Hardwired

Good Listen

Very good narrator, story is from 2 points of view and takes a little bit to get used to but works great. I have listened to this book twice already.

6 people found this helpful

The Best Cyberpunk I Have Read

What did you like best about this story?

I generally don't like cyberpunk. Gibson's Neuromancer left me cold. But Williams, in my opinion, is a better and more versatile writer. I listened to this book because he wrote it.

I was not disappointed. The cyberpunk aspects of the story serve to enhance the characterization and the setting and do not dominate.

The story is told from the perspectives of Cowboy and Sarah. Both are interesting characters and I never found myself wanting to finish one POV so I could get to the other, which sometimes happens when the story is told from multiple viewpoints.

The conflict with the orbitals is resolved in a way that flows naturally from the story and does not feel forced. A poor resolution could have wrecked my view of the book no matter how good the rest of the story.

Finally, Stefan Rudnicki does an excellent job of making the various characters distinct. I have not read the print version, buit I suspect the audio version is a better experience because of Runicki's narration.

5 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable Cyberpunk tale

I'm a big fan of Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs stories and this is an obvious precursor. The story is a little complex, but nowhere near as hard to follow as any of Morgan's. Williams writes well and avoids sentimentality. I especially enjoyed the character whose brain is absorbed into cyberspace.

2 people found this helpful

A well told story set in a depressing future

A hard boiled, cyberpunk styled tale of two very different people just getting by, in a very depressing, but scary believable and essentially balkanized, former United States. The world is now run by various corporations that don't even reside on the planet. They hover above it and manipulate life below without being part of it. There are social classes built around them and a whole slew of other things that the author builds in his vision of earth's future.

Through a series of events in the story, the two main character's, Cowboy, an ex-fighter pilot turned bootlegger and Sarah, a sometimes body guard, thug and killer for hire, find that their lives have become intertwined. The pace of the story became a little slow for me in the middle, but on the whole, this was an excellent story and I think worth your credit. If you are a fan of the cyberpunk genre and or Richard K. Morgan, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and their like, then Hardwired should be an satisfying choice for you.

Also, veteran narrator, Stefan Rudnicki was definitely on top of his game reading this one. He has, for me, the kind of voice that can sometimes distract me from the story that I'm trying to listen to. Other times, I find that he throttles back his voice a little too much and in some cases, sounds a bit monotoned and unexciting, In Hardwired. I think he chose just the right balance.

2 people found this helpful

one of the best .

beautifully written, great characters, fabulous story, believable technology, I'm praying for a sequel.
I want to find out what happens to this world.

Classic story, awful narration

This is a great story I have enjoyed reading a couple times. I figured having it to listen to would be a new way to experience it again.. The gurgling narrator is pretty hard to listen to. His voice is expressionless, deep monotone. Lifeless, dull and just awful. He does read the story with pauses and adequate timings but it's really hard to follow.

I can see why this inspired the CyberPunk RPG.

With the recent fanfare on the CyberPunk 2077 game coming in 2020 and Mike Pondsmith mentioning this book being a major inspiration for the original CyberPunk RPG, I had no choice but to check this book out.

The book does not disappoint. The author's vision is way ahead of it's time.

The narrators voice is very cool; however, it is very deep all the time and makes it hard not to be distracted by other things when listening.

Cyberpunk and wicked moral stories

I was suggested the Hardwired Series due to my feverishly geeking fascination with cybernetics and sci for futures . And it most assuredly delivers. Any story that can keep my attention while describing the high speed funds transfers of a shadow organization gets a serious win in my book. My only caveat to this somewhat limited and monotonous reading by Stephan. His skill improves over the course of the book and I highly recommend the series. “Land piracy 2050!”
Brilliant

Got Cyberpunk?

Great fast paced cyberpunk story. Interesting characters that make you want to know more about them and what happens to them. The only thing I was left wanting was more.

Great listen

I loved the book kind of like a futuristic western the narration was awesome reminded me of the NFL football voice over there