Blanchard’s Cyberbrain: Guardian Angel gives you that out-of-context metaphor that everything feels weightless. A feeling of absurdity (and horror) having to imagine yourself floating through space, desperate to grab hold of the knowledge of the thing that you are supposed to do next or the plans you have for later — both of which are always just slightly out of reach and in opposite directions.

How does your brain become who you are? Genetic, psychological, and cultural factors shape the self. But it is synapses, the connections between neurons in the brain, where one’s self is stored. Synapses integrate humans in space and time.

Book Highlights

Benoit Blanchard’s book on mind control is the second book of the Cyberbrain series, bringing you all the thrill, action, and encouragement you never thought you needed. Blanchard’s second book exceptionally added new characters that enhance the impact and quality of the story. Although, the characters that moved the plot of the first book are still in the second one trying to progress the new storyline. 

The book starts in Los Angeles, following a teacher explaining what cyber is all about to her students. She then discovered that one of her students did not believe in it or her father. That leads to capturing the little girl’s dad and everything in between. The following chapters also introduce the brand-new life of Vanessa and the cyber-less Max in Canada, as they work secretly with Dr. Alston to help those with cybers gain back their free will.

The first parts of intrigue executed by the mysterious character referred to as the Guardian Angel were not excellent. There were just too many instructions that lessened the thrill and tension felt by the readers. However, Blanchard did a great job showing the readers the events and other aspects of the story by using descriptive terms.

Moreover, Cyberbrain: Guardian Angel does not only focus on the protagonist’s quest to perform successful surgery for cyber removal but also tackles timely political aspects. It highlights how many politicians partner with big corporations for fame, money, and trust, even compromising the public’s safety. The first parts of the plot focus on the mystery caller and the blackmailing of Alston, which gradually dulled the light of Kobayashi’s true nature and intention.

Biggest Challenge

One of the things that Blanchard considered while writing this sci-fi novel was that he had to make sure that everything was credible. He even went an extra mile comparing a fairytale story to Batman’s “Dark Night” story — something that has a glimpse of the real world. He did a lot of research and even took a crash course on neuro medicine, something he never took an interest in studying then.    

Takeaway

What Blanchard wants to convey to his readers is the thought of how the Dystopian world comes true. Utopia is idolized as the perfect society everyone wants to live in. Utopia is so perfect that Dystopia, its evil counterpart, gets overlooked because of everyone’s desire to have perfection. There is no perfect society in reality. This is because not everything is perfect. Somewhere between the lines, a flaw occurs and diminishes the perfection. Dystopia is not what you expect it to be. It is the world’s opposite of utopia, a place where everything is perfect. Dystopia can be a complex place to live in, especially when you know little about the world and all you hear is bad things about the place.

About the Author

Benoit Blanchard lives in Lava, Quebec. He is a graduate of École Polytechnique de Montréal. Although he has never worked in engineering, he has studied economics extensively in the past few years.