I would like to thank Gollancz for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Gollancz

Published – 21/1

Price –£14.99 Hardback £5.99 Kindle eBook

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Tanta has trained all her young life for this. Her very first mission is a code red: to take her team into the unaffiliated zone just outside InTech's borders and retrieve a stolen hard drive. It should have been quick and simple, but a surprise attack kills two of her colleagues and Tanta barely makes it home alive.

Determined to prove herself and partnered with a colleague whose past is a mystery even to himself, Tanta's investigation uncovers a sinister conspiracy that makes her question her own loyalties and the motives of everyone she used to trust.

Team bonding… I don’t know about you, but I think that is a phrase that will always send shivers down my spine. Events designed to make the workplace be treated like a family. Learn to embrace the corporate strategic mission statement etc etc devices designed to make you see the ‘bigger picture’. As we get older, we are more attuned to what is actually going on and trying to get out of it is a constant battle, but I do look back on my days starting out as a graduate trainee with feelings of horror at how some jobs expected everything. A saying from the trial of a member of the East India Company had a great perspective,” Corporations have neither bodies to punish nor souls to be damned” that its easy to avoid blame think scandals such as Thalidomide or how Detroit still has citizens without drinking water. In SF corporations are seen in the shadows pulling strings be they William Gibson’s cyberpunk entities or the infamous ones seen in Blade Runner or Alien – total loyalty is always expected never repaid. To that line up we can add the chilling world of Louise Carey’s Inscape a brilliant yet unsettling science fiction thriller that asks some probing questions of how far that loyalty will be pushed and refreshes this subgenre deservedly into the 2020s.

In the future the UK no longer exists as cities are divided between the fiefdoms of corporations. In what was once London now one side of the riverbed belongs to InTech while another belongs to Thoughtfront. Someone has attempted to leak some important classified data out of Intech’s headquarters, and this leads to a team of agents including keen rookie Tanta to try and retrieve it. The mission fails bloodily due to an unknown, extremely well-armed operative but Tanta’s efforts lead her to be rewarded with the mission of finding that data and eventually who was the leak. Tanta is assigned the middle aged, introverted yet extremely tech-savvy Cole to assist. The duo investigates the black market; infiltrate enemy lands and find deception, betrayals and danger lurk everywhere as the truth is something many do not want these agents to uncover.

Its tempting to think we already know corporations can be evil what else is there to learn, but I really liked how Carey’s take in this story has a closer look at how in particular the ideas of augmented reality software (here known as the Inscape) crosses further the lines of technology, corporation and human. In this future ‘sleepers’ are a popular form of low-grade work. Come to the office and the corporation will take your body over for mundane tasks while your brain is effectively switched off. Imagine if that could go wrong as well as the moral question posed. For agents like Tanta, it offers maps, medication and means you’re in constant checks with your bosses and teams. I loved the plausible nature of this path we are already starting on and at the heart of this novel is a troubling question of how far can this go? It is a fascinating and disquieting dystopia more so as you don’t feel it can’t happen.

Into this are the double act of Tanta and Cole and I was very happy Carey avoids re-treading familiar ground. We usually get by the book rookie with cynical older guy but this story plays with that format. Tanta is extremely perky very much has Intech and her manager Jen at the focus of all her actions. She seeks praise and fears criticism yet despite that she is physically and mentally adept and a highly skilled agent even on her first assignment. When she has to act her scenes are hugely impressive and the professionalism used and explained is smart. Despite that love of her employer, she is still grounded with her loving girlfriend Reet and a sense of humour and kindness. Cole may be less in love with the bosses, but he is actually quite inexperienced of the outside world – he is more used to sitting at a terminal solving problems avoiding people and certainly not used to spying or physical efforts yet again a sense of morality, kindness and respect for boundaries exists. We like both yet can see their pasts have tales to tell and learning more about how this Corporate Wards (children brought up from an early age to work for the corporation) raises again a lot of issues over control.

The plotting of the story is also a delight to read. We move from tense scenes of investigation and cyber-security into missions into enemy territory, fights with guards and rescue missions. Impressively Carey ensues the skills of Tanta and Cole are highlighted separately and then as the story moves on, we see them working together as well. It’s not always smooth sailing as they come from different approaches, but it feels a truly real developing partnership. One that the story leads open-ended to continue in new adventures after a brilliant final set-piece finale.

Smart, fast, and impressive this was a delicious read to get stuck into and I always will love a book that challenges how we look at things in our own world especially with a look as to where AR could take us. The wider mystery takes the story to further dark places, but everything serves that central theme. An early SF highlight for 2021 and that fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky and Claire North would definitely enjoy - strongly recommended!