Skip to main content

Serial Pub: Ninth Step Station s01e01


Ninth Step Station s01e01 by Malka Older

Years of disaster and conflict have left Tokyo split between great powers. In the city of drone-enforced borders, bodymod black markets, and desperate resistance movements, US peacekeeper Emma Higashi is assigned to partner with Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Miyako Koreda. Together, they must race to solve a series of murders that test their relationship and threaten to overturn the balance of global power. And amid the chaos, they each need to decide what they are willing to do for peace.

Ninth Step Station is written by a collaboration of authors including: Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi and Curtis C. Chen. Similar to all the serials from Serialbox, this story is also released in episodes. Every episode is written by a different author.

Episode one: The Faceless Body

Enter Ninth Step Station. Enter a divided Tokyo. Half Japanse/American and Half taken by China. The Faceless Body starts off with a mystery. A man is murdered in the subway and nobody noticed a thing. The designated police detective is Miyako Koreda, but before Miyako can start on this murder investigation she first has a meeting with her superior about a forced cooperation with an American police officer. Some joked are being made but Miyako is quite surprised when she meets her partner Emma Higashi. She has served in the military and actually knows some Japanese. 

Almost simultaneously with the murder case a trucks gets hijacked in the Japanese part of Tokyo and gets smuggled into the Chinese part. This case has the main focus of Emma. As this could be a potential lead to start another stirrup in the unstable Tokyo. So a bit reluctantly Emma goes together with Miyako to the murder case. This is where the freaky part starts. The murder victims face has been removed. Lucky there is a lead for the duo in the end but it ends mostly with the victim being their at the wrong time and wrong place. Back to the hijacking of the truck. Here is a serious lead and this one shows one of the lines of the story. The tension between the Japanese and the Chinese separation of Tokyo. I bet that the faceless body also does not go without another lead in the story though. 

This episode ends with a interesting sentence. "Everything is connected to it" with a reference to war. 

When looking to the general promise of the story it delivers. Malka Older hits all the notes in describing this bleak Tokyo in a futuristic setting. There is not a real background of how Tokyo became divided so I hope that this gets more attention in the following episodes. One part that I enjoyed was the technology part of it. This series is compared to Crime Scene Investigation and Altered Carbon but for me it also has hints of Deus Ex in it. The body augments, though only touched briefly yet, can offer a lot of cool stuff to happen. 

The relationship between Miyako and Emma is also interesting a native Japanese and an American, both have different habits and way of thinking. There are some clashes and cultural notices in this first episode. The good thing about this is, is that it is written naturally there are no scenes that read like it was forced. I think these two cultures will clash a bit more in the future episodes but that both Miyako and Emma, due to these difference will grow more towards being a team. 

If you are looking for a serial to kick off your 2019 in a good way, get Ninth Step Station! 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Author Interview with Christopher Fowler

Author interview with Christopher Fowler. Author bio:  Christopher Fowler is an English novelist living in London, his books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he writes short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews. He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide inspiration In 1998 he was the recipient of the BFS Best Short Story Of The Year, for 'Wageslaves'. Then, in 2004, 'The Water Room' was nominated for the CWA People's Choice Award, 'Full Dark House' won the BFS August Derleth Novel of The Year Award 2004 and 'American Waitress' won the BFS Best Short Story Of The Year 2004. The novella 'Breathe' won BFS Best Novella 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Christopher, welcome over to The Bo

Short Fiction Friday: Selfies

Selfies by Lavie Tidhar "Selfies", by Lavie Tidhar, is a creepy little horror tale about the fate of a young woman who makes the mistake of a lifetime when she buys a new phone in the local mall. It is only a few weeks back that I read a different but very interesting short story of Lavie Tidhar, Dragonkin . I found this story directly to my liking, the synopsis and build up of the story was unique and got me excited by it's less is more writing style. In the end this story for me had so much going on that I hope to see Lavie Tidhar exploring it even further. That aside, now its time for Selfies . I think I can now safely say that Lavie Tidhar is an author to watch out for, his stories will get you thinking and will scare you twice over.  I have been thinking a lot of the current situation with always being connected on social media and the likes. It's unavoidable. One thing that is connected with all of this is of course your smartphone, yes no longer a cell

Guest Blog: Alien Invasion Stories from Armada to Grunt Traitor

Guest Blog: Alien Invasion Stories from Armada to Grunt Traitor  By Weston Ochse © 2015   There’s something at once terrifying and romantic about an invasion. One wrong move could mean the destruction of everything you know and love, but in the heat of battle, there are crystalline moments in which true humanity shines. Like many military authors, I often look to history for guidance on how to write the future. I’ve always looked at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift as the perfect sort of battle to represent an alien invasion. One hundred and fifty British soldiers in a remote outpost are beset by four thousand Zulu warriors. The odds seemed impossible, yet in the end the British won the day. The early Michael Cain movie Zulu retells this story and stands as one of my favorite military movies of all time. There are moments in the film that resonate. In the face of overwhelming attack, the sergeant major lowly commanding his men to take it easy. Right when everything seems los