It's been a long time since I read a book that I struggled to put down. Mindwalker melded itself onto my brain and would not let go.

✨ Cyberpunk vibes
✨ Post-apocalyptic world
✨ Ridiculous levels of tech
✨ Them vs Us

Sil Sarrah is the best at what she does. Day in, day out she transfers into field agents' brains to help them get out of life-critical situations and her track record is perfect. No one has died thanks to her.
Except the tech that's attached to her brain has a life expectancy of 10 years. And when that burns out, it takes her out with it.

Keen to keep that legacy, Sil is put in an exceptionally public extraction scenario and disobeys a direct order in the process. And the big wigs ain't happy. Not wanting to be decommissioned, Sil opts to flee the place she's called home for 10 years and lands right in the arms of the Analog Army.

This book is a little delight. If you're after a sci-fi, cyberpunk/body mod-esc story to get lost in, this is for you. So why only 4 stars? Some parts bored the tits off me. The rest got into my head and I can't stop thinking about it.

This book was such a pleasant surprise. I haven’t been reading much YA recently so I went on a limb with this one as the premise sounded very promising. I can now confirm that even if you are not a fan of books meant for younger audiences, this story will surely draw you in.
The main character finds herself in the middle of a corporate battle with the resistance, and is desperate to clear her name. She is forced to, for the first time in years, abandon the safety of familiar surroundings and face the real world.
A fast paced dystopian science fiction novel, with a healthy dash of romance.

This was a really interesting read. I found the premise different and the execution was smooth.

So the plot...
This was a really strong idea for me. The idea that walkers can enter an operatives mind and using their tech, they can take over their body to get them out when a mission goes wrong. I found this part of the book really exciting and fast paced, and in fact, I wouldn't have minded more of this element. The plot dies move quickly, and after jobs and roles have been established we quickly get to the main idea, which is that a top walker is framed fir stealing evidence and goes on the run. Somewhat inevitably, she joins the resistance side and ends up questioning her own life and work. Now here the story slowed down a bit, and I didn't really get a full picture if just what the resistance are doing and why. The focus is on one member, Ryder and although he is likeable enough, I would have personally liked more development if his group and their actions and motivation.

The ending.....
Well, it was ok. A little predictable maybe but again, executed nicely.

Characters ....
On the whole this was a good set of characters. The only one I felt ended up cliched was Miles. We only really get to know him at the end and he did seem like the stereotypical character.

Overall....
This was a good book. Plenty of action at the start and ok characterisation. For me this would benefit from more character development so that I cared a bit more about their fates and a bit more world building. Like the whole radiation thing was just dropped in and not explained. And the nano tech stuff too. I was just expected to believe it but I didn't really know where it all came from, so fir me, a bit more world building needed.

Mindwalker has everything you would expect in a dystopian cyberpunk book, its sits comfortably within its genre and was a fun, fast paced and engaging read.

Can we please have more books like this? fun, fast-paced, and the kind of book I could hand sell like a fox. So many people come into the store asking for YA sci-fi and I have so few titles to hand them. Mindwalker is going to be at the top of my list once it comes out in the US. Thanks for the opportunity to read!

Mindwalker is... a book like no other. At least none that I have come across. It gives me every bit of the sci-fi I am craving BUT with feminist, fierce, female characters. I could not love this book more. The world building, the story, the everything... THE WRITING. Gorgeous. Absolutely and utterly gorgeous.

The adrenaline really was coursing through my veins while reading this book, and the best word to describe it is by simply saying this: EPIC! I already can't wait to see what Kate Dylan will give us next!

I've been seeing this book on every social media platform and despite pink being the colour I despise, that cover captured my eye, the premise sounded entertaining and I knew I would love it even before I started reading.
But guess what? I loved it even more than I expected, it's fast paced and futuristic, sci-fi is one of my favourite genres, and everything about this book was perfectly written. I did figure out the main twist almost immediately, but I was still on edge waiting for it to unravel and smaller twists made me wide-eyed and squealing.
I can't wait for the next book to come out, I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from this world.
Also, I noticed all of the food in the book was synthetic, so this makes mindwalker a vegan sci-fi in my book, and I loved that, it wasn't specifically mentioned, but that's still a win for me.

As much as I enjoyed this book it was a bit raw around the edges but fir the first novel I really enjoy the world settings and I'm interested if there is anything else happening with this author. I think she is someone to look for in the future

I loved this book! I was hooked pretty much immediately. The world building was great, and the story unfolds with a great pace, making a real page turner. There's suspense and drama, and I loved the entire plot. It's a really great sci-fi fantasy - highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! This book was absolutely incredible and I'm really annoyed at myself that I left it so long to read this book. Dylan has created a world that is so crazy but could quite possibly be realistic that it really makes you think about technology. The world-building was fantastic, yet not overly complex, which meant it was really easy to read.

I absolutely loved the MC though - watching her grow from effectively a heartless robot on a job, to appreciating and understanding there is more than meets the eye.

The slow burning romance was a good addition to the novel, yet didn't take forefront of the story line and I really enjoyed that about it. Although don't get me wrong...when you first meet Ryder, I was totally picturing Flynn Ryder from Tangled haha!

Definitely pick this book up. Whilst it might be sci-fi, it's a brilliant novel that I would encourage everyone to read, even if you don't think sci-fi is your genre!.

8.5 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2022/11/12/mindwalker-by-kate-dylan-review/

Eighteen-year-old Mindwalker Sil Sarrah is the best of the best at what she does. Shame she’s due to die in under twelve months, when the supercomputer grafted to her brain burns out. But while she may die young, Sil is determined to go out on top.

The Mindwalker program: the pride of the Syntex Corporation. This secret program is dedicated to commandeering agents minds from afar (with the agents’ consent, of course) and using their Walkers’ supercharged skills and supercomputer intellect to extract the agents from whatever situation they’ve gotten themselves into. After ten years in the program, Sil retains a perfect record—not a single agent lost, not a single mission failed.

A record Sil’s determined to keep; a way to ensure that her legacy survives her.

Until she fails a redacted mission on the public stage, disobeying a direct order in the process. Forced to flee the company she’s called home for over half her life, Sil is completely cut off: no way to contact her friends, no reason to contact her family, and with no resources to bring to bear—though at least she still has access to her CIP (Cerebral Intelligence Processor), Jarvis. And at least she has a plan to regain her standing, and return home.

To do so she must infiltrate the Analog Army—the biggest thorn in Syntex’s side—and do whatever she can to bring the terrorists to justice.

But after a few days on the lam, Sil already has a mounting list of problems. Not the least of which is the cocky smile and good looks of Ryder, an AA cell leader. Though there’s also the conspiracy she’s stumbled upon. “Mindjacking”, so-called as it focusses on hijacking the unwilling minds of anyone connected to the net and wearing their body like a meat-suit. Which, in this enlightened future, is pretty much anyone at all. A conspiracy that apparently centers on the one place Sil can’t go—the Syntex Corporation.

—

Mindwalker came out back in September to rave reviews. While it wasn’t initially on my radar—or the radars of any of my friends or followers, really—after maybe a week of scrolling through the endless praise and comments, I knew I had to read it. Set in a dystopian world where a fractured United States (yeah, I know those terms contradict one another) rules only by outsourcing so much of their process to corporate contractors, the setting for this evokes a dystopian sphere, heavy with science fiction and cyberpunk themes.

Fresh into its pages I was immediately taken with the world—albeit… less so with the plot. While done in an interesting way, Mindwalker is essentially a new take on an old classic; a dystopian world where our corporate protagonist joins up with the ragtag rebels to expose a conspiracy and win the day! I mean, it’s not exactly breaking the mold here. That said, despite this far-from-unique model, and a somewhat lacklustre romance, Mindwalker is really quite a good read.

The setting makes the story, but the characters keep the focus—and Sil is far from the eminently hatable corporate rat that I initially took her for. Stubborn, distrusting, but somehow full of emotion and passion (no, not that kind), she makes a good lead, even through the romance which usually bores me. That said, the romance in this is only really heavy at the close, and even then it never takes the pace from the overarching story completely. Lena, Jondi, Miles, even Lin and Risler help set the plot up as believable, a world made up of human characters in a plausible setting. Before long this list includes Ryder and more, but never expands beyond the memorable handful of faces, leaving a sea of nameless, faceless masses without a story or purpose. Despite the world supposedly being massive, it doesn’t feel like it from the handful of characters. I’d’ve liked to see a few more (even) throwaway characters, or randoms. Instead, we get a few bullet-sponges, soon-to-be dead’uns, and nameless guards, that Sil—despite her decade in the program—doesn’t recognize. Neither does she recognize (or at least mention) any other Walkers beyond her two friends. So, to recap: characters—great main, good supporting, but anything after that is a complete wash.

All in all, I had little problem getting into Mindwalker and—despite the fact that it took me a month to read (which I ascribe more to the goings-on in my personal life than anything of the text itself)—was never of the illusion that I’d not finish it. Though my opinion of the book isn’t exactly the golden standard that I’ve seen set for this title, it does speak well to its success. Currently on Goodreads, only 13% of all ratings are under 4 stars (9% of these are 3). Which means that even the people who don’t absolutely love this really enjoy (or quite) it.

Where was I going with this? I guess that I’d recommend it? Because I would. Pretty good read.

After a mission goes wrong, Sil Sarrah flees the company that has given her everything. Desperate to prove she is not a traitor, she joins forces with an activist faction working to destroy that very company. Can she gain their trust to bring them down from within and win back her company’s favour? All before the supercomputer grafted to her brain kills her?

After a brief adjustment period to the first person POV, I ended up really enjoying this story. For the story being told, this particular narrative style suited it. For the most part, I enjoyed Sil as a protagonist; she was driven and active. She was also, however, a bit of a blank slate in terms of personality, she existed in a lot of ways as a vessel for the reader to project themselves onto. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in this case wasn’t glaringly obvious, nor did it take too much from my reading experience, but was just something I noticed. I also would have liked to see a bit more exploration into her deprogramming from the Syntex company line, because she was so very brainwashed and it felt as though she just essentially stumbled out of it, where it would have been an interesting avenue to explore further.

The world Dylan crafted in this was interesting and complex. I loved the exploration of the technology and how it has shaped this world post “annihilation”, everything from healthcare to class structure to the capitalist system driving it all, there were a lot of parts at play and I felt as though we got a brief but telling glimpse into all of them.

Overall, the adventure and action were exciting, the pacing was solid, making for a fun sci-fi dystopian read.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the premise that Sil’s impressive additions come at a huge cost. It made sense to me that a child’s brain, with its inherent plasticity, would be ideal to work on. And the fact that Syntex has managed to find a way around the law so their representatives can persuade suitable eight-year-olds to sign all the permissions necessary to be turned into a super-agent also rings true. As for Sil – I found her grim acceptance of her impending death at the ripe old age of nineteen both poignant and gutsy.

This is aimed at the YA market, so the narration is in first person and the overall story arc follows a familiar route. That said, Sil isn’t as emotional or self-absorbed as YA heroines often are. And while I wasn’t particularly invested in the inevitable romance, as it wasn’t the aspect of the book that really interested me, it was well handled and I believed in the ups and downs of the relationship between two wary, battle-scarred young people.

What did drive me to keep turning the pages in this well-paced, enjoyable science fiction adventure, was Sil’s ongoing battle to stay ahead of those who wanted to get hold of her and shut her down. And while I did see the final twist coming before it finally dropped – there were ramifications that still managed to surprise me and raise the stakes still higher. All in all, this is an engrossing read about a post-apocalyptic future that is frightening and plausible, which I found hard to put down. Recommended for fans of dystopian near-future adventures featuring a likeable heroine. While I obtained an arc of Mindwalkers from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Absolutely can’t recommend this book more than run don’t walk to the bookstore to buy. I got a copy of this book via Netgalley for a review but was only 2 Chapters in when I came upon it in Forbidden Planet (Signed Edition) and couldn't resist and bought it straight away. Other reviews say it's similar to a Marvel movie and full of action from the start... they are not wrong love this book. I hope to read more from this author and hope that there is more in this genre loved it.

★ Perfect for sci-fi beginners and fans of Marvel's Black Widow, Kate Dylan's Mindwalker is 320 pages of pure action-packed fun. ★

I'll openly admit that sci-fi is usually the last thing I'd read, but there was something so special about this book that it's made me more open to the genre now.

Mindwalker takes place in a dystopian future where tech reigns supreme. High in this future's foodchain are the titular Mindwalkers, people who have the ability - thanks to some fancy tech in their brains - to enter other people's heads and essentially control them. The book's protagonist Sil, along with the rest of her Mindwalker friends, use their abilities to get people out of tricky, often dangerous, situations. Unfortunately, though, Mindwalking comes with a price: their days are numbered once they turn 19. Faced with a literal expiry date, Sil tries to make the best out of a bad situation, and maintain her perfect extraction record to create a lasting legacy for herself. But, everything comes crashing down for Sil after a very public mission gone wrong, and she is branded a fugitive for stealing classified Syntex (the company running both the Walker program and, basically, the world) files. Running from everything and everyone she knows leads Sil to the Analog Army, a rebel group working against Syntex. Deciding bringing the Analog Army down from the inside will grant her a one-way ticket back to her old life, Sil grows close to Army member Ryder, but of course things never go entirely as planned...

I can't say enough good things about this book. It has a great cast of characters, and you certainly won't find me complaining about the romance between Sil and Ryder ;). From start to finish, Mindwalker is action-packed with lots of twists and turns. Kate Dylan wasn't wrong when she said this was a Marvel movie in a YA book - it would make for an amazing film adaptation! All the worldbuilding was so vivid, and not intimidating like I'd been scared of with other sci-fi books.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend Mindwalker and am already looking forward to Kate Dylan's next book!

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC!

↠ 4.5 stars

Wow wow wow I absolutely loved this book. I really enjoyed this YA Sci-Fi and felt it really hit. I managed to read this book in one sitting as I found once I started I did not want to stop and felt It really drew me in.
The world building was fantastic and the plot was amazing too. I really enjoyed the twists that this book had too and felt the ending was perfect as I did not see it coming.
The story follows Sil Sarrah who is eighteen years old and has a head full of technology which includes being able to help with missions by walking into the persons mind who she is trying to help. The CIP can pull all manors of data to help with this. But unfortunately is comes with a risk with using it as it cuts down on her life drastically which means that she is essentially a ticking time bomb when she hits eighteen.
After being accused and set up for a crime Sil ends up going on the run to try and clear her name where she meets Ryder stone.
Ryder trying to take down the same company which has set Sil up, end up working together to achieve this.
I really enjoyed how they went from enemies to lovers by the end of the book.
I truly love Sil’s character development throughout this book. She went from trying to clear her name and get back into a company to understanding how they manipulated her and taking them down.

I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend!!

Thank you to Netgalley, Kate Dylan and Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC copy of this book which i received in exchange for an honest review.

Mindwalker is a stand alone sci-fi ride by Kate Dylan that is actually pretty fantastic. Sil is a Mindwalker, with tech implanted in her brain as a child she works for the Syntex Corporation helping rescue field agents. Walkers are able to take over a person’s body, with their increased training and access to schematics etc, however the problem with this tech is that Walkers don’t live past 19, their brain overrides and burns out and Sil doesn’t have much time left. Sil is one of the best, she has a 100% rescue rate for agents however during a critical mission, her loyalties are tested and her life changes forever.

Mindwalker has an interesting premise, the premise of overriding another person’s body, their mind pushed to the passenger seat, while you have control over their body and can see the world through their eyes. When Sil is accused of being a traitor to her organisation and to save her reputation flees to gather information on the Analog Army, an activist group working to take Syntex down, she meets people who show her a different, darker side of a company she has given her life to, and she starts to question how she wants to spend the time she has left.

Sil is an interesting character in that you really follow her character growth, from a unquestioning, loyal servant of Syntax to being a girl who just wants to live, you explore her ethics and how they evolve as she learns more. She has lived her 18 years with a death sentence looming, not looking for more in this world, and then she meets Ryder in the Analog Army and she slowly allows herself to want and you really experience this unravelling of her layers in a way that is enjoyable to be part of. Sil is a badass, she’s a really solid, empowering character with a lot of potential. Ryder is a little cliché, he is the typical token male love interest, too sculpted, too mysterious and tortured, too consistently kind, however while he plays an important role, he is very much a supporting character.
Storyline wise, the book does remind me a little at points of Allegiant and the twists I did see coming very early on, however it didn’t take away the enjoyment of the book, it’s a good YA read with quality action, character development, a strong female lead and some ethical areas that make you think.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review

So Mindwalker! I enjoyed it but I think for me I only really got fully invested in the last 25% which annoyed me as I wanted to love it. As I say though I'm in a bit of a slump reading wise so that will be a factor!

So I'll stick the synopsis in the comments as per just in case you've not seen this book about.

I loved the world building, Dylan just did whatever the hell she wanted and that was great, it was a fast paced sci fi mystery thriller which is what I was hoping for. The tech was also well described, not too heavy - I wanted more of this, especially the missions that Sil did as a Mindwalker - maybe I need a prequel novella?

The characters - Sil was fab, witty and endearing as an MC. Ryder was the best for me though- I wanted more interaction between them as the book only covers like a week of time - fast I say!

I can’t stop thinking about Mindwalker. To be quite honest, it’s rare these days that books stick with me for days after I’ve finished them. But I keep coming back to this one. I’ve thought about the fun world-building in the shower, contemplated character arcs while doing laundry, and kept coming back to the questions Mindwalker asks.

Besides my love of sci-fi, one of the things that attracted me to Mindwalker was that it kept being compared to Marvel movies. I love superheroes so naturally, this made my ears perk up. Did it hold up to that comparison? Overall, I’d say yes! Our main character, Sil Sarrah, is not really a superhero. But in a different story, she absolutely would be. The girl has a supercomputer in her brain that gives her abilities that are arguably superhuman! However, what really makes Mindwalker worthy of the Marvel comparison is the style and pacing. If you love exciting action scenes that are balanced with emotional moments and humour, Mindwalker checks those boxes.
From page one, Kate Dylan delivers a novel that’s fast-paced but never rushed. I listened to the second half of the book in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop! Reading Mindwalker was the equivalent of getting sucked into a videogame for hours on end, a truly engrossing reading experience. Kate Dylan won me over very quickly with her writing style. She perfectly captures a particular brand of sarcasm with a strong character voice. Basically, I immediately fell in love with Sil.

She’s smart, snarky and just a little too cocky for her confidence to be entirely real. There were so many layers to her character, so many beliefs she held about her life and the world she lives in, that made her an interesting character to follow.

I particularly loved reading a sci-fi story from the perspective of someone who, for the majority of the story, is loyal to the Evil Corporation. And it makes sense! Yes, this is a story about resistance, but that hits even harder when we understand how Syntex operates, and why Sil believes in them. We can see the systemic abuse and how deeply unethical a lot of their work is, but we also get to see the good parts of Sil’s experience.

Sil’s character arc and her journey through her own beliefs and ideals are complemented by the characters around her. I loved getting glimpses into other experiences through these side characters. Sil’s experience of her world is incredibly specific and in many ways privileged. Being confronted with characters who are fundamentally against what she has represented her whole life made for interesting points of conflict. Overall, Kate Dylan wonderfully uses the cast of characters around Sil to add depth and nuance to the themes Mindwalker explores.

At its core, Mindwalker is a book about bodily autonomy and consent. And it isn’t a shallow exploration of consent either! It’s woven throughout the book, in big ways and small ones. As a Mindwalker, Sil consented to have a computer installed in her brain. In turn, she can only take over someone’s body with their consent. At least, that’s what she thinks. Mindwalker explores how quickly the lines of consent can become blurry, and how institutions purposefully shift and abuse those lines.

A central question that I kept coming back to while reading was “is consent even possible under these conditions?” When your survival depends on giving up your autonomy, can that ever be consensual?

Mindwalker is an incredibly fun sci-fi novel, the kind that’s propulsive and exciting from page one. It’s fun and engaging and there are so many little world-building tidbits that are exciting to explore. But Mindwalker is also a book that holds space for bigger questions, emerging organically from the story. I find that books with such big and heavy questions are often hard to balance, it’s easy for them to feel too forced. However, this is not a problem for Mindwalker in the slightest. Kate Dylan manages to effortlessly weave together a multitude of plot strands, themes and elements, coming together in a truly well-balanced and expertly crafted story.