Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Synopsis
In twenty-second century L.A. dominated by The Cloud, every imaginable pleasure is accessible-yet the entire world can vanish in a single upload. That choice rests in one man's hands. Blaise, a brilliant but tormented VR programmer, is trying to forget his violent past as a special forces commando by throwing himself into creating VR fantasies. He finds himself tempted by his megalomaniac boss, who offers him wealth, power, and eternal life in exchange for coding a new VR series that will addict and eliminate billions of "unproductives." Caught between joining those who want to bring down the ruling Cloud regime in Hong Kong, or accepting the offer of personal immortality, Blaise finds himself flanked by two relentless women-a psychic hacker risking overwhelming personal odds to save humanity from annihilation, and the other using her extraordinary carnal wiles to accelerate the final triumph of The Cloud. Ultimately, Blaise must reembrace his violent warrior nature in a desperate bid to destroy it.
Tags
The Cloud: content & age rating
Intended for adult readers (18+).
This dark cyberpunk thriller contains strong violence (including the protagonist's military past), sexual content with manipulative elements, genocide-level stakes, and themes of addiction and mass death through technology. The moral complexity and dystopian bleakness require mature readers.
What to know going in
This book has strong violence, steamy sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include genocide, graphic violence, murder, addiction, and mass death (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Mature readers will be gripped by the intense moral dilemma facing a former soldier who must choose between personal immortality and saving humanity from digital annihilation.