Let me get this out of the way first: this is a mindless pulp cyberpunk novel. It isn’t high art. But it also isn’t as bad as I would expect a book titled “Jack: Into the Beanstalk” to be. This isn’t a bland re-telling of Jack And The Beanstalk with some human augmentations slapped on top. It’s primarily a cyberpunk world first and any references to the fairy tale feel more like easter eggs than core story elements. So in that way, I was pleasantly surprised. With that said, this post is more about me trying to keep this community alive than a strong recommendation. It’s a fun mindless story, not a “must read”.

Both Astro Boy and Battle Angel Alita have the concept of a rich city in the clouds above the poor working class living on the ground. Even the Deus Ex reboot had Hengsha as a city on top of another city. So when this book has a rich city being held up above the poor city, I see that more as a cyberpunk trope than a “castle in the clouds” from the fairy tale. But maybe I’m being too generous. Anyway, the story is about a girl (named Jack) who has cybernetic limbs. She has a neurological implant in her spine which helps control these limbs. At the beginning of the story, she’s doing odd jobs for a gang in the hopes of paying off the debt she incurred when purchasing the limbs. The implant in her spine gets damaged and suddenly she can see a glowing green line reaching from the ground to the rich city above. That green line is The Beanstalk. Her goal is to figure out why only she can see it and what exactly it is. No magic beans, no giants in the sky, nothing else that I would consider a reference to the fairy tale.

In the process of trying to figure out what The Beanstalk is, she joins up with a group of freedom fighters. And this is really my main complaint with the story. This may be a nuance of the cyberpunk genre that only I care about, but I don’t think cyberpunk stories should have rebellions. I’m good with a group of mercenaries teaming up to take down a megacorp, but I don’t want a group of rebels attempting to make systemic change. I think an aspect of the cyberpunk genre is in trying to find your place in the world, not trying to change it. But that really is just a nitpick regarding my own enjoyment of the story; and if that’s the worst I can come up with, it’s not bad. The characters all have distinct personalities, the world is fleshed-out, the story is good; it’s a fun romp.

There are two books in the series so far and both are less than 300 pages. Both end on a cliffhanger though. I jumped right into book 2 to see the resolution of the first book’s cliffhanger and now I’m left with another cliffhanger waiting for book 3. Also, I’m not a huge fan of where the story went in book 2. It’s introducing too much “magic” for my taste. The book pretends it’s based on quantum computing but as far as the world-building is concerned, it’s magic. There’s a lot of “oh, I guess she can do that now” in the second book. And while you might argue it’s stupid for me to complain about magic in a re-telling of a fairy tale, it really has not felt like a fantasy or fairy tale at any other point in the story so it’s pretty jarring to me.

So as I said before, overall, a fun pulp cyberpunk novel but mostly me showing this community is still active.