Introduction

Welcome, my nugs, to another Myers Fiction Review. This week I’ll take you on another cyberpunk journey into the world of Rusted Synapse by Elwood Stevens.

If you love complex characters facing impossible choices in vivid cyberpunk worlds, Rusted Synapse needs to be your next read. This gripping page-turner transports you to 2140, where a disgruntled cyborg veteran takes on a dangerous job that threatens her life and her humanity.

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank Elwood for reaching out and asking for this review. There are so many books out there, and on my TBR pile, that it’s nice to see the effort to bring something to the front of that list. Rusted Synapse is an amazing book, and I hope you all support Elwood Stevens in his journey as an Author!

Summary

Viviana Rodriguez is sitting in one of the most miserable places in the world as she awaits her death, the VA. When she thinks that her death is all but guaranteed, an offer arrives she can’t refuse. Vivi must abduct someone in order to get enough money to become human again. After living so long with the cybernetic enhancements, she’s not so sure she can still consider herself human. The journey forces Vivi to face impossible odds where she must decide if her life or her humanity is more important.

The major conflict you’ll find in Rusted Synapse is the conflicts of Vivi, as she must work with a known enemy, a stranger, and a situation that seems off from the beginning. Looping in her internal conflict, facing the trauma that led to the beginning of the book, Vivi becomes an interesting character to follow through the events that unfold.

Stevens could have begun the book before the scene in the VA. It sounds just as interesting a start as any, but it looks like he followed the structural recommendation of the Story Genius by Lisa Cron. In the Story Genius, Cron recommends not beginning the story on day one, but two to three scenes past those events. This way you bring the readers in to the most interesting part of Act One.

Analysis

The opening scene is a great example of using connotations of a well-known location to add layers to the story in one word. The VA, for those who aren’t familiar with the term, is the Veterans Affairs, an organization set up to help military service members deal with the aftereffects of service. Not everyone knows the history behind the VA, but it isn’t always the best place for service members. If you were to ask a veteran about the VA, you find that they often have more negative to say than good. Elwood Stevens did a great job at using the known to add layers without over explaining.

One of Steven’s strengths is his ability to drop in hints of a backstory without diving into the rabbit hole and riding the tangents until the reader’s lost. Stevens gives the most pertinent information when needed and doesn’t waste the reader’s time. For example, you can tell that the story takes place in the near-future, but the date was stated until a few chapters into the book. The reader doesn’t need to know the year of the events right off the bat. Picking up the book, they know it’s a cyberpunk, or sci-fi, story, and so that adds some futuristic elements before they even reach page one. There are certain expectations with the genre/subgenre, and using those tropes is a great way to trim the fat of the novel.

If you look at other cyberpunk books, the weight of the augmentations isn’t ever addressed. I have never truly considered that aspect until I read it in Rusted Synapse. When he was talking about the repair process, and the complications that came along with it, I couldn’t help but realize my own errors in Cyberpunk stories I’d written. They may not be essential to some stories, but it still plays a role in many aspects of how the characters with cybernetic enhancements interact with the world.

Going back to Steven’s strength of dropping hints of backstory in throughout the story, it also carries over to the dialogue. By using the dialogue to share information is a great way to build strong dialogue. This isn’t the long stretches of explanation by a computer, but a quick sentence or two in a natural response to the conversation.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout Rusted Synapse, and in my opinion, they were all well earned. I often searched my memory and finding the hints that Stevens left behind. The story was well tailored, especially for an author early in their career.

Evaluation and Recommendation

I would highly recommend Rusted Synapse to anyone who loves the disgruntled veteran doing a sketchy job after they’d left the military in some form or another. Also, for the cyberpunk futuristic soldier fans, this is a great new take on what the future might look like. One reason I think people could flock to this story is the character driven nature of the narrative. I may connect with Vivi for her disgruntled veteran personality, but I feel like others could connect with her in their own ways. Be ready for the twists and turns of 2140 as you join Vivi on the job that could save her life, even if it is too good to be true.

I think you also might enjoy Rusted Synapse if you enjoyed: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat, or Nueromancer by William Gibson.

Conclusion

Rusted Synapse is an engaging cyberpunk thriller that follows Viviana Rodriguez, a disgruntled veteran and cyborg, as she takes on a sketchy job to save her life. Elwood Stevens crafts a character-driven narrative full of twists, turns, and backstory reveals that keep the pages turning. For fans of futuristic soldier stories and anyone looking for a fresh take on the cyberpunk genre, Rusted Synapse delivers an entertaining read with a protagonist who is easy to root for despite her morally ambiguous situation. Stevens brings readers into 2140 for an adventure that poses thought-provoking questions about humanity versus technology.

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