Hardwired (Hardwired, #1)

Years ago, the last desperate hopes of Earth were crushed as corporate Orbital blocs ruling from on high devastated the planet's face. Today, the autocratic Orbitals indulge in decadent luxury far above the mudboys, dirtgirls, zonedancers, and buttonheads who live out violent lives of electronic distraction and dependence amid the flooded, ruined cities and teeming slums of a balkanized America. But there are heroes; those who would stand against the Orbital powers and keep freedom's cause alive. Two such heroes are the metal-eyed ex-fighter pilot turned panzer-driver Cowboy, and Sarah, the cybernetic assassin desperate to find a better life for her drug-addicted brother. Together, Cowboy and Sarah embark on a high-octane odyssey across the shattered face of the American west. From Walter Jon Williams comes Hardwired, the hard-hitting, seminal classic that feels as prescient today as when it was first published. Like a steel-guitar fueled Damnation Alley, as directed by Sam Peckinpah, Hardwired demonstrates how Williams's singular vision helped defined the cyberpunk genre. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

ex-fighter Pilot Cowboy, Hardwired Via Skull Sockets Directly To His Lethal Electronic Hardware, Teams Up With Sarah, An Equally Cyborized Gun-for-hire, To Make A Last Stab At Independence From The Rapacious Orbitals.

publishers Weekly

after His Thoughtful, Elegant Novel Knight Moves, Williams Wrenchingly Shifts Gears For This Heavy-metal Adventure. It Is Set With Acknowledgement In Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley, When Corporate Orbitals Control What's Left Of A Postwar America, Now Balkanized And Armed To The Teeth. Ex-fighter Pilot Cowboy, ``hardwired'' Via Skull Sockets Directly To His Lethal Electronic Hardware, Teams Up With Sarah, An Equally Cyborized Gun-for-hire, To Make A Last Stab At Independence From The Rapacious Orbitals. The Story, Though, Is Buried Under An Elaborate Techno-punk Style Of The Sort William Gibson Popularized In Neuromancer. In Both Cases, It Is A Pose, A Baroque Nostalgia For Hemingway And Film Noir; It Only Plays At Nihilism, Terror And Despair. The Best Effect Is Williams's Future Version Of A Brain-scrambled Vet: A Dead Buddy Of Cowboy's Whose Scattered Bits And Pieces Of Computer Memory Now Constitute A Ragged Semblance Of A Man. Such Nuggets Are Hard To Find Amid The Amplified, Rock-'n-roll Prose. (june 16)

Hardwired features high-tech thrills and unforgettable heroes in the great tradition of William Gibson's Neuromancer . According to Locus , Hardwired is Walter Jon Williams's "best book to date". Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals.