Phantom - Leo Hunt

Published by The Watts Publishing Group: Great Britain, 2018.

I picked up this book in a cheap sale at a local book shop, and began reading it in class to see what it was like. Having finished a few other books so far in the holiday period, I now have had the time to finish this one as well.

Set in a future where most of the world has had technological implants allowing them to see and interact with augmented reality at all times, Nova is a hacker who uses her skills to skim money and survive. When she manages to hack her way into a fairly 'unhackable' program, she catches the attention of a master hacker named The Moth, who hires Nova to go undercover in Bliss Inc - who manufacture the vast majority of the tech people use - and learn what they are planning. 

It is an interesting set-up, and much of the story is an interesting variation on some stock-standard science-fiction tropes, but probably isn't one I'll hang on to going forward. There are a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and a few things that show this book to be very 'of it's time' (including a mild, gay romance). 

Fine. But not for me.

Completed 27 December 2025.

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