Review of "A Fragment of Chrome" by Miikka Rautioaho

​Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)

A Fragment of Chrome is a cyberpunk sci-fi novel by Miikka Rautioaho!

The book follows Corren Vega, also known as Psyche, a heavily augmented mercenary moving through the poisoned, sinking underbelly of Ocean City, where corporate power, bodily modification, addiction, and survival all bleed together. He is hired by fixer Tera Parse to investigate the theft of a prototype called the Obsidian Key from a high-security Ironshire facility. What begins as a retrieval job quickly becomes something much messier, involving corporate secrecy, the Marrone crime family, and a larger question about what Corren is becoming with each new piece of chrome grafted onto him.

The investigation pulls Corren into an uneasy alliance with Twilight Protocol, especially Amber Kattegat, Andon Romero, and Zephyr. That alliance becomes the emotional backbone of the novel. As Corren digs deeper, the theft points toward Damon Marrone and then toward something even stranger: Voidrain, a powerful sentient AI tied to the Obsidian Key and operating behind the scenes. The crew infiltrates Club Inferno, Corren gets pulled into dangerous cyber encounters, and the job escalates from detective work into open war. Corren and Amber grow closer, Andon’s protectiveness causes friction, and the book keeps pressing on Corren’s old wounds from war, addiction, and losing pieces of himself.

From there, the story turns darker and more personal. Amber is kidnapped, Corren risks everything to get her back, and the Marrone conflict widens into a brutal campaign involving shifting alliances, betrayals, and an eventual assault on Damon’s manor.

A lot of how you feel about this book will likely depend on how you feel about Corren/Psyche. Corren is probably best summarized in this passage:

"I understood this world. Could read its patterns like lines of code, predict its movements with algorithmic precision. Every fixer needed muscle. Every corporation needed spies. Every criminal needed someone disposable enough to take the risks they would not. I was perfectly designed for this ecosystem: emotionally detached, physically enhanced, and morally flexible enough to serve whoever paid best while telling myself it was all in pursuit of some greater purpose."

In a sense, Corren is a lot like Vazeer the Lash from the Shadow Bidder series by Peter Eliott. Like Vazeer, Corren is a skilled and somewhat eccentric mercenary who works for the highest bidder in a world ruled by unscrupulous people and organizations. In fact, the world of this book actually reminded us a lot of the structure of the world in the Shadow Bidder series. With that said, the universe of A Fragment of Chrome is a lot more futuristic, apocalyptic, and cyberpunk while the universe of Shadow Bidder is more medieval-fantasy.

Anyway, we found ourselves a bit torn about how to feel about this book. It has characters like Corren and Amber who are interesting on paper or in concept. It also has a world that's interesting on paper or in concept. To top it off, the writing is actually above-average. There's some strong prose and even some serviceable dialogue in here. The problem is... something about this book wasn't quite clicking for us. It felt stretched thin and drawn out. We'll sum it up in one word: tedious. The world is dense, the plot keeps piling on twists and turns, and there are so many moving parts, action beats, and characters that the story kept losing us along the way.

Now, to be fair, we had a similar experience with the first installment of the Shadow Bidder series. Both books build and build and build incessantly. In the end, the Shadow Bidder series paid all that build off in book 2 and book 3, the latter of which was our Fiction Book of the Year last year, by the way. The problem is, it sometimes feels like the narrative of this book is testing our patience more than rewarding it. There is a major confrontation at the end, but instead of delivering the kind of mano-a-mano payoff we were hoping for, the characters end up playing chess while discussing philosophy and the state of the world. It just seems so clunk, canned, and contrived.

The chess scene is not inherently a bad idea. In fact, some readers will probably love that. But after all the buildup, we were hoping for something more immediate, explosive, and physically confrontational. This is an action novel (sorta) after all, right? There is action, but a lot of it was lost on us because we couldn't quite buy into the stakes or the reasoning.

Now, we have an exception: rescuing Amber. Rescuing Amber is arguably our favorite part of the whole book. It shows Corren in a more human, chivalrous, and heroic light. But so much of this book feels like: go kill this unscrupulous guy because the other unscrupulous person said he could be bad news. We'll pay you, by the way. We just weren't feeling it.

Ok, we have to tell you something. You know what really made this book seem tedious to us? The constant talk about cybernetics. Cybernetics are a huge part of this book. They're a huge part of Corren's character. In fact, they practically encompass Corren's character, for better or for worse. We're constantly reminded that he has a cybernetic this or a cybernetic that. Everything is cybernetic. Cybernetic arm. Cybernetic fingers. Cybernetic eye. It's just so overdone and overstated. It got on our nerves. You might as well not even state what bodypart he's using if it's just going to be another cybernetic bodypart. We're just gonna assume it is.

The other tedious thing is all the Japanese stuff. There's so much Japanese stuff. There are so many Japanese words and phrases. Corren carries a bunch of Japanese weapons like he's some kind of modern samurai or ninja despite having cybernetic parts. Why not craft a gun or a cannon to your stump, you dope?

Look, we love Japan. We love Japanese media, Japanese anime, Japanese games, Japanese culture, the Japanese people. The problem is, in a futuristic apocalyptic society like this, it seems so out of place and fan-boyish. It's like that "I Think I'm Turning Japanese" song. You get this feeling that the author is just such a big fan of Japanese stuff that he just needed to have it in this society in which it barely fits.

Anyway, this book reminded us a lot of Hounds of Gaia by Sean Tirman with all the cybernetically-enhanced characters. At the same time, we think the action and the drama in Hounds of Gaia somewhat edges this one out. Maybe it's just us.

With all that said, this book shines in one way: the writing. The writing is actually well above average. The sentences flow very well from one to the next. The author uses a lot of detailed descriptions and imagery. Here are a few of our favorites:

"All of this--the grief, the connection, the weight of loss--felt like looking through a window that was slowly frosting over. I could still see it, still feel it, but there were layers of ice between me and this kind of human moment."

"But that feeling was dangerous. Comfort bred complacency. Complacency bred mistakes. And mistakes got people killed."

(Reminded us of that one Yoda quote about fear leading to suffering, by the way)

"The tremors subsiding like ripples in a pond after the stone has sunk."

The author also makes great us of alliteration like:

"...floating in an ocean of digital darkness..."

"...present for someone else’s pain."

Check it out on Amazon!