Categories: BookblrIndieOther

The Ghosts of Asteraceae

The Ghosts of Asteraceae is a scifi adventure. Kade is a rare natural-human in a world of perfected vending-machine babies. He’s working as a diner cook in space podunk when a superhot girl with a murky past crashes in. Naturally, he has to help her (her offer of a million credits doesn’t hurt, either), and naturally, nothing is as it first seems. Kade encounters a wide cast of characters on his adventures, including his cyborg warrior friend, a lovestuck AI, a diamond smuggler, a bored and wealthy widow,  and — actually, that’s all I can say without spoiling it.

The worldbuilding carried the novel.  In this future, the rich have gotten richer, and the poor have gotten poorer. Even organs can be sold to the wealthy, and replaced with cheap synthetics. The  hyperwealthy class can purchase anything and everything, with AIs to serve and all the luxuries of the galaxies to enjoy,  while the lower classes only really have access to a wide variety of drugs.

The author avoids making this Dystopia 101, and hints at current trends exacerbated through improved technology and space travel. Strong imagery helped develop this complex cyberpunk world.

Recent Posts

Sandwich

I wanted to read Catherine Newman's new novel Sandwich as soon as I heard about…

The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley

The Midnight Feast, the newest thriller from Lucy Foley, takes place at the opening weekend…

Retro Book Review: Passenger to Frankfurt

Passenger to Frankfurt is not my favorite Christie mystery, at all. The spy ones and…

Imperfect by Katy Motiey

Imperfect, by Katy Motiey, tells the story of Vida, a young Iranian mother, and how the…

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

12-year-old Donn Fendler is on a family hike up a beautiful but challenging mountain, when…

The Pursuit of Mary Bennet

I picked up Pamela Mingle's The Pursuit of Mary Bennet after reading The Bennet Sisters'…