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A review by wealhtheow
Xenowealth: A Collection by Tobias S. Buckell
3.0
In a universe where humans are very much the low man on the totem pole, there are few who can go toe-to-toe with alien overlords and win. Pepper is one such a man. Assassin, mercenary, adventurer, as much tech as human--he lives centuries and is instrumental in the destruction of empires. This is a collection of short stories featuring him.
"The Fish Merchant." A common fish merchant gets caught up in one of Pepper's missions, complete with poison, aliens, and murder. It's gutsy to start a short story collection with one that doesn't portray Pepper in particularly heroic light. In this, he's just the outsider who brings terrible tragedy.
"Manumission." Set way back before Pepper was vaulting around alien planets putting fear into the hearts of the Satrapy. He has no memories, no last name, and is owned body and soul by a multinational corporation. This is solid cyberpunk noir; fans of Gibson or Richard K Morgan will probably appreciate this one.
"Resistance." Pepper is brought in to take down an AI tyrannically ruling a space station. It turns out the AI was created because the space station wanted to vote on every single aspect. But since that took up too much of their time, they created voter simulators to emulate their votes. That took up too much processing power, so the computer fused them all into a single being that would run the station. It even ran the resistance that formed against it.
"A Cold Heart." Still on the hunt for his stolen memories, Pepper is hired to aid in a fight between a satrap and the hope of a free humanity. Contains one of those moments that remind me why I love this guy so much:he literally hides an extending blade inside his body in order to get it into the meeting, then claws it out of him and starts hacking away at his enemies.
"The Loa." Pepper hires street kids to track down a Teotl.
"Necahual." League soldiers drop down onto New Anegada to liberate the humans from the Azteca, but it turns out they're not as powerful as they think.
"Placa del Fuego." Pepper's daughter goes on a hunt for him, and in the process fights an alien that has a goddamn wormhole for a mouth.
"The Rydr Express." Pepper teams up with an agent sworn to protect the neutrality of the train lines between worlds. In this one Pepper literally throws someone off the train to perfectly land on a goddamn spaceship, godDAMN.
"Ratcatcher." The greatest bounty hunter/investigator in the galaxy goes up against Pepper. This was easily my favorite of the collection. Yamaxtli is a great character, the plot is twisty and sharp, and the action is top notch.
"The Fish Merchant." A common fish merchant gets caught up in one of Pepper's missions, complete with poison, aliens, and murder. It's gutsy to start a short story collection with one that doesn't portray Pepper in particularly heroic light. In this, he's just the outsider who brings terrible tragedy.
"Manumission." Set way back before Pepper was vaulting around alien planets putting fear into the hearts of the Satrapy. He has no memories, no last name, and is owned body and soul by a multinational corporation. This is solid cyberpunk noir; fans of Gibson or Richard K Morgan will probably appreciate this one.
"Resistance." Pepper is brought in to take down an AI tyrannically ruling a space station.
"A Cold Heart." Still on the hunt for his stolen memories, Pepper is hired to aid in a fight between a satrap and the hope of a free humanity. Contains one of those moments that remind me why I love this guy so much:
"The Loa." Pepper hires street kids to track down a Teotl.
"Necahual." League soldiers drop down onto New Anegada to liberate the humans from the Azteca, but it turns out they're not as powerful as they think.
"Placa del Fuego." Pepper's daughter goes on a hunt for him, and in the process fights an alien that has a goddamn wormhole for a mouth.
"The Rydr Express." Pepper teams up with an agent sworn to protect the neutrality of the train lines between worlds. In this one Pepper literally throws someone off the train to perfectly land on a goddamn spaceship, godDAMN.
"Ratcatcher." The greatest bounty hunter/investigator in the galaxy goes up against Pepper. This was easily my favorite of the collection. Yamaxtli is a great character, the plot is twisty and sharp, and the action is top notch.