36 Streets: Australian Cyberpunk

 

Anyone who has spoken to me, or indeed read this blog, will know that I have a particular predilection to cyberpunk art in all its forms.

From Blade Runner to Neuromancer - if it’s cyberpunk, I’m there.

So while perusing a local bookstore last year I was surprised and excited to find a new entrant into the genre - T. R. Napper’s 36 Streets.

And the best part? He’s an Australian author.

Altered Carbon, but Việt Nam

The comparisons to Richard K. Morgan’s seminal masterpiece, Altered Carbon, are impossible to avoid - and that’s a good thing.

From the harsh, brutal reality of the Thirty-Six Streets, to the believable, wry, sardonic characters, it’s an action-packed tech thriller with noir undertones. In essence, it’s everything I want from cyberpunk literature.

The real draw for me was the setting. It’s easy to read about Neo Los Angeles for the fiftieth time, but eventually you start wondering if any other cities exist in the far flung future of the late twenty-first century. Việt Nam is a unique and fascinating country with a long and fractious history, and the downtown ghettos and slums of the old quarter are an ideal locale for neo-noir shenanigans.

Napper does justice to the subtropical city. The humidity, the sweat, the roasting meat from street stalls - his descriptions are visceral, even tangible. It made me crave a bánh mì and a Vietnamese iced coffee.

Girl with gun

The protagonist Lin Vu is gritty. She’s granular, real, raw. Napper doesn’t shy away from the gory details, whether its describing bloody combat or equally vicious family relationships.

Lin is also a brilliant example of a character caught between two cultures. For many Asians growing up in Australia, this is a very relatable notion. The push and pull between East and West, old and new, family and society - this conflict is at the heart of these people.

Reading Lin was easy. I found her voice was consistent and entertaining, striking the balance between being unlikeable and being guarded. She seems like she’d be a real laugh at parties.

Diversity done right

Diversity in literature doesn’t just mean diversity in authorship (although that does help) - it also needs diversity in ideas. 36 Streets delivers in spades, while still playing to the best tropes of the genre.

It was refreshing to read something so obviously Australian. There was no pretension - it’s rough and it’s right there - take it or leave it.

It’s a stellar debut novel from a promising author, and I sincerely hope he chooses to return to this world and write some more.