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A review by anca_antoci
Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat
5.0
Rating
Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat is definitely a 5-star novel for me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
First impression
Having enjoyed Shadow City so much, I was overjoyed when Anna Mocikat offered me an ARC of Behind Blue Eyes, a cyberpunk noir novel. It was much darker than I anticipated and my first cyberpunk experience.
As a first-timer, the grit and gore took me aback and I had mixed feelings about it for a while. I had a John Wick moment right at the beginning of the book, you’ll know when you read it. But once you get accustomed to the bleak dystopian world, the action will suck you in completely.
About the plot
The action takes place in 2095, in a dystopian setting where what’s left of the world in the aftermath of a big war, was divided into three parts. Each part was ruled by a conglomerate. What was left of America was now called Olympia and was ruled by cyborgs who call themselves guardian angels and have neon blue eyes.
We see everything through Nephilim’s eyes. If you’re familiar with angel mythology, consider this as foreshadowing — fallen angel. She’s a 60% machine – 40% human hybrid apparently tasked to protect the Olympias. In reality, her sole purpose is to seek and destroy anything Metatron (their supreme leader) deems a risk to the conglomerate.
You have to appreciate the irony of giving angelic code names to such killing machines. Nephilim, true to her name acts as a fallen angel. She’s a guardian angel and like her fellow guardian angels, she’s content with her life awaiting the biggest promotion of her life — archangel.
She’s the best at what she does and although she doesn’t question her orders at first, she starts to, especially after an EMP attack that gives her glitches, moments of freedom when she becomes disconnected from the grid.
Themes
There are many themes intertwined in this story. The world-building evokes a mixture of Ready Player One and Alita, except more gritty. It’s a reality of contrasts: a web of truths and lies, right and wrong, humans and machines, love and duty, and ultimately devotion and defiance where Metatron is concerned.
At the heart of the story, there’s a quote from George Orwell:
Throughout the second part of the story, we see a lot of parallels to the “Big Brother” mentality from Orwell’s 1984.
What I liked best
The best part of this novel was Nephilims’ character arc, which was magnificent considering the starting point. The second best part was how fast-paced and action-packed it was along the way. There was no saggy middle in this book. And when you think you figured out what’s going on — plot twist. Even the plot twists have plot twists! It will haunt you.
Read the full review here: https://www.summonfantasy.com/book-reviews/behind-blue-eyes-by-anna-mocikat-book-review
Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat is definitely a 5-star novel for me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
First impression
Having enjoyed Shadow City so much, I was overjoyed when Anna Mocikat offered me an ARC of Behind Blue Eyes, a cyberpunk noir novel. It was much darker than I anticipated and my first cyberpunk experience.
As a first-timer, the grit and gore took me aback and I had mixed feelings about it for a while. I had a John Wick moment right at the beginning of the book, you’ll know when you read it. But once you get accustomed to the bleak dystopian world, the action will suck you in completely.
About the plot
The action takes place in 2095, in a dystopian setting where what’s left of the world in the aftermath of a big war, was divided into three parts. Each part was ruled by a conglomerate. What was left of America was now called Olympia and was ruled by cyborgs who call themselves guardian angels and have neon blue eyes.
We see everything through Nephilim’s eyes. If you’re familiar with angel mythology, consider this as foreshadowing — fallen angel. She’s a 60% machine – 40% human hybrid apparently tasked to protect the Olympias. In reality, her sole purpose is to seek and destroy anything Metatron (their supreme leader) deems a risk to the conglomerate.
You have to appreciate the irony of giving angelic code names to such killing machines. Nephilim, true to her name acts as a fallen angel. She’s a guardian angel and like her fellow guardian angels, she’s content with her life awaiting the biggest promotion of her life — archangel.
She’s the best at what she does and although she doesn’t question her orders at first, she starts to, especially after an EMP attack that gives her glitches, moments of freedom when she becomes disconnected from the grid.
Themes
There are many themes intertwined in this story. The world-building evokes a mixture of Ready Player One and Alita, except more gritty. It’s a reality of contrasts: a web of truths and lies, right and wrong, humans and machines, love and duty, and ultimately devotion and defiance where Metatron is concerned.
At the heart of the story, there’s a quote from George Orwell:
“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that can be given a name.”- George Orwell
Throughout the second part of the story, we see a lot of parallels to the “Big Brother” mentality from Orwell’s 1984.
What I liked best
The best part of this novel was Nephilims’ character arc, which was magnificent considering the starting point. The second best part was how fast-paced and action-packed it was along the way. There was no saggy middle in this book. And when you think you figured out what’s going on — plot twist. Even the plot twists have plot twists! It will haunt you.
Read the full review here: https://www.summonfantasy.com/book-reviews/behind-blue-eyes-by-anna-mocikat-book-review