"Hale has crafted an insightful, action-packed adventure brimming with creativity, fusing elements of the seminal big-screen sci-fi Blade Runner with Neuromancer-era William Gibson, to impressive effect.
Mining a rich seam of well-established dystopian concerns, Runners touches on the social inequalities inherent in a technologically enhanced, hierarchical society. High-level Metro citizens are swamped in wealth, while lower-level residents remain an exploited underclass legally obliged to endure endless digital propaganda and advertising under the eye of corporate law enforcement.
In less confident hands, the socio-political commentary underpinning Runners might have overwhelmed the narrative. Hale, however, ensures that it compliments and enriches the story without disrupting its pace.
Runners benefits from strong characterization. Bantering dialogue and inspired world-building are equally commendable. If there's a weakness, it's that the story ends abruptly, leaving several frustratingly unresolved plot threads. This is a minor quibble, however, since a sequel is indicated at the conclusion.
Overall, Runners is an impressive series debut that science fiction and cyber-punk fans will enjoy immensely, especially admirers of Gibson and Philip K. Dick. " BlueInk Review
Like all good dystopian fiction, RUNNERS concerns itself with morality, or more particularly, the problem of being moral in circumstances that militate against moral behavior. Author Justin Hale weaves Black Mirror-esque dramatic beats, Orwellian social dynamics, and military SF into a heady mixture that keeps the reader guessing. The story concerns a group of detectives tasked with solving the mystery of "doom dust", made of nanobots who have broken away from human control and are apparently acquiring the skill to create functional humanoid creatures out of themselves. In a world dominated by nanotechnology, society is organized along the lines of a late capitalist society, only more so. Cities have the characteristics of arcologies without the environmentally friendly bits, and social capital reigns supreme. It reminds one of nothing so much as David Mitchell's Nea So Copros-the hyper-consumerist dystopia featured in Cloud Atlas-where consumers are assailed with digital ads, digital objects can be given corporeal form and "the people vote, as always, with their wallets". The world's inhabitants, meanwhile, are permanently wired, ready for nicotine hits or sexual gratification through digital means. Children are feral monsters of the sort that taunt Winston Smith in 1984-devious, disrespectful, and spies in waiting in all but name-and, as in 1984, the processes of torture, which is carried out on a special facility located on the Moon, are complete, infallible, and exquisite in the worst possible sense.
Strip away RUNNERS' cyberpunky sensibilities, the tech talk, the emojis, and the ghost tropes and what reader's are left with is a species of hard-boiled detective fiction story. The mechanics, on the other hand, put one in mind of first-person shoot-em-ups: characters "compress" and "decompress" items they are holding at will, retrieving them from an inventory. This kaleidoscope of disparate styles and influences is RUNNERS' strength. It ensures the action, whether it be slick, gory, or slow-burning, never disappoints; and if the intricacies of the technology do require exposition to be laid on a bit heavy at times, it enables the realization of a world that is as filled with a smoky, noirish atmosphere as it is brimming with menace.
A pungent melange of hard-boiled detective fiction and digital dystopia, Justin Hale's RUNNERS provides thrills, spills, and more than a few gut-wrenching revelations.
Craig Jones for IndieReader (4.8/5)
