36 Streets

by T.R. Napper

Altered Carbon and The Wind-Up Girl meet Apocalypse Now in this Ditmar and Aurealis award-winning, fast-paced, intelligent, action-driven cyberpunk, probing questions of memory, identity and the power of narratives.

Lin 'The Silent One' Vu is a gangster in Chinese-occupied Hanoi, living in the steaming, paranoid alleyways of the 36 Streets. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, everywhere she is an outsider.

Through grit and courage, Lin has carved a place for herself in the Hanoi underworld under the tutelage of Bao Nguyen, who is training her to fight and survive. Because on the streets there are no second chances.

Meanwhile the people of Hanoi are succumbing to Fat Victory, an addictive immersive simulation of the US-Vietnam war. When an Englishman – one of the game's developers – comes to Hanoi on the trail of his friend's murderer, Lin is drawn into the grand conspiracies of the neon the mega-corporations backed by powerful regimes that seek to control her city.

Lin must confront the immutable moral calculus of unjust wars. She must family, country, or gang. Blood, truth, or redemption. No choice is easy on the 36 Streets.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Asia, Audiobook

453 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2022

About the author

T. R. Napper is a multi-award-winning author. His honours include the prestigious Australian Aurealis four times. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Grimdark Magazine, and numerous others. Napper received a creative writing doctorate for his thesis: The Dark Century, 1946 - 2046. Noir, Cyberpunk, and Asian Modernity (yes, he is a Doctor of Cyberpunk).

Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs throughout Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period he was a resident of the Old Quarter in Hanoi for several years, the setting for his acclaimed debut novel, 36 Streets.

These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where, in addition to his writing, he runs art therapy programs for people with disabilities.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

TR Napper writes an edgy cyberpunk, sci-fi detective noir, set in Chinese ruled war torn Vietnam in Ha Noi, featuring the flawed 24 year old Lin Thi Vu, the silent one, her language skills are not the best, relying on translations that come up in the corner of her eye through the on-retina, having been raised in Australia. Lin is a gangster, an accomplished fighter working for Bao Nguyen, in this hard hitting, gritty, hallucinatory, over-bright, colourful neon and paranoid 36 Streets. Reliant on booze and addicted to the drug ice-seven to cope with the hard living world she inhabits, Lin has had enough of taking part in exposing Viet Minh guerilla operations, and is looking to do something different. Bao has just the job, wanting her to play private detective, after all it uses many of her current skill set, working contacts, using informants, tracking down people who do not wish to be found, not to mention having the requisite experience of being regularly beaten up.

There is a Englishman in need of the services of a PI, staying at The Metropole Hotel, where the rich can do and get anything amidst the background of local food shortages, starvation, and the burning pyres of the dead. Lin goes to meet the louche Herbert Molayson, he is an integral part of the development of the popular video game Fat Victory, the main programmer, Raymond Chang, has been murdered, and he wants her to find the other missing man in their enterprise. With a traumatic past, Lin has no sense of a home, she is a woman laden with demons, having undergone unbearable personal losses, experiencing heartbreaking grief, and her relationship with her family, Kylie, her twin sister, Phuong, is the polar opposite of her, is a dysfunctional mess. She is the eternal outsider, in Vietnam and Australia, trying to keep her emotional distance, avoiding getting close to anyone.

With the apparent background of gang warfare with the Green Dragons, Lin investigates a case where nothing and no-one is as they appear, including her client, having to face what appears to be an unbeatable titan of an opponent in the American Passaic Powell. As the death tolls climbs, it turns out the dangerous game, Fat Victory, is being used as a weapon of war. This is a story of identity, of memories and their instrumental role in the creation of narratives of who we are, personally and nationally, of family, of never ending conspiracies of war, history, and colonialism. Napper's world building is dark, outstanding and imaginative, and his writing drips with atmosphere, capturing the geopolitics and history of this part of the globe. A terrific read, but I must warn readers that the levels of brutality and violence are shatteringly high. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

[T.R. Napper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't review my own novel, which would be a little over-the-top, to say the least. Rather, I thought I'd share Richard (Altered Carbon) Morgan's completely over-the-top praise. We used part of his quote on the front cover, but the full quote is so long the publisher couldn't fit it even on the inside pages. As such, this is the only place to find the unabridged version of his review:

"A couple of years ago, I said I couldn’t wait to see where T.R. Napper’s science fiction would take me next. Turns out, it was worth the wait. 36 Streets glows bright and hallucinatory as tropical neon, goes down smooth as warm sake, cuts deep as a nano-steel blade.

Once again, Napper honours classic cyberpunk with fresh perspectives and hot genre recombinations, a nasty new future gleam, the proverbial new coat of paint. But there are more austere echoes here too, of Graham Greene and Kazuo Ishiguro, of a whole post-colonial literary heritage banging to be let in.

In a genre stuffed with facile hero narratives, 36 Streets consistently chooses something else - messy humanity, grey moral tones and choices, hard-edged geopolitical truth. Lin Thi Vu stalks the mean streets of a Chinese-occupied Hanoi, pure heir to a cyberpunk ancestry stretching right back to Molly Millions, but the ghosts and global contexts that haunt her add whole other dimensions to the form. She’ll carve her way deep into your heart, and then she’ll break it in two. Raw and raging and passionate, this is cyberpunk literature with a capital fucken L. Get it while it’s hot!"

[James Tivendale · Rating 4 out of 5]

36 Streets is an intense and violent cyberpunk thriller that's set in a futuristic Vietnam and mainly follows the point of view perspective of the 24-year-old gangster and formidable martial artist, Lin Thi Vu - "the silent one".

In 36 Streets, Napper has created an engaging, vibrant, and deadly vision of the future. The story is gritty, with elements of mystery, and follows members of a crime syndicate as they operate within the 36 Streets. The novel presents a period in time that incorporates memory wiping, brainwashing, and possibilities that the state could be using computer games as a weapon. A quick summary on 36 Streets could be that it's clever, beautifully written, the world-building is top-quality, and it presents a plausible and frightening take on the future.

Napper is an excellent short story writer and I enjoyed Neon Leviathan a lot, so it's good to see that he's succeeded with crafting a commendable full-length debut. It features well-developed characters, who aren't always likeable, but they are gripping to follow. The majority of the main characters are relatable and engaging and I liked the references back to old songs or movies that we're familiar with, as well as to popular culture references that are set in Napper's future but are part of the now to Lin and the 36 Streets.

36 Streets mainly follows "present-day" happenings but there are also flashbacks to earlier periods in Lin's life (with her family, and when being trained by her master in martial arts) which adds to our lead's layers and reasonings for her seemingly cold demeanor. One of my favourite scenes is regarding the previously mentioned computer game phenomenon, which is called "Fat Victory". This lengthy segment could have been one of T.R's standalone short stories for its impact and completeness, but it fits finely with the overarching themes and adds to the happenings of the main story.

I had a mostly enjoyable reading experience with 36 Streets. My only semi-negative is that some of the villains seemed a bit cartoonish. This might just be the way my mind pictured them though, possibly because of strange mannerisms or quirks, and in the grand scheme of things, these characters have their place and are integral to the plot.

To conclude, with short, sharp chapters that are presented with a dark tone, and also a fitting pace and voice for the story, 36 Streets displays that Napper has huge potential to be a big deal in the adult Cyberpunk scene. This full-length debut, like Neon Leviathan before it, shows that the author has bags of talent and I'll follow his career closely.

PS. Some of the technology utilised by the characters in this advanced technological age reminded me of those featured in Louise Carey's Inscape which is another fine, newish cyberpunk novel that has similar vibes and is worth checking out too.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
This was a wonderfully engaging piece of cyberpunk fiction. Normally this is not my favourite subgenre of science fiction so it takes a special book to grab my attention.

This book was the right balance between characters and action. I loved the main character, Lin, who was an unlikeable moral gray unapologetic woman. The narrative is definitely adult with a little sex and lot of vulgar language. This fit the gritty tone of the book perfectly. The worldbuilding was alsp incredibly rich and robust. I particularly loved the Vietnamese cultural aspects within this novel.

The story itself was compelling with a good mystery surrounding the video game. The ending wasn't quite as epic as I hope, but I still very much enjoyed the ride.

I would highly recommend this one to science fiction readers looking for a fresh, new diverse cyberpunk novel.

[Nick Borrelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cyberpunk is a subgenre that I don't get a chance to delve into much. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but for some reason books that fall into this category rarely come across my radar. I really enjoyed T.R. Napper's short story collection Neon Leviathan, so when I heard he had a brand new full-length novel coming out, and one that has been praised by none other than legendary cyberpunk author Richard K. Morgan, well I simply had to acquire an advance copy. Publisher Titan Books was nice enough to provide one for me and I thank them for the opportunity to read this one a little early.

Once 36 STREETS kicked off, I definitely got a distinct Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, Norylska Groans vibe. We are introduced to the morally gray main character Lin Thi Vu and right away it's obvious that she is harboring some deeply-rooted shit and is involved with people who are not really the most savory of individuals. Couple that with an obviously fractured family situation and yeah, I knew this wasn't going to be a tale that would play out in the usual warm and fuzzy tropey manner.

The thing that really endeared me to this book is the multi-layered story dealing with not only Lin's hardened gangster life, but also the murder mystery that takes root about a quarter of the way in. In that regard, it really elevated the story from simply a one-dimensional character study to a deeply complex plot that branched out in a number of different directions that I didn't expect.

And then there were the passages that depicted the VR simulation Fat Victory, which admittedly were extremely raw, violent, and difficult to get through at times to be quite honest. Fair warning, the language used by many of the army grunts and commanders are about the most cruel and hateful that you can imagine, especially toward certain groups of people. At the same time I realized what the author was trying to do. Napper doesn't sugarcoat anything from that period of history and that particular war. Eventually I got used to the fact that this wasn't going to be a pretty portrayal and it made it easier to focus on the overall story.

As far as that story goes, I found it to be very engrossing and that was only compounded by how the murder mystery plays out. In the end, I found 36 STREETS to be an unforgiving and unapologetic story about the harsh realities of war and how people in society can be marginalized in the worst of ways. And yet, the main character in this story refuses to allow this to define or defeat her. Yes, she's not the most likable "protagonist", but having been put through the things that she has, we can understand that even the most flawed can find redemption.

36 STREETS is due to be released on January 18th, but definitely get your preorders in now because you aren't going to want to let this one slip by you. Challenging at times, but the moments of brilliance are worth sticking with it until the end.

[Peter Baran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action is difficult in books, and often I read an adventure novel that would be better blocked out as a comic or I assume might originally have been a screenplay. That's important here for 36 Streets because there is a lot of action, predominantly martial arts, which is not only clearly described but its character purpose is normally very clear. Action is character is a classic film criticism line, but it works well here too. And its just as well, because there is a lot going on in 36 Streets.

Lin is an mob enforcer for a Hà Nội gang in future Chinese occupied Vietnam. A refugee bought up in Australia and then deported, she feels like an outsider, both from her family and her country of birth. She is given a job, as a pseudo-private detective, to find a missing English games designer, who designed an immersive neural simulation game called Fat Victory, taking place in the American Vietnam war. As you might imagine, the investigation gets violent, uncovers some surprising truths that involve memory manipulation, propaganda and some very big picture things about Chinese and Vietnamese goals. There are a number of cyber-punk staples in here around memory altering surgery, implemented memory, though the books grounded setting within a Hà Nội gangster milieu makes it seem fresh, and the mystery plays out in a very satisfying manner. Lin is a terrific creation as a central character too, damaged and hard-boiled as they come, you sense in her a self-destructive urge that is exploited by everyone around her, and yet with enough agency to be responsible for her own doom. This is cyberpunk noir but I didn't really think of cyberpunk still I started writing this review - it ticks all the boxes for that genre, but very few of the weaknesses.

What makes 36 Streets work, above and beyond the character work mentioned above, is its setting. Vietnam is a quixotic place, full of contradictions. I spent a week in Hà Nội almost twenty years ago, and some of the conversations I had with locals chime well with the philosophy expounded here. It has been colonised before, and yet it knows how to run a resistance, how to live under and undermine a grand power. It equally identifies how long China have been an imperial power, and to them Vietnam should be Chinese (and taking place after China has become that global power is good subtle futurology). Despite its future setting, this was a Vietnam and Hà Nội I recognised, and whilst I was not plunged into a conspiracy to brainwash a nation, or rewrite its history, it was a pleasure to revisit it and watch the action unfold.

[caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing but PAINFUL

[Douglas Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

36 Streets is not only terrific cyberpunk, it transcends the genre. This is what cyberpunk should be: action-packed melodrama in a near-futuristic high-tech dystopia with a heavy dose of social commentary on the class war between the downtrodden and the powerful elite. In this case, the downtrodden are the Vietnamese, and the powerful elite are their Chinese overlords in a continuation of a conflict that has lasted for millennia. The "36 Streets" in the title refers to a fabulous "Night City" neighborhood, with crowded labyrinthine streets, near anarchy, high crime, ubiquitous violence, jerry-rigged futuristic tech, and street people struggling not only to survive but to live as freely as possible under an authoritarian regime. That's what we want in cyberpunk, and Napper offers it all up with a uniquely Southeast Asian twist.

What makes 36 Streets special is the emotion-packed story of Lin Thi Vu, "The Silent One." Born in Australia of Vietnamese descent, Lin comes to Ha Noi at an early age and struggles with limited success to reconcile her two worlds. A rebellious lone wolf by nature, Lin allows herself to be adopted and mentored by a criminal boss and trained in the martial skills by a brutal and abusive master. In the process, she tries unsuccessfully to shield herself emotionally from her mother and twin sister, who love her unconditionally (though, in the case of her sister, critically). Lin's story is both poignant and heroic. And dark. Very dark.

Oh, and 36 Streets is also a terrific noir-inspired mystery. And a psychological drama steeped in questions about identity and the nature of reality. And a highly entertaining page-turner. Yes, this book is ambitious, and, ultimately, fulfilling.

So much cyberpunk is puerile comic-book level adolescent wish-fulfillment. If you are looking for a mature well-written take on the genre that combines fascinating projections about the future with solid historical underpinnings, 36 Streets is the book you want to elevate to the top of your reading list.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the incredible, immersive experience that was his 2020 short story anthology Neon Leviathan, T.R. Napper returns with 36 Streets, a full-length novel in the same setting that delivers mystery, action, compelling questions and heart-wrenching emotion. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia and comfortable with neither heritage, Lin ‘the Silent One’ Vu is a brutally efficient gangster living and working in the dangerous streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. When her boss tasks her with investigating a murder at the request of a strange, rich Englishman, Lin has the opportunity to put her skills to a different use to normal. As her investigation proceeds though, the secrets she uncovers force her to confront her own painful past, and consider anew her place within the thirty-six streets.

It’s a book that’s rich in texture and detail, full of complex themes but told in such an engaging, accessible way and populated by such compelling characters that it’s simply impossible to put down. Napper consistently finds the right balance between flair and accessibility, dipping in and out of a choppy, noirish descriptive style that’s remarkably effective, but using it sparingly and to great effect, never letting style dominate over substance. It’s not always an easy book in terms of its content, from Lin’s brutally violent lifestyle to its believably bleak sense of time and place, but that’s as it should be – it’s a book with points to make and absolutely no intention of pulling any blows. Whether as a standalone story or as an extension of Neon Leviathan, this is speculative fiction at its brutal, honest best – call it cyberpunk, call it sci-fi, whatever you call it this is just a great book.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2022/03/...

[Adrian Darwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full video review here: https://youtu.be/sGBAyJgF82k

4.5 Stars

This was my first real foray into cyberpunk and I loved it.

36 streets is a cyberpunk thriller exploring themes of patriotism, resistance and memory. It is a fast paced no holds barred read with an extremely interesting protagonist.

The setting is the old quarter of Ha Noi, Vietnam, during a long running war with China. Ha Noi is currently occupied and our protagonist Lin is second in command of a gang that is top dog on the 36 streets.

The plot morphs beautifully from mystery to thriller to literary, and I was here for it. Napper's writing is concise and yet poignant, and manages to convey the setting of future-tech Vietnam exceedingly well.

For anyone looking for an intro to cyberpunk I couldn't recommend it more highly.

[David Stoltenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I hoped it would be

Pre-ordered this based on a short story from the same alternate future that came out last year. What the Ghost in the Shell universe is to Japan, this one is to Vietnam, only better. Brilliant debut. More. And soon.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential. 36 Streets is everything you'd want in a classic cyberpunk story.

✅Neon-soaked Asian megacity
✅Hard-boiled mystery
✅Hanoi's seedy criminal underbelly
✅Fully realized gray protagonist
✅A ton of heart beneath the grit

Hanoi just works so damn well as a cyberpunk backdrop. It's familiar enough to feel like coming home for the Neuromancer-initiated, and alien enough to enjoy every detail of a country steeped in dark history.

Short chapters and a fast pace make the whole book go down easy from cover to cover. The characters feel fully realized and earn your empathy in spite of the violent path they've chosen (except for the somewhat goofy big-bad, Passaic Powell).

Highly recommend for any fan of the genre or gritty crime stories with a lot more depth than your average thriller.

[Zac Topping · Rating 5 out of 5]

36 Streets is gritty, hardboiled cyberpunk scifi at its best. Downtrodden characters fighting to survive in a vicious world controlled by powerful elites who use psychological conditioning to manipulate the masses, all set in a Chinese-occupied Vietnam of the future. Gangs rule the neon-soaked streets, foreign soldiers fill the bars and brothels, and cloak-and-daggers give way to guns and cyber-tech. There's a lot going on beneath the surface of this one that I think will appeal to fans of writers like Richard Morgan and William Gibson. I, for one, am very much looking forward to more from T.R. Napper.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re a fan of William Gibson, Richard Morgan, or good SF in general you can’t miss T.R Napper’s 36 Streets. I loved this book. It’s a damn-near perfect mix of the kinetic and the thoughtful, and I'm not surprised that it won the Aurealis award.

The story follows Lin Vu, a Vietnamese Australian who has involuntarily found herself back in the country of her birth, where she has drifted into the Hanoi criminal underworld, becoming an enforcer for a local hard man. The future Hanoi she breaks heads in is suffocating once again under Imperial occupation, this time by Vietnam’s neighbor and long-ago previous ruler – China.

Chinese soldiers patrol the streets. Viet Minh rebels bomb checkpoints. Collaborators sell out Vietnamese patriots. And on the edge of these groups, Lin and her gang ply their dirty trade, making money off everyone and working on the dangerous edge of the wartime economy. Meanwhile, Fat Victory – a dangerously immersive VR game set during the American war of the previous century – is addicting swathes of Hanoi’s population.

I loved Lin as the protagonist in the story, but for my money the second great character in Napper’s novel is the setting. The story is drenched in atmosphere – the humidity and heat of Hanoi, the vivid neon of occupied, futuristic Vietnam, the pungent tastes and smells of banh mi and pho. It’s clear the author has spent a great deal of time in Vietnam, and his familiarity with and love for the country comes through in his work.

Vietnamese history is deftly brought into the narrative, juxtaposing Napper’s occupied city with those of the past under the Americans and French, and highlighting the indefatigable drive of the Vietnamese people to be independent of foreign rule.

It’s a hell of a ride, full of bone-crunching action sequences, political intrigue and cybernetically augmented combat (the X-37 Changhe Infiltration Endoskeleton is particularly cool).

Like Sean Williams’ Metal Fatigue (another standout winner of the Aurealis award), this is Australian SF/cyberpunk at its finest. It goes well beyond the tropes of the genre too. I loves me a dark future, but 36 Streets is more than the standard evil-corps-and-shiny-metal-arms cyberpunk. It’s a story of human conflict, national identity, and the ways that memories of happiness and departed loved ones can be an unbearable weight to carry.

36 Streets is an award winning novel. Read it and you’ll see why.


Five suspiciously addictive VR games out of five.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this book, and I usually find Cyberpunk my least favourite genre of science fiction.. The main character , Lin, is in no way the Gangster with the Heart of Gold, but she is most certainly not a good guy. She is just trying to survive and be loyal to her own when she is given a task more than the usual stand over gangster stuff. Her boss asks her to become a Private Investigator, to solve a murder and of course it turns into a case where everyones motives are completely suspect, just like their memories. What elevates the novel from another rehash of a Blade Runner world is the amazing character that is Lin, a Vietnamise born but raised in Australia, but now trying to survive the mean streets of future Vietnam. The author spent several years living in Vietnam, and his love of the place shines in every paragraph.
I get to sell this book to SF loving book readers when it is released early 2022, and boy do I love my job.

[R.J.K. Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm waiting until I get my hardcover at the end of the month to write up a review, but for now, I was impatient and listened to the audiobook. Narrator is perfect. The story is excellent. Very solid cyberpunk story. Go read it!

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cyberpunk/hardboiled Xover novel set circa 2100 in Chinese occupied Hanoi’s demimonde. A damaged Austro-Vietnamese woman becomes a Dragon Lady. First book in Napper's East Asian Cyberpunk series.


Lin Thi Vu, #2 gangster in occupied Hanoi’s Bình Xuyên Old Quarter (AKA the 36 Streets) crime syndicate

The problem with heroes was they thought the world owed them tribute before being sent to die.

My dead pixels version was a moderate 443-pages. A dead tree copy would be likewise. It had a UK 2022 copyright.

T. R. Napper is an Australian science fiction author. He has written four novels, and numerous works of short fiction. This was the author’s first novel. This was the first book I’ve read by the author.

As the result of a cyberpunk mini-binge The Algorithms of the bookish sites I habituate started wheedling me to give this book eye share. I like blue covers. I had digital credits. I relented. I was pleasantly surprised.

TL;DR Synopsis

Lin Thi Vu AKA The Silent One AKA Lin Lashley was a damaged young, ethnic Vietnamese woman. She was an orphan raised in 2100’s Australia and later deported as an illegal back to Vietnam. There she was indoctrinated as a hatchet woman for the Bình Xuyên crime syndicate in Chinese occupied Hà Nội.

As an English-speaker and a local, she’s given the job of finding the covered-up, killer of a British app developer whose banned game ran inside the ubiquitous tech-implants. The game was too: immersive, addictive, and memory altering for public consumption. The trail led through: rival crime syndicates, a shadowy Mega-Corp, Chinese tongs, the Occupation Authority, and the Việt Minh (Vietnamese Independence Movement).

The Review

36 Streets was modern cyberpunk. It bears more a resemblance to Richard K. Morgan's or Paolo Bacigalupi's flavor of this disfavored genre, than its classic form by William Gibson . It’s more ultraviolent, leaning toward biopunk, and with a contemporary Zeitgeist absent from the original genre. In places it’s a tad too OTT. One rather charming attribute to this story, was the Australian protagonist with authentic dialog.

Writing was good, but needed closer work.

The narrative was in a fractured chronological order with numerous flashbacks to provide protagonist backstory. Some of the chapters were quite short, only a paragraph or two. Although, none of them were long. With 83 chapters total, the book could have been shorter with fewer and longer. Action scenes were good. Although, this was a very action-heavy novel. I came to find it overused. Dialog was peculiar. In general, it was quite good. I liked the convention for implant translation

He said, jaw set “[Get word to my mother. Tell her what happened.]”

The words came through her on-retina translator, in English.

As mentioned above, the protagonist’s dialog and inner dialog were in Australian English. This included the pervasive C*word. I found this very authentic. However, there were several long passages of American voiced narrative, circa 1964 which were inauthentic. For example, this did not include the omnipresent F*word. That was used in lieu of punctuation by many soldiers. I was disappointed the narrative wasn't more humorous. Although the pommy narrative was. Descriptive prose was workmanlike. Interestingly, Napper saves his exposition for Vietnamese history, vs. the tech.

In addition, the prose was not well-groomed. I found several spelling mistakes, one awkward construction I could have read two different ways, and a continuity error involving smoking wet cigarettes. The Titan Publishing Group needed to re-copyedit draft revisions, or get better editors.

One thing I noticed was, it’s rare to find a contemporary science fiction novel with less than 450 pages. I’ve even been exposed to several recent sf novels with 500-1000 pages by first time published authors. In classic cyberpunk, talented authors, knew how to do more with fewer words. This book could easily have been 350 vs. about 450 pages. There were too many scenes relating the same sentiments. Also, the micro-chapters took-up too much page space, for what they artistically, provided.

The protagonist was Lin Thi Vu. Her’s was the sole POV.

You can’t like this character, she’s just too damaged. In addition, I had trouble imagining her as a woman, and a lesbian. This was despite all the flashbacks to her Aussie childhood, and contemporary family scenes. As the song lyric goes, “Why she walks like a woman man and talks like a man”. However, I was left working with the Beatrix Kiddo character from Kill Bill (2003) .

The story also contained a host of supporting characters with some artful, modern Asian riffs on hard-boiled arch-types. True to the genre, Bao Nguyen was Lin’s boss. He was Colonel Badass. He always "knew a guy or gal", for everything that was needed to move the plot along and had deep pockets. Bull Neck Bui was Bao’s Sergeant Rock. Note this was despite Lin, being Bao’s #2. Also note the Vietnamese characters had very cool monikers. In addition, there was the: the femme fatale, “good Bad Girl”, Good Cop Chinese Soldier, Bad Cop Chinese Soldier , Grifters, Bent Doctors, Club Owners, Implant Hack0rs, etc.. The story was also littered with Asian thug characters. Interestingly—there were no Lawyers, crooked or otherwise.

Cyberpunk is typically dressed-up Hardboiled. Hardboiled novels don’t solve a crime. Lin's investigation was just a vehicle for the journey to the final, violent, confrontation against the Big Bad . That the murder was a conspiracy was obvious from the beginning. Lin doesn’t do much investigating. She’s not a detective. She has serial, violent confrontations, and concludes from the resistance, she’s on the right track. To wit, Napper leads Lin through a Dungeon Crawl of future Hanoi to that end. Lin’s also remarkably Tech Savvy for a leg breaker on implants tech and the memory alternation and wipe technology that feature largely in in the plot? Napper gets the reader to the end, and he sets up for a sequel. However, there was a surfeit of violent scenes, and flashbacks in-between. This left the story feeling unfocused.

There was: “Sex, drugs, and rock’n roll" music, along with ultraviolence in the story.

Folks had sex. Although Lin never got some. Sexuality was part of the narrative. In fact, it was raunchy in one place. Sex was both straight and gay. The fluidity of gender or non-gender found in modern sf was there, but could have been better handled. Intoxicants, particularly synthetic drugs were widely in use. In general, there was a bewildering array of synthetic drugs in use. Old fashioned alcohol was consumed in social settings, sometimes in excess. This was in-line with traditional hardboiled. I had a problem with Lin being both a functional alcoholic and having a drug dependency. She wasn’t debilitated enough. Music was pervasive in social situations. I did not know who Ennio Morricone was until reading this book. Although, he could have likely provided an appropriate sound track for the story?

The body count was genocidal. The violence was: physical, edged weapons, impact weapons, small arms, and military-grade ordnance. The violence was moderately graphic. Modern technology kept Lin ticking, like the Energizer Bunny™, despite frequent, and serious injury. “Nanotechnology” healing reversed terrible trauma, if all the pieces could be found. I also noted an absence of sexual violence. I would have thought it went with the territory?

A problem I had with the violence relates to the old adage, “Never bring a knife to a gunfight.” Lin was expert at medieval edged and impact weapons. These made for great bloodletting. However, its 2100 CE. All the sword and knife fighting left me thinking the story was too much a satirical product of influences?

World building was very good in its breadth and detail.

Several of the technologies were “sufficiently advanced technologies to be indistinguishable from magic”. For example, “nanomeds”. Almost the full panoply of the Cyborg trope was in play.

A future Hanoi was well done. Napper has a good grasp of the culture there. I’ve never been to Hanoi, but the description reminded me of contemporary Taipei. Napper’s future history was also credible. He makes good references to the 20th Century historical events in the real Vietnam, and paints a possible picture of future history there. Viet Nam and China have fought one war in modern times already. It’s easy to see how Napper’s future could happen.

In general, Napper packed a huge number of ideas into the story's world building. There may have been a few too many?

Summary

The author packed an enormous amount of ideas into about 450-pages. The story was also an embarrassment of world building riches for a future Southeast Asia.

I’m a fan of old timey cyberpunk. I like modern cyberpunk, although I’m not a fan of the ultraviolence that has leaked into it from anime. This story felt gratuitously violent, to the detriment of the whole. The Boss Battle at the end was particularly cartoonish. It would have been better, if it had been less theatrical (OTT), and stayed closer to its serious notes.

The scenes involving: politics, technology and human limitations were well done. Whilst the scenes related to sex and gender were only somewhat so. The story was also gritty, a necessary component in both cyberpunk and hardboiled.

The Australian tinged narrative was a refreshing change from the familiar Brit-speak and Americanese of most, contemporary sf.

Classic cyberpunk was tech-oriented. Vietnamese history and culture receives more attention here. The integration of the available tech into the future Vietnam also felt a bit uneven extrapolating 50-years into the future.

However, the story was overly long. For example, Lin’s flashbacks never succeeded in satisfactorily explaining her current psychological state. I also found that several scenes to be repetitious in their underlying message. Pruning-out scenes, particularly the gratuitous combats, and the micro-chapters would have tightened-up the story.

When I review a good book, I’m harder on it than on a poor one. I liked this story. It was good, but it could have been better. It was packed full of ideas and was a good piece of narrative craftsmanship. However, Napper needs to learn that, at least with cyberpunk, less is more.

A recommended read for those interested modern cyberpunk with a Southeast Asian flavor.

[Si · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ish.
Set in futuristic Vietnam, a gangster is hired to find a missing VR programmer.
I’ve read a few cyberpunk novels in the past, and most of them were disappointing for one reason or another. Neuromancer for example, was too hard to understand at times, and Snow Crash had a plot that was a bit too unbelievable in my opinion.
This one was by far my favourite.
The setting was imaginative and believable. It’s set in a Chinese occupied, Ha Noi, about 50 years in the future. Technology has advanced far enough to allow computers to be implanted into people.
The main character was kinda badass. A drug using gangster who, as an Australian struggles to fit into the local culture.
The plot was well thought out. A seemingly standard detective story, about a missing person with a few twists along the way.
Would recommend to fans of Altered Carbon.

[C.H. Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucken brilliant cyberpunk!

36 Streets is hyper aware of the genre, thoughtfully reimagined for our times. The story explores memory and identity in the visceral, creative ways only SF can (addictive immersive gaming, memory modification), in particular the experience of being ‘between worlds’ and longing to belong to one. I enjoyed the complex, tough-as-nails MC. Excellent worldbuilding, short chapters and a fast pace had me reading this book in one sitting.

[Adrian Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

In T.R. Napper’s debut novel, 36 Streets, Lin Thi Vu is a bounty hunter working for the most feared gangster in Ha Noi. She works her trade in a cyberpunk future Vietnam where the Chinese have invaded and taken over the region and the people of Ha Noi and the 36 streets are pawns butchered between the Chinese military and the Viet Minh.

Tired of doing jobs for the Chinese rooting out Viet Minh guerrillas, Lin requests a different type of job. Her boss instructs her to act the part of a private detective for a westerner, her Australian English making her the right person for the job. She’s person to trust in a city of people who look like her, but speak differently. Only her job isn’t just to do the job, it’s to take all of the westerners money.

Straight off the bat Lin is gritty and hard and ruthless, but with a burnt and blackened yet unbroken soul, a bit like Kameron Hurley’s Nyx. Her ice-seven drug addiction adds an interesting and desperate edge to her character, while her memories of her Australian adoptive mother raising her in a foreign land (Australia) and then returning to Viet Nam as an outsider adds an excellent angle to her character and really brings the author’s knowledge of a complex Asia Pacific region region and the people living in it to the fore.

As he does in Neon Leviathan, Napper creates so much atmosphere with so few words, you’re transported to the scene on every page. The desperation, the future, the hurt, and the guilt—is as much a theme of the setting and the faceless people as it is of our main character. And with the author having spent a decade in South East Asia (incl. Ha Noi) working as an aid worker, these themes just land magnificently as he draws on his experience working and helping some of the most impoverished people on the planet. The vast cultural nuances between Asia and Australia / the West are really well written, adding plenty of flavour without being beaten over the head with the author’s real life experience.

36 Streets has eighty-something short, sharp chapters to divide up what is a pretty fast read. It provides this pace to the book with Lin’s experience being broken down to memories five years before the current storyline, and the current story, in quick gasps that you rip through pretty quickly. This is the kind of book that’s good enough and short enough that plenty of people are going to read it in one day.

In 36 Streets, Napper brings a Richard K. Morgan style SF noir detective story onto the streets of Vietnam. It’s an excellent, morose, beautiful in the horror of life, brutal, action packed, and gorgeous read. 36 Streets is refreshing, and brilliantly realised SF noir.

[North · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cyberpunk straight banger! Vietnam, gangs, cyberpunk, cigaretts and sake - what else can you want?

If Vin from Mistborn was in a futuristic Vietnamese version of the Peaky Blinders - we'd get this. A fun exploration of cyberpunk, a good mystery at the heart of the story, and the main character is extremely well done. I love the hustle and the noise of Hanoi - it legit feels like you're in the city, traversing the old quarter, drinking beers, and eating banh mi.

I think it's fairly well known I love Green Bone Saga - and I have a soft spot for gang/organized crime set-ups - so this was right up my alley.

An extremely engaging book, and a solid new release for this year. Short chapters and a snappy narration by Katherine Littrell had me hooked. 9/10 - cannot recommend it enough.

Also, the dialogue is fucking lit. Australians do cuss words justice.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read and though I'm not usually a visual reader I felt myself immersed in the sights, smells and ambience of a Vietnamese city.

[Michael Hicks]

DNF at 17%

On the surface, 36 Streets sounds like the kind of sci-fi story I should love. A future cyberpunk-driven Vietnam at war with itself and other nations, and a hardbitten heroine at the center of it all. Unfortunately, it's a dime-a-dozen cookie cutter entry that reads like pretty much every other hardboiled sci-fi mystery. You've got the tough heroine fueled by drugs and booze and swear words who's at odds with her family. The prose is dull and uninteresting, completely lacking any sort of spark to keep me reading. Everything here strikes me as generic and pedestrian, especially on the heels of having just read Alastair Reynold's latest novel, Inhibitor Phase, which presents some heavy, extra-large ideas, and the first issue of Scott Snyder's ComiXology Originals, Clear, which features a similar premise of a sci-fi mystery and augmented reality but is far more engaging and layered. 36 Streets isn't showing me any signs of real originality, or even necessity, and instead feels like a cheap copy of any of the hundreds of other better books I've already read in this vein.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t think I would like the mystery aspect of this book much. To be honest, I thought I would only pick it up because of the Cyberpunk-y scenery. But guess what? I totally loved it!

Obviously, I fell in love with the Cyberpunk/futuristic setting. It’s not like most sci-fis that depict how clean and neat such a society would be. Here, we get the dirty grimy district, which got its hands on some technology, but not the best quality, and not always legal, etc. It’s the shadyness that I absolutely loved. Since I played Cyberpunk and Detroit : Become Human, I could absolutely picture the story taking place in one of those settings.

The plot was also pretty intricate and complex, which I liked a lot. There are so many little paths here and there leading to various leads, and giving out little clues. It’s so dense and complete, it was fantastic in that aspect. The only reason I’m not rating it 5 stars is because towards the end, it got a little too dense, and I ended up losing myself in the twists of the plot. I mean, I got the general idea, and understood most of the ending, but I feel like I missed details and some information because sometimes I got a bit too much of them.

Still, the author managed to create a fully immersive world, in which I loved getting lost and going through the 36 streets! I would gladly read another novel set in the same world, maybe a little later, or in another country, neighbourhood?

Then we have Lin, the main character. She was so perfect for this book! She’s the second in command of the biggest gang in Hanoi, and is everything I love : perfectly imperfect. She’s this lost girl, picked up by the gang on the streets, even though she does have a family she rarely gets along with. Stuck within her own mind, full of bitterness and want for revenge, she is a spiralling mess. Between all the drugs and fighting, she finds a way to pick up a new mission for the gang : solving the mystery of an influential man’s disappearance. From there, it’s a wild ride in the 36 streets, between the scheming of the government and a rival gang.

I loved Lin, I loved the setting. I basically loved everything. It was just a little too dense from time to time, and featured flashbacks with Lin and her martial arts master, which I didn’t care for much. In the end, it’s a very good sci-fi for people who don’t like the genre when the plot is set in space! It’s gritty, full of personnality, and definitely action-packed!

[Erika Skarlupka · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read a truly engrossing book that was quick, gritty, and full of action, but man is this novel just that. It's Cyberpunk, but not over the top at all. It's interesting to see what life is "like" from the perspective, not of a white or European main character, but one who is Vietnamese but raised outside of the country. You get to see the inner turmoil of not feeling a part, even if you look local.
I also love how relentless and brutal Lin is. Some might find her shallow, but that is just because she perfected her avoidance of attachments.
I wish there was a little more time after the main part of the novel ends for her to come to terms with her mother...we see so little (though arguably a deeply moving display of her true feelings).
I really hope there is more to this story line in the works, I want to see the Silent One f*ck sh*t up!

[John Wegener · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally read cyberpunk but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It oozed with action from the first page to the last. Set in future Hanoi, Vietnam, a female gang enforcer must locate a missing person while avoiding the predatory claws of a rival gang. Without giving anything away, she hits rock bottom before she knows what she must do and follows a path of revenge, not out of hatred or malice, but as her duty. I recommend this book if you're interested in a good read. Note: It has violence.

[Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent character driven modern cyberpunk.

[Richard Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not since Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl have I been so utterly enthralled by a science fiction novel. 36 Streets is a cyberpunk tour de force - richly textured, nuanced, and shot-through with emotional depth. I could practically feel the sweaty, grimy, bloody, tropical heat oozing from the pages. One of the standouts of the year.

[Marc Hilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to read on cold winter nights.

[Matt Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent cyberpunk sci-fi told from a post western perspective. I loved every minute and cannot wait for more from this author!