With the new Arkhelian bookstore launch, we let a few new releases slide under the radar. Call it the perks of paying attention and sticking with the studio over the winter blackout, or just a soft release for one of Arkhelian’s hardest-hitting books.
A Star in Shadow is the second book in the Broken Star Sequence series by the studio’s lead producer and author Alexander Mharcei. This story picks up where the first book in the series (A Star Too Far) left off, but not in the way you might expect.
A Star Too Far followed Kuyachi Rao around the ruins of a post-bombardment San Diego. In the middle of exerting her own personal cyberpunk insurgency against the corporate reconstructionists, readers found her teaming up with old friends and new acquaintances to scavenge rare tech. Every action has its risks, though, and Kuyachi rides a series of highs and lows. Ultimately, she falls in with questionable company, while her friends find themselves in a game for survival.
Of course, all of that happens while the group is being hunted. Guilt by association might be unfair, but sooner or later one has to stand on one’s own and regroup… something corp-sponsored arbiters don’t really have to deal with.
Or so it seems.
While the end of Kuyachi’s first story leaves readers wondering whether she might have survived, the beginning of Atria’s story in A Star in Shadow is just beginning. This plot starts slightly to the southeast in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and gives us a different look at the arbiters. Moving at a faster pace and mostly in parallel to the previous timeline, Atria’s arc is more transient. Through the hot desert, cold orbit, and back down to Earth, she finds herself looking for answers and clues.
Cyberpunk is loaded with references to Neo Tokyo and futuristic Los Angeles. Atria eventually heads to Eastern Asia, but no one is going to find the kind of neon cyberpunkers have come to expect. In fact, though it’s present, it’s meant to feel out of reach. The story spends a good amount of time underground before coming up to street level. Fans then get their first glimpse of Tsuyomei, a city built over the waters of Tokyo Bay. Those versed in proto-cyberpunk influences may pick up on pieces of Kenzo Tange‘s 1960 architectural proposal and the Metabolism movement.
Despite having maneuvered through several core cyberpunk themes up until this point, including a body horror scene that may as well have crawled out of any recent tech-forward manga, the second book in the series goes on the offensive and begins pushing cyberpunk into new territory.
Cyberpunk, as a genre, loves to swirl around the “what is human” question. ChromaSpyke’s far future isn’t interested in dwelling on themes from the best works of the 1980s. Mharcei’s universe is more than happy to take that humanity away and leave everything and everyone in a state of commodification: mechanical labor, organic inferiority, small-win martyrdom, nihilism in the face of futurism’s empty promises.
No spoilers here, but for those who’ve read book one in the series, they know what Kuyachi’s special gift was and how close she came to losing it. Atria discovers she’s already lost something, and readers will have to decide if she actually has the strength to get it back. That’s all we can say.
You can pick up the new release in the brand-new Arkhelian bookstore or on whatever marketplace you feel most comfortable with (Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Barnes & Noble). The book is available in digital, paperback, and hardcover formats, including the new Neo-K techwear ChromaSpyke cover designs.
All in, A Star in Shadow finishes with a critical revelation that connects to the end of its predecessor’s timeline. With book three well into production and some careful sifting of lore fragments in the community, fans of the series might be able to start guessing where the series is heading long-term, and who might be pulled in from other stories.
