Book 1 of The Magu Program Prequels

Living on the fringes of Base City, Riku Hayashi knows exactly who he is: a farmer’s son, skilled with machines, dreaming of a simple life rooted in the land.

But when a devastating fire reduces their world to ashes, the Hayashi family is forced into a future none of them wanted: a new life off-world.

The Moon—rich in resources and free from Earth’s governments—is ruled by the powerful Hakko Ichiu Corporation. Beneath its gray surface, vast mines churn out unimaginable wealth. Above, massive domes rise from the lunar regolith, housing workers in a world bound to weeks of unbroken light and endless darkness.

The Moon also harbors something else: a haven for those who thrive in its shadows. Pleasure domes lure the desperate and ambitious alike, Zuhara the most notorious of them all.

The Hayashi family settles in Halcyon Prime, the lunar farming colony. While Riku struggles to find his place in this new life, his younger brother Kaito is drawn to the danger, riches, and seduction of the lunar underworld. On Earth, he was restless and bored; here, with nothing to hold him back, the possibilities seem endless.

But in a world where every breath is manufactured and aging domes strain to hold back the vacuum of space, Riku must decide how far he’s willing to go to save his brother.

Praise for The Magu Program.

It’s long been fashionable to declare cyberpunk a defunct genre, but when an author of Hartle’s talents pumps this much juice into the tropes, they come alive as they did in the heady 1980s, when William Gibson’s Neuromancer debuted. The action is slick, the techno-veneer is seductive, even in its horrific aspects, and a retro, noirish flavor leavens the future-shock. — Kirkus Reviews.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/matt-hartle/the-magu-program/