It is the mid-21st century, and Kaden Lane is in trouble.  He and his friends are involved in something of a philosophical dispute with DC’s law enforcement establishment. There’s a highly illicit drug on the market called NEXUS, which allows users to have communal experiences – they can feel one another’s thoughts,  rub one another’s minds the way they might rub bodies in a dance hall. Kade and his friends have tremendously improved Nexus, adding software components that allow for direct neural communication and open the door to cognitive upgrades. When Kaden unwittingly invites a Fed to join him at a private rave where the new NEXUS is being enjoyed,  her use of the drug exposes her and forces a confrontation between the Feds and Kaden that leads to a bloody thriller that ranges as far afield as Thailand.   Amazon has been pushing it on me for a while, and now I can understand why: while the SF premise is strong, the execution is more like a thriller, making it a bit like Daniel Suarez. I ripped through it in a couple of days, but considering the amount of violence and a few other squicky things, I’ll probably take my time before returning to the series.

I have a strong preference for near-future SF because of its balance of the familiar and the disrupted;  it’s easier to get into than epic worldbuilding stories, and I like seeing present novelties turned into established technologies.  Nexus is very much in that domain, taking place roughly around 2040.  The West and China are still embroiled in technological rivalry, but whereas DC wants to severely restrict new tools outside of government use, China’s ambition is allowing for more aggressive use and research. (This includes cloning: the Party uses an elite cadre of warrior-clones called the Confucian Fist as bodyguards and agents.)  After Kaden is confronted by the cops, they offer a deal.   Work for us as a spy, and we won’t put you and your friends in jail forever.

A prominent Chinese scientist, a woman of intense charisma and intelligence, is very interested in Kaden’s illicit research and the Feds suspect she’ll offer him a job shortly: they want him to take it. The greatest source of tension in this book is that Kadem has no idea who he can trust, who is making moves on the board he can’t see. He wants to develop his technology, but he doesn’t want the government – any government – taking over it. He’s being handled by the same agent who set him up to begin with, and while they have a growing bond she is and remains a Fed, dead set on stopping him from making any moves of his own. The mysterious Chinese scientist Shu  has her own agenda, too, wholly separate from the Party: she believes we are at the dawn of a new posthuman age where developments like Nexus can rapidly expand humanity’s potential.

There is a lot to like in this book from the tech end, but it concerns things “both wondrous and grotesque”, to quote Q. At one point Kaden takes a tour of a biomarket in Thailand, and its offerings cover everything from moving tattoos to mind-control drugs and worse. There is a lot of violence, sometimes flirting with sexual violence, and it’s really over the top – like Kill Bill but with exploding goons.  The tech aspects were fun, though: at one point Kade and his friends are all captive, but they’re still able to communicate to one another through their mental text-messaging feature, and they’re even able to modify their software (in their heads) while traveling to prison.   One aspect of the book I enjoyed more than I expected was the time spent in Thailand, where amid monks seeking oneness, the fight for a technology that can unite minds unfolds. The monks are not incidental, and I can safely say this is the only SF action-thriller I’ve read with a Buddhist element.

Bottom line:  fascinating premise, solid entertainment, too heavy on the violence for my tastes. I will return to the series, but won’t be binging it.