This was a disappointment. The basic idea for the book was decent, but the execution was lacking—to put it mildly.

There are various technical issues, like the unnecessary POV shifts, the paper-thin characterisation, the shallow, dull storyline, or the obvious lack of proper content editing—to just name a few.

The story peaks at around 30% and then it unceremoniously deflates. The author thought he was writing an adventure, but all he accomplished was to make the story drag and wander aimlessly.

Also, it was as if he thought it would be cool to write a story by mashing up elements from films like The Matrix, or The Fifth Element, or even Waterworld. And while he was as it, he decided it'd be cooler to make his hero gay. I initially thought Syd's sexuality was simply not central to the plot—there was a clumsy and see-through attempt to make it seem like something would happen between him and his patron, Knox, early on—but this detail ends up adding nothing to the story or to Syd's development as a character.

The ending makes it clear there will be a sequel, but I for one won't be reading it.