Neon Dust

As of the time of writing this review, I’ve read all three available books.

Blurb

In 22nd-century New York, survival is a hustle, and secrets refuse to stay buried.

Tony, once a corporate operative, knows betrayal firsthand—abandoned by the elites who molded him, he’s been exiled to the Blast, a low-income, no-exit wasteland in the heart of New Brooklyn.

Now, he scrapes by in a world of gang-controlled streets and Dust-fueled powers, finding reluctant allies among the outcasts he once scorned. Amid the despair, Tony starts to uncover a surprising strength—and a chance to feel something more than just a simmering need for revenge.

Addie, a fiercely independent journo, is determined to expose the district’s corruption and the ruthless toll it takes on its people. But as she digs deeper, her quest for justice drags her into the city’s darkest shadows—and into the grip of Dust. What starts as a mission to expose the underworld soon spirals into a harrowing journey of self-discovery, where even truth itself becomes suspect.

Together, Tony and Addie are an unlikely team in a world where loyalty is rare and survival comes at a price. But if they can trust each other, they might just be able to challenge the forces that keep the Blast under heel—and maybe find redemption in the ruins.

Thoughts

The second-final installment in my recent cyberpunk binge is another of Plum’s stories. Figured that, given Cyber Dreams was awesome, checking out another story is a no-brainer. There are many parallels to Cyber Dreams, for sure. The use of PAIs, some of the terminology, the structure of the world, though I note that these things are fairly ubiquitous in almost all cyberpunk settings.

The worldbuilding is solid, and most of the story takes place in the “Blast”, an area of low-income, slumlike and ganger controlled buildings where Dust (read: magical resource which functions like mana) comes out nasty (read: radioactive). There’s lots of Dust in the air, but each bit comes with a bite. This is important for Addie, one of our two MCs, as she’s a natural dust user. A Spark (or more) in the parlance of the story.

Our other MC is Tony, a hard-bitten operator that got stabbed in the back, stipped of cyberware, and left to die. He uses Dust-tech, but it’s a natural Dust user himself. Chapters typically bounce back and forth between the two perspectives, and given Tony and Ads work together, it’s not like your preferred perspective is gone for hgue arcs or novels at a time.

Tony, Ads, Beef, Glitch, and all the other characters are exectued with the typical polish of all of Plum’s works. Dialogue flows, technical issues are nonexistent, and the interactions between characters themselves, and the world at large, all come together well.

Which may lead you to frown and puzzle, because I’ve ranked this series lower than Cyber Dreams, and yet I’m talking all about the positives. So let me be clear here - if you’re wanting a more traditional sci-fi story, this is great. But framed through the window of Progression Fantasy, people may be left wanting, well, more progression.

Many cyberpunk stories fall quickly into an overpowered MC, and this is probably because the ultra-capitalist, corruption-is-the-norm, coprorations-get-their-way themes hit so very close to home now more than ever, that reading cyberpunk without an OP MC to act as our wish-fulfillment vehicle can often be a bit too dark. Ghost in the City has Motoko becoming badass in its first arc. System Override has David start with an incredible nanite+Sandy combo from chapter one. Stray Cat Strut gives Cat enough points to get ahead after the first combat encounter. CyberGene takes a bit longer to get there, but Ripley and Diana become significant powers by chapter 50. Even Plum’s Cyber Dreams has Juliet acquiring Angel and using that to pull ahead in the first chapter. Now, one of the big things you’ll hear about Cyber Dreams is that it keeps getting better, and a lot of that is Juliet being able to lean into Angel’s help and levelling up (so to speak) after the threat of discovery fades.

In contrast, Neon Dust doesn’t have this normal ramping of power. After Tony gets his parts stripped and then replaced by the most basic-bitch version he can find, he doesn’t really upgrade for ages. In other stories, you might have expected a constant search for better cyberware, upgrading, etc, but Tony doesn’t replace his basic eye and random-off-the-thift-shop-shelf arm until book three. Addie, as a Dust user, has a slightly better time. She gets a few reactor upgrades, and finds a Dust tutor. Now, this genre loves mentors and lessons and grinding! But that’s not the focus of this story, and so most of Addie’s lessons don’t get into the details of forming Dust patterns, and apart from the introductory lesson, most happen off-screen. This keeps the focus on operator work and the larger plot (which is about Tony’s past). Which is obviously totally fine, I mention it to simply highlight some of the differences between more progression-focused stories and this one, which is almost PF-adjacent.

So, will you enjoy this one? If you want a solitary, OP MC with fast progression, no. If you like the setting itself, slower-burn stories, don’t mind a bit of romance, and don’t need an intense focus on progression, then yes.