Natsuya Uesugi has a new book out in his dystopian sci fi series grydscaen:
Book Info
Author Name: Natsuya Uesugi
Publisher: PageTurner
Release Date: Thursday, June 21 2018
Format: Paperback, eBook
Romance?: No
Length: Novel/55,329 words
Cover Artist: Natsuya Uesugi
Series: grydscaen (book 8) – This is the 8th book released in the grydscaen series, grydscaen: dark is a backstory book which features the hackers in the series. It is not necessary to have read the previous books, but it doesn’t hurt.
Genres: Sci Fi, dystopian, cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, techno thriller
Keywords/Categories: gay, LGBT, hackers, tech noir, techno thriller, hacktivists, cyberpunk, sci fi
Warnings: hackers infiltrating the stock market, hackers against the government
About the Story
A clandestine meet occurs in the Echelons under cover of darkness where Top Secret intel on the stock market changes hands. The insider tip gets the gothic hacker Jester engaged in a high tech game. Parliament votes to lower harsh stock market regulations fueling the Corporation’s bottom line, a payoff from ministers who were propped up by illegal corporate campaign donations. Ordered by Jester, the teenage hacker Rom infiltrates the largest high volume brokerage house causing wild gyrations in trading. When Jester triggers an insidious stock market payload, all hell breaks loose threatening the pristine City. Will Zoon, the leader of the Triumvirate, get roped into the fray? Can Raven, the government hacker, put the cryptic clues together before the market crashes? Find out in grydscaen:dark. Whose side are you on?
Series Blurb
Lino just wanted peace. All he got was war.
In the year After Colony 2055 there was the Great War. SenseNet government scientists harnessed their knowledge of nuclear weapons and created a new form of energy. This kedek energy was a natural found occurrence that existed in pools far inside the planet. Harnessing this energy into weapons called kedek bombs, scientists warned these weapons were unsafe and should never be used.
The draconian Atlantea Federation conquered more than half of the world’s territories. A group of islands and nation states formed the Pacific Territories and in a single brave act retaliated in a battle known as the Blood Red Incident. The Atlantea Federation responded with wrath releasing the kedek-based Dionysis Effect nuclear bomb stolen from the SenseNet. The untested weapon’s radioactive fallout created Codess which manifested as psychic powers.
Pacific Territories’ society was segregated into citizens and non-citizens. Only citizens could reside in the pristine City. Non-citizens were left with poverty and strife in the Zone where the bomb had gone off, or in the Echelons with the Red Light District, drugs, and crime.
A group of hackers rose up to combat government oppression and injustice by the Zone Police. Enforcement squads rounded up psychics nightly taking them to work camps in the toxic kedek mines. The Terror Hack used guerrilla warfare to fight the Elite government. The Packrats, a cyber terrorist organization vowed to regain control and free society through cyber revolution. Run by the elite hacker Faid Callen, he created the Packrat Sprawl and set up the Runners, Wastes, Acolytes, Hosts, Prophets and Mobile Command. Each faction possessed deadly skills and laws in the Packrat Code that ruled their actions. Civil war ripped at the heart of society.
The son of the Viceroy, Lino Dejarre had psychic power. All he wanted was peace. He joined the Psi Faction as a clandestine psychic operative and was tasked to capture Faid Callen and quell the violence. When the Atlantea Federation attacked the City, Lino found himself once more answering the royal edict and forced to become Sub Viceroy and rule as war raged around him.
Separated at age nine and banished from the royal family, Riuho Dejarre’s hatred for Lino grew as he tried to scrape out a life in the slum level Echelons while Lino lived in the pristine City. Stripped of his citizenship, Riuho vowed he would get revenge and did everything in his power to thwart Lino’s every move. From his first encounter with the Atlantea Federation, Riuho found his place and the resources to get what he desired.
The Atlantea Federation attacked brutally on the ground and also threatened the Pacific Territories’ space colonies. Lino and his Psi Faction team were roped into global diplomacy, inter-colony politics, covert missions, battleships, and space battles where they encounter the Atlantea Federation head on. When Riuho once more enters the fray, the high stakes game threatens to destroy everything for which Lino has worked.
Intrigue, psychic powers, clandestine operations, treaties, politics and a hacker revolution. From space battles, to kidnappings and assassinations, and battleships off the coast, grydscaenis filled with in depth characters and richly detailed storylines that peak your interest and keep you coming back for more.
Purchase
https://www.pageturner.us/bookstore/grydscaen-dark
Excerpt
Chapter 1: Dot Hack Stock
“Not here. Hide the data till we are off the street. This way,” Toapfyl hurriedly motioned to the data messenger in the blue military coat, dark cargo pants and combat boots who followed him off the sidewalk and down another alley. He was wearing the typical garb for a data messenger which made Toapfyl comfortable when he met the stranger in the alley leaning against the wall, easily identifiable.
Toapfyl, a Level 3 hacker, was wearing maroon jeans and a zippered black hoodie pulled over his ebony half shaved head, exposing a slap of dirty brown dreadlocks gathered in a ponytail at his forehead hiding his right eye.
A prostitute wearing a pink miniskirt and fishnet stockings kissed a businessman in a black suit under a sickly yellow streetlight. Toapfyl and the data messenger were once again shrouded in shadow by the derelict buildings as they passed leaving the two to their pleasure.
Toapfyl pushed in a dilapidated door at the end of the alley, grime from the street creating a dusty haze in the air leaving a putrid stink. They entered a staircase. There was no light as they descended. Toapfyl sparked up his aegis to his hand, the manifestation of his psychic power, and lit a path to the basement.
He pushed in the door onto a dimly lit room and revealed Jester, the leader of the Jester hacker guild sitting in a rickety folding chair in the center of the empty room smoking a cigarette from a long black holder. A soft haze filtered over him from a light fixture dangling precariously from ceiling wires, the glass cover filled with dead moths that had happened their way inside and lived out their final days circling the artificial sun. The wan flickering light cast shadows that danced at the corners, the bulb swinging back and forth, moved by the basement door opening.
Legs crossed, Jester was wearing black patent leather platform boots, a shiny mahogany lace skirt, skintight black denim jeans, and a slick dark vinyl blouse with embroidered crimson roses, He sported an elaborate olive short coat with a high collar and dark cuffs and epaulets. A monocle optical sensor over his right eye, he was wearing a green top hat with a scarlet rose perched at the brim. His pink straight, shoulder length hair shined in the light.
He made an irritated gesture with his hand. “Don’t keep me waiting. Where is it?” Jester took a long drag from the cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke. He waved as Toapfyl closed the door.
“Not until I get paid.” The shocked data messenger prompted pulling out a red etched credit sized data card shaking it.
“Do the needful,” ordered Jester raising an eyebrow. He turned his back to them as he continued to smoke his cigarette taking a long drag.
Toapfyl pulled a platinum credit card out of his back pocket. The data messenger pulled his. They locked the two cards at the long end, pins embedded in the technology. Toapfyl typed out the amount of 55,000 credits on the virtual keyboard appearing on the face of his card. The cards chimed signaling the encryption key matched and the credits transferred from Toapfyl’s account.
The data messenger released his card and ran it through a handheld confirming the amount. He nodded stashing the handheld in his chest pocket.
“Done,” responded Toapfyl.
Jester turned back around not witnessing the exchange purposefully and stuck out his hand with his black lacquered fingernails in the knitted fingerless gloves. The stitching was coming apart at the seams on the thumb and index finger, the gloves covered in little white pills. Where everything about Jester’s appearance was immaculate, the gloves gave away an underlying confusion or sloppy disregard for his perfect veneer.
Jester was one of the hacker guild leaders who almost never showed his face in public. It was well known that Jester did not make meetings with data messengers or low level hackers, like a Level 3. He couldn’t be bothered with them. The fact that the data messenger insisted, and that Toapfyl made it happen, kept the data messenger on guard. He placed the red card in Jester’s palm and turned to leave.
Toapfyl jerked raising a gun to the data messenger’s temple. He touched skin. “No one leaves until the data is confirmed.”
Rom, the teenage Level 9 hacker, emerged from the shadows behind Jester. Eyebrow raised, he was annoyed with Toapfyl. Rom pulled a handheld out of his tan trench coat as he came into the dim light. His dull blonde unkempt hair gleamed with a blue streak at the front. He took the data card from Jester and swiped it in the port on the handheld reading the file as the system ran the security check. He typed on the deck triggering an encryption key prompt as the handheld’s computerized female voice spoke the request.
“The data is encrypted? Why didn’t you mention that?” questioned Toapfyl suspicious. He pushed the gun barrel closer taking a step in and made the data messenger move his head back.
“No problem,” interrupted Rom. “Most data messengers are Packrat Runners smuggling data from the City into the Echelons. It should take a Packrat decrypt key. I have access to the Packrats’ archive of one-time, pre-shared obscure keys. What I need for this, right?”
“That is why I wanted Jester at the meet. Toapfyl, all data messengers use encryption. If you don’t know that, you are an idiot. No self-respecting hacker attached to Jester would even ask the question you did just now. Only a Level 9 can penetrate. Jester would know a Level 9. Rom is one of the best in the business,” the data messenger revealed his disgust with Toapfyl and yanked the gun out of his hand pointing it back at the hacker.
Toapfyl blanched confused how he had been disarmed and lowered his eyebrows at the disrespect. Rom shot him an angry glare silencing him.
Jester smirked giving Rom permission to engage and waved the data messenger off. The messenger lowered the gun handing it back to Toapfyl.
Toapfyl opened the basement door and motioned the data messenger out accompanying him up the stairs leaving Jester in the room with Rom.
~
☆ Exclusive Excerpt ☆
Rom being cheeky with Jester the hacker
Rom came into the guild, the bouncer having let him through the door. He saw Toapfyl engaged with Jester at the back. Jester was glaring.
Rom put his hands on his hips stopping in front of Jester. “What are you into?”
“This Level 3 had the audacity to interrupt me, Jester, when I was in the middle of something important,” screamed Jester and leaned back in the booth in his elaborate red velvet suit with a white ruffled shirt, a red and pink silk scarf at his neck and red vinyl shorts with high heel platform boots. He grabbed his silver walking stick with the skull adornment and placed his hands on top of it swishing it back and forth anchored at the floor.
Rom knew Jester was irritated and in times like this Jester could be completely irrational. He could remove Toapfyl from his presence, banish him from the guild, or even have him killed depending on how annoyed he was.
“Toapfyl, why don’t you go back to what you were doing?” interjected Rom.
“Yes, remove yourself!” Jester barked.
“Come, Jester. Let’s go to your office,” said Rom knowing he was close to getting banished himself giving Jester an order.
Jester grunted as Toapfyl moved off. He stood up and chucked the walking stick in the air, grabbing it then walked in front of Rom to the back. He pushed in the door to his office with the head of the walking stick.
“Sit!” Rom called out.
The hacker leader threw himself down on the couch with a disturbed frown as Rom paced back and forth hoping he would calm down. Jester crossed his legs and swung his top leg angrily unrelenting. He threw the walking stick on the couch.
“What has you so ticked off?” Rom stated softly and went to sit down on the couch after picking up the walking stick and putting it on the floor. He pushed his trench coat off his shoulders, revealing his ripped black shirt that was torn near the waist and had a few holes in it covered with safety pins. The pasty white skin of his left shoulder peeked through a hole in the shirt.
He caught Jester out of the corner of his eye glancing at the exposed skin. Rom pulled his arms out of the coat and then took his shirt over his head revealing supple pale skin, a few scars from a beating long ago already healed. Rom spread his legs wide and leaned back on the couch suggestively licking his lips and nodding ready to listen.
“The government initiated the stopgap on the stock market again. I never should have listened to Toapfyl and agreed to use his script, even after you tweaked it. If I had just let you code the damn thing and not used some script kiddie nonsense the market would still be in freefall,” whined Jester and reached in, hand at Rom’s shoulder. His eyes bulged. He came close but did not touch. His fingers wiggled as if it took every last ounce of his energy to abstain from touching Rom.
Rom picked up Jester’s hand gently and placed it over his heart. Jester cringed at the touch.
“This hacker bleeds sanguine code,” whispered Rom.
Jester licked his lips. Rom didn’t prostitute himself but when he needed something from Jester, he was willing to play the game. They had a dalliance a few times in the past but Rom never let it go so far as to actually sleep with Jester. The not giving made Jester want it more.
Jester traced Rom’s chest with his index finger, circling nipples and moving the stroke down to Rom’s crotch. Jester hovered there and then touched him.
Rom kissed Jester on the cheek softly.
Jester pounced on the couch straddling Rom coming in over him. He pushed him onto his back and reached in kissing him haphazardly on his chest. Jester pawed all over him then he touched Rom’s zipper and pulled it down. He slinked his hand in between the fabric.
“Enough!” Rom jerked out from under him making Jester fall against the couch. The hacker leader put his hand under his cheek and leaned up smirking.
Rom pulled his shirt back on and his trench coat. “Feeling better now?”
“You tease. So cruel to me…” whined Jester sitting up and licking his fingers.
“Right,” smirked Rom, eyebrows raised knowing the game and no longer playing. This was the part where other prospects got themselves coerced into bed feeling guilty because Jester faked pain. “You need a solution, yes?”
“I need that stopgap killed. The plunge slowed but I need the market destroyed. I cannot execute the next step in the plan with that stopgap in place.”
“Give me 48 hours. I will have new code for you. Just give me some time,” insisted Rom.
“Get the Packrats in it. And I mean Acolyte and Faid Callen. None other will do. The best you got. No more kid’s stuff. I need it!” shouted Jester standing up. He swiped the walking stick off the floor and sat down in the chair behind the large desk. He placed the walking stick on top the desk, fingered it, then flicked the touch screen monitor and it came to life.
“I will get right on it,” replied Rom and yanked on the doorknob.
“Kick Toapfyl out for the day. I don’t want to see that piece of script kiddie trash.”
“Yes, Jester. He is out of your hair. I will make it happen.”
”Thanks,” whispered Jester waving Rom off engaging on the computer.
Author Bio/Links
Natsuya Uesugi is a systems analyst and ethical hacker by day and a manga artist and a writer by night. With an MBA in International Management and a minor in Japanese, Natsuya insists on showcasing diversity in his writing using his Japanese, Native American and African American heritage.
He studied animation and game design in art school and has published the grydscaen manga “A Storm’s Coming” which features the LGBT teen Rom from “grydscaen: dark,” and two manga in the yaoi series “graphic noiz.” Two episodes of the short anime “A Storm’s Coming” is available with a third episode planned. Four counseling centers are currently using the “A Storm’s Coming” novelette to help LGBT homeless youth and troubled teens with self esteem.
He is author of the dystopian cyberpunk “grydscaen” series, the dark fantasy trilogy “The Seer of Grace and Fire,” and the yaoi novels and manga “graphic noiz.” He enjoys skydiving, cosplay, watching anime in Japanese, watching French news, World Cub futbol, eating ramen and anything with matcha, and writing poetry.
Author Website: http://www.grydscaen.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/natsuya.uesugi
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/Grydscaen/
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/natsuya_uesugi
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4558587.Natsuya_Uesugi
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/natsuya-uesugi/
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Natsuya-Uesugi/e/B00J6EDQQ6/
Giveaway
Natsuya is giving away eBook copies of two of his other works – grydscaen: tribute and A Storm’s Coming one shot manga – with this tour. Enter via Rafflecopter:
