Breaking out the begging bowl and approaching successful authors for a book quote was one of my least favourite parts of finalising 36 Streets. In fact I hated it. “Hey, you don’t really know me, but could I place this massive imposition on your time?”
But the outcomes of all these approaches? Well. Huge relief, and hugely flattering. I have collated them below. They appear on the cover and inside pages of the novel, of course. But some of them are so long (like Morgan’s) that we couldn’t fit them in in their entirety. I’ve also included below some of the subsequent praise the novel has received from critics and the major trade publications.
“Intricately plotted, using advanced biotechnology, a close investigation into Vietnamese history and culture, and a hard-edged, complicated lead character, Napper’s fine first novel will draw in cyberpunk readers.” – Booklist
“A gripping near-future cyberthriller… Napper drives the brisk plot forward with plenty of action and intrigue. Cyberpunk fans will find much to enjoy in the noir tone, unique setting, and high stakes.” – Publishers Weekly
“[36 Streets] has things both novel and serious to say about the psychological effects of intrusive media. This is a kick-the-door-down account of how past traumas — personal and national — may one day be weaponised for social control.”— The Sunday Times
“Quintessential cyberpunk, hard-nosed, sharp edged and gleaming.” Adrian Tchaikovsky, (author of Children of Time)
“Brutal, brooding, brilliant . . . an angry vision of violence wrapped around a complex meditation of memory, trauma and hegemony. This is cyberpunk with soul.
Street crime and resistance; nihilism and heroism; sinners and saviours; tiny Vietnam and the all-devouring empires that have hounded it; turn this book this way and that and these opposites meld and merge and flash bloody smiles at you, like the edges of a single perfect blade, with Napper’s hand on the hilt.” Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (author of Salvage Crew)
“A couple of years ago, I said I couldn’t wait to see where Tim Napper’s science fiction would take me next. Turns out, it was worth the wait. 36 Streets glows bright and hallucinatory as
tropical neon, goes down smooth as warm sake, cuts deep as a nano-steel blade. Once again, Napper honours classic cyberpunk with fresh perspectives and hot genre recombinations, a nasty new future gleam, the proverbial new coat of paint. But there are more austere echoes here too, of Graham Greene and Kazuo Ishiguro, of a whole post-colonial literary heritage banging to be let in.
In a genre stuffed with facile hero narratives, 36 Streets consistently chooses something else – messy humanity, grey moral tones and choices, hard-edged geopolitical truth. Lin Thi Vu stalks the mean streets of a Chinese-occupied Hanoi, pure heir to a cyberpunk ancestry stretching right back to Molly Millions, but the ghosts and global contexts that haunt her add whole other dimensions to the form. She’ll carve her way deep into your heart, and then she’ll break it in two. Raw and raging and passionate, this is cyberpunk literature with a capital fucken L. Get it while it’s hot!” Richard Morgan (author of Altered Carbon)
“Napper has created an instant classic of the cyberpunk genre, and shown just how vital and incisive the genre can be.” Jonathan Thornton at Fantasy Hive.
“Intimately concerned with the little guy in a world of neon gods, Napper paints a prophetic and uncomfortably believable vision of the future. A fascinating interplay between advancing technology and wish fulfillment, 36 Streets is ambitious in scope while remaining deeply human.” Tim Hickson (YouTube – Hello
Future Me)
“High-octane, immersive SF at its best. 36 Streets is sure to become a classic in the field.” Kaaron Warren, Shirley Jackson Award-Winner
“It’s a book that’s rich in texture and detail, full of complex themes but told in such an engaging, accessible way and populated by such compelling characters that it’s simply impossible to put down. Track of Words
“Napper has made a remarkable character in the form of his protagonist Lin Thi Vu, subverting… the conventions of the world of male power and violence. Lin is ‘other’ in this environment: female, somewhat Australian, not Vietnamese enough, desiring and desired widely. It’s a great achievement. The set pieces, the interludes, of performed mastery with weapons and skill, are well poised and set the scene with ritualised violence.” Stephen Teo (Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition / Wong Kar-Wei: Auteur of Time)
“A fun, frenetic journey of neon-blasted streets, sinister underworlds and oodles of brutal tech, rendered in cutthroat prose so tangible you can almost smell the grime and cigarette smoke. T. R. Napper’s cyberpunk world is a feral, back-alley brawl of a novel with real blood under its nails.” Jeremy Szal (author of Stormblood)
“For his impressive debut novel, rising star of Australian speculative fiction T.R. Napper gives us an engrossing, intriguing action-packed duty tour of a tech-thick, violence-infused, neon-scorched near future gangland Vietnam, where unwinnable games run hot and wild. Fat Victory is the most addictive game of all; an immersive reliving of the Vietnam War far worse than the worst street drug. Highly recommended.” Cat Sparks (author of Lotus Blue)
“Beautiful, shimmering, ghostly science fiction” Anna Smith Spark (author of The Court of Broken Knives)
“A fast-paced cyberpunk story with a complex protagonist and a gut-punch narrative that hits high on both action and emotion.” FanFiAddict
“An excellent…brutal, action-packed, and gorgeous read. 36 Streets is refreshing, and brilliantly realised, SF noir.” Grimdark Magazine
