Jae Darcy’s Extropia follows Bache Parker, a eighteen-year-old former hacker living in Seattle in 2164 after prison and damaged bioware leave him unable to enter the virtual world known as the Inside. He now works as a walker, tending the stasis tanks of Avars whose minds spend their lives online. In the Cascade Mountains, sixteen-year-old Ayven Reynolds has been raised among the New Greens, a hidden community that rejects technology and has arranged her marriage to its new leader. Ayven has been blind since childhood, yet she possesses dormant bioware she never knew existed. When the New Greens need Bache’s programming skills for a secret mission involving NeuroGen, the corporation that dominates the Inside, Ayven is sent to find him, drawing both teenagers into a plan built around everything their worlds have taught them to distrust.

Jae Darcy knows exactly what gives Extropia its power as dystopian science fiction. The cyberpunk technology belongs to a society with rules that reach ordinary life, giving plenty of room to show how people bend those rules for themselves. That idea clicks at the Lucky Lady Lounge, where a dancer wears an illegal living fire hacked from a licensed design. Bache’s devotion to the Inside gives his relationship with Ayven its chemistry, since her upbringing taught her to distrust the place he calls home. Their conversations carry that difference naturally, so the attraction feels rooted in character. Darcy handles suspense superbly when code reaches the body, turning an online decision into physical risk Outside. Gas Works Park extends Seattle’s cyberpunk atmosphere through rusting industrial ruins accessible only by water. It all feels fully realized. Readers drawn to intelligent dystopian science fiction with romance should put Extropia high on their list. Very highly recommended.

Extropia by Jae Darcy is a suspenseful cyberpunk adventure set in the year 2164. The wealthy now spend their time on the Inside, which is a virtual world that gets wired into them from the moment they’re born. Bache is living in exile after his bioware was destroyed and now spends his days tending to people on the Outside while they enjoy the benefits of the Inside. But soon everything changes when Ayven, a blind girl, goes to him for help accessing the Inside with plans to release a virus. With nothing much to lose, Bache agrees. When Ayven experiences sight, she’s not so sure she wants to give up this new world. But the virus is already active, upping the stakes and forcing the duo to make a choice.

Jae Darcy introduces an intriguing cyberpunk world that imagines what our future would look like living our lives in cyberspace. The Inside is a virtual world. There’s a magical quality to it, as it’s a place where all your dreams come true, such as Ayven getting her sight back. Ayven and Bache long for something that the Inside can give, but the story explores the consequences of it as well. There is some humor in how they interact with each other, which gives them a delightful chemistry while also keeping the tone relatively light. The setting focuses primarily on NeuroGen (though it's one of three companies) that controls the online world everyone is obsessed with, and the ethical dilemmas that surround it. Readers explore themes of power and identity through two characters who live on the outside. Darcy uses this intriguing structure with the characters mentally in the Inside and physically on the Outside, and the story weaves between the two settings. Extropia is a fascinating foray into the cyberpunk world and an excellent introduction to the genre, with an adventure in the Inside and themes of power, identity, and self-discovery.

Jae Darcy’s Extropia introduces the crumbling Seattle of 2164, an imagined world split between the privileged, who live “Inside” a vast virtual reality while their bodies float in tanks handled by “Walkers” like Bache Parker, and the rest of the unprivileged, who navigate the “Outside.” Bache is a gifted hacker who has been exiled from the online world after a raid killed his friend. Ayven Reynolds is a blind sixteen-year-old from a neo-Luddite mountain commune. She is betrothed to a nasty elder and sent to the city with a deadly secret. What follows is a journey fraught with buried identities, blackmail, and a revenge plot orchestrated by Bache’s former partner and the illegitimate son of NeuroGen's CEO. Billy Severn is out for blood, and as Ayven unravels the truth about her origins, she and Bache must decide what “real” means, and who is worth saving.

Jae Darcy is a great storyteller who delivers an imaginative tale that deftly melds dystopian politics, cyberpunk worldbuilding, and a twist about a lost heiress. The slow-burning romance compels you to keep turning the pages. The distinct narrative points of view translate Bach’s sardonic tone and Ayven's sensory wonder skillfully. Bache and Ayven are a pair you cannot resist: he has grief in his heart, and she delights in the world she navigates. The moment she first sees the stars is remarkably written. Extropia is filled with plot twists and surprises, and the quiet scenes hum with chemistry and tension. The worldbuilding is impeccable, and the details make it vivid and captivating, with features like contexts, coffins, and the Underside giving the story its originality. The exploration of nature versus technology, revenge versus forgiveness, and what makes life “real” is executed in a way I haven't read in any other book. A well-paced, captivating book you cannot put down.

Ayven Reynolds has hazy memories of a father who risked it all for her and the family he left behind. Bache Parker once had the life everyone dreamed of, until a series of events left him with a grudge against the authorities and a joke of an existence, spending his days caring for the selected ones on the Inside. Everything changes for Bache when he considers an unusual offer Ayven brings him: help her Neo-Luddite community with their plan to bring down the established order by destroying the Inside. Bache does not realize that this supposedly simple offer comes with warped complications. Bache and Ayven must work together to extricate themselves from this deadly web in Jae Darcy's Extropia.

Romance and technology collide in Jae Darcy's Extropia. Ayven's and Bache's origin stories unfold, explaining Bache's sometimes irrational-sounding dislike for those who run the Inside. The world-building emphasizes how the Inside came to be and the narrative's social structure so readers can understand why Ayven's people are determined to go through with their scheme. Science fiction purists will fall in love with the futuristic technology. The attention to detail breaks down how some of these devices work, such as Ayven's visual aids, so that readers feel like they are the ones operating them. The detail-oriented narrative style and ballad-like delivery immerse readers in an adventure where they piece together strategically placed clues. The author weaves these elements together into a fascinating story that sci-fi fans will thoroughly enjoy.