Firebreak is an adult stand-alone dystopian science fiction novel by Nicole Kornher-Stace.
Firebreak contains examples of:
- Advert-Overloaded Future: Ads for Stellaxis and Bestlife can be seen plastered onto practically every surface in New Liberty City. People even walk around with company-logo T-shirts.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Stellaxis surveils its customer-citizens through their lenses, which are connected to their brain implants. This backfires when Mallory is able to capture footage of Stellaxis's crimes by recording in their HQ.
- Bread and Circuses: Stellaxis supplies its customer-citizens with water and a vastly popular video game to keep them content.
- Capitalism Is Bad: It's fair to say that capitalism is the Big Bad of the story. Chicago Review of Books says, "Corporations are on trial in this novel. If Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World were warnings against authoritarian governments, Firebreak is a warning against unchecked capitalism."
- Cluster F-Bomb: Mallory is extremely foul-mouthed, some of her favorite words being "f*ck" and "sh*t"
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Mallory witnesses a Stellaxis soldier bash a young woman's head in. Another bystander shrugs and nonchalantly remarks, "Should've complied."
- Corporate Conspiracy: The Stel Tech Sec Ops soldiers, thought to be super-advanced AI, are actually kidnapped children turned into cybernetically modified supersoldiers.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: According to Stellaxis, 06, 22, and the rest of the Sec Ops were created by the company to help in the war against Greenleaf. In truth though, the Sec Ops were kidnapped as children and converted into super-soldiers against their will.
- Corporate Warfare: The conflict between Stellaxis and Greenleaf turns New Liberty City into an active war zone.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Zig-zagged. At first, the Director seems to be a sinister evil scientist, but she claims that she's just doing her job. The real one in charge is the Stellaxis CEO, a shadowy figure who never appears in the story.
- Crapsack World: Mallory and her friends live in a sprawling megacity trapped in a perpetual state of war. Crammed into a tiny shared space in a run-down hotel, they have to work multiple jobs to survive, water costs a dollar an ounce at the company store, and at any minute their building might get blown sky-high by an errant bomb.
- Cyberpunk: Firebreak takes place in a grim near future dystopia ruled by warring corporations, where all citizens have computers implanted in their heads at birth.
- Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: The weather in New Liberty City is always awful. Mallory notes that the city seems to be stuck in a "sh*tty endless winter."
- Defiant to the End: After she turns on Stellaxis, Catherine stays defiant even while facing down certain death at the hands of her former superiors. Similarly, as a prisoner of Stellaxis, Mallory refuses to talk even while being tortured.
- Dehumanization: The Sec Ops are believed to be nothing more than advanced A.I.s
- Divided States of America: The forty-five remaining states of the US are split between rival megacorps Greenleaf and Stellaxis.
- Fascists' Bed Time: New Liberty has a power curfew that doesn't always come at the same time.
- Gaia's Lament: While watching a recording of the Californian redwood forests, Mallory notes that the once-great forests are now long gone. In addition, much of the East Coast, including New York City and Boston, have been swallowed by the ocean.
- Humongous Mecha: The Citykillers, mechs created by Greenleaf as a weapon in their battle against Stellaxis.
- Just Following Orders: When she is confronted about her role in kidnapping and torturing the missing children, the Director claims this as her defense.
- Mega City: New Liberty City, a densely populated urban center on the East Coast, and the only territory fractured between Stellaxis and Greenleaf.
- MegaCorp: Stellaxis and Greenleaf own everything in America, dividing the entire country between them.
- Neural Implanting: In New Liberty, every customer-citizen is fitted with a mandatory brain interface at birth.
- N.G.O. Superpower: Stellaxis Innovations has the power of a sovereign government, including a private army, and rules over four of the nine remaining megacities in the US. Its main competitor, Greenleaf Industries, has its own military and controls the other four.
- One-Letter Name: B, the mysterious woman who hired Mallory to investigate the Sec Ops. In the prequel Flight & Anchor, it's revealed that her name is actually Beatrice, "Bea" for short.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Catherine, a cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier created in Stellaxis's underground labs, resents her creators and ultimately turns on them.
- Privately Owned Society: Each of the nine supercities in the continental United States is owned by a corporation.
- Rebel Leader: Mallory, somewhat unintentionally, becomes one after her video detailing Stellaxis's crimes goes viral.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Despite the water shortage, the Stellaxis CEO has a large, nicely-watered garden in his backyard.
- Sigil Spam: Stellaxis's star logo can be seen on storefronts, signs, buildings, T-shirts, and even an interrogation chamber. Similarly, Greenleaf's logo is plastered everywhere: including on the attack helicopter that destroys Stellaxis Tower and kills the Director.
- Spark of the Rebellion: Mallory's video is the trigger for a full-scale uprising.
- The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: Mallory remarks that Stellaxis owns the record labels for the artists the make resistance songs. Later, Stellaxis releases a fraudulent video of Mallory saying her protests were all part of an elaborate marketing campaign, in order to discredit her and turn her allies against her.
- Too Broken to Break: While Mallory is a prisoner at Stellaxis HQ, the interrogators try to torture her by starving her. Mallory, who is used to going hungry, remarks, "They're not breaking sh*t."
- Torture Technician: Mallory comes across one of these after being captured by Stellaxis, who believes she was hired by Greenleaf to spy on them.
- Unwilling Roboticization: The fate of the kidnapped children who end up being recruited into the Sec Ops program.
- Virtual Celebrity: Most of the Sec Ops are famous as non-player characters in a popular MMORPG. Mallory develops a platonic crush on 22 after meeting his avatar in-game.
- Voice of the Resistance: What Mallory's channel becomes after she releases a video revealing that the Steltech supersoldiers are actually not robots, but kidnapped children.
- Working-Class Hero: Mallory and Jessa, along with all the other people who share their apartment.
- You Are Number 6: The Steltech Sec Ops soldiers are known only by numbers based on the order in which they were recruited.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: B is called a terrorist for filtering and distributing drinkable water independently from Stellaxis
