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Broken Mirror

(Resonant Earth #1)

Cody Sisco (Goodreads Author)

3.87 · Rating details · 54 ratings · 22 reviews

Someone killed Granfa Jefferson. Victor is sure of it. But he's the only one.

Diagnosed with mirror resonance syndrome and shunned by Semiautonomous California society, Victor suffers from "blank outs," hallucinations, and vivid nightmares. He violently overreacts to even minor confrontations. Victor's grandfather devoted his life to researching and curing Broken Mirrors, b ...more

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Paperback, 470 pages

Published January 22nd 2016 by Resonant Earth Publishing

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· 54 ratings · 22 reviews

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Mar 30, 2017 Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2017-books, review-copy, science-fiction, mental-illness, fictional-mental-illness, drug-addiction, bisexual-main-character, cyberpunk, alternate-history, reviewed

3.5 Stars

Full Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*

I'm new to the cyberpunk genre, but I've been wanting to give it more of a try, and this one sounded good. Unfortunately, although the book was well-written, I struggled to really get into it.

So, this book was a cyberpunk/alternate history mash-up set in the early 90s in a different version of the U.S. with a kind of bleak feel. That was pretty neat, but, because the world was so different, t ...more

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Mar 30, 2018 Eugenia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, lgbtqia

Loved it!! ❤️
The writing in this book was stellar! So much so that it immersed me in the curious alternate world that appears utopian, but is hiding ugly truths.

Some individuals suffer from mirror resonance syndrome like our MC, Victor. He is known as a broken mirror. This official classification would take away his autonomy.

Victor attempts to solve the murder of his grandfather while uncovering secrets about his condition. Not knowing who to trust, and often not trusting his own “broken” perc ...more

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Jun 14, 2017 ☙ nemo ❧ (pagesandprozac) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star, lgbtqia, minority-ethnic-leads, mystery, action-thriller-suspense, sci-fi, adult, deep-cuts-and-hidden-gems, cyberpunk, dystopia

2017 continues to be the year of outstanding sci-fi novels!

i am honest to gosh Deceased. i know i say this after like every book but i mean it this time, i'm literally dead. murdered by cody sisco.

i don't know what the hell i was expecting, but it sure wasn't this. i mean, not to generalise, but when you download one of those auto-approval thingys from netgalley, you aren't expecting a masterpiece, are you?

but that's what i got. a fucking masterpiece.

the worldbuilding was extremely good and w ...more

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Dec 15, 2017 lacy white rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, 4-stars, arc-copy, ebooks, s

A special thank you goes out to Netgalley and Cody Sisco for allowing me to read this early. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Buckle up, kids, because this is a long review.

TW: racist comments (challenged)
slurs used at those with mental illness (sometimes challenged)

This book was something else and I mean that in a good way. it had a lot of information in it and I felt like it was trying to take a lot of different stances. Which is good but I think it tried to do too much. It tried to end A special thank you goes out to Netgalley and Cody Sisco for allowing me to read this early. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Buckle up, kids, because this is a long review.

TW: racist comments (challenged)
slurs used at those with mental illness (sometimes challenged)

This book was something else and I mean that in a good way. it had a lot of information in it and I felt like it was trying to take a lot of different stances. Which is good but I think it tried to do too much. It tried to end several stigmas about mental illness, along with racism and the LGBTQIA+ community. But regardless of all that, I still enjoyed this book and the experience of reading it.

Our MC, Victor, has mirror resonance syndrome. It gives a long explanation about what it is in the book but in laymen's terms, it's like autism. Victor reacts to things with a lot more emotion than the situation calls for. A lot of stimuli affects him negatively and positively. I have no experience in autism so I apologize in advance if I word things wrong or offend anyone in anyway. But that is what I thought when I read this book. Maybe the author modeled MRS after autism. I thought it was well done, but like I said, I can't be the judge of that completely.

The premise is that the Victor thinks his grandfather was murdered. Course, no one will believe him because he is a "broken mirror", a slur for those that have MRS. He enlists the help of an old friend, Elena and some of his grandfather's trusted friends to figure out the truth.

The POV is third person Victor with a few chapters of Elena. This made for the narration to be unreliable at times and I often wasn't sure who to trust nor could I always figure out what is going to happen. But I didn't mind that. I knew what I was getting into.

LIke I mentioned before, this book suffered from trying to do too much and holy information overload. There was just so much being given to me, I felt my eye gloss over a lot of the paragraphs and I had to go back to read what I missed. I like information but it was too much.

The main theme was mental illness. The stigma surroundings Victor's illness was incredibly reminiscent of what those with mental illness deal with today. Often times, while reading, I wanted to throw my Kindle because of what Victor had to go through. I think it triggered me in negative ways. As someone that has anxiety, my illness isn't often believed and my fears aren't always recognized. That is what Victor dealt with and it's infuriating. Even when he should growth and improvement, he was still shot down and was attempted to be controlled.

Racism was in this book as well. Victor was POC and sometimes dealt with the backlash of being from a successful family and being a POC. Sexuality was also addressed, but in a more positive light. According to Victor, almost everyone was duophile, which I think is bisexuality. A side character was adrophile, which I think is asexuality but I'm not sure.

Speaking of characters and side characters, I really only liked Victor. He was likeable and was always trying and pushing himself and get better. Even though his family and a lot of his "friends" weren't helping him. That is admirable of him and I only hope he continues to grow. Elena, who was kind of a MC, wasn't that great. I liked her at first but I think the relationship between her and Victor was toxic. (view spoiler)

Overall, this was a great book! The world was cool, despite some info dumping. There could easily be side books and other things like that made because the world is large and so is the history behind it. The author tried very hard to dispel several horrible stigmas, which was admirable of him and I commend him. I really think that this series can only go up from here. ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Greyson | Use Your Words rated it it was ok

Shelves: dnf, genre-scifi, read-2017, rep-14-bi-pan-queer, rep-1-lgbtqiap, rep-4-neurodiverse-mental-illness, rep-45-addiction, all-ntbr

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 20%
Okay so this is very much a 'it's not you, it's me' scenario.
I really wanted to like this Broken Mirror, it has so much promise and I loved Victor.
It was just so very sciencey, I've never been very good at science, and so everything went over my head and I couldn't understand half the things anyone was saying.
This is probably a great book, it just wasn't for me. ...more

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Mar 19, 2017 Dannica Zulestin rated it did not like it

Shelves: morality-play, viva

Disclaimer: I'm a neurotypical person reviewing a book about a person with a mental illness (although this mental illness is made up). I didn't like this book for a number of reasons, but I don't have personal experience with a mental illness or disability so I'm perhaps not the best source.

Plot
In a dystopian future California, Victor is a boy from a rich family whose grandfather is researching a cure to the mental illness of mirror resonance syndrome, an illness Victor happens to have with side Disclaimer: I'm a neurotypical person reviewing a book about a person with a mental illness (although this mental illness is made up). I didn't like this book for a number of reasons, but I don't have personal experience with a mental illness or disability so I'm perhaps not the best source.

Plot
In a dystopian future California, Victor is a boy from a rich family whose grandfather is researching a cure to the mental illness of mirror resonance syndrome, an illness Victor happens to have with side effects such as losing time, going "blank" and anger management problems as well as synaesthesia. But his grandfather dies under suspicious circumstances and due to "reclassification" it looks like Victor is going to be sent to an institution. Victor runs away from his family, his home and the dystopian government to investigate the possibility that his grandfather was murdered.

Things That Were Good
-Portrayal of prejudice against people with mental illnesses.
-The main side character, Elena, while Victor's ex, barely serves as a love interest and is mostly there as a companion, as well as having an interesting drug addiction side plot.

Things That Were Not Good
-The mental illness is portrayed as something that causes Victor to be dangerous, which means that although this book seems to be saying mental illness shouldn't be stigmatized, it also does in fact stigmatize it.
-Victor's medications are portrayed as being detrimental to his mental state, which...I don't know, man. Maybe not all medications are good but if this mental illness is such a negative effect on Victor's life, why make it seem like a bad thing for him to take medications at all? He ends up taking herbal infusions instead which might be good for some conditions? I don't know, I don't have personal experience with mental illness but I dislike the idea that taking the medications he needs makes him weaker and that he should just take mild herbs and "learn to control" the fits that he has. It seems pretty bullshit.
-It is briefly mentioned that being bisexual is standard in this dystopian society but only one character is actually shown to be bisexual and he's a really shady and apparently promiscuous dude, so, ugh.
-Also, there's a scene where said bisexual character convinces Victor to go to a prostitute, and while Victor is having sex with her he is so rough that she begs him to stop and it's a while before he actually does (because of an episode of Victor spacing out). So, sexual consent issues. While this is portrayed as a bad thing, it's a very brief episode that is never really brought up again and really didn't need to be there. Of course there are no consequences for Victor and it's shown that hey, the prostitute is fine so why does it matter? Out of all the problematic parts of this book, I have to say this was for me at least the worst.

Overall
Once again, I'm neurotypical so I'm not an authority on writing about mental illnesses but I didn't like how it was handled and I definitely didn't like how matters of sexuality were handled. So for me, I can't recommend this book.
I was given an ARC of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 Sue Wallace rated it really liked it

broken mirror by Cody sisco.
Someone killed Granfa Jefferson. Victor is sure of it. But he's the only one.

Diagnosed with mirror resonance syndrome and shunned by Semiautonomous California society, Victor suffers from "blank outs," hallucinations, and vivid nightmares. He violently overreacts to even minor confrontations. Victor's grandfather devoted his life to researching and curing Broken Mirrors, but now that he's gone, Victor must walk a narrow path between sanity and reclassification--a fat ...more

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Jun 01, 2017 Cornerofmadness rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopia, mystery, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Thanks to Netgalley for making this available. I didn’t see the Goodreads blurb which was a bit more in depth as I didn’t know it was alternative history and cyberpunk neither of which are my genres. I might have skipped it had I known. That said, I did like it and if I were more of a fan of those genres I might have really loved it.

In this alternative history, the Civil War ended with the death of Mrs. Lincoln, not Abe and they decided in the rebuilding period that skin color didn’t matter (we Thanks to Netgalley for making this available. I didn’t see the Goodreads blurb which was a bit more in depth as I didn’t know it was alternative history and cyberpunk neither of which are my genres. I might have skipped it had I known. That said, I did like it and if I were more of a fan of those genres I might have really loved it.

In this alternative history, the Civil War ended with the death of Mrs. Lincoln, not Abe and they decided in the rebuilding period that skin color didn’t matter (we should be so lucky) but on the other hand, there was no strong United States, instead it’s a fractured country of regions that may or may not get along. Our main protagonist Victor Eastmore, lives in the California area and his grandfather was instrumental in curing cancer and he’s working on a neurological condition Mirror Resonance Syndrome, i.e. the titular Broken Mirror. It’s like a cross between high function autism, synesthesia and absence seizures.

Victor is a Broken Mirror but to his horror, his grandfather shuts down their hospital and research and soon after he’s dead. Victor believes his beloved grandfather was murdered. Not only does no one believe him, including his family, his grandmother wants him arrested and institutionalized. Here’s the main plot of the novel: how horrible it is to stigmatize mental illness and to rise above it. Of course, in order to end something, that means it has to exist and boy does it ever in this. The whole background of the novel is about how horribly these neuro-atypical ‘broken mirrors’ are treated even Victor who is wealthy and from a respected family. In fact he’s facing being reclassified and locked away (a system born of a massacre waged by one person with this syndrome, it would be like one mass shooting by a schizophrenic resulting in all people with schizophrenia being brought in several times a year to pass a test or be locked away).

With his condition, Victor is starting this investigation into his grandfather’s death behind the eight ball. All he has for help is a data egg from his grandfather that won’t open, his ex-girlfriend Elena who’s back in his life, his former friend Ozie a brain hacker he lost touch with and Tosh, a Native American friend of his grandfather Victor has never met. The problem is everyone has their own agenda (including his boss and his Aunt Circe) and Victor is manipulated at every turn.

It was a bit slow to start and only a small part of the mystery is solved by the end. I did like Victor. He makes for a sympathetic character. Once the story really gets moving, it rolls on well. I just wish the rest of the characters were a bit more likeable. I rather wished Victor would have dumped them all and run off on his own. One thing did bug me: It was listed as LGBTQIA and honestly there is almost none of that. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need the character to be in a relationship as that’s just a part of who they are but all we had here was literally one sentence saying Victor is bisexual. I’m fine with him being in a committed (sort of) heterosexual relationship but he doesn’t even correct Tosh when he says Victor obviously likes girls (even though Tosh is the one he told he was bi). Maybe there’ll be more on the spectrum in further novels but if you’re picking this up hoping for a hot gay relationship, you’re going to be very disappointed. That’s not this novel. In fact, I would have put Victor under asexual.

It does, however, do well on the diversity spectrum. Ozie is African, Elena Hispanic and Victor is mixed race. I liked the story and if you like cyberpunk you’ll probably enjoy it. ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Bea rated it liked it

First and foremost I want to thank NetGalley, Resonant Earth Publishing and Cody Sisco for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review. This book had a fascinating premise and since it was about neuroscience I was drawn to read it. The best thing about the book was the authors ability to project into science fiction while at the same time grounding the reader in enough of today's world to easily follow the plot.

I was hooked from the beginning by the plot and by the characters a ...more

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Dec 10, 2020 Scott Vandrick rated it it was ok

“Broken Mirror” is a baffling novel which attempts to walk the grey intersection of science fiction and science fact but is tripped by its own story foundation. “Broken Mirror” is also a well-written novel which offers hope of great things from the author as he matures. The flaw at the story’s core is the protagonist, Victor, who suffers from “mirror resonant syndrome” (basically an extreme bipolar disorder) and it’s established that the reader can’t trust or believe anything he experiences - he ...more

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Dec 29, 2020 Christy O'herin rated it liked it · review of another edition

I chose this book for a reading challenge to fit the prompt, "a book by a local author," because Cody Sisco is from Los Angeles. It was a captivating read, where I was constantly wondering what would happen next. There is the mystery of Granfa Jeff's murder, the question of whether Victor's Mirror Resonance Syndrome is a disease and a gift, and a constant wonder whether any of Victor's "friends" can be trusted. This book is definitely not a stand alone, and I wanted a little bit more of a wrap u ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Paul rated it it was amazing

I was initially interested in this book because I found it in the LGBT section, but these themes aren't really explored and there's only a couple a throw away sentence with brief mentions of flirting between men. Despite the initial disappointment in this respect, I actually really enjoyed the book. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 was rather expository and read more like the coming of age story of an unreliable narrator, but Parts 2 and 3 were very exciting with unexpected developme ...more

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Nov 19, 2020 Liliyana Shadowlyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: not-featured-yet

I love the cyberpunk genre - let me say that right off the bat. Although there were parts where the story was a little slow, I really enjoyed diving right into this alternate-history-cyberpunk book. The characters had a lot of depth (whether you liked them or not), and the world was richly described. It's clear the author spent a lot of time building up the book's universe. Mental illness is a big part of the story, and the way others react to it is so realistic it almost hurts at times. Perfect ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 Shelly Singhal rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good, gritty fiction

I bought this book because an ad said it was like Neal Stephenson. It's nothing like Stephenson. It's much more darkly creative and ultimately much more depressing. The characters are compelling and there's a lot to think about. It was a painful read that took me to places I don't normally think about. ...more

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Mar 29, 2018 Barb VanderWel rated it it was amazing

I love this & I can't wait for more.
I will be also leaving a review on Goodreads @ Amazon.
And letting everyone know about it.
So i gave it a 5 Stars. ...more

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Jan 01, 2018 Ross Mccrorie rated it really liked it

Solid world building and really cool writing style whit the descriptions of synesthesia. Slightly episodic and repetitive, but overall really fun to read.

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Feb 16, 2016 Jonathan Morris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fantastic read. Great characters, a mysterious plot and cool technology kept me flipping pages. Highly recommended!

Broken Mirror is cyberpunk story set in an alternate history where the US exists as several loosely allied territories known as the American Union. We are introduced to the world through Victor Eastmore, a programmer who suffers from a cognitive disorder called Mirror Resonance Syndrome – a type of synesthesia which screws up his perception and mood and stigmatizes him from societ A fantastic read. Great characters, a mysterious plot and cool technology kept me flipping pages. Highly recommended!

Broken Mirror is cyberpunk story set in an alternate history where the US exists as several loosely allied territories known as the American Union. We are introduced to the world through Victor Eastmore, a programmer who suffers from a cognitive disorder called Mirror Resonance Syndrome – a type of synesthesia which screws up his perception and mood and stigmatizes him from society, but may be more than the simple “disease” others assume. Through this protagonist, Sisco weaves a fascinating tale of intrigue which follows Victor (and those around him) as he investigates the mysterious death of his grandfather.

This is a great read. I particularly enjoyed the author’s ability to build a convincing world. The technology in Resonant Earth differs from what we have here on normal earth. The Internet is known as the “Mesh” and devices similar to smartphones are known as “MeshBits.” Sisco intentionally leaves out context as these pieces of technology are introduced, and rather weaves them into the story allowing the reader to learn about them bit by bit as the plot progresses. Similarly, the relationships between governments and corporations, even nations, are never explicitly explained but left to be discovered. We are supplied with a map of the American Union so we can situate our main characters but never inundated with mundane descriptions of policy or politics. We learn about the history of this world through journal entries, or perhaps interview notes, and meet different pockets of formal and informal society as the novel progresses. This method is a masterful way to engage the reader.

The one critique I can lay on the novel is that it simply ends too quickly! (Which is a compliment for a 400+ page novel). The pace of the plot really picks up in the third act and we learn much about Victor’s fate in the last few chapters, but I was left wanting more since the ending asks as many questions as it answers. Luckily, Sisco notes that this is the first novel in a planned series – so we’ll hopefully see more to come from Resonant Earth.

In a phrase, Broken Mirror is a very cool novel and a very cool study of mental health, personal liberties, family relations, societal hierarchy, exotic technology, and reality vs. illusion all set in an “uncanny valley” type world – one which paints our own values into stark contrast. It’s a real geek-pleaser. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and highly recommend it to sci-fi and mystery fans alike. ...more

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Jun 26, 2016 Jessica Bronder rated it it was amazing

We begin in an alternate world from our own. The United States no long exists; it is now the American Union. Many things in history have not happened in this world but the basics are technology rules and those that have perception and mood issues are diagnosed with Mirror Resonance Syndrome. Victor is one of these people. His grandfather has been treating these people but has recently died. Now Victor has to figure out who he really is and how he fits into this corrupt world.

This is an amazing t ...more

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Jun 16, 2016 Hamid rated it it was amazing

By Hamid - 6/15/16
The United States is now the American Union. Semiautonomous California and the Republic of Texas are battlegrounds, one of policy and one of violence. In Broken Mirror, Victor Eastmore, the protagonist, struggles with Mirror Resonance Syndrome, a disease "that is leading to the unfair ostracism of a group of people." These are not only the figments of author Cody Sisco's imagination, but also the figments of a parallel reality.
In a time when literature is a new addition to the ...more

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Feb 16, 2016 Linda added it · review of another edition

Author Cody Sisco’s “Broken Mirror” is a compelling murder mystery set in a world familiar yet changed by a few historical twists, for example, President Lincoln survives an assassination attempt. United America is weak, Europe is a superpower, while Autonomous California and the Republic of Texas are in some ways competing for the future of mankind. The protagonist is a genius, yet classified along with many other humans as potentially dangerous because their condition is the same as a mass mur ...more

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Mark Aoki rated it it was ok
Jan 02, 2020

David Luecke rated it really liked it
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Anna rated it it was amazing
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Apr 14, 2017 K. rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-netgalley, zz2017, hard-to-put-down-before-finishing, new-author

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Broken Mirror is set in alternative world, where historical events as we know, had a different ending. There were plenty of nice little hints casually thrown in about what happened differently, that is if you know history.

Main character is Victor who is diagnosed with mirror resonance syndrome, commonly called broken mirrors. I was so confused when I started reading this book, but I kept reading and I discovered that I had hard ...more

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Diane Edwards rated it really liked it
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About Cody Sisco

Cody Sisco

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Cody Sisco is an author, publisher, and literary community organizer.

As an author, Cody’s speculative fiction straddles the divide between plausible and extraordinary. His Resonant Earth Series includes two novels thus far, Broken Mirror and Tortured Echoes, and a short story prequel, Believe and Live. Altered Bodies, the third volume in the series, is due out in 2020.

In 2017 Cody co-founded Made ...more