A Novel By Sean Gow
‘Neurowned’ by Sean Gow is a fast-paced action adventure that asks some interesting questions about what a potential future with AI might look like.
Told in dual perspective, the story cuts between two female leads who exist on different sides of the law – a detective and an illegal racer – as their lives collide and merge into a quest to save humanity from a nefarious foe. The world we find ourselves in is a semi-distant future, where there are mega cities, fold-up bikes, and the internet is a thing of the past – the new, latest way to connect is through the v-net. This connection plugs directly into your brain, augmenting reality and also allowing the user to directly experience other’s sensations. In this world there are technophobes, underground resistance movements, and shady corporations, as you might expect to find in any dystopian novel. When people start dying mysteriously (and gruesomely) whilst accessing the v-net, a chain of events begins to unfold that ends with a frantic struggle to save humanity itself.
There are some interesting ideas in this book and it poses some valuable questions about AI and ourselves. The two female leads are brave and courageous, which is always great to see. The pacing is good and the story moves quickly from one incident and action scene to the next, not pausing for too long in between. I do think that the book would benefit from a further thorough edit – there are a number of grammatical and spelling errors, and some parts of the narrative, particularly some of the inner thoughts of the characters and their dialogue exchanges, that might have been improved with further editing.
Having said that, the story has some imaginative concepts and offers an engaging take on a dystopian future. The nods and references to existing stories are clear – for example, there is one character called Sudo Deckhard and a group called The Glitches – and the range of sci-fi influences that appear in ‘Neurowned’ are fun to pick out. Sean Gow’s play on ideas about how our futures might turn out is an enjoyable ride.
Neurowned is available for purchase at: https://amzn.to/3N9tSZ3
(Review by Robin Stevens)
