The Binary Man

by Jacob Prytherch

Everything is possible, somewhere in time and space. All it takes is the right viewpoint.

Yannick Meyer's life seemed locked in a downward spiral of ill health and worse luck, when a knock at the door changed everything. Offworld opportunity beckoned, a release from the rampant pollution and social decay of Earth, or so he thought. However the bright lights of Washington station hide their own shadows...

Two engineers stumble upon a signal that holds a promise of inescapable violence...

One man sits alone, pleased with his work as he watches the funeral of someone that only he truly knows, losing count of how many have died before...

All these stories come together, bound by the power of The Binary Man, the first true magician.

Genres: Science Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Jacob Prytherch has been making up stories since he was a child, even when he should have been paying attention in school. His influences include Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and Neil Gaiman. His first novel The Binary Man, published in 2012, has since gone on to be the #1 cyberpunk bestseller on amazon.co.uk on two occasions. He currently lives in Birmingham with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Manny]

Fellow geeks: I have now posted 100,000,000,000 reviews on Goodreads.

[Helen Aistrop · Rating 2 out of 5]

it took quite a while to get into a flow. It raced at the end though and all came together well

[Michael Brookes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit of a mixed read for me. The premise sounded interesting and it starts off really well. The world is well thought out and decently portrayed with some excellent and thought provoking details. The characters are strong and the writing solid. It settled into a decent plot and I was happily reading the story.

The flipside for me came for me about halfway through where one of the characters gains some spectacular powers and turned from what had seemed like a well grounded science fiction into something a bit more fantastical. Considering the effort in building a plausible future I expected these powers to have some similar development, but are finally explained away with a rather thin description - more of a superhero's origin story than the type of science fiction I prefer.

Now in fairness this is purely a subjective opinion, so if you don't mind a more fantastical bent to the story then ignore what I've said and give it a try. Even with this issue I did enjoy the story and found the ending satisfying. The writing is a little uneven, mostly workmanlike, but with flashes of real craft. Not a bad read at all.