I’m reading and reviewing many books from the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest as a judge. Check out my many posts from the SPSFC (scroll down for more).
Tracker220 by Jamie Krakover
“Jewish Cyberpunk” is one of the taglines in the description for this dystopic read and I was already intrigued. Tracker220 takes a somewhat well-worn premise–what if we had some kind of implant that could track us and placed that power in the hands of a Very Trustworthy Government?–and twists it by adding elements of religion into the scheme.
I hope you caught the sarcasm in my phrasing of “Very Trustworthy Government” as the surveillance state isn’t what I’d count on for reliability. Kaya Weiss has a tracker system that is glitching and gives her access to far more than she’s supposed to be involved with. The government finds out and the chase is on as Kaya bounced around, ultimately running into a kind of underground movement.
Krakover does a great job riffing on an established dystopic formula. She introduces a few wrinkles to the formula, including the aforementioned question of religion and dystopia that isn’t explored nearly often enough. She also does a great job pacing the story to make it maintain interest throughout.
Tracker220 is highly recommended for readers interested in dystopias that are more action oriented. If The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the like are your jam, then I think you’d find plenty to love here.
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SDG.
Eclectic Theist 