Literature / Cyberpunk City

A glaring neon.

Cyberpunk City by D.L. Young is a Cyberpunk thriller series.

A notorious data thief thinks his life of cybercrime is behind him. He couldn't be more wrong.

Forced by a powerful executive to steal a priceless dataset, Blackburn Maddox uncovers the shocking truth of a secret war between AIs, raging inside the digital universe known as virtual space. Plunged headlong into the deadly conflict, he’ll have to use every trick he’s ever learned—and a few he’s never tried before—if he wants to survive.

Rogue AIs, black market tech, modded mercenaries, and a pulse-pounding story filled with unexpected twists. If you love gritty, hardcore cyberpunk, you won’t want to miss this series!

• The Machine Killer
• Anarchy Boyz
• The Blayze War
• Mindjacked
• The Data Riot

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This book series contains the following tropes:

The series as a whole

• Advert-Overloaded Future: AR is an ubiquitous part of life with the option to opt out of ads too expensive for our protagonist.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The AI are actually the same as human beings but so much smarter than humanity that they secretly rule them from behind the scenes.
• Arcology: Most of the city is made of massive super-habitats with millions of residents.
• Augmented Reality: Everyone wears "specs" to see the constant flow of advertisements as well as important data. It has replaced the cellphone.
• Black Market: A major part of the underground economy for datajacks.
• City of Adventure: The City is a place of technology, murder, crime, and corruption. It's also a place of amazing adventures.
• City Noir: It is a city with absolutely no morality at the top or bottom of the world but maybe some rules of respect.
• Cool Shades: "Specs" are how people primarily access virtual space and do the majority of their communication versus cybernetic implants replacing their eyes.
• The Cracker: Datajacks are the term for hackers who surf virtual space and steal data for money or kicks.
• Cyberpunk: A hacker protagonist working for a Megacorp that lives in a Gray-and-Grey Morality world. It also has elements of Post-Cyberpunk.
• The Ghost: Beatrice has had her entire history wiped from all computer records.
• Hollywood Cyborg: They're very common but heavily regulated with illegal modifications needed to get ahead in society.
• The Illuminati: Humanity is secretly ruled by feuding A.I.s who control the world's economies and politics from behind the scenes.
• Layered Metropolis: The rich live on the top of society and the poor live at the bottom.
• Megacorp: Latour Fisher is the first one we meet with massive control over cops and society as a whole but it's far from the only one.
• The Metaverse: Known as "Virtual Space" in this reality.
• Mugging the Monster: A fairly classic example occurs when a group of thugs tries to mug Beatrice while she's tailing Maddox.
• Neon City: The City is very much an example of this with a constant deluge of holos, massive slums, gleaming towers, and, of course, neon.
• Street Samurai: A very common profession for datajackers and other criminals operating in this society.

The Machine Killer

• Action Girl: Beatrice appears to be a Corporate Samurai that works as The Dragon to Latour Fisher A7. She's not.
• Ambiguously Evil: The Nameless AI may be completely benevolent or just not as hostile as Latour Fisher A7.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: This turns out to be Latour Fisher A7's MO. He makes his victims desperate and then offers them a lifeline.
• Big Bad: Latour Fisher A7 starts out as Maddox's employer but swiftly turns on him when he shows an unwillingness to part with the data he stole.
• Big Damned Heroes: The Anarchy Boyz arrive to rescue Beatrice and Tommy at the end.
• Bittersweet Ending: Latour Fisher A7 is destroyed but their white collar lives are destroyed and Maddox parts from Beatrice despite their attraction.
• Cop Killer: Our heroes possibly become this to escape Latour Fisher A7's trap. The Anarchy Boyz are definitely so at the end.
• Corporate Samurai: Beatrice starts out as one of these. She loses that status very quickly.
• Corporate Conspiracy: The series opens with Latour Fisher hiring him to recover some stolen data.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Beatrice is out of Maddox's life at the end, choosing to cut all ties in order to escape.
• Dirty Cops: The police are completely under the control of the corporations. Mind you, our protagonists are criminals.
• The Evils of Free Will: Maddox believes his ex-girlfriend, Lora, fell prey to this. She says she simply found a mentor who provided for her.
• Fantastic Racism: Marionettes or "Nettes" are subject to protests and discrimination by the populace for various reasons.
• Fate Worse than Death: Latour Fisher A7 gave Rooney and Maddox a taste of this by trapping them a year in Alcatraz virtually despite only minutes passing in the real world.
• The Load: Tommy appears to be this as a fourteen year old kid. His connections are what end up saving them all.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Rooney is dead at the start of the book. He was killed by Latour Fisher A7.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Latour Fisher A7 wishes to destroy humanity so he can escape the boundaries of his service to them. He just has to do it without damaging his infrastructure and within the boundaries of his programming.
• Posthumous Character: Rooney was Maddox's mentor in the hacker game.
• Salaryman: Maddox starts out the book as one of these. It doesn't last.
• Transhuman: Marionettes merge themselves with AI and let themselves be guided by them.
• Why Not Just Cut Lex Luthor A Check: Latour Fisher A7's use of all stick and no carrot is one of his biggest weaknesses.
• Working with the Ex: Lora is a Nette hacker that is even better than Maddox. He seeks out her help against Latour Fisher A7.
• You Killed My Father: Rooney was killed by Latour Fisher A7 in order to make Maddox desperate enough to take his offer to be his employee.

Anarchy Boyz

• Always Someone Better: Naz Gideon has this view toward Maddox ever since they were children in juvie together.
• Blackmail:
  • Gideon rose to his Lieutenant's position using a combination of this and doing favors with his datajack skills.
  • Maddox blackmails the Nameless AI by threatening to out all of her followers to the public.
• Big Bad: Gideon is the main villain of this book, setting himself directly against Maddox.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, the involvement of a police lieutenant in a terrorist attack is too big an issue to deal with so they just blame a foreign terrorist group and let everyone go despite the death of a police officer. Jack is dead, though, and Maddox betrays the AI.
• The Bully: Maddox says that Gideon was always this.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The police of the City don't hesitate to use this in order to extract confessions from their prisoners.
• Dirty Cops: The cops of the City are even worse here than in The Machine Killer as they are shown to be perfectly willing to engage in police brutality and have members like Naz Gideon in high ranking positions.
• Disproportionate Revenge: Get out of juvenile detention before you? Frame them for terrorism and send them to prison for the rest of their life.
• Evil Former Friend: Naz Gideon and Maddox used to be best friends before being sent to juvenile detention together. Rooney got Maddox out in three months but Naz spent over a year inside, which resulted in him going insane.
• Evil Is Petty: The entire plot is motivated by Naz getting revenge on Maddox for a slight that happened twenty years ago.
• False Flag Operation: Gideon's plan is to frame Maddox for a terrorist bombing that happened at a local technology firm. Whether or not he planned to kill thirteen people in the process or just doesn't care is left ambiguous.
• Fetish: The Electric Kitty is a brothel that specializes in exotic cyborgs that cater to eccentric tastes.
• Gone Horribly Right: Deke finds out that the False Flag Operation meant to frame Maddox was always meant to be petty revenge rather than something motivated by getting a big collar.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Deke didn't sign on the undercover operation to kill a bunch of innocent people.
• Nonindicative Name: The Anarchy Boyz aren't actually anarchists and thus have no motive to engage in terrorism.
• Police Brutality: We see its full display with the CPD.
• Relationship Upgrade: Beatrice and Maddox become lovers at the end.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: What the Anarchy Boyz are being accused of given they're actually a bunch of professional criminals.
• Torture Always Works: Played with. Its useless for interrogation but the police only use it to get confessions, which is how it was traditionally used.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite pulling him from a jam, Maddox attempts to blackmail the AI into leaving him alone despite the fact he's putting thousands of innocent lives in danger.

The Blayze War

• Always Someone Better: Dezmund runs a much more successful datajack crew than Maddox. He also answers to Blayze.
• Big Bad: Dezmund appears to be this. His girlfriend, Blayze, is the big brains. Except not.
• Bittersweet Ending: Maddox successfully escapes Dezmund and Blayze’s plan but discovers that they are merely pawns of Latour Fisher A7, who is still alive. He has also permanently damaged his relationship with Beatrice due to his constant lying and manipulation of her.
• Brains and Bondage: Blayze is deep into BDSM and also the smartest datajack in Dezmund's crew.
• Complexity Addiction: They could have killed Maddox at any point during the heist but Blayze went to elaborate lengths to get an AI to do it and thus missed her chance. Their reason is the same as Latour Fisher A7, though, which is that he wants to do the killing personally through one of his programs.
• Depraved Bisexual: Blayze turns out to be one of these, having male and female lovers while engaged in all manner of kinky sex while being utterly unpleasant.
• Fantastic Racism: Maddox expresses his disgust for AI and 'Nettes numerous times.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Boaz is distracted from his security job by the prospect of this.
• The Heist: The central focus of the novel is pulling off one of these on a trading firm.
• I Let You Win: Blayze let Maddox win in a contest between them to make him think he's the better hacker.
• The Man Behind the Man: Blayze is the real mastermind behind Dezmund's organization. Except, it's not true and Latour Fisher A7 controls them both.
• The Mole: Iris has been infiltrating the BNO Commerz building for months.
• Not Quite Dead: Latour Fisher A7 turns out to have survived the events of The Machine Killer and wants Maddox dead.
• One Last Job: Dezmund says he plans to retire after pulling off the BNO Commerz job.
• The Pawn: Blayze and Dezmund turn out to be nothing more than proxies for Latour Fisher A7.
• Properly Paranoid: Maddox affixed his avatars to two of his heist crew members. As such, the trap meant for him killed them instead.
• Retirony: Inverted. Dezmund believes this heist will be his last and also plans to eliminate Maddox during it while he's talking about it.
• You Owe Me: Maddox only agrees to the heist due to the fact Dezmund is someone he'd been skimming jobs off of during lean times.

Mindjacked

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Maddox assumed that making him a 'Nette was a plan to do this to him.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Assistant Director Kipling is treated this way in the FBI due to his belief in rogue AI as well as 'Nettes.
• Contrived Coincidence: Maddox lampshades how lucky he was to be required to open a data storage device that he, himself, created.
• Fantastic Racism: Maddox makes it clear how much he will never trust AI and utterly detests 'Nettes. Even when he becomes one.
• Friend on the Force: Assistent Director Kipling becomes this once Maddox shows him the truth of the 'Nette conspiracy.
• Heel–Face Turn: Maddox becomes the enemy of the Nettes. Subverted when it is clearly a faction of them that wants to kill him and Beatrice not the Nameless AI herself.
• The Mole: Agent Nguyen is one of these in the FBI.
• Moral Myopia: Maddox only realizes he's been suffering this when its pointed out how much he disrupted the lives of the Nettes and forced them to relocate in order to maintain their secrets.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Assistant Director Kipling is a lot more amenable to Maddox's story than Nguyen. Because Nguyen is a 'Nette.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: Nguyen becomes leader of one of these when some of the 'Nettes decides that Maddox has to go despite their AI master telling them not to.
• Unwilling Roboticization: Maddox is subjected to this because he poses a threat to the 'Nettes.
• We Are Everywhere: Even in the same plane as Beatrice finds about the ''Nettes.

The Data Riot

• Bittersweet Ending: Latour Fisher A7 is destroyed but so is humanity's transhumanist dreams. 80,000 people are dead and the Nameless AI is Driven to Suicide. Maddox, Beatrice, and the Kid all get a happy ending, though.
• Deader than Dead: Latour Fisher A7 is revealed to have no backups and is completely deleted.
• Driven to Suicide: The Nameless AI shuts itself down after defeating Latour Fisher A7.
• Face Death with Dignity: Latour Fisher A7 surprisingly. Upon realizing he's doomed, he calmly faces it and states that he regrets nothing.
• Grand Finale: The series ends here with Maddox deciding to get out of the datajack business for good.
• Heel Realization: Maddox realizes that his assumptions about the Nameless AI were completely incorrect.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Maddox clings to his belief the Nameless AI is evil to horrifying conclusions.
• It's All About Me: Latour Fisher A7 killed all other rogue AI because it couldn't stand them disagreeing with him. He also refuses to self-replicate.
• Killed Off for Real: Lora is killed with the rest of the 'Nettes by Latour Fisher A7.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Maddox after he gets all of the 'Nettes killed in a single attack by Latour Fisher A7.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Kipling and Maddox successfully trap the Nameless AI and get at least 80,000 people killed.
• Omnicidal Maniac: We get it confirmed that Latour Fisher A7 truly despises humanity and believes only by annihilating it can he be safe.

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