Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release date July 23, 2020

Will synthetic intelligence evolve to reflect the best or worst of their creators?

Ravenhawk, Cybercorps Corporations rogue synthetic creation, and Viktor Chernovich, a renegade pure human, have joined a secret society known as Caïssa’s Gambit to fight corrupt corporations and a government corrupted by those corporations to protect society from collapse. But another threat, once considered a mere philosophical possibility, lurks behind it all that if mishandled, could spell the end of both human and synthetic futures

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REVIEW:BISHOP TO QUEEN is the second instalment in Lexy Wolfe’s sci-fi, futuristic, dystopian series focusing on cyborg Ravenhawk, and human Viktor Chernovich as they traverse a world of artificial intelligence. BISHOP TO QUEEN should not be read as a stand alone. I recommend reading RAVENHAWK (book one) first for back story, history and cohesion.

Told from third person perspective BISHOP TO QUEEN is a story line divided into two parts. Part one focuses on a scrappy Russian thief named Viktor Chernovich, as he is saved from execution, and forced to be the companion to Rebeka, an assassin and pilot whose reputation as a killer has preceded her introduction to Viktor Chernovich. But Rebeka has made an enemy of the man in charge, and her life is no longer hers to control.

Part two follows Viktor as he becomes part of a secret society known as Caissa’s Gambit to fight both government and corporate corruption at Cybercorp as the leaders continue to destroy the people he loves. As one of the few remaining pure humans, Viktor’s rogue family of cyborgs (cybernetic organisms), synths (synthetics), VI (virtual intelligence) and AI (artificial intelligence) protect our hero as he navigates a world that is becoming increasingly hostile, leading to war between man and machine. As the AI/VI/Cyborg and Synths slowly become self aware and sentient, the humans are determined to destroy the machines of which they built.

Ravenhawk is a cyborg whose backstory is told in book one RAVENHAWK, a story that focuses on Raven’s developing self awareness, and the small remaining human connection she has to the outside world. A powerful cybernetic organism whose majority make up is synthetic, Raven struggles with what was, and what is. Having spent her earlier existence ‘collecting and preserving data’ for Cybercorp, Raven battles with the memories of the atrocities she was commanded to do.

Lexy Wolfe has built a detailed and complex world of what ifs- a world that continues to see discrimination and segregation; specieism and bigotry; inequality, intolerance, destruction and fear. A philosophical and sociological tale of man and machine; of culture, change, relationships, interactions and values. The corrupted bureaucrats and government regulatory systems force the resistors, the rogues and the gangs to take back what was once theirs including their freedom and right to survive.

For followers of science fiction or fans of movies and television shows there are numerous similarities and the familiarity of Blade Runner, The Matrix, Star Trek, I Robot, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer-the book on which The Matrix was based. A gritty , intriguing and thought provoking premise BISHOP TO QUEEN is a dramatic and tragic tale of a society destroyed by power and control, that ends on a slight cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy