The stories incorporated Malaysian culture. It don't always work, but generally pretty good

I don't know if it's fair to rate a book that I have a story in, but well, I guess I'm rating all the stories in the book other than mine. =) Anyway, as much as I was hoping that I would fall desperately in love with Cyberpunk: Malaysia, I didn't. I liked it well enough. It's pretty decent. But it's not gripping. But as far as debut Malaysian Sci-Fi goes, it's a good offering. So that's 3.5 stars from me!

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There is a quote (I think) which says something about writers reflecting the state of their country through their stories. I think Cyberpunk: Malaysia does that. In imagining the near future, the writers in this anthology give vent to their worries about religion and religious control, the greed of our politicians, the growing racial divide, the growing economic divide, the burgeoning anger of the populace, the treatment of foreign workers and the polarizing effect of knowledge or the lack thereof.

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Likes:
Attack of the spambots - [a:Terence Toh|7350576|Terence Toh|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
What the andromaid reads at night - [a:Ted Mahsun|5400283|Ted Mahsun|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1324392357p2/5400283.jpg]
The wall that wasn't a wall - [a:Kris Williamson|6889941|Kris Williamson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1358173614p2/6889941.jpg]
The twins - [a:Adiwijaya Iskandar|14097476|Adiwijaya Iskandar|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
October 11 - Chin Ai-May
Undercover in Tanah Firdaus - [a:Tina Isaacs|4015051|Tina Isaacs|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]
Unusual suspects - [a:Tariq Kamal|14097477|Tariq Kamal|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
The White Mask - [a:Zedeck Siew|8160605|Zedeck Siew|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]

Is it cyberpunk? Some of it are close enough. Is it engaging and thrilling? I'd say majority of the featured stories indeed good. I am surprised to see the low rating by some of few readers but based on their review, i get why they gave such rating. It really is the matter of individual's preferences. I picked up this book because i just finished watching Black Mirror Netflix series last month. I don't expect it to be amazing and mind boggling like the TV show but yeah, this book has a few moments that brought me back to the certain black mirror's scenes. The first 2 stories didn't grip me at all. I decided to move on to the 3rd story and i decided if it's still lacking, I wanted to give up reading this book. Fortunately, the 3rd story managed to lure me back in. Overall, I'm rating this as 4 out 5 stars . People may not enjoy it as much as i did but i glad i bought this on Google playbook.

Here's my favorite list of stories :
1. Personal by Sharmilla Ganesan
2. Attack of the spambots by Terrence Toh
3. What the andromaids read at night by Ted Mahsun
4. Kakak by William Tham Wai Liang
5. October 11 by Chin Ai May
6.The White Mask by Zedeck Siew
7. Extracts from DMZINE by Foo Sek Han

The rest of the stories didn't sit well with me. I didn't despise them but i didnt enjoy them either.

Sidenote: I couldn't help but notice how "Tanah Firdaus" resembles the concept of High Rise (both book and movie) but I could be wrong though.

I wondered while reading this whether cyberpunk can ever be hopeful? There was one optimistic story in this collection but otherwise it was all pretty grim. I guess it's the nature of the genre, but maybe it's time for cyberpunk which looks at the ways technology can enhance people's lives rather than plunging everyone into an immediate dystopia. There were some interesting ideas here, but also some stuff that felt dated and repetitive.

The stories are all solid and set in interesting future Malaysias.
"Attack of the Spambots" -- about advertisers taking things too far -- stood out.
I liked the main characters and premise of "What the Andromaid Reads at Night" but the ending seemed abrupt.
"The Wall that Wasn't a Wall" is dark, as is "October 11"

Overall I enjoyed this collection. I will admit that a lot of the geographical references went over my head, but the cultural and political issues were fairly well laid out over the book.

As with any collection, the content varied, and I didn't finish some stories usually due to being unrelentingly grim, but most had a balance between dystopia and fight against oppression. The themes of personhood, surveillance and state oppression were pretty strongly represented, but many of the stories were humorous and some were hopeful.

It did make me curious about the definition of Cyberpunk, especially the punk part of that, and how that has evolved over the last thirty years or so.

(I got a copy of this book via goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Then I lost the book so it's pretty horrifically late.)