Company Town

February 22, 2016
Ashby smoothly brings mass market noir detective fiction into the near future, but she struggles to resolve her story satisfactorily. Hwa does pretty well for herself as a bodyguard for the sex workers who populate a self-contained community/oil rig off the eastern coast of Canada. She wants cybernetic enhancements, but her uncaring mother won’t let her get them. When an obscenely rich family with unusual views buys the entire town, Hwa’s brought into their family affairs, which include multiple murders. Hwa is an immediately likable protagonist who isn’t afraid to shatter rules—or bones. The world is an updated version of Raymond Chandler’s, with gray morals and broken characters, and Hwa’s internal monologue has just the right balance of introspection and wit. Unfortunately, Ashby (the Machine Dynasty series) twists the plot one too many times by the end. Readers are left with a resolution that’s original but feels forced into too few pages to work properly. This is a small blemish in an otherwise very solid page-turner. Agent: Monica Pacheco, McDermid Agency.

March 15, 2016
A teenage genius and his bodyguard uncover unpleasant corporate secrets and face a potentially otherworldly threat in this near-future sci-fi thriller. New Arcadia is a failing town-sized oil rig in the Canadian Maritimes, recently purchased by Lynch Ltd. Rumors abound about the community's future, and in the center of this turmoil is thrust Go Jung-Hwa, a skilled fighter and bodyguard for the sex workers' union. The heir to the Lynch empire, 15-year-old genius Joel, has received death threats that seem to come from the future, and his elderly, ruthless father, Zachariah, believes that only Hwa can protect him. Poor and suffering from a congenital disorder that has stained her skin and given her epilepsy, Hwa has never received the augments or implants that most people have--which means that she can't be hacked. But that doesn't mean she and Joel can't be stalked by an invisible serial killer who targets both them and the sex workers Hwa used to guard. We don't learn much about the world outside of New Arcadia, but the microcosm we do experience--a single-industry town dependent on the continued need for fossil fuels, where corporations act like governments and nearly everyone is some form of cyborg--is intriguing and feels reasonably grounded in potential future trends. Ashby (iD, 2013, etc.) hints at the more outre, time-travel elements of the plot early on, but they still seem almost grafted on to the more realistic aspects of the story. They detract from the book's hard-edged authenticity and ultimately undercut a major theme: Hwa overcoming her hatred of and shame at her physical appearance. There's also a killing that occurs midway through the book that ought to have major repercussions for Hwa but is apparently swept under the rug. Begins with vivid characters and solid worldbuilding bones but doesn't entirely hang together.

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April 15, 2016

Times are hard on the floating oil rig community of New Arcadia. An explosion tanked the local economy and left an opening for the Lynch family to take over the Canadian rig. Hwa, bodyguard for the local union of sex workers, agrees to work for the family, protecting the chosen heir, Joel. Lynch has been receiving death threats from what appears to be an alternate future time line while a serial killer seems to be targeting some of Hwa's former clients. Hwa is a rare thing in this postsingularity world: an unaugmented human. But that doesn't mean she is defenseless. The big draw of this mystery-sf blend from Ashby (vN), Hwa is spread thin among various loyalties and makes the most of her skills as a martial artist and investigator, getting back up no matter how many times she's knocked down. She even opens herself up emotionally for the first time with her security boss, Daniel Siofra. VERDICT The plotting is slightly uneven, with a few too many narrative threadsthrown out but not woven in (or pulled at too abruptly). Still, fans of futuristic mysteries will find plenty to enjoy here.--MM

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
In Ashby's kinetic and original science-fiction thriller, a corporate heir's bodyguard contends with time-traveling assassins, nanobot-assisted serial murders, and (only a bit incongruously) falling in love. Hwa is used to being overlooked by people in New Arcadia, a city built on an oil rig floating off the Canadian Maritimes coast. Lacking bioengineered enhancements, she's the only fully organic person on the rig-burg, but not by choice: her pitiless mother won't pay for them, even to cure Hwa's seizure disorder. After years of martial-arts training, Hwa is a skilled fighter with a steady job protecting unionized sex workers. When she takes a job guarding the youngest heir to the Lynch corporate empire that owns New Arcadia, she finds their dazzling world hides many dangers, from jealous siblings to post-Singularity future AI. Meanwhile, a serial killer stalks Hwa's sex-worker friends in a plot that may be connected to the Lynch family. Despite a confusing, underdeveloped wrap-up, this is a fascinating mix of detective noir and near-future sf with cinematic world building and a broken but resilient, unquestionably badass heroine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)