Annnnd FINALLY, after almost one year and a half, we get the second part of the My Fatal Futility series! If you are asking: “why are we so excited about this series or book?” Well, all I can say is that the first book “My Fatal Futility Shellshock” (read the review here), was nothing short of the BEST Indie Cyberpunk/Scifi book of 2021, AND, to be honest, one of the best books I’ve read in my entire life (you can notice that on the previous review, hahahah). Am I biased? Maybe, but in this massive review, yes, this review will be a tad long, I will try to be as objective as possible (please ignore the high caps of joy & drama).
So! For those who have read the review and the book, you know that THIS BEHEMOTH of a book, (YEAP it’s a massive 600+ pages of cyberpunk story, yeap…), is walking in a tight rope of expectations, and MUST be better than the first book, that by the way, won TWO of the THREE awards it was nominated for, which sets the bar pretty high if you ask me. AND we all know that Neil Hemfrey must make up for a particular event in the previous book that left us devastated, so yeah, the tension is pretty high. Will this book surpass the previous? WE shall see!
First impressions! Well, the cover is just gorgeous and ultra-inviting! We have Kage on the center, all badass and all, but then… we have on his right side, a monster that seems to be the main villain. Now, for those who read the first book, the first question that pops on our heads is: Is this that monster that the story always talks about? Or is it a new, worse villain than the first one? And on the left, we have a mysterious redhead…. uhm… why…. ? Who is she? Let us not forget how the previous book ended. Can this be?! There’s only one way to find out! On with the book!
We start with an prologue that makes us go, “ahh, Shirei-kan, the chip of violence is back” and we realized we missed it, or her, and yet, we ask: Why is she behaving like this? Weird… and we find ourselves on the first scene we ever read about this book, but with more details this time! This is truly ingenious by Neil Hemfrey, and here’s why: With this scene, we are reminded where is the book heading towards, AND that we haven’t reached that point of the story yet, the final moment, the decisive moment, and that this will be an epic battle, so, we as readers get anxious to find out how it turns out, and how are we going to know? Well, by devouring this book, and the next. Clever…. very clever…
You know that part of the book description that goes like : “hyper-violence ….” yeah, heed by that. NO. I’m serious, this is the standard of this book series, if you don’t know by now. How violent? Well, let me tell you like this: You will get around 2 sentences of peace and then, explosions, destruction, rail-gun, massive squid robots warms that eat everything they touch, solar-blast shells, and a pilot that asks “pretty please” for people to start shooting targets with cannons, while making last-second evasive manoeuvres ! YEAP! And this is JUST the first set of 3 paragraphs, of the prologue. YEAP. Oh, and Shirei-kan is constantly asking Kage to allow her to take control of his body for him to go full berserk, as if he himself wasn’t violent enough, WHILE MAKING JOKES!!!! Oh that chip is insane!!!! John Wick fans will love this book.
And talking about jokes, there are many hidden, and way-too-clever–to-get-at-first-glance jokes, when it comes to the dialogue, but also, in the plot, and when it comes to this you will want to pay attention to a particular chicken-robot with three legs, hahahahhaahahha
The philosophical beauty of the plot that made us fall in love with this series is still there, and very much a big part of it, not only in plot but in dialogue. Once again, we have to say that you will learn a LOT from reading just a few pages of this book. Important, yet, seemingly trivial distinctions of words, concepts and explanations of attitudes that will enrich this book and mark it on a class with very few books of the same calibre.
Oh, yes, the lessons of violence are STILL very much a backbone of this book, and yes, all readers should aim and aid to that, if not implement them in their lives, and NO, I’m not saying that we should murder each other like the many scenes here show, but we should all re-evaluate and ponder the concepts of violence presented on this book , which are very true, and compare them against what we are taught in society and measure its effects on our lives. WE need more individuals that master violence and themselves, and if you read and understand this book, you will know why I am saying this.
Well, well, well, we have the ghost of Hayami back on this book, and this brings us memories from the previous book, and those final scenes that changed the book completely, as apparently, things aren’t so straightforward after all… and emotions…. oh Neil will punch in the guts, again!
This book, in comparison with the first one is more… tactical, planned, and mysterious when it comes to plot, and it makes sense because this part of the series is not to show the development of Kage as a person and introduce us to this crazy tech world full of evil and greedy war-like corporations, but to make a bridge between the first one and the third, while explaining some mysteries and deepening others. OK, SURE; there is a HIGH focus on Hayami, and we get that she is around the scenes somewhere and will appear , or we assume given her dead-body speeches to Kage, so there is that.
Another mystery here is Sepi. YES! Sepi! And I will not delve too much in this because I want you to bite your nails and buy this book, lol. There are so many questions running on our heads towards our beloved Sumo-bot, and this book only enhances and adds to those questions, so yeah… be prepared for that.
There is action, yes, a lot, there is brutality, yes a lot, but overall, the book is not as chaotic as the first one, given the emotional load that is lighter (at first hand…) and makes this book more rational, (blame that to Ori as well, and Kojima too), so you will appreciate that.
One has to truly appreciate the seemingly undying rivalry between Kage and Hayami, and to the point that you migh t just ask yourself: “Do these two love each other and Kage doesn’t know it yet”? Because it sure seems so. The way Hayami kind of… teases, if not expects Kage to fight her, and the way she talks to him, and at times reacts sadly to his actions, are intriguing, and really makes you think twice about the whole relationship and dynamics between the two. We knew, that Hayami was Kage’s enemy, yes, but this was on the previous book, on this one, that position was clearly challenged. Not only that, if you remember the last scene of fighting between the two on the last book you will see that Hayami didn’t want this to end like it did, and to this point is trying to tell Kage a story that he himself doesn’t want to believe, but, is Hayami telling the truth?
This whole thing just allows us readers to not only stop, step back and contemplate but also appreciate the time that Nei l Hemfrey clearly had to take to delineate this whole story, not only for the little details but on how the whole relationship would evolve and be destroyed in the present, past AND future, while making sense through more that 1,000 pages of story over the three books, like, wow! You gotta respect that.
You know what we love about this book, this series and the author? They have little romance in them, little rainbow, and little or no happy endings. It’s more like trauma, gore, gore, even more gore, bullets, more trauma, physical trauma, memories of past trauma, jokes, a hyena-dog licking you and trying to wrestle you, a talking time-travelling ball of philosophy (Ori), past characters trying not to disturb their own time-line, more gore, punches, And yeap, YOU HAVE GUESSED IT; even more trauma. (If you think you are not going to feel the pain, well, think again, because this is BRUTAL) So, so, so…. this is IT for babes that dig some violent stuff. LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!
Although I could almost feel it, I could almost feel it, I was still surprised, as so you will be, at the fact that one of the best characters died. Like… you will ask yourself: “isn’t there enough pain in this book? (*add some fist shaking for good measure*) Why do the cool ones have to die? Why can’t they live for another book? Oh god…”
Do you remember, on the review of book one that I told that I won’t forgive Neil for what he has done? And for those who have read book one, you know what I was talking about, so, yeah, Neil almost, almost was forgiven for his actions, and I was ready to let it slide, UNTIL I read the final chapters. Why? After you read it you will be like: “NEIL!!! HOW could YOU !!!! WHY?!!!!!!! WE NEED MORE PAGES!!!!! Why are you ending the book like this , NO, NO, NO!!! WHYYYYYYY???????!!!!!!!! Don’t do this to meeee” And just like that, you will be forced, forced to wait for the third book. Yeap, Neil doesn’t like his readers to happy for long, oh no sir, no happy endings for anybody. Not even a faint trace of it! WHY NEIL??!!! WHY ?!!!!! Omg……
I mean, he was building a freaking plot-bomb for TWO entire books!!! WTF?! And then, we have that Sepi thing right at the end, oh my god…. *sighs* *sighs again*.
Well, you better prepare yourself for this one, because it will leave you limp and questioning your life decisions. So, good luck with it. Oh, and before I forget, maybe, maybe, maybe, we will get a HUGE reveal in book 3, maybe two, involving Sepi as well. Maybe. MAYBE. So yeah. This is about to be fun!!!!
SO! If you haven’t read the first book of the series, PLEASE read the review to the book, in order to give you pretty clear idea of what to expect of this mind-twisting, brutal, unmerciful story, by Neil Hemfrey. IF you have read the first book and survived, and have taken a break (maybe rehab too), take a breather, ease yourself, and … roll with this punch of a book. Cheers! See you on book three!
Cons:
- None
Pros:
- Excellent plot
- The Author was able to explain the gaps in time of the previous book and forward the plot
- Excellent character interactions and consistency throughout the plot and books
- Excellent violent action scenes
- Mysteries all over
- Excellent Narrative & descriptions
Scribble's Worth 