New Book Alert: Behind Blue Eyes: A Cyberpunk Noir Novel by Anna Mocikat; Engaging Science Fiction Thriller About Cybiotics and What Humanity Really Means

 

New Book Alert: Behind Blue Eyes: A Cyberpunk Noir Novel by Anna Mocikat; Engaging Science Fiction Thriller About Cybiotics and What Humanity Really Means

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I suppose it's serendipitous or synchronous that I am reading Anna Mocikat's excellent and engaging Cyperpunk Thriller, Behind Blue Eyes:A Cyberpunk Noir Novel at the same time that I am watching one of my favorite science fiction series, The Outer Limits (1995-2002 version). The reason is because various episodes explore some of the concepts in Mocikat's novel: The existence of robots, androids, cyborgs, computer operating systems, and other forms of artificial intelligence and what it means to be human and have emotions and thoughts that run counter to their programming. 

Many episodes of Outer Limits involve AI's falling in love with their creators ("Valerie 23", "Mind Over Matter", "Bits of Love"), AI's trained for fighting and killing gaining consciences and deciding not to kill (" I Robot," "Glitch," ,"Mona Lisa"), robots raising or becoming members of families ("Mary 25", "Simon Says," "Family Values "), robots and AI's fighting against or controlling humans-sometimes with humans fighting back  ("Stream of Consciousness", "The Camp," "The Hunt" "In Our Own Image","The Haven," "Human Operators," "The Grid," "The Tipping Point"), humans gaining abilities by being implanted with or studying new technology ("Living Hell", "Virtual Future," "The Awakening,"  "Identity Crisis," "Fear Itself", The Other Side," "Small Friends",) and in reversal, robots in a destroyed future recreating humans ("Resurrection"). 

In each episode, the initial questions are asked: What does it mean to be human? When does humanity stop and machinery begin and vice versa? Can AI feel or think for itself and if it does, how soon will they question and rebel against their programming? Are we becoming more human or less and will AI become more human to make up for it?

These questions and themes are also addressed in Behind Blue Eyes, particularly through the journey of its protagonist, Nephilim. Nephilim lives in Olympia, a futuristic city in what used to be the East Coast of the United States. Nephilim is part of an elite force of commandos called The Guardian Angels, who are 60 percent cyborg and 40 percent human. 

They have augmented hearts and other organs, titanium metal bones, lightning fast reflexes, titanium blades and high tech weaponry connected to their bodies, and wear high tech bullet impenetrable synthetic silk suits. They are an unstoppable killing force. When their victims sees the eerie neon blue optic sensory eyes of the Angels, usually those eerie blue eyes are the last things that they see.

Nephilim is considered the best of the Guardian Angels and on the fast track to getting promoted to Archangel, one of the heads of the force, thanks to the interest of the creepy sinister Head Archangel, The Metatron. Nephilim, like the other Angels, has been trained since childhood with no memories from her life beforehand. 

She and the rest of the Angels are trained to kill, destroy, and serve the interests  of the Olympia company that now controls the former United States.  They attack members of rival corporations, Rosprom (Europe) and TogbuaXiang (Asia) as well as people who live outside the Olympia as rebels or off the gridders.  Their motto is "Custodio et mortifico." ("Protect and Destroy".) They do not hesitate. They follow their orders and kill without question. Or at least,Nephilim used to.

During what should be a routine seek and destroy mission against a family of rural outsiders becomes deeply personal for Nephilim. After a little girl's parents are killed, Nephilim looks at the girl and sees herself through the child's eyes: Nephilim sees herself as a monster. 

This encounter awakens several repressed emotions, thoughts, and memories inside her.  

These emotions, thoughts, and memories become stronger when she is injured during another assignment and receives a glitch which allows her to disconnect from Olympia's mainframe.  This disconnection allows her to think for herself for the first time and question her purpose as a mindless killing machine.

Most of the book centers around Nephilim's rediscovery of her humanity. Repressed memories are reawakened. Nephilim recalls her youth on a  farm living with a beautiful loving mother and a gentle blind father. One night, she was taken by "blue eyed monsters" and trained and augmented until she became one of the blue eyed monsters herself.

Nephilim makes the most of her new found humanity. She entices Finwick, one of their scientists, to implant her with a device that turns her off from the mainframe. She explores the forbidden areas around Olympia. She goes to the seedier sections and finds Sarah, the young girl who looked at her with such fear, reduced to becoming a child prostitute. She rescues her, leaving a trail of dead bodies behind them. Protecting Sarah gives Nephilim a maternal instinct and empathy, remembering what it was like to be a child lost and helpless to the whims of adults around her.

She sees a brothel where the clientele are dressed like Angels, so regular humans can experience what it's like to have sex with one of those death machines. (The Guardian Angels have an intense sex drive and no concerns about reproduction or catching V.D. It is said for a human to have sex with one is like courting death.)

Nephilim is amused and horrified until Finwick is kidnapped and assaulted by one of the prostitutes and her gang. In this encounter, Nephilim learns about gratitude for what Finwick did for her and accepts friendship in place of lust and sexuality.

One of the most important lessons that Nephilim learns is about love and trust. During her nightly jaunts, Nephilim encounters Jake, who is part of the Resistance movement against Olympia. Until she encounters Jake, Nephilim has begun to question her programming and the Angel's purpose but only in an abstract. After she meets Jake and the other Resistance members, Nephilim becomes determined to fight the system that built and trained her. 

Throughout the book, Nephilim emerges from a two-dimensional unremorseful obedient killer to a strong willed independent badass using her impressive abilities to fight for freedom and against the  oppressive corporation which controls everything and treats its people like commodities rather than human beings.

Her greatest antagonist is her formerly biggest supporter. The Metatron is one of the most memorable villains that I have read this year. He is one of those characters who is so good at being bad. He is the corporation personified. He views the Angels and everyone else around him as a means to an end. He is completely analytical and results driven. He orders the death of his allies just as quickly as his enemies. He makes plans and counter plans putting himself above anyone who may plot against him or Olympia and that includes Nephilia.

While The Metatron  is terrifying with his initial cold icy persona and his manipulative controlling tyranny, he becomes even more terrifying when he displays his vulnerabilities in front of Nephilia. He breaks down the former Angela's current alliances one by one and shatters her emotions and newly discovered allegiances, particularly her love for Jake.  He then reveals his past connections with her converying all his rage and hatred on this young woman with whom he both lusted after and wanted to destroy. This passage between Metatron and Nephilia reveals his true villainy. He wants to destroy her emotionally and mentally before he destroys and reprograms her physically.

The final chapters of the book ask a lot of questions and some are unanswered. What are the Resistance and Jake's real goals? What is Nephilia's real role in this Resistance? Are some of Nephilia's fellow Angels starting to question their own programming and becoming rebellious?  If Nephilia is reprogrammed to become a killer will she retain her memories and emotions and if they are wiped what's to stop them from happening again? The ending suggests a return to status quo, with a new and improved Guardian Angel but is it? While the questions are purposely left open ended for a second book, it also suggests that the link between humanity and machinery is an ongoing process. The discovery of the things that make us what we are-thought, emotion, development, reason, memories, change-can never truly be suppressed or wiped.

Anna Mocikat gives us a suspenseful science fiction with some thought provoking questions that allow the Reader to experience what really goes on behind those blue eyes.