#mallory firebreak

[angelwiththeblue-box]

i spent all day listening to firebreak and i needed something to work on during so post ending fanart

(designs inspired by @layaart)

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taglist: @joshkiszkashusband @thedrowningpoetofdionysus @thedragonemperess @genuine-possum @depressedtransguy @someguyiguess @blueskiesandstarrynights @ayraluv (lemme know if you want to be added or removed)

[rhetoricandlogic]

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak

Molly Templeton

Wed May 19, 2021 2:00pm

If you’ve not yet read Nicole Kornher-Stace’s novels Archivist Wasp and Latchkey, I’d like to strongly encourage you to do so. It’s not because they’re connected to Firebreak—to my surprise and delight, they are, though Firebreak is a standalone—but because they’re just so good. Immersive, dark, vivid, imaginative and eerie, they follow one young woman in a post-apocalyptic world where her task is two-pronged: survive, and catch ghosts.

Firebreak is set in a world not yet turned totally apocalyptic—but close. In 2134, two corporations run what used to be the U.S. Stellaxis and Greenleaf are in perpetual conflict, and citizens are regularly caught in the middle, leaving shattered cities and families. Mallory is one of those orphaned by the war. She lives in a hotel room with a handful of other orphans, all scraping together an existence from odd jobs and whatnot, counting the gallons of water they’re allotted each week.

Mal’s world is a bleak magic-mirror version of ours, an all-too-believable extrapolation from the climate, political and otherwise, we live in. But we don’t have SecOps, the immersive game in which Mal spends much of her free time. Players in the expansive digital world stream their gameplay, earning fans and sponsors and gifts from those who watch. If they’re really lucky, they might stumble across one of the game’s celebrity NPCs, the digital counterparts of real-life soldiers who are known, in life and in the game, only by numbers. In the real world, the numbered soldiers fight for Stellaxis—and serve as the face of the war’s marketing. In the game, finding an NPC can be a ticket to more viewers, more in-game gifts, more attention. More water, too.

Mal and her friend Jessa are low-level players and streamers. Jessa’s the chipper, outgoing one who talks with their viewers; Mal is less social, more focused on her game and on getting a glimpse of 22, the NPC who intrigues her. There’s nothing really special about Mal or Jessa, except that they happen to be the people who stumble on NPC 08, out in the middle of nowhere in game-space. And that action gets someone’s attention.

Firebreak is part mystery, part gamer-geek-out, part scream of rage at corporate culture and capitalist greed. Mal knows her world is a mess, but she’s never seen any hope of it changing—let alone hoped that she could change it. She’s deeply aware of how the lives of her roommates are marked by grief and trauma, that all of their families were destroyed by the powers that rule her world. And when she has a chance to act, to help people, she’s believably torn between fear and the certainty that the scary thing is the right thing to do.

I’m being specifically vague on plot here because part of the delight of reading Firebreak is unraveling secrets along with Mal, whose oh-shit-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into-now narration is immersive, endearing, and wry and, as things go ever further sideways, increasingly intense in a way that’s perfectly matched to the book’s video-game aspect. The intensity of the plot is carefully balanced by the strength and depth of the friendships among Kornher-Stace’s characters. “I’m committed to putting as many books as I can out into the world that treat platonic relationships with all the weight and gravity and significance usually reserved for romance,” Kornher-Stace explained on Goodreads. She’s not just committed to these relationships; she’s really, really good at them. Mal and Jessa play off each other’s strengths, find ways to keep each other going, and from the get-go their friendship feels lived-in and fleshed-out, familiar and true. The relationships with their roommates are less detailed, but we get a glimpse of each of them, an outline of personality and perspective that’s enough to convince me that Kornher-Stace could write another novel about each one.

But Mal’s interest in, and eventual connection with, 22 is something rarely seen: the friend-crush. The NPCs are celebrities, with merch of their faces, figurines, posters, you name it. They’re everywhere; they seem less people and more action figures. Mal’s attraction to 22 doesn’t involve the usual trappings, but is something deeper and harder to parse—and something that rings true and familiar. Haven’t many of us had that person we just want to be near, to get to know, but not in the way everyone else thinks? Or been attracted to a person in a way that you feel like ought to be romantic, but isn’t? That’s what Kornher-Stace puts on the page: a connection that rarely gets depicted, let alone as effectively as this.

Firebreak has been compared to Ready Player One, and if you have any kind of reaction to that, I understand. So did I. Both books involve an immersive, addictive video game that takes the place of a lot of “real life” for people in a broken future. But you will find no ‘80s references, no quests, no glib nostalgia here. The game feeds the plot, and it plays an important role in Mal and Jessa’s lives. But change needs to come to the real world, the world full of hungry, thirsty bodies at the mercy of corporate greed. What happens in the game matters, but on an entirely different level.

It’s difficult to talk about Firebreak without talking about how it connects to Archivist Wasp, though as I said before: This is a standalone novel, and you absolutely don’t have to have read Kornher-Stace’s other books to get completely sucked into it. That said, there’s a real reward here for those who have met Wasp and her world. The books work in tandem to tell a story about how systems of oppression and abuse replicate themselves, how the horrors faced by one generation may be the same thing later generations face, in different shapes and with different names. All three novels prioritize vivid,  platonic relationships, often between characters in exceedingly fraught situations—people fighting against forces that don’t really see them as people, and trying to retain their humanity in the face of incredible brutality.

Kornher-Stace sends her characters to underworlds, erases their realities, isn’t afraid to make death stark on the page, and knows how to show us horrible abuses without ever edging into gratuitousness or melodrama. Her heroine’s only superpowers are curiosity, stubbornness, and care—things we’re all capable of mustering up. This world feels real; this world is real, and not that far away. Firebreak reads like a warning, but one that’s simultaneously a gripping, affecting tale full of characters I hope we’ll get to meet again.

[nycorix]

HAPPY 2/22/22 TO THE NKS-VERSE FANDOM LOL. I decided extremely last-minute (read: yesterday) to do a lil mini-project in honor of 22 and arospec week!! So here's a three part oneshot feat. 22/the ghost + platonic intimacy with 06 / Mal / Wasp in that order 🥲🥲🥲

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Mallory from Firebreak is aromantic asexual!

[aro-who-reads]

Aro book review: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

I really loved this book!! Like, a lot!

It's set in a post-apocalyptic USA where water rations are heavily controlled by a corporation, and focuses on Mallory, who streams a video game to make enough money to make ends meet. She stumbles into a government conspiracy which throws her into danger.

I was slightly confused at first, as the book starts in the middle of some action, but it didn't take me very long to understand what was going on and get completely sucked in. I enjoyed the author's previous book Archivist Wasp, but I enjoyed this one even more!

While I've read a number of books with aro characters that emphasised platonic relationships, I'm not sure I've ever read such an obvious portrayal of some kind of platonic crush/squish. While the words are never explicitly used, Mallory makes it clear she is aroace, and has a strong platonic pull towards another character (someone she doesn't even know!) There's also just generally not any romance, which I personally really enjoyed.

Anyway if you want a no-romance book about fighting the system and a platonic crush, go read Firebreak!

[wearethekat]

February Book Reviews: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Loose prequel to Archivist Wasp, but also works as a stand-alone. A near future apocalyptic future where everything in America is owned by two warring companies, and the supersoldiers conscripted into battle are worshipped like pop stars. Protagonist Mallory scrabbles for a living streaming a video game based on the corporate war, until she gets sucked into a conspiracy about the previously mentioned supersoldiers.

I had rather mixed feelings about this one. Most of what I liked about Archivist Wasp was the fantastic worldbuilding. The world of Firebreak is grimly plausible and also very similar to at least five other books-- the rule by corporations, the forced scarcity of a necessity, the people living mostly in VR. It constrained the plot towards being mostly predictable. And Mallory seems curiously adjacent to the plot, with very little agency or personal power.

Also may I note that Mallory was rather unconvincing as a streamer good enough to live off of it, given that she was extremely introverted and seemed to keep her audience on mute and never interact with them. Although that perhaps just stands as testament as the strength of her partnership with Jessa, who’s the extroverted one. Their friendship is the high point of this book. 

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: May 4, 2021

New Releases: May 4, 2021

Adult Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace Like everyone else she knows, Mallory is an orphan of the corporate war. As a child, she lost her parents, her home, and her entire building in an airstrike. As an adult, she lives in a cramped hotel room with eight other people, all of them working multiple jobs to try to afford water and make ends meet. And the job she’s best at is streaming a popular VR…

[bookish-brews]

Book Review: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Book links: Review & Aesthetic| Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop.org

At a glance

An orphan of the corporate war, Mallory works streaming the popular VR war game, only to find out that the supposedly “grown” celebrity super humans (which are intellectual property of Stellaxis) are actually stolen children just like her.

💥 Dramatic Ending

💜 Nomance

😭 Emotional

🌺 Friendship Goals

Review & book info below:

Title: Firebreak Author: Nicole Kornher-Stace Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press Publication date: May 5, 2021

Review:

Action packed, anti-capitalist, compelling, well written, easy to follow, emotional, and tense.

Oh man, where do I begin? I really loved this book. When I opened it, I thought “man this is kind of long, I didn’t realize!” And then literally this book doesn’t slow down at any point. It is packed with amazing content. This is going to be a hard review, because it’s packed with so many different amazing things that I don’t know how well I can narrow it down! This book is easy to follow and fast paced, but delightfully anti-capitalist in a way that Ready Player One wishes it was.

Quick Summary: Firebreak follows Mal, who lives with her 7 roommates in an old hotel room, living by the rules of the mega corporation, Stellaxis, amidst a corporate war stalemate. Mal and her best friend Jessa are mildly successful at streaming the wildly popular war VR game modeled after the real corporate war — the war that the corporations have monetized. Everything changes for Mal and Jessa when they get contacted by a mysterious sponsor who tells them that the super human celebrities, that everyone knows Stellaxis grew in a lab, are not lab experiments at all. They’re real war orphans, just like Mal and Jessa.

I have been reeling about this book since I finished it a few days ago. It was done so well, I’m really impressed. The first thing that I just can’t get over was how much action was packed into this book. Not just action, but how so much information about the plot was weaved effortlessly directly into the action. We learned everything we needed to know for the journey through VR battles, mysterious disappearances, rebellion and secrets whispered in the garden. It never slowed down, but it managed to give us so many intricacies of plot weaved in perfectly.

Continue Reading...

Click continue reading for content warning, diversity representation & more!

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[gher-bear]

[nasibku11]

~ Download~ Firebreak BY : Nicole Kornher-Stace

Firebreak

By : Nicole Kornher-Stace

  DOWNLOAD THIS BOOKS

  DESC:

Like everyone else she knows, Mallory is an orphan of the corporate war. As a child, she lost her parents, her home, and her entire building in an airstrike. As an adult, she lives in a cramped hotel room with eight other people, all of them working multiple jobs to try to afford water and make ends meet. And the job she?s best at is streaming a popular VR war game. The best part of the game isn?t killing enemy combatants, though?it?s catching in-game glimpses of SpecOps operatives, celebrity supersoldiers grown and owned by Stellaxis, the corporation that runs the America she lives in.Until a chance encounter with a SpecOps operative in the game leads Mal to a horrifying discovery: the real-life operatives weren?t created by Stellaxis. They were kids, just like her, who lost everything in the war, and were stolen and augmented and tortured into becoming supersoldiers. The world worships them, but the world believes a lie.The company controls every part of their lives, and defying

[meret118]

WEEK ONE (May 4)

Firebreak—Nicole Kornher-Stace (Saga Press)

New Liberty City, 2134. Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country’s remaining forty-five states (five have been submerged under the ocean) between them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. There are nine supercities within the continental US, and New Liberty City is the only amalgamated city split between the two megacorps, and thus at a perpetual state of civil war as the feeds broadcast the atrocities committed by each side. Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis’s wargame SecOps on BestLife, spending more time jacked in than in the world just to eke out a hardscrabble living from tips. When a chance encounter with one of the game’s rare super-soldiers leads to a side job for Mal—looking to link an actual missing girl to one of the SecOps characters. Mal’s sudden burst in online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about BestLife’s developer, and puts her in the kind of danger she’s only experienced through her avatar.

Immunity Index—Sue Burke (Tor Books)

In a US facing growing food shortages, stark inequality, and a growing fascist government, three perfectly normal young women are about to find out that they share a great deal in common. Their creator, the gifted geneticist Peng, made them that way―before such things were outlawed. Rumors of a virus make their way through an unprotected population on the verge of rebellion, only to have it turn deadly. As the women fight to stay alive and help, Peng races to find a cure―and the cover up behind the virus.

Project Hail Mary—Andy Weir (Ballantine)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?

More at the link.

[fredhandbag]

Do you like dystopian fiction with a side of virtual reality? In her new book, Firebreak, Nicole Kornher-Stace writes about Mallory - a girl who spends her days trying to earn enough water credits to stay alive. Mal spends most of her time playing SecOps on BestLife trying to rack up enough kills to get on the boards. A random encounter with one of the game's super-soldiers sends her and her friend Jessa on a side quest - one that uncovers information that the corporate masters want to keep hidden. And now the survival of Mal and her bunkmates is in jeopardy." Mal is a great character. She sucks at interactions with people but wants to do the right thing. There are many moments for her of "Why didn't I say that?' Aren't we all like that? This is a bleak society that NKS gives us. People always hungry and thirsty. Living on top of each other. Having to work multiple odd jobs just to survive. And never knowing when a drone blast might bring your building down. The story feels familiar if you've read any recent dystopian science-fiction at all. But the story is fast-paced. There are characters you can pull for. You'll want to keep turning pages to find out what happens. An unexpected messy ending from NKS but it works. This is the first book I've read from NKS but the writing has a great flow. Thanks to @netgalley and @gallerybooks for the advanced copy. Firebreak releases 5/4. #firebreak #nicolekornherstace #gallerybooks #netgalley #dystopianfiction #sciencefiction #virtualreality #bookstagram #bookshelves #booknerd #bookhoarder #bookworm #sodacityreads #bookish #bookreview #hardcover #novelsuspect #bookcover #bookhaul #literarycrimefiction #goodreads #homelibrary #fiction #crimefiction #thriller https://www.instagram.com/p/COaX5dtLcj2/?igshid=exf53ppkc9qc

[mahacinta123]

~(PDF)~ Books Firebreak BY : Nicole Kornher-Stace

Firebreak

By : Nicole Kornher-Stace

==>>Get This Book<<==

  ==>> READ THIS BOOKS NOW<<==

  DESC:

Like everyone else she knows, Mallory is an orphan of the corporate war. As a child, she lost her parents, her home, and her entire building in an airstrike. As an adult, she lives in a cramped hotel room with eight other people, all of them working multiple jobs to try to afford water and make ends meet. And the job she?s best at is streaming a popular VR war game. The best part of the game isn?t killing enemy combatants, though?it?s catching in-game glimpses of SpecOps operatives, celebrity supersoldiers grown and owned by Stellaxis, the corporation that runs the America she lives in.Until a chance encounter with a SpecOps operative in the game leads Mal to a horrifying discovery: the real-life operatives weren?t created by Stellaxis. They were kids, just like her, who lost everything in the war, and were stolen and augmented and tortured into becoming supersoldiers. The world worships them, but the world believes a lie.The company controls every part of their lives, and defying

[aion-rsa]

Top New Science Fiction Books in May 2021

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The author of The Martian returns and the far future gets messy in this month’s science fiction offerings. Here are some of the science fiction books we’re most looking forward to in May 2021…

Top New Science Fiction Books in April 2021

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Type: Novel Release date: May 4 Publisher: Ballantine Books Den of Geek says: It’s hard to go wrong with Andy Weir, one of the smartest voices in hard science fiction who also brought snarky fun to The Martian. In his new book Weir ventures further into the realm of science fiction with an alien and the whole world at stake. Publisher’s summary: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Buy Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Type: Novel Release date: May 4 Publisher: Gallery/Saga Press

Den of Geek says: With elements of superheroes, virtual reality, mechs and ecological disaster, Kornher-Stace’s adventure story has plenty of inventive world-building. But it’s the characters who really shine with a clear-eyed perspective on the story of what happens when people fight for what’s right — and meet their heroes.

Publisher’s summary: Ready Player One meets Cyberpunk 2077 in this eerily familiar future.

“Twenty minutes to power curfew, and my kill counter’s stalled at eight hundred eighty-seven while I’ve been standing here like an idiot. My health bar is flashing ominously, but I’m down to four heal patches, and I have to be smart.”

New Liberty City, 2134.

Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country’s remaining forty-five states (five have been submerged under the ocean) between them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. There are nine supercities within the continental US, and New Liberty City is the only amalgamated city split between the two megacorps, and thus at a perpetual state of civil war as the feeds broadcast the atrocities committed by each side.

Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis’s wargame SecOps on BestLife, spending more time jacked in than in the world just to eke out a hardscrabble living from tips. When a chance encounter with one of the game’s rare super-soldiers leads to a side job for Mal—looking to link an actual missing girl to one of the SecOps characters. Mal’s sudden burst in online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about BestLife’s developer, and puts her in the kind of danger she’s only experienced through her avatar.

Author Kornher-Stace’s adult science fiction debut—Firebreak— is loaded with ambitious challenges and a city to save.

Buy Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace.

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Hard Reboot by Django Wexler

Type: Novel Release date: May 4 Publisher: Tor.com

Den of Geek says: Sometimes you just need a good mecha battle. While the character in over her head sounds good too, the real draw on this one is that cover and the promise of big robot action. Publisher’s summary: Kas is a junior researcher on a fact-finding mission to old Earth. But when a con-artist tricks her into wagering a large sum of money belonging to her university on the outcome of a manned robot arena battle she becomes drawn into the seedy underworld of old Earth politics and state-sponsored battle-droid prizefights.

Is it time to get back to the books, yet?

Buy Hard Reboot by Django Wexler.

The post Top New Science Fiction Books in May 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3gOsc89

[ajmcgeewrites]

REVIEW: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

REVIEW: Firebreak by @wirewalking

Today we have another special book review post. The book is Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace, and it’s coming out on May 4, 2021 from Simon & Schuster. Aro/Ace, Science Fiction, Dystopia I read Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace back in 2020, in November, while I had Covid. It’s a story about a gamer named Mallory set in a post-apocalyptic world that will be familiar to folks who’ve read Atwood…

[kielsopple]

Firebreak /

"New Liberty City, 2134. Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country's remaining forty-five states (five have been submerged under the ocean) between them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. There are nine supercities within the continental US, and New Liberty City is the only amalgamated city split between the two megacorps, and thus at a perpetual state of civil war as the feeds broadcast the atrocities committed by each side. Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis's wargame SecOps on BestLife, spending more time jacked in than in the world just to eke out a hardscrabble living from tips. When a chance encounter with one of the game's rare super-soldiers leads to a side job for Mal--looking to link an actual missing girl to one of the SecOps characters. Mal's sudden burst in online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about BestLife's developer, and puts her in the kind of danger she's only experienced through her avatar."-- from New Items https://highland.sparkpa.org/opac/extras//unapi?id=tag:open-ils.org,2021-09-20:biblio-record_entry/11692826/SPARK&format=opac