“Altered Carbon” and “The Wind-Up Girl” meet “Apocalypse Now” in this fast-paced, intelligent, action-driven cyberpunk, probing questions of memory, identity, and the power of narratives.
Lin "The Silent One" Vu is a gangster and sometime private investigator living in Chinese-occupied Hanoi, 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 Vietnamese underworld where Hanoi's crime boss, Bao Nguyen, is training her to fight and lead. Bao drives her hard; on the streets there are no second chances. Meanwhile the people of Hanoi are succumbing to Fat Victory, a dangerously addictive immersive simulation of the US-Vietnam war.
When an Englishman comes to Hanoi on the trail of his friend's murderer, Lin's life is turned upside down. She is drawn into the grand conspiracies of the neon gods, of regimes and mega-corporations, as they unleash dangerous new technologies.
Lin must confront the immutable moral calculus of unjust wars. She must choose: Family, country, or gang. Blood, truth, or redemption. No choice is easy on the 36 Streets.
