raycevick

Recommendations: Perfect Dark: Initial Vector by Greg Rucka

Added 2025-02-25 01:20:53 +0000 UTC

You'd never see me recommending on here Perfect Dark Zero on the Xbox 360...

So why is its sequel novel on here?

Because, though it's slop with action-scenes, global stakes, and cowboy one-liners from Johanna Dark... it's good slop!

I recall this from Greg Rucka's work on the comic Lazarus (which I also need to catch up on), the archetype Action Sci-Fi backdrop is given a sense of weight and texture because the people in it... act like people. Instead of brushing off the events with a loading-screen debrief like in the game its based on, Johanna has a definitive voice that's never been properly defined by Rare.

It's also a better Prequel to Perfect Dark than Zero is.

Instead of feeling like two separate universes, Initial Vector directly ties in the inventor of original's flying car network, Daniel Carrington is given more than a VTOL Hologram, and there's an internal political war within Datadyne that adds genuine political intrigue to the proceedings.

"Spyberpunk" is shockingly rare, and if you've already gone through Phantom Liberty, and don't want to put up with Zero's god awful controls... of all things, it's novel might be what satisfies you.

I'll find out if "Second Front" also deserves this.