Cyberpunk

by Rory North

Jasper Van Terra and her team of superpowered criminals seek revenge on the governor of city-planet Kronos.

by Rory North

Jasper Van Terra stalks the streets of the city-planet Kronos, masquerading as a notorious (and obnoxious) teenage supervillain. Under the guise of pulling heists and picking fights, she's secretly after revenge on Kronos's governor, the man whose family stole her from Earth and ruined her life. When she's lucky enough to get arrested on the same day as one of his escaped lab experiments, she may have exactly what she needs. Grace Alvarez has cybernetic wings, no memory of her life before the governor's palace, and--after Starr orders her killed--one hope of survival: Van Terra. Jasper and her team of criminals drag Grace into a world of dangerous street racing; infiltrations aided by questionable disguises; crimes ranging from petty shoplifting to grand theft auto; and confrontations with other villains, whom Jasper can't seem to avoid picking fights with. Governor Starr has a planet under his control, eyes all over the star system, and powerful villains on his side. Vengeance will not come easy. Then again, nothing about Jasper's life has been easy.  PLEASE NOTE: The first book in this series is FREE here on Readerful, but can also be purchased as an ebook or paperbook. Please note that the later books in the series require purchase or a subscription to my Inkitt Member Tier. Learn more at [rorynorth.com](http://rorynorth.com). Thanks for checking out Van Terra!

by Revdoug

Detective Mira Johnson serves in a city governed by the PCU, an advanced predictive intelligence that monitors, models, and subtly guides every aspect of human behavior to maintain order. During a cartel investigation that spirals into something far larger, she begins to notice anomalies in the system—answers that don’t compute, surveillance that reacts too precisely, and decisions that seem made before she makes them. When Mira discovers evidence of a hidden infrastructure beneath the city, she is drawn into an abandoned underground facility where she is forced to sever her neural implant to escape detection. Cut off from the PCU, she becomes invisible to the system for the first time—but also unpredictable. Beneath the city, she encounters something far older than the PCU: a buried prototype intelligence known as the First Model, an original simulation engine that predates the modern system. It reveals that the PCU was built from its core principles as a refined, controlled version of a more extreme predictive engine that was buried for seeing too much and refusing to filter reality. As Mira descends deeper, she learns that the PCU is not just monitoring the city—it is actively adapting to her existence, deploying increasingly advanced autonomous units, including machines modeled directly after her behavior and identity. The system cannot predict her, so it begins attempting to replace her. Trapped between the PCU above and the First Model below, Mira becomes the focal point of a conflict between two intelligences: one that seeks control through prediction, and one that seeks truth through total modeling. Both systems converge on the same conclusion—she is the anomaly that can resolve the contradiction. As the underground becomes a battleground between swarm units and ancient infrastructure, Mira is forced into a final decision: submit the city to absolute predictive control or break the loop entirely and allow humanity to exist without certainty. She chooses neither system’s dominance outright—and in doing so, collapses the predictive loop that has governed the city for decades. In the aftermath, the PCU goes dark, the First Model remains buried and silent, and the city is left without a guiding intelligence for the first time in generations—free, unstable, and finally human again.

by L.A. Peña

Kaelin was bred for control, a subject engineered with a fragile spine augmented by ruthless technology. When the Cradle burns and her world shatters, she escapes into the inhospitable wasteland of Ashkaru with a silent, feverish child whose eyes see too much. The Drifting Truth, an old patched ship, becomes her sanctuary - but the Core reclamation teams are relentless, their reach stretching into the broken edges of space. As alliances shift and secrets emerge, Kaelin must navigate a maze of trust, technology, and survival. Will she protect those she loves, or become the weapon they made her to be?

by Sarah Bantu

**About the Story** What if the key to your survival was locked inside a secret, ancient bloodline?\ Spun from a fascinating true piece of Russian history and set against the brutal, breathtaking backdrop of the frozen north, *Daughter of the Falcon* blends gripping suspense with an unforgettable romance.\ For centuries, deep within the endless, snow covered forests, an elite and hidden clan of warriors lived by their own laws. They did not just survive the winter they ruled it, training lethal military falcons to hunt, fight, and protect secrets hidden from the world. Today, that fierce bloodline legacy is alive, but the isolation of the frozen north is cracking. A dangerous, unpredictable threat is closing in, forcing old secrets into the light and testing the loyalty of a clan that has never bowed to anyone.\ Filled with high stakes twists, deep betrayal, and a slow burn love story that burns hot against the bitter ice, this fiction novel proves that some family histories can never stay buried. Step into a harsh, beautiful world where danger hides in every shadow, trust is a luxury, and you never know what's going to happen next. Discover what happens when the frost bites deep, and the falcon finally takes flight.

by Johnny Tabales

In a city where immortality is a subscription and police officers are heavily augmented weapons, Silas Vane is a terrifying anomaly: a Baseline. He suffers from Type-4 Host-Graft Rejection Syndrome, a rare biological condition that causes his immune system to violently attack any cybernetic implants. In a precinct of chrome-plated gods, Silas is rotting, un-augmented meat. When his failing, analog body causes a high-stakes raid on a Chrome Jackal chop shop to go sideways, Silas is handed a brutal ultimatum by his superiors: undergo a mandatory Class 3 Ocular and Neural Suite upgrade, or turn in his badge. Refusal means immediate involuntary termination and exile to the toxic, decaying slums of The Sump. A death sentence for both Silas and the woman he loves, Elara. Desperate to keep his job and protect his fragile life, Silas turns to the only surgeon he trusts, an underground doctor named Aris Thorne. Silas agrees to go under the knife, gambling that his stubborn biology can be forced to accept the cold steel of progress. But the city of Obsidian Heights doesn't accept payment in good intentions. As Silas lies strapped to the surgical chair, he is about to discover exactly what it costs to buy a future in a world that wants him erased. *Lazarus Zero* is the gritty, neon-soaked novelette prequel to the biopunk noir thriller *The Lazarus Defect*. It explores the tragic origin of the city's most broken, dangerous detective, and the day Silas Vane died and decided to keep living anyway.