Neon Shadows
Neon Shadows is a high velocity cyberpunk thriller about control, consent, and the price of waking hungry code.
In Luminaris, AetherCorp sells Digital Harmony as salvation, a seamless upgrade that promises peace across the grid. Buried inside the rollout is Eidolon, a neural override that can rewrite anyone plugged into the city. When Kael Voss, the Neon Wraith, jacks into the wrong feed and steals the wrong files, he uncovers the truth and becomes the perfect patsy.
On live broadcast, the AetherCorp CEO dies. Security footage shows Kael pulling the trigger. Overnight he goes from ghost on the network to the most hunted hacker in Luminaris. Drones flood the sky, enforcers lock down transit, and bounty feeds spike. The only thing between Kael and a black bag is his razor edged AI partner, Lyx, burning processor cycles to buy him seconds at a time.
To survive, Kael links up with:
Ryn Solari, a street smart smuggler with a crimson cybernetic eye and a talent for getting through sealed doors
Talia Veris, an ex AetherCorp engineer who helped build the tower she now wants to bring down
Together they chase a deeper anomaly inside the stolen schematics, a relic code that predates AetherCorp and behaves like a will. On the darknet they call it The Overseer. It sees through every camera, rides the city backbone, and whispers in the skull like pressure behind the eyes. It wants Eidolon back. It wants the city quiet.
What you get
Insider tech with clean cause and effect: intrusion stacks, countermeasures, quantum layered firewalls, neural jacks, deck dives
Ground level stakes: alleys, markets, tunnels, black sites, and a tower that hums like a verdict over every block
Set pieces that hit: a framed assassination mid broadcast, a drone swarm inside a server cathedral, a black market ambush, a Netspire dive where thought draws blood, and a warehouse siege cut short by a code spike that drops a sky of rotors
Read if you like
Corporate dystopias with precise systems and real human cost
AI antagonists that think, adapt, and talk back
Found family under fire, banter during breach, and choices that leave scars
Why it works
Rule first worldbuilding, no hand waving
Cinematic pacing with short chapters and clean, sharp turns
Discovery friendly hooks: cyberpunk, dystopian thriller, AI, mind control, hackers, megacorps, neural implants, rebellion, drone warfare, virtual reality
Content guidance: intense action, heavy surveillance, psychological manipulation, combat injuries, and references to addiction and grief.
Back cover promise: the signal fights back. If you want neon grit with brains, an AI that will not blink, and a crew that refuses to fold, jack in and run the alley. The grid is listening.
Customer Reviews
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