Lee Murray author, editor
Mika
Mika Tāura arrives in New York in the middle of a storm, where she accidentally kills a motorist and lands herself with an injured child. What’s more, she’s missed her rendezvous.
Stan has problems of his own. Several of them just broke into his apartment and tried to kill him, which may explain why he hitching a ride in Mika’s armoured waka seems like a good idea. Besides, her business is taking her across to the West Coast, and so – conveniently – is his.
On the run, Mika, Stan and the girl flee across the country to Stan’s reservation home, where they encounter a couple who may be the key to Mika’s mission. But time is running out, for the travelers and for those they leave behind them.
A gripping and disturbing vision of an all too possible future.
— Brian Falkner, author of Brainjack and The Tomorrow Code
MIKA is an enjoyable and action-packed futuristic thriller/adventure. The protagonist has travelled from her home in Aotearoa on Torua, her high-tech waka, to New York on a mission of great importance to to her family and many others suffering from disease. A missed rendezvous ruins her plans and an accident brings her together with Bree, a young girl with a disturbing past. Together they meet Stan, a paramedic with a nasty gang after him, and they travel on together to his reservation to see if Mika can salvage her mission. I really enjoyed the feeling and descriptions of the dark near-future setting where B-Cell's miracle cure for diabetes backfired leaving many people needing cybernetic prosthetic limbs or organs from healthy donors.
— Debbie
MIKA is the fast paced futuristic adventure story of a woman on a mission to help her people in a far off land. Set in a near-future Earth where poverty and disease are rife and a corrupt corporation named B-Cell has a hand in making it that way. This is an excellent short read, really entertaining and full of unique reference's to Mika's home culture, obviously based in a future Aotearoa New Zealand. While the science and the science fiction is to the fore throughout the plot, there's a strong hint of Maori mysticism threading it's way through Mika's belief system, her view of the world and her hopes for the future. This adds to the story, giving it a complexity and subtle back story, perhaps most appreciated by those readers aware of the cultural references. For those who are not, there is a glossary of Maori terms at the back of the book. What I liked most about the book, was it's frantic, action packed pace and the interaction between Mika and the small girl Bree. Very enjoyable. Thoroughly recommend.
— Shellberight