Book Review: Space Punks 3 by Anna Mocikat
SPACE PUNKS 3 by Anna Mocikat is the third installment of the Space Punks series that follows the adventures of a group of cybernetically enhanced humans in the distant future. This is more cyberpunk than space opera, though, as it is cynical, sexy, and hyper-violent. You know, just how I like my cyberpunk. It reminds me of Cowboy Bebop with a destroyed Earth and a starship full of oddballs tooling around the colonized solar system.
Space Punks has the premise that humanity has just barely managed to survive a war with their android laborers, called Mimics, that ended up destroying the Earth. Fortunately, humanity had other places already colonized with Mars taking over as humanity's home world. Unfortunately, the price of humanity's survival is the cybernetically enhanced soldiers called the Legion have assumed absolute power. They're a bunch of bullying psychopaths with one of their leaders a sexual sadist that has more than a few terrifying scenes in this book. Fair warning if you're disturbed by that sort of thing.
The first two Space Punks books read more like chapters in a longer ongoing story than they do independent stories. The crew of the Nephilim have been infiltrated by a Mimic, are currently working against a possible revival of the Mimic threat and are dealing with the fact the Legion has appointed a madman to deal with them. Oh, and two of them are finally trying to make their relationship official.
Discussing the plots would be just a continuation of the ones in book 1 and 2, which is not a bad thing. If Anna Mocikat ever assembled these books into one giant collection, it would function perfectly well. The characters are very vivid, though, and the plots are easy enough to pick up so you won't have to re-read the books each time a new one comes out to pick up your place.
The action in the books is also excellent with our cyborg super-soldiers faced against fellow superhumans as well as enemy AI.
Of all the characters in the book, I probably love Aztec the most. A purple haired Amazon cyborg, she's reminiscent of Molly Millions with her hardened take-no-shit attitude as well as sexy deadliness. Aztec is in love with her boyfriend but doesn't have any experience with real relationships so they're tentatively moving from "friends with benefits" to actual monogamy (even marriage) with the grace of a beached whale. It's a rare bit of levity for an otherwise serious book.
I also appreciate the world-building of Space Punks as it's full of fascinating little details. Anna Mocikat has made a lot of effort to describe the technology, culture, and history of this world. Chapters are often preceded by short little vignettes explaining the way everything works. It's a bit like Dune but Space Punks is a far more fun and rollicking adventure type of story.
In conclusion, I strongly recommend Space Punks 3 if you've read the previous two books. Obviously, this is a series you should read in order and isn't a set of standalones. It's good cyberpunk, fun sci-fi, and full of characters who would make a good anime or live action adaptation of (but only on a network that allowed R-rated content).
