Bang Bang Bodhisattva

Bang Bang Boddhisattva is a cyberpunk detective story with a lot of glitz and glam that is pure of heart and dumb of ass. Kiera is 30, trans, a freelance gig economy hacker who’s trying to keep her polycule housed. She’s working with Angel Herrerra, an older cop turned private investigator. When Malcolm, Kiera’s lawyer and Angel’s former partner, is found murdered with a burnt out stick of nag champa incense next to the body, the two of them are drawn into a dangerous game of creepy rapist streamers, right-wing tech overlords, and assassins who have had their identities comprehensively erased.

Some stuff really works. Wood has a talent for describing all the kinds of sleaze that make up the future, from the mundane of too many people in too small of a place, to sensory overload strip clubs. Some of the tiny details are great: all the alternative social networks and brands; body modification is common; those Boston Robotics police dogs bark while arresting criminals.

The core of the story is the interactions between Kiera and Angel, and this buddy cop dynamic often hits. However, the whole timeline doesn’t feel right. The story is near future, apparently exactly 2032, much in the same way that Snow Crash was early 21st century in 1992, but Kiera knows way too much about retro early 00s culture (Shenmue, anyone?) and even if she’s really into the trans second puberty, her 30 is hardly a “kid” to Angel’s 47.

The plot moves quickly enough to jump over gaps, and there is a truly horrific scene in a police station towards the end of the book which redeems a lot of workmanlike writing. At the end of the day, the sentence-to-sentence level writing elevates the setting and plot. Sometimes a good time is all you need.