ARC Review
Neon Veil by J.S. Holloway

Heavy and indulgent cyberpunk from start to finish.

Neon Veil doesn’t seem like much from the unappealing cover, but that doesn’t do it justice. Set in near future Kyoto we follow Kael on what was supposed to be an easy heist in a stripclub, but what his team uncovers leads to an epic and suspense filled book of a team taking on the mega corporation ruling Neo Kyoto.

This book is dripping with cyberpunk. Non-stop rain, neon lights, ozone smells, corpo’s, hackers, drones, AI, body mods, etc. Mega corps rule the cities and many of the residents are heavily indentured, having no option but to do what they must to survive.

If cyberpunk is not your thing, or many passages describing the world turn you off this book is not for you. Almost every chapter and sub chapter starts with a decent chunk of description of the environment, the sights, the smells, the dilapidation, weather, etc. Often followed by plenty of action, general badassery and the occasional nfsw scene. There is also a lot of cyberpunk “lingo” to parse; servo’s, coils, EM fields, dampeners, holo fields, jammers, handshakes, algorithms, etc. It can be a lot but is does add to the overall cyberpunk vibe.

As a fan of cyberpunk in general the setting is what pulled me into this book and the characters are what kept me there. The pacing throughout the book keeps you engaged, the characters are fun and feel believable. Action scenes are chaotic and fast, often taking place in the real and digital world at the same time. This could easily have taken place as a side story in any of the established Cyberpunk shows or games and felt very cinematic throughout.

If you watched Edgerunners or Altered Carbon, played Deus Ex or Cyberpunk 2077 or read Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence and are looking for another fun an action filled romp in a cyberpunk universe you can’t really go wrong here.
I am definitely following along with this series and looking forward to book 2 based on the taste we get at the end of book 1.

Thank you Netgalley, J.S. Holloway and station Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.