realized.

The story reminds me of Dredd, the movie at least. I haven’t read the comics. It’s a futuristic world, where there are megacities, which are then controlled by large corporations. There is a lot of crime, people are working multiple jobs to get by, and no one is truly happy. They are merely pushing through to stay alive. In Firebreak, they rely on the virtual world to find meaning and happiness, though many of them are stuck in the real world, working menial jobs to get even an ounce of water. I really liked that little detail, that water is so scarce people have water rations, small cups of water being all they have for a week or more. We’ve all been thirsty before. Parched. With that little patch on our tongue, so dry that even drinking water doesn’t make it go away. Imagine feeling like that all the time. Taking the tiniest sips of water because you don’t know if you can make this water last but you have to. You have to or you’ll feel so much worse later. This desperation for the most basic of resources spreads throughout the books and is a definite point of control for Stellaxis.

Mal is just like anyone else, fighting to stay alive and to eke out every bit of water she can so she can survive just a little while longer. She plays her game, tries to reach a kill count of 1000 within the game so she can make it to the boards and maybe get a few more ounces of water as a sponsorship or maybe some cool in game items that will improve her chances of making it further. She relies on Jessa to be the people person. Throughout the book, she comes a little more out of her shell and shows herself to be a caring person, giving her water rations to others, helping victims escape from the destruction of yet another battle between Stellaxis and Greenleaf. She’s pretty selfless and easy to like, determined to do what she can even if what she can do is hardly anything. She’s fighting against mega corporations with little to nothing more than her own voice but she still keeps fighting. It isn’t really character development so much as Mal showing us who she is and becoming a little more confident.

Everything is so hopeless. In the old town, almost no one has a real job. They’re left doing things like dog walking or babysitting or making money in game to survive. Most of them work several small jobs to do so and they’re still barely getting by. Even in the nicer part of town, there are huge mechs destroying everything, the people getting caught in the crossfire. Half the US is submerged in water and the rest of it is formed into these massive cities controlled by corporations. There is no good food and Mal seems to survive on coffee and cheap ramen noodles. And her weekly ration of a lemon so she doesn’t get scurvy. It’s horrifying, the picture they paint. Graphic and horrifying how little Stellaxis cares about the people populating their city.

It takes some getting used to, the writing. The author jumps straight into the story and I was a little confused in the beginning, trying to pick up on the terms being used so colloquially. I did so after the first chapter and everything flowed very easily from there, in a stream of consciousness style from Mal’s point of view. There were many drawn out battles and a lot of gore, both in game and in real life. About halfway through, we leave the game world behind and settle into the horror of the real world. The game was completely forgotten. Kind of strange, considering the emphasis on the game in the beginning. But the game was just the gateway to contact the SpecOps in real life, so it’s entirely understandable.

Mal is just the type of person to keep pushing even when everything is so dire and impossible to overcome. She pushes to find a solution, to save the remaining operatives and take them from Stellaxis’s control. That is her main goal, for now. But it spread into the wider goal of freeing everyone from their control. It’s too big. It’s too much. But that’s actually a good thing. It’s not like everything comes out okay. But there is a little bit of a hopeful ending all the same. Even amongst all the horrible things happening. There is something.

By the end, there is no straight answer to what happened as the exposition is interrupted by yet another explosion. But we have a grain of insight into what happened and that’s enough for my brain to extrapolate. Human experimentation gone wrong, pushing too far and having few successes. But it was too expensive, too much, unsuccessful to the point where it’s pointless to continue. It’s a classic story, seen over and over again in various different forms, particularly in popular super hero movies. This book turns it on its head, putting such things in the setting of a dystopian America and making the impact even smaller, making such a thing all the more horrifying. There is definitely a bigger story being set up here and I really would like to know more, though it seems unlikely that there is supposed to be another book, either a prequel or sequel.

I enjoyed this immensely, especially the beginning and middle. The end sort of lost me for a bit there but it ended on a good note. Well, good isn’t exactly the word I should use but it was well written and intriguing, just not good for the characters.

I happily give this book four stars, easy. It kept my attention, was easy to understand after the important world building, and described the interpersonal relationships outside of the classic family structure very well. I did see that it had LGBTQ rep but it was not expanded upon enough for my liking. Mal might be asexual or aromantic, but those words were never used. She never expressed romantic attraction towards anyone, though she had a kind of crush/obsession with 22. The author does explain: “I prefer to write implicit aro/ace representation because I don't want to perpetuate any ideas that strong platonic M/F relationships in fiction are ‘only for’ aro/ace readers, but so far many such readers have recognized themselves in Mal.” Which I definitely appreciate! The clues are there for anyone who knows to look.

What happens in Firebreak relates to the real world, as well, in horrifying ways. Many people in this world have little access to fresh, safe to drink water. Even in developed countries like the US, the basic free water is full of chemicals and even lead in some areas. Other water options are expensive or inaccessible in other ways. The protests also directly mirror the real world Black Lives Matter protests of last year and the ones in Ferguson a few years ago, as well. This is very deliberate, I’m sure of it. It establishes a sense of community, not just among Mal and Jessa, and her roommates, but among the people as a whole, working against the system. It’s heartening at the same time as it highlights how helpless we can feel as lone people fighting against something so big we can’t even comprehend it most of the time.

This book would be great for anyone who liked Ready Player One by Ernest Cline or Warcross by Marie Lu. It reaches more depth than Ready Player One did, but it is, in part, based on a virtual game that then translates into the real world.

5 stars.

"Does it make it better, what she did, if she was only following orders when she did it? Fuck if I know that, either. "
This book was described as Ready Player 1 meets streaming and I have to say it hit ALL the marks for me. I really felt so immersed in this story from the very first line. Maybe it's seeing the "hustle and gig economies" crumple my friends, maybe it's the fact that collecting rainwater is illegal in many states under the guise of safety. Maybe it's the fact that over the last year I've seen more protests and the utter weight of feeling hopeless and realizing that swapping one corporate overlord for another isn't really a change. Maybe it's the fact that this book isn't too far from what's happening in the world right now.

But wow, I found myself seeing bleekness through all new lenses. If you're looking for a happy ending - I wouldn't go for this one. If you're looking to be entertained with pop culture references, this ain't the one. However, if you're looking for a book that covers what happens when corporation take control (it's slower and faster than you think) this is the one.

Mal, the MC, just wants to go through her life with her 3 jobs until she sees a truth that she can't ignore. It costs her everything. She goes from an upstanding (read: conforming) citizen until she fights back for what she believes in and while this book tries to end on a hopeful note, I only have to wonder for how long until a drone strike happens to take her out.

This boo gripes you from the very first chapter and refuses to let you go. I hope everyone reads this and realizes that action is necessary, but martyrdom is rarely as glorious as it sounds.

Marketed as similar to Ready Player One with a VR/dystopian setting, this book was that and more. Firebreak is pretty comparable to Ready Player One only in the fact that there's a massive VR element with a few changes like a streaming/ subscriber element. The real focus centers around a very realistic corporate greed, and this aspect is presented very well. We follow Mal, your average person who struggles to make ends meet, and she goes on a Neo-like Matrix adventure where she discovers a huge conspiracy of social control that's beyond everything she could've thought was real.

This is a really good book overall. It is well written, I loved the aromatic/ace rep, and even in its most depressing moments the realism was still poignant and meaningful. The chapters felt a little long at times, but if you're in the mood for a corporate rebellion in a very realistic near-future dystopia, I'd definitely recommend Firebreak.

Thank you so much Gallery/Saga Press and Netgalley for a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you for the opportunity to read Firebreak! I loved the post apocalyptic story. This is a futuristic story where gaming is currency to purchase basic essentials like water. I loved the platonic relationship and I'm always down to read about government take downs.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

Firebreak is a near-future sci-fi novel in which the US has been divided up between two major corporations, Greenleaf and Stellaxis. The two corporations periodically fight over territory, and they have complete control over their citizens and the resources in their districts. Water is particularly tightly controlled, and citizens compete in a virtual war game to help themselves gain more access to resources in the real world. The story centers around Mal, who was orphaned by the war between the corporations and has been given an opportunity to help expose some of the lies the corporations have been telling. In many ways, the plot is a typical "bring down the controlling entity by exposing lies" plot, but it is definitely fun and fast-paced, and Mal is an interesting character. She is a bit of a reluctant leader, and she has trouble connecting with people, which makes the relationships that she does form all the more precious. The one negative aspect for me was that I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the "twists" in the plot. It is obvious (at least to me) from the outset what the corporations are lying about, and it left me wondering a little how the characters in the book could have been so fully taken in by the corporations and the reality they are selling.

Overall, a fun, fast-paced, futuristic sci-fi novel, which I would recommend to fans of the genre, both adult and YA audiences!

This is one of my top books for 2021. Despite it being about a dystopian world in virtual video games and enhanced soldiers there was just show much real life in that made me on edge. There was just simple things that set off big events much like the political landscape of today.
The beginning of the book's pacings slow but it was interesting in I would reading it so fast. And then bam things heated up and you couldn't catch your breath. Not a lot happen but it felt realistic compared to a lot of dystopian books. I did not predict how certain parts would end or what would play a big part of the story.
Also because the core the book is so for me tied to real life, the ending gave me hope for their world but at the same time feelings of misplaced hope.

I really enjoyed this story and pretty much flew through the book while reading other things as well. The author is well know for YA fantasy though I haven’t read any other books by her. This is more adult speculative fiction and deals with the larger issues of corporate control over the lives of citizens and using people to make money by pitting them against each other and controlling resources, especially precious water. There is a devious and nasty underbelly to the two corporate powers that control the world and the protagonist finds out and tries to bring justice to those who deserve it. It has a gaming element but nothing like Ready Player One.

I thought the book was well written but the author can get too wordy and with editing I would have cut at least a quarter of the book. Character development wasn’t awesome though I did really like Mal, the main character and she is a strong female figure which always attracts me in dystopian environments as it shows how women can effect major change. The SpecOps operators were interesting characters as well and would have liked to know ore about them but the book would be even longer if we did. Maybe a duogoly or trilogy next time? This certainly had the bones for that.

I hope to read more by this author and recommend the book if you enjoy speculative fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace is a brilliant novel. I loved the dystopian aspect and it's so gripping and an incredible concept.

This took a while to get off the ground, but when it did, it was good.

The plot centers around Mal, a girl struggling to make ends meet in a post-United States dystopia controlled by two warring mega-corporations. She makes part of her living by gaming in a super-advanced virtual reality MMORPG world.

From this, the "Ready Player One" comparisons are inevitable. This is nowhere near as annoying as RP1, though. It also doesn't have the other side of the coin: that offbeat, entertaining RP1 energy. They spend a lot more time in the real world in this book, and the main character's personality is flat and matter-of-fact. Overall, that means that "Firebreak" is slower to grab you, but in my opinion, a more enjoyable and solid story when you get into it.

This book's game features SecOps characters: unique, massively overpowered NPCs that are based off actual SecOps operatives in the real world. There's a whole fan subculture of hunting them, and following them around like superheroes. The real story starts about thirty-five percent in, when Mal runs into a SecOps fighter in real life.

From there, a cascade of action, corporate lies, intrigue, tyranny, cover-ups, and revolution just start building. It's good and interesting and absolutely kept me reading. The best part, though, is the gradual humanization of the SecOps fighters as we meet them more and more. I kept expecting Mal and 22 to have met before as children, or something to explain her interest in him, but there was no backstory and in the end I was fine with that.

There are only about two or three big game sequences, which makes this a lot less of a "gaming" book than RP1, but honestly it's better that way. I love gaming books, but this was better as a revolution-in-real-life book, because all the stakes were in the real life part of the story. If you can work past the slow start, this book is good.

My first time reading a book by Nicole Kornher-Stace and it was a pretty pleasent experience, so I'm not sure about the YA books, but I will most likely read any further series aimed at adults.

I have received this book in exchange for an honest review, thank you Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley for the opportunity.

───────────────────

I enjoy stories about struggle, and this book is nothing if it didn't have struggle at the basis of its world. The reality the author paints here for Mal and her friends is bleak, it's difficult and it's probably the first dystopian book, in memory anyway, that makes me feel pretty uncomfortable. One of the main things that make this book, or rather the reality of this book easy to immerse myself in is because it's not an impossible possibility. In this pandemic in particular, the past years of war in some areas of the world and some third world countries, shortage of water and food is a very real reality which is why I think that the harshness of the part I saw in this world is on point.

I had more than a few questions when I started the book as it threw me right in the middle of it, I wanted to know more about the game itself and I wanted to know more about the world they live in while learning more about the operatives. By chapter 9 of 22 however, I had all my questions answered and I was ready to fully experience this world.

The plot of the book in itself, is not something very new, and I won't necessarily say that the themes she explored concerning oppression, monopoly and humanity are new either. However, I will gladly say that she combined them in a way that makes the experience very fun, made me root for the characters and made me want to see it till the end without pause for the bigger majority of it.

To be fair though, the one thing I felt that sort of set it apart a bit, would be the streaming angle. Usually, or at least in the books I read where there is a VR gaming angle, like Ready Player One, Warcross and Arena, there is no human interaction between players and viewers. It's a TV show or a broadcast or something of the like, so with the incorporation, she definitely brings something new to the table. I'm not big on streamers, as I rather play the games myself, but I thought that the way she had this angle actually play a bigger role in the movement of the plot than simply a money grab was interesting.

Plot-wise, the book had an overall pretty good pace in my humble opinion and the only time where I felt that it could have been a bit better was part 4, as I think it needed a bit more to it than what I got which made it seem like it ended on a bit of an abrupt way. Until that part however, I did not want to put the book down. I liked the team Mal and Jessa made and I really wanted to learn more about them, I enjoyed seeing them think of new ways of completing their objectives and I also wanted to learn more about the hidden darkness while learning more about the operatives. The way the plot and the pace of the book moved as it was showing me each and every one of those angles was very good.

The characters were also pretty interesting to stick around with, from the main characters to the operatives to the supporting cast felt like they had to add something to the discussion and there was even an instance where I thought that one of the side characters, specifically in chapter 14 in regards to the way forward had a way of thinking that honestly made the most sense to me, even if it might not have been the absolute correct way of moving forward. This variety is always interesting to see, and I kind of wished for more of it.

Until there, everything was going very well, part 4 is when I started having some issues with the book. The author says that she doesn't give a damn about romance and such, which I believe as this doesn't really have it in the same way as other books that want to shoehorn it in for no good reason. However, there is this unreal level of devotion here to a character that to me, feels more like a figurehead worship than anything, comes off as pretty creepy. I tried really hard to convince myself that it's a very strong platonic relationship that may or may not develop if given time and actual reasoning, but that whole focus felt very off to me.

I did hope for the ending the book had, but I had some different characters in mind to end it and I'm not very sure how that would have impacted the overall mood of it, but I do think it would have been a more fun experience for me, as selfish as this sounds.

Like I said, only part 4 had a bit of a snag to it, but the rest of the book is pretty solid. I'm definitely interested in seeing a sequel to this with a bit of an older cast this time, as the story feels open to continuation, but for now, it was a very good first try with Nicole Kornher-Stace's books and I'll most likely be picking up another by her whenever the opportunity presents itself.

By the way, 06> and that's a hill I'm willing to die on :)

This book has a lot of sci-fi, virtual reality, friendship adventures which make it a fun read. Similar to 'Ready Player One', with a good cast of characters makes this. an engaging read.

Book Review for Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Full review for this title will be posted at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

Review of eGalley

Orphaned in the corporate war, Mallory lives in a hotel room with eight other similarly-orphaned young people. They all work multiple jobs, hoping to earn enough to purchase water [a dollar an ounce at the company store] and pay for the room. Mallory’s best job, the one she excels at, is streaming a popular virtual reality war game. For Nycorix [Mallory’s avatar], the highlight of the game is catching sight of SpecOps operatives, celebrity supersoldiers grown and owned by the corporation that runs the forty-five remaining states of the United States of America.

Once upon a time, Stellaxis didn’t control most of the water. Once upon a time, Greenleaf didn’t control most of the agricultural business. Along with other companies, they each grew and rebranded and grew again until there only two giants remained standing: Stellaxis controlling twenty-three states; Greenleaf controlling twenty-two.

And the company controls everything about their lives.

But a chance encounter with one of the operatives reveals a stunning secret: the supersoldiers weren’t created. They were children, stolen, augmented, and tortured until they became supersoldiers to star in the virtual reality game. And when Mallory tries to expose the lies, the most powerful company in the world will bring everything it has to bear . . . against her.

Set in the near future of the twenty-second century society where the gig economy is the norm, gamers uncover a massive secret and reveal to the world the greed, conspiracy, and corporate one-upmanship practiced by Stellaxis, the corporation that controls their lives.

Mallory and her friends are reasonably well-described, as is the setting; however, the backstories for supersoldiers 06 and 22 remain undiscussed beyond the “children, stolen, augmented, and tortured” revelation. Still, there’s a great deal of action as the unfolding story takes a few surprising turns. The power of the corporation is truly frightening while the resoluteness displayed by Mallory and her friends is inspiring.

For readers who enjoy virtual reality games, there is much to appreciate in this fast-moving, action-packed tale of the near future.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Gallery Books and Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley
#Firebreak #NetGalley

This was such a fun ride.

I would say this is like Mr. Robot meets Black Mirror. It is thrilling and fast paced and full of twists and turns. But the thing that will capture you and overcome you is the sense of reality and how this can become our reality in the future.

'Nicole Kornher-Stace, like big name author Blake Crouch, has created a thrilling realistic sci-fi adventure that will leave you on the edge of your chair wondering if this narrative will become reality, or if its already happening to us and we just don't know it yet.

Firebreak is set in a dystopian 22nd century society, where corporations fill the role of an ineffectual government and dehydration is a constant companion. The main character, Mal, is just trying to keep herself afloat by working multiple jobs and scraping together enough subscribers by streaming a video game to keep her water account full enough to stave off kidney failure. When a chance encounter in her virtual reality side hustle leads to attention from an unexpected source, Mal is thrust into the middle of a vast conspiracy, forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world she inhabits and to wonder just how far she'll go to restore justice to a broken world.

Firebreak started out strong, with a well-realized dystopic world, a compelling main character, and a well fleshed-out supporting cast. The initial revelations were well-crafted and kept the story moving, and helped to create emotional interest in the story.

Unfortunately, the book faltered in its third act. Most of the reveals seemed to be used up by that point, and the story unfolded predictably without major fireworks or surprises. While the characters were placed in danger, the conclusion seemed foregone and ultimately the the ending was without anything more than the illusion of high stakes.

I also would have loved to have heard more about 22 and 06's backstories. The book hints early on that they may become more fleshed-out characters, and indeed much of the plot revolves around the treatment of real human beings as two-dimensional avatars, but ultimately fails to deliver anything more than surface-level personalities for these two characters. Given the main thrust of the plot, this felt like a particularly severe missed opportunity.

Loved this book. It had me from the beginning. This book starts fast and doesn’t let go. If you have ever liked gaming online or a fan of say, Sword art Online or dystopian fiction, this book is for you.
No idea if this is a stand-alone or if the author wants to keep this world going but I would definitely like to see more after the amazing world building she built here.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalkey for the ARC of this book.

All the fun of Ready Player One with none of the exhausting 80s nostalgia references and pesky misogyny.

In a very-near future dystopia where two warring corporations control everything and everyone via water and electricity rationing, a thoroughly dehydrated girl just wants to get by.

It was nice to see a dystopian revolution book where things aren't magically better or fixed just because the protagonist stood up and did the right thing. It acknowledges that people will suffer, and die, for the cause and change will be slow. Despite that, the book was hopeful and quite the page-turner. Check it out.

The beginning was quite confusing, and quotes lack quotations that made it even more confusing - I’m a gamer myself, so I shouldn’t have felt as alienated as I did. It took a while before I felt stabilized in the setting.

The characters have an interesting dynamic, and I liked how they really had to work for what they wanted throughout the story. I must also say this story got me into Sci-Fi, I found it’s world incredibly interesting! The characterization was handled well, and no characters felt flat - their motivations made sense and pushed them forward.

I enjoyed most thinks about this book, if not all - and now will be looking into reading more sci-fi and books by this author! I definitely will be buying this when published.

I want to sincerely thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this ARC.

By golly, can this woman write a good yarn or not? The style is reminiscent of "Archivist Wasp" and "Latchkey" but this is a completely different story. And set in a world I hope to encounter again.

Mallory is close to finishing her one thousandth kill for the day, a goal she's been trying to achieve for months, when the unthinkable happens. She spots a lone beacon. There's a SpecOps operative out there and nobody knows it but her. The path to instant fame! But she still has six kills to go and five minutes to the power curfew. How's a girl to decide?

Which starts this unlikeable human on a path that will change things forever. Mal doesn't want to change things forever and pretty much fights it at every step. Antisocial, angry, and apt to snap at the slightest provocation she is nobody's concept of a hero. 22? Yeah, 22 is a hero. So is 06. B? Might be. But B disappeared shortly after filling Mal with a purpose she can't ignore. Leading Mal straight into the arms of a full on firefight against forces she can neither control nor even survive…

Ms. Kornher-Stace writes in a way that pulls you right in. From the first paragraph to the last she is unrelenting in her story-telling. Forcing to you stay involved but in a way that makes you want to be forced to stay involved. Or something like that. I've become so enticed by her writing that I joined Patreon just to send her a pittance a month in hopes to keep her consuming enough coffee to produce more fiction. Fiction which I will eagerly and joyfully devour.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this wonderful title.

I quite enjoyed this book. Gritty and brutal. Don’t let the back-of-the-book descriptions fool you - the video game plays a much smaller role here than one might expect, but there’s so much going on that it’s not necessary, anyway. I wish some of the secondary characters had been fleshed out better, and the pace slowed down during the final third, but these are minor complaints. Overall a good, thought-provoking read with plenty of action.