If every headline, dinner table conversation, or workplace program nowadays seems to center around AI, Chloe Gong shows us that fiction too can provide a different and much-needed evolution of familiar real-life AI narratives. With Deadlock, the successor to 2025’s Coldwire and the second installment of the Strangeloom young adult trilogy, Gong leverages the changing modern world of technological progress around us to complicate her own cyberpunk universe. As Eirale/Lia and Nik/Kieren are challenged to take down the corrupt corporation with all-consuming power over their realities, they’re also embroiled in even more nefarious plots surrounding separation of human consciousness and digitally-powered immortality. It’s a reminder of how the most promising dystopian fiction can ask questions about — and subsequently comment on — the current world.
Upon delving into the first pages, Deadlock feels almost overwhelmingly disorienting, but Gong’s writing is still sharp and action-packed. Still, Coldwire came out nearly a year ago, and it’s difficult to understand exactly what’s going on and who all the characters are. It almost feels like Gong chooses to go the NileCorp route in her meta, singular emphasis on the future. This is particularly evident in the explanations of new developments since the first book, where Gong almost artfully chooses to neglect what happened in the past.
There are a few strategically-placed tidbits that bring back old memories — like the twisty realization that Eirale and Lia are merged together as an AI input in a physical human body — and that “Eirale” (who’s really more Lia) is now acting as a double agent against NileCorp, the aforementioned corporation that created the virtual reality upcountry as a way to escape the impoverished realities of downcountry. Kieren is still assuming the name Nik Grant as a public-facing anarchist and enemy of NileCorp. The intricacies of this plot aren’t quite clear, but it’s easy to trust in Gong’s strong writing nonetheless without necessarily following along too closely.
It’s a good decision, even if Deadlock continues Gong’s patterns of imagining innovative, cool concepts visually without quite fleshing out how they operate. Gong deliberately includes smart insights about what’s going on in our current world with the cost of data centers, digital infringements on privacy, and the power of a corporation that markets tech-powered fantasies. These are all embedded inside the world of the Strangeloom trilogy in ways that enhance Gong’s worldbuilding while moving along the plot. The idea of an upcountry subscription model, for example, remains a powerful concept that feeds well into Gong’s plot and reflections surrounding class and inequality. What stands out the most as a relevant theme involves the plot point about how recreating AI as humans can manifest in a deeply desired version of immortality and all the flaws that come with that marketing.
As the story progresses, however, the pieces become clearer. Deadlock is exciting, poignant, and abundant enough without losing itself in the concept entirely. Gong’s storytelling skills are prominent; her grasp of thrill and structure almost unmatched. Deadlock moves deftly from a political assassination attempt to a cliffhanger reveal, with tight pacing that feels perfect for a cinematic adaptation. In fact, Gong’s ease with visceral description has always been one of her core strengths as a writer. The world of Strangeloom is as immersive as its own reality, almost as if the reader themselves are inserted into a crafted fictional world where everything is orchestrated with detail by the author.
In terms of execution, this time Gong incorporates more POVs, including that of Kieren and Miz. However, there’s not much distinguishing the POVs — chiefly the interiority of the characters themselves — other than the situations the characters are in. It’s great that Gong continues the banter between Kieren and Lia, for example, while also amping up the romance. The romance-hinting banter is always intelligent and fun to read. But this time, the banter doesn’t feel like it seeps into the actual perspectives of the characters. There are some jokes about Lia being Kieren’s AI girlfriend, but it feels like there were missed opportunities for Gong to explore Kieren’s own perspective on his affection for an artificial girlfriend, other than the given that she’s always existed in his life. Gong has such a skilled grasp on her characters that an inclusion in that regard, with her strong prose, would be welcome.
The Strangeloom trilogy is thematically effective in how it encompasses both sides of the black-and-white arguments surrounding AI, while still moving the narrative along. Through its points of view, it simultaneously offers praise and warns against the blurring of the boundary between man and machine. In Deadlock, it’s more of the latter. As the technology evolves, so does the narrative, and that’s what marks Deadlock as a needed re-launch into the Strangeloom universe. The newest topic in all AI-related conversations might just be a work of fiction.
