Received this ARC as a win from Goodreads. It is not a graphic novel as I thought but a 200+ page novel with occasional illustrations. Put out by Heavy Metal so you know it will be full of Sci-Fi, violence and sex. In other words, a hormonally challenged college boy should be the one reading this. Instead they got this only slightly more mature 59 year old bookworm to read this while my wife gives me strange looks as she glances at the lurid cover...
So I finished it and it is pretty much what I expected from the first ten pages on; A R-rated cyberpunk sexploitation pulp novel. The writing is rather pedestrian with a few clever moments. The plot is fairly predictable to any one who ever picked up a Heavy Metal magazine and probably predictable even if they have not seen HM material. The plot is also quite chauvinistic. In the book, there are essentially two type of women; dumb sex object or smart sex object. The fact that this novel is only part of the story, leaving me on a cliff hanger as a hook to book 2, didn't help my assessment especially since I really don't care about what happens.
To rehash what I said in the first paragraph, this is adolescent fantasy stuff not really suitable for anyone over the age of 25 or without a penis. The chauvinistic attitude will either bore or offend most women. For the narrow audience I described...well...most of them might give this book a generous three stars for titillation value. As for me, barely two stars.
