HARD REBOOT by Django Wexler – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hard Reboot by Django Wexler
Published by Tor.com on May 25 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 160
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

The nitty-gritty: Come for the thrilling mecha battles, stay for the cute romance!

Hard Reboot was a lot of fun! You might expect from looking at the cover that the story is chock full of mecha fighting goodness—and you would be partially right. But there is a lot more to this little story, and the fighting itself is only a small part of the package. We get two engaging female MCs who are thrown together and have to figure things out, even though they seem to be complete opposites. And we get a pretty cool sci-fi world that feels fresh and new.

Scholar Zychtykas Three, or Kas as she likes to be called, has secured a coveted spot on a research expedition to Old Earth. Kas is an “archeocode,” an expert in ancient computer codes, and a trip to Old Earth is a dream come true for her. At a welcome party for the visiting scholars, Kas is approached by a young girl named Zhi who suggests she make a bet on the mecha fight scheduled for the night’s entertainment. Kas doesn’t have any money, but somehow the bet is confirmed anyway, and before she knows it, Kas realizes she’s bet money she doesn’t have on a mecha that looks like a pile of scrap metal, one that will never be able to win against its opponent, a warbot known as a DreadCarl.

And when Zhi’s mecha loses the fight (no surprise there), she must go on the run or be forced to work for the “House,” as she can’t pay back the bet. Kas follows her into the tunnels far below the Drome, the arena where the mecha battles take place, determined to get Zhi to agree to cancel the bet. But down in the tunnels, Kas makes a discovery that could change everything.

My favorite part of the story was the relationship between Kas and Zhi, which starts out a bit rocky but soon turns into something quite interesting. Zhi has a preconceived notion that Kas must be rich, since she’s a Sentinel scholar, but Kas eventually sets her straight and explains that as a “third wave”—a third rate citizen, more or less—Kas doesn’t have much status and certainly can’t afford to bet on mecha battles.

There is a bit of unexpected romance between the two, and even though the story is very short and there isn’t much time to develop things slowly, I was surprised by a couple of very cute and sexy scenes between the two girls!

But hey, let’s talk about the mecha, shall we? In a handful of pages, Wexler does a great job of bringing the huge robots to life with a couple of exciting battle scenes. In one battle, Zhi is pitted against a humongous mecha called a Dreadnaught, and I loved the way the author orchestrated the scene between two completely mismatched opponents. Zhi is a talented pilot, and with the help of Kas’ coding skills, the battle scenes were pretty exciting! 

I also loved the idea of Old Earth, a place where time seems to stand still. Those who couldn’t afford to leave the planet have to survive through wit and perseverance, and they don’t have the advanced technology to do so. Kas has a rude awakening when she arrives, because her net interface that she’s used to doesn’t work here. Instead of meeting a new person and having access to everything about them, including sexual preference, hobbies, personality, etc, she’s completely in the dark and has to get to know Zhi the old fashioned way. Some of their misunderstandings were pretty cringe-worthy but made for some interesting character development.

As with most novellas, not everything has the time to become fully developed, and I wanted to know more about Zhi’s background in particular, since we only get a couple of brief glimpses of her past. But overall, I thought Wexler did a great job with balancing all the elements of this short but exciting story.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.