A streetrat turned revolutionary and the disillusioned hacker son of a politician try to take down a ruthlessly technocratic government that sacrifices its poorest citizens to build its utopia. A rare, searing portrayal of the future of climate change in South Asia with Erewhon Books.
The South Asian Province is split in two. Uplanders lead luxurious lives inside a climate-controlled biodome, dependent on technology and gene therapy to keep them healthy and youthful forever. Outside, the poor and forgotten scrape by with discarded black-market robotics, a society of poverty-stricken cyborgs struggling to survive in slums threatened by rising sea levels, unbreathable air, and deadly superbugs.
Ashiva works for the Red Hand, an underground network of revolutionaries fighting the government, which is run by a merciless computer algorithm that dictates every citizen’s fate. She’s a smuggler with the best robotic arm and cybernetic enhancements the slums can offer, and her cargo includes the most vulnerable of the city’s abandoned children.
When Ashiva crosses paths with the brilliant hacker Riz-Ali, a privileged Uplander who finds himself embroiled in the Red Hand’s dangerous activities, they uncover a horrifying conspiracy that the government will do anything to bury. From armed guardians kidnapping children to massive robots flattening the slums, to a pandemic that threatens to sweep through the city like wildfire, Ashiva and Riz-Ali will have to put aside their differences in order to fight the system and save the communities they love from destruction.
““Steeped in elements from real-life South Asian cultures, the worldbuilding is original and intriguing, incorporating dystopian and utopian elements along with current hot issues such as societal inequities, digital surveillance, and technology’s impact on humanity.... [A] strong and intricate story.”
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““Rise of the Red Hand mixes the best of cyberpunk and anime with a tale of family and revolution to create something completely unique—intimate yet action-packed, touching yet thrilling. Olivia Chadha delivers as much action as she does heart, all with a healthy dose of mecha. It kicks ass.”
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““Set in a bleak dystopian near-future of climate change,
apocalyptic nuclear wars, inequality, and brutal algorithms, Rise of the Red Hand is a fast-paced, surprisingly hopeful tale of unlikely allies coming together to fight oppression. Innovative, smartly written, and harrowingly relevant.”
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““It’s everything I want in a cyberpunk story: devastating
political and existential stakes, a surging pace, and profoundly rad cybernetics. I love this book so much.”
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““An exhilarating and relevant story that gives voice to those often unheard and sticks with you long after that last page.”
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