Wetware v. computers
Wetware is a term for organic brains, specifically humans. Condescending much? It depends on the context, but generally I would say yes. This post is in my series on Hard Sci Fi and Sci Fi Fantasy Romance. Read the other posts here and here.
Humans Must Kneel Loki Renard
LR is a clever, witty writer and this book is a favourite of mine. It’s the characters mainly, both the MMC* (Krave) and the FMC* (Seven), and the supporting cast, especially Krave’s brothers, Tyank and Vulcan. Krave is a Scythkin and he’s Judiciar for the simulation of Planet Earth, looking after it, keeping order, and other mind-numbing tasks. The opening scene is the best one, to my mind, when Seven is hauled up before Krave to answer for her disobedience.
The World of the Story
Krave’s bored out of his wits. A Judiciar’s job is mainly paper pushing, especially in the case of human beings in a simulation, but Krave’s job is more than paperwork. The Scythkin must guard them against the Galactor, their mortal enemy, who have dark designs on the humans.
The Scythkin force the humans to kneel once a day so they can take inventory with drones flying overhead. It’s harmless enough, it doesn’t hurt and the inconvenience of it lasts only minutes. Seven is the human female from an ersatz anonymous city from a disc-shaped simulation of Planet Earth, who refuses to kneel.
Loki Renard is an Entertainer
The other reason the book charms me is LR’s writing style and her turns of phrase and the dialogue are witty. The concept is original: humans are living in a simulation (people believe it!) and this book explores that premise in a Sci Fi Fantasy world, several worlds to be accurate. To my mind, LR sends the concept up. The story is peppered with insights to the human condition, as is all her work, and the plot twists and turns and never slows down.
You must watch out for moments of subtle cleverness. REDUX, the title of Chapter 4, has a double meaning in normal syntax and as a software term. Broadly, it means ‘object returned to a previous state’, but look it up. There’s more to LR than meets the eye, more than her author bio describes.
And her writing is laced with black humour, which is a plus in Sci Fi Romance. It isn’t rare but it’s a bonus when you get it. E.g.
“Then you’re naive. The universe is a big dark nothingness filled with small infernos around which orbit spheres of horror and self-consumption. Birthing only to die. Eating only to be consumed.”Quote by Konan, from The Beast King, Royal Aliens series, Loki Renard.
TW*: A Note From Me: I don’t mention whether a book is steamy or not, or how steamy it is. I skim read the parts I don’t want to read. If you’re interested in a book, check out the author’s content or trigger warning then you can avoid books you don’t like.
Hard Sci Fi
Another book that shares the same view as Konan, The Beast King, is Children of Time Adrian Tchaikovsky. It recently won the Arthur C. Clarke Fiction Award.
It’s a long book, but I can’t put it down. Brace yourselves readers, this is true science fiction, with one world set in a space craft with 5,000 human beings in cryosleep. You can feel the confinement and the claustrophobia, overlaying the disturbing idea that the fragile spacecraft is all you have to depend on for life. Earth has long been destroyed by human stupidity and selfishness. Not that LR’s stories aren’t horrific but the nasty bits are balanced by moments of humour and absurdity.
The spacecraft crew finds a Goldilocks planet they want to land on, but they’re up against a hostile satellite, a spacecraft orbiting the planet and guarding it (second world). They do land (and this is the third main world), but the planet is hostile to humans for other reasons.
The various actors increasingly find themselves in bizarre situations, having arrived there with horrific, logical inevitability. Amongst other things, the book discusses many topics, the mash of organic and artificial intelligence, religion, the nature and roles of the genders in various lifeforms, the clash between what drives populations to breed relentlessly and the finite nature the resources they depend on. Most importantly (for me anyway), it explores the argument of what our options are if the human population exceeds the resources of Planet Earth.
Enough spoilers for now, but a clue is a category it’s in: Genetic Engineering. It’s in KU* but the Kindle ebook is good value at £4.99 and alternative formats are reasonably priced as well.
More Sci Fi Romance
Harmonious Mates Agency Ember Hunter
Lero, Book 2 in the Harmonious Mates Agency series, is up for pre-order now, at 99c. Released on December 1, 2026.
Check out Book 1, Darren, also. The paperback of Book 1 Darren is available now, Book 2, Lero, will be released in December 2026. Both titles are in KU. These titles are not available in some countries.
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Sources
All my links are to Amazon, because that’s the platform I use, but there are alternatives. Specifically, the book titles themselves, Kindle version downloaded directly or borrowed through Kindle Unlimited.
Header Image by Picjumbo.com
Glossary
* KU Kindle Unlimited
* MMC Male Main Character
* FMC Female Main Character
No AI was used the planning or writing of this post. The header image is AI.
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