Book Review : Grant Wamack - Melancholy's Finest (2023)
Sometime around last year, the Broken River Books collective started writing cyberpunk fiction. Fueled by J. David Osborne and Kelby Losack's creative podcast Agitator, they've given themselves the seemingly impossible mission of writing the future at an age where the future, present and past all seem like the same pre-recorded bullshit. Grant Wamack’s introduction to the Motorpapi Chronicles Melancholy's Finest is part of that war effort and it's as confident as it is incredibly ambitious.
Melancholy's Finest is very much a prelude to what seems like a project of a grander scope, which takes a lot of balls to put out because you barely have time to meet the protagonists before it's over. There's the sexy contract killer Motorpapi who loves to take babes on a ride on his moped, the romantic and tormented Darius Carter who's looking for connection in an increasingly artificial world and the unlucky Jin, who's trying to adapt to reality after spending years trying to free himself from it.
Cyberpunk and the Need for Authentic Connexion
Although there is a plot to Melancholy's Finest, it is incredibly flimsy and I might've enjoyed it more without one? I have no doubt it is foreboding of greater intrigue, but I just loved getting to know their characters. Empathizing with their flaws and understanding the desires that drive them. Darius Carter had to be the most interesting one (and the less involved with the plot) for the authenticity of his feelings for his digitally altered girlfriend Mila, who can tune her emotions with an augmentation called a Shibreru.
Darius and Mila are genuinely trying to connect, but she believed technology is going to help her with that while he's trying to remain free of as many digital intermediaries as he can. Their plight is moving because it echoes our own entanglement with interfaces that promise is comfort and convenience and yet only drains us of any sense of purpose. The best and worst thing about technology (the only thing, really) is that it's inevitable and it ends up coming for Darius in ways he could've never anticipated.
That’s the thing about Grant Wamack's cyberpunk and the conception of the term by the Broken River Collective. It's not exactly a future. It’s kind of a wounded, patched up present that uses technology in a way that creates more problems than it solved. It’s a cliché, but it’s true: good sci fi is about the present, more than it is about the past. Melancholy's Finest follows this rule with great discipline.
The Part About Motorpapi
I wouldn't even dare reviewing a book without ever talking about its protagonist and it would be a fault not to mention Motorpapi because he sets the tone for what's Melancholy's Finest's supposed to read like. He's a comedic character. It's an important distinction that colours the narrative. He doesn’t not have the deepest personality, but his strength and skills subjugate the existences anyway. Although Motorpapi is genuinely funny, there's a nihilistic component to his presence that felt right.
Motorpapi moves through life swiftly, he doesn’t overthink stuff and acts immediately upon his needs. That granted him great power over the other characters in Melancholy's Finest. He's some sort of living and breathing death drive, which burns metaphorically and literally through life. I mean, he kills people and whatnot. I thought that having such an important (and powerful) character being so unself conscious was a fun touch to chapters that otherwise might’ve not have been as powerful as the others.
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Cyberpunk is an acquired taste and, ultimately, so is Melancholy's Finest. Grant Wamack has a knack for making his characters shine through the most mundane actions and while it's definitely present in his book, the thematic concerns may or may not resonate with everyone. This is something very precise. I enjoyed it on a cerebral level. It could've had more meat around the bone and went further into character development since it's almost all there is, but I’m still curious for what's coming.
