Review: Falling Into Oblivion by Aaron M. Payne
Blurb:
MODIFICATIONS COME AT A PRICE.
Detective Sol Harkones is tangled in the wires of a deadly conspiracy involving defective body modifications causing permanent brain damage. A suspect is known, but something more dangerous may be lurking in the shadows.
A city plagued by waste.
Violence fills the streets.
Oblivion is within reach.
Falling Into Oblivion is the electrifying first book in the Tendrils of Chrome cyberpunk sci-fi series. If you're a fan of William Gibson's Neuromancer, HBO's True Detective, or Philip K. Dick’s Blade Runner, you will love Aaron M. Payne’s rapid-fire saga.
Review:
Falling Into Oblivion, the debut novel by Aaron M Payne (who you might know on YouTube as BiblioTheory), is an outstanding example of cyberpunk fiction, with a focus on the drudgery of life in a city propelled by an ever expanding class division and unparalleled technological advancements. In this world, modifications to the body or ‘modis’ are sold both legally and under the radar to expand the usual limitations of human potential, and that is where the conflict is hinged.
In its bare form, there are immediate connections to two of my favourite stories ever told: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its spiritual twin, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (which is of course adapted from Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). However, one of the driving tropes behind the story is the duty-driven detective, which I loved immediately. Sol Harkones is a kind of Batman figure in a city not dissimilar from Gotham, and he is as reluctant and brooding as he is duty-bound and determined in all the right places. Payne does a great job of throwing Harkones into an endless spiral of dastardly scenarios, throughout which he barely escapes with his life, and each one more deadly and suspenseful than the last. What separates Harkones from Bruce Wayne, however, is his loveability: his need to secure his family, and therefore, his finances, calls for him to stay the hard line, and this unwavering perseverance really shone through his characterisation. I found myself rooting for him the entire time.
Aside from Harkones and his supporting cast of cop-colleagues and villains alike, Payne also weaves an unpredictable mystery. The book reminded me of what I love about police procedurals, such as PD James’ brilliant Cordelia Gray Mysteries and Matthew Reilly’s page-turning thrillers. I hope Falling Into Oblivion will be the start of a long, serial series that I can binge my way through, and the format Payne has found in this shorter novel is perfect. I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and I’m certain this book will carry a legacy forward that would be comparable to The Dresden Files in the SFF world.
Lastly, the concept of body modification and its legalities utterly enthralled me, and I found myself needing to know more about how they affected the world and altered societal norms and mores. The boundary between a legal and illegal modi is central to the story, so I won’t spoil anything, but I hope readers will come to the same conclusion I did: even on a subtextual level, this story works so well. There’s a lot more to explore, but just enough here to have kept me guessing, as well as give me the foundations I needed to understand the world without being overloaded with information and in-world jargon.
Do not be fooled when you learn this is the author’s first foray into publishing. It might be his first published work, but this book is a sign of his innate talent for managing plot and characters incredibly well. The ending is a cornerstone of great crime stories, in my mind, and opens Sol Harkone’s story up for much further consideration. I can’t wait to see where Aaron M Payne takes this series next.
