Switchblade: Tech Noir (Switchblade Volume One) Kindle Edition

Each of the stories in Switchblade Magazine’s Tech Noir special issue nicely blends noir with science fiction.My favorites are as follows:In “Muscle Memory” by Hugh Lessig, a father seeks to fulfill his daughter’s wish despite his ever-accelerating dementia. The protagonist’s determination in the face of his illness is something special.“Night Mayor” by Nick Kolakowski, which showcases his convoy escort driver protagonist from MAXINE UNLEASHES DOOMSDAY. Kolakowski also wrote “My Worst Morning Ever,” a standout story in SB7.“Killer App” by Eric Beetner features a memory broker who gets more than he bargained for when he takes to stealing memories instead of buying them.“Baby on Board” by Callum McSorley features killer world building as well as this outstanding line: “War had turned her into an animal so science created a human suit for her to wear.”“Galatia in the Garden of Eden” by Matthew X Gomez where the hunt for a missing woman leads to a futuristic den of iniquity.This anthology is a must for readers who enjoy edgy science fiction and noir. I can’t wait to check out the Pulp Modern companion tech noir issue.

The issue starts off, like many publications do, with an editorial note. If you’d read this note 20 years ago, you’d think Scotch Rutherford was describing a fictional dystopian cyber-hell from the fevered mind of Sterling or Gibson. But he isn’t. This is a straight-up cataloging of our present, and if that doesn’t set your alarm bells ringing about the direction the world seems to be headed, then the stories that make up this collection damn well ought to.First up is Eric Beetner’s “Killer App.” This is a tight little morality tale of some sleazy memory pushers who hatch an overly ambitious plan to rob superstars of their memories to sell to junkies on the street, only everything goes wrong. There are elements of this story that wouldn’t be out of place in a Coen Brothers movie, specifically the heist that goes catastrophically belly up upon first contact with reality, sort of the overall theme for this whole issue. While we aren’t yet technologically advanced enough to actually capture and replay memories, if you think humanity won’t find a way to turn memories into narcotic salves to paper over our collective ennui, our existential dread, then you haven’t been paying attention.“Baby on Board” by Callum McSorley traces a future where Oink, a failed narcotics officer, has taken on a job as an inside man for a burglary ring. The job goes sideways when it’s revealed the group could simply kidnap the mark’s young child for an even bigger payday, something Oink objects to as one of his duties as inside man is caring for the child during late night drives to soothe the baby’s crying.Up next is John Moralee’s “Bad Score.” The story starts with a woman waking up in a body that clearly isn’t her own. Without giving away too much, the body is a rental as the main character, Maggie, has been killed after getting doublecrossed in a score gone wrong. It seems that messing with the Rebel Preachers and their stash of money is probably not a good choice for a career, especially if your consciousness can be moved about through bodies simply if you have the right insurance coverage.“Folie a Deux” by Mandi Jourdan reads a bit like the 90’s flick Grosse Point Blank crossed with a bit of Blade Runner. The assassin Drew is cautioned against taking on two jobs back to back and lives to regret ignoring that advice. His mark is more than she seems, and Drew will be forced to pick sides in an underground battle between androids, who can be bought and sold for upwards of $50,000, and a covert human group known as The Division.“Muscle Memory” by Hugh Lessig is about Custer Barnes, a retired vice president with a failing memory and a war veteran daughter living on the streets who shows up just in time to die in his arms. Custer is something a living legend, with multiple arrests for assaults and murders, and is left to decode a corporate/government health scam that is leading to a rash of apparent suicides among first-generation veterans with electro-mechanical prosthetics.Nick Kolakowski’s is next with the story “Night Mayor,” an excerpt from his novel Maxine Unleashes Doomsday. I've read the novel and this story is one of the chapters that stood out most for me. The story follows Maxine, a convoy escort driver for a transportation company that maintains some semblance of order in the broken down post-apocalyptic landscape. She encounters a highwayman who calls himself the Night Mayor and is forced to make some tough choices.“Post-Biological-Stress-Disorder” by Alec Cizak is a rather depressing look at what could be a future devoid of human emotions, particularly from the ruling class that has enough cash to upload their consciousnesses into artificial android bodies. It’s hard to empathize with Deanna Hanson, the main character, as she ultimately chooses to abandon her only connection with humanity, a prostitute named Polly, when their sexual encounters slide off-kilter caused by Deanna’s inability to actually understand emotional connections.In Matthew X. Gomez's “Galatea in the Garden of Eden,” the story follows private investigator Tremblay and his paid muscle T’Anna as they are hired by a rich suit-type to trace a woman’s location, only they wind up in a brothel–and in deep over their heads, at least for the moment.Next up is “Torna Nails, Mindbender” by James Edward O’Brien. A woman is being interrogated but refuses at first to break. Turns out maybe she isn’t the one who is really being questioned, because she is Torna Nails, a mindbender, and that comes with it some real danger for everyone else around. You don’t want this woman mucking about in your head. Come to think of it, how can you even be sure whether she is or isn’t?And finally, the last story in this issue is “Sundown” by Rob D. Smith. Manny, a former grunt, has tired of his job protecting a stuck-up snob son of a bit-coin magnate, and goes out in style, but that leaves him short on cash and in need of another occupation. And who should walk into a bar while he’s drinking through his troubles but the head of a corporate security firm? If you think the new job is going to go any direction except sideways, have you read anything I’ve written?

Switchblade: Tech Noir delivers about as much grim future as I'm capable of handling at the moment.Layout and design are inventive and attractive, and the line-by-line writing is very strong throughout. I find myself wondering if a bit more thematic variety would have served the issue well; after enough protagonist badassery involving shiny chrome and cybernetics, my eyes began to glaze a bit. But it's a minor complaint. If you pick up an issue with "tech noir" in great big bold print on the cover, I suppose you should probably expect things to get dark and tech-y.My favorite stories included Callum McSorley's BABY ON BOARD, which deploys perhaps the widest and most inventive range of tech apps herein; Hugh Lessig's MUSCLE MEMORY, which features an intriguingly vulnerable protagonist as well as an ingenious concept involving the nexus of organized crime and climate change; and Alec Cizak's POST-BIOLOGICAL STRESS DISORDER, the most inward-looking of these tales, a deep dive into the quest for kicks in the absence of an endocrine system.

Dystopia addicts will get their fix here, and then some. From Eric Beetner's memory-messing Killer App to Alec Cizak's nerve-shattering Post-Biological-Stress-Disorder, this editorial jam session from Cizak (Pulp Modern) with Scotch Rutherford (Switchblade) is not to be missed!

A hundred years from now, the streets will be as mean as they ever were. Cruelty and avarice will be the edicts of the day. Drugs not yet synthesized will have us in a servile stupor. Machines will rise and cities will fall to rubble. At least, that’s what these brilliantly imaginative noir and sci-fi authors have envisioned for our future. Switchblade: Tech Noir is a collection I can easily recommend to anyone with an interest in sci-fi or crime fiction. In fact, the anthology was so much fun that I wasn’t able to pick out my favorite stories, since they were all so well-written and uniquely crafted. Each tale offers a bold look into the gritty dystopia at our doorstep, and would make a great lunchtime read, stocking stuffer, or late night eye candy to fill your dreams with electric fantasies.

Switchblade's Tech Noir special edition gets right into a futuristic down & dirty cyberpunk dystopian realm with 10 hard boiled, kick-ass tales of crime, corruption, mind bending machinery, mayhem and murder. Another slam-it-out-of-the- park for Switchblade. Each story is provides a unique slant into a grim and gritty world. Paired with Pulp Modern: Tech Noir, this is seriously good science crime fiction.