The latest book from the author of ‘The Will of the Many’ trilogy, James Islington, drops you into a world of futuristic action on page one and never lets up. Starting as a kind of reverse closed-room mystery, the enhanced cybernetic main character, Azure, is trying to keep a mystery employer alive inside a not-quite-locked-enough compound. Once the action spills out of the compound and into the futuristic city, the fun really begins. The world-building is clever and exceptional; the many cyberpunk elements are never gratuitous but all serve to illuminate a future society where the poor have turned on the ultra-rich, human bodies can be modified for speed of thought or action, and animals have been enhanced for both defense and offense. Deeper questions of justice, equality, surveillance, autonomy, mob rule, and democracy in general are constantly lurking just under the surface of this fast-paced thriller (and often rise above it). Chaos and adventure abound, and if people whose entire worlds are turned upside down sometimes forgive the bionically enhanced Azure a little too easily, it’s forgivable in a story so well-paced, compelling, and short enough to finish in a single sitting – which I did, and you’ll want to as well, because it’s a fun ride to be on.
Scion by James Islington, (List Price: $28, S&S/Saga Press, 9781668239247, September 2026)
Reviewed by Doron, Octavia Books in New Orleans, LA