Broken Mirror

I’m new to the cyberpunk genre, but I’ve been wanting to give it more of a try, and this one sounded good. Unfortunately, although the book was well-written, I struggled to really get into it.

So, this book was a cyberpunk/alternate history mash-up set in the early 90s in a different version of the U.S. with a kind of bleak feel. That was pretty neat, but, because the world was so different, there was A LOT of description of settings, science and technology, and the alternate world (history, backstory, politics, businesses, religion, geography, etc.). Also, every chapter started with a statement of some sort, like a press statement, an excerpt from a magazine article, something from Victor’s psychiatrist, or something else from the world of the book. On the one hand, I admired all the depth and detail because it’s clear this was a well thought-out world and story. But on the other hand, I’m someone who almost never skims, and I skimmed over most that that stuff. The good news though is that, even though I felt like the descriptions and history bogged down the story some, you don’t need to understand all those details in order to still understand the story and can skim like I did if you want to.

I also felt that the book was rather slow-paced, especially in the beginning. The flashbacks didn’t help with that, but thankfully those eventually stopped.

Something I’m kind of torn about is the characters. They were complex, but most of them weren’t particularly likeable. Elena was a judgmental jerk; she thought of Victor as a second-class citizen because of his mental illness (that’s how they were treated by society, and that’s not her fault, but she herself also thought that at one point), “watching him struggle made her feel more alive,” she referred to him as “insane” at one point, she lied to him, and she blamed him for the fact that she got addicted to stims (a drug) and then blamed him when she got addicted again because “living with a person with MRS should be classified as a medical condition meriting the strongest prescription available.” Tosh was a creepy pervert. Ozie was manipulative and secretive. Victor’s family just dismissed him because of his mental illness and wouldn’t listen to him even when he had proof of things. Granfa Jeff, even in death, managed to be cryptic even though it seems that just telling people things would’ve saved a whole lot of trouble. Even people on the street and in public places were jerks. I think Chico may have been my favorite character despite the fact that he had like three lines, all of which were said while he was bleeding out from a knife wound.

Then again, I shouldn’t be complaining since I often feel characters in books are too nice and perfect, and these were just legitimately flawed, like real people (although thankfully I don’t know any real people like Tosh). And Victor (the main character and therefore the most important one) was a good character because I could sympathize with him and even relate in some ways, so he was likeable in that way even though he was flawed.

Last but not least, another good thing about the book was that there was a lot of focus on mental illness. Victor’s illness was a fictional one, it seemed kind of like a cross between synesthesia and schizophrenia with a touch of empath ability, so you won’t learn about actual mental illness from reading this, but the reactions and stigma toward his illness and the way he was treated because of it felt realistic.

So all in all, this was maybe not quite for me, but it had a very in-depth, thought-out alternate world and realistic, legitimately flawed characters, and I can see other readers who like both these things being able to sink into the book!

Thanks to Netgalley for making this available. I didn’t see the Goodreads blurb which was a bit more in depth as I didn’t know it was alternative history and cyberpunk neither of which are my genres. I might have skipped it had I known. That said, I did like it and if I were more of a fan of those genres I might have really loved it.

In this alternative history, the Civil War ended with the death of Mrs. Lincoln, not Abe and they decided in the rebuilding period that skin color didn’t matter (we should be so lucky) but on the other hand, there was no strong United States, instead it’s a fractured country of regions that may or may not get along. Our main protagonist Victor Eastmore, lives in the California area and his grandfather was instrumental in curing cancer and he’s working on a neurological condition Mirror Resonance Syndrome, i.e. the titular Broken Mirror. It’s like a cross between high function autism, synesthesia and absence seizures.

Victor is a Broken Mirror but to his horror, his grandfather shuts down their hospital and research and soon after he’s dead. Victor believes his beloved grandfather was murdered. Not only does no one believe him, including his family, his grandmother wants him arrested and institutionalized. Here’s the main plot of the novel: how horrible it is to stigmatize mental illness and to rise above it. Of course, in order to end something, that means it has to exist and boy does it ever in this. The whole background of the novel is about how horribly these neuro-atypical ‘broken mirrors’ are treated even Victor who is wealthy and from a respected family. In fact he’s facing being reclassified and locked away (a system born of a massacre waged by one person with this syndrome, it would be like one mass shooting by a schizophrenic resulting in all people with schizophrenia being brought in several times a year to pass a test or be locked away).

With his condition, Victor is starting this investigation into his grandfather’s death behind the eight ball. All he has for help is a data egg from his grandfather that won’t open, his ex-girlfriend Elena who’s back in his life, his former friend Ozie a brain hacker he lost touch with and Tosh, a Native American friend of his grandfather Victor has never met. The problem is everyone has their own agenda (including his boss and his Aunt Circe) and Victor is manipulated at every turn.

It was a bit slow to start and only a small part of the mystery is solved by the end. I did like Victor. He makes for a sympathetic character. Once the story really gets moving, it rolls on well. I just wish the rest of the characters were a bit more likeable. I rather wished Victor would have dumped them all and run off on his own. One thing did bug me: It was listed as LGBTQIA and honestly there is almost none of that. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need the character to be in a relationship as that’s just a part of who they are but all we had here was literally one sentence saying Victor is bisexual. I’m fine with him being in a committed (sort of) heterosexual relationship but he doesn’t even correct Tosh when he says Victor obviously likes girls (even though Tosh is the one he told he was bi). Maybe there’ll be more on the spectrum in further novels but if you’re picking this up hoping for a hot gay relationship, you’re going to be very disappointed. That’s not this novel. In fact, I would have put Victor under asexual.

It does, however, do well on the diversity spectrum. Ozie is African, Elena Hispanic and Victor is mixed race. I liked the story and if you like cyberpunk you’ll probably enjoy it.

2017 continues to be the year of outstanding sci-fi novels!

I don't know what the hell I was expecting, but it sure wasn't this. I mean, not to generalise, but when you download one of those auto-approval thingys from Netgalley, you aren't expecting a masterpiece, are you?

But that's what I got. A complete masterpiece.

The worldbuilding was extremely good and well-developed without info-dumping, and bits and piece of the world were woven in throughout the narrative so your knowledge builds up throughout the novel rather than just beginning the novel like "ok here's the deal" which is what a lot of spec-fic writers do. This is a relatively long novel, not super long but a bit longer than average, yet no part dragged at all; the pacing was perfect and the suspense was drawn out throughout the book. There were one hundred million gazillion kersquillion plot twists and every character was so complex, and intriguing, and flawed.

It ended on a cliffhanger and I still have nine thousand theories and questions, but at the same time I'm not dissatisfied with how it ended. It was the perfect beginning to a series and I need every following volume to be published immediately, thanks.

I was initially interested in this book because I found it in the LGBT section, but these themes aren't really explored and there's only a couple a throw away sentence with brief mentions of flirting between men. Despite the initial disappointment in this respect, I actually really enjoyed the book. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 was rather expository and read more like the coming of age story of an unreliable narrator, but Parts 2 and 3 were very exciting with unexpected developments around every corner. I haven't read too much sci-fi or too many thrillers before this, but Parts 2 and 3 felt like a cyberpunk thriller to me. The story also had some strong literary elements, with interesting commentary on family, racism, and ableism, in addition to some motifs. I really enjoyed the "fiction as non-fiction" excerpts at the beginning of each chapter. These contributed to the exposition without boring and as the story progressed they sometimes even raised more questions than answers, which contributed to the story's energy. The book wasn't perfect by any means, but few books bring me the same pulse pounding anticipation that Broken Mirror did when the stakes rose, so it's earned all 5 of its stars.