Beneath A Thousand Skies

Summary:

Dogged by a digital ghost and his own murky past, he must scour the city to kill the killer … or lose the woman he loves.

Earth, post-Apocalypse. Thibault Allard is determined to save his wife. After he escapes the addictive virtual reality that enslaved them both, he works as a bounty hunter for their unsavoury captor to gain inside access and search for his beloved. But when the morally flexible immortal is handed a ruthless ultimatum, he derails his plans in order to pursue the man who terminated his boss’s spouse.

Getting close to the dangerous cult leader responsible for the woman’s death, he scrambles to survive after he’s captured and imprisoned. And thrown into a pit for a gladiatorial battle against a blood-lusting monster, Thibault fears he’ll die before he can rescue the bride he left behind.

Can he double down on his duty without losing the rest of his soul?

A Mirage in the Memory is a fantastic genre-blurring introduction to a new series. While very much embracing the cyberpunk feel and elements, this novella also twines in fantasy and mystery and the potential elements for a thriller depending on how the series unfolds. It also very much put me in mind of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners both for the aesthetics and technology, but also for how the world works. On top of that there was an almost philosophical element with how the stories plays with memories, the idea of self in the face of immortality, as well as an exploration of morality and free will, in a world where both are almost illusions.

‘Memories etched wounds worse than any acid, scarring the mind with the residues of reality. Like medicating with methadone, memories paled in comparison to the real thing, every recollection a potential of further corruption.’

Thibault Allard is our protagonist and is an excellent POV to guide us through the layers of this world, as his path has taken him through the highs and lows or reality and virtual reality. He’s no hero, but for all the wrongs he has committed, I wouldn’t say he’s the villain either – morally flexible might be one way of putting it, but in reality he’s the product of the world and his situation in it, and Tull does a fantastic job of capturing that conflict, that desire to do better, live better, but also being willing to do worse. And for a very human reason – love. The mystery over where his wife is pervades much of his story, like a single defining map point on a spinning globe, and while we aren’t given the answers we’d perhaps hope (I was a little disappointed there wasn’t more of a reveal, but this is a prequel, so I live in hope), it gives him a very compelling and understandable purpose.

Due to the length and nature of the book, we don’t get such a good lock on the secondary characters, but Tull does do a great job of making them memorable. Ors was a particular favourite – and possibly the one who gave me that Edgerunners feel the most, although Blink is a definite close second. Then there is our digital ghost, and the mystery of what happened to her – she was probably one of the ones I felt least connected to, and yet at the same time I was utterly fascinated by both her existence and her need to know what had happened to her and how she had died. Tull truly knows how to dig into the human psyche, and I think all his characters in some way tap into that, whether for better or worse.

Worse… is definitely what can be used to describe the Trinity, and Jupiter. What would you do in a post-apocalyptic world? Seize, hold and hoard power is the answer for these people, and in all the worst ways possible and Tull does make them reprehensible; but also integral to the entire ecosystem that has built up around this new reality and the virtual reality that lies just beyond it; and

Tull has created a fleshed-out world within a short page count, while also giving us the feeling of having just scraped the surface of this world. We’re given enough details on the technology, without getting bogged down in it, and there is enough leeway to role with the fantastical elements. It was an atmospheric read, with a very real feeling of time trickling by, and threat, and for the most part the mystery elements unfolded beautifully. There were some fantastic twists, especially about Thibault, the only element that didn’t work quite as well for me was the finale, just because it felt a little like it had undermined his attempts. I understand why it was like that, and the ending itself sums up the reality of the world and his existence perfectly, and again taking into account that this is a prequel, it is a minor grumble, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more pushback perhaps from Thibault.

Tull has done a fantastic job in establishing a foundation for a wider series, while also delivering a fully fleshed, independent story. I will eagerly be keeping an eye out for A Spectre in the Steam which is the first book in this series and due for release next year, so Mirage in the Memory has definitely served its purpose as a hook into the wider series.