The Hawk Enigma is an action-rigged trigger-happy technothriller that follows the story of a team of optogenetic researchers in Japan who have created a tool with the potential to predict future events based on people’s dreams. Enter a team of American special ops when the scientists are disbanded and persecuted by (communist) corporations for access to this device in thirst for power.

J.L. Hancock’s writing reads fluently and is balanced perfectly between humour and gravitas. The pacing is fast yet takes its time with proper explanation and description which makes the writing overall interesting and the story enjoyable. The characters are mostly well fleshed out and authentic, except for the reliance on villain clichés for the main antagonist. The writing incorporates some naturalist imagery (especially at the beginning) which works very well in portraying the emotional range and mindscape of the characters; additionally, it creates space in which the story can move away from the otherwise panoptic technophilia.

Plotwise, the work done by the optogenetic research team is genuinely interesting, with enough holism to the science for it to move beyond the initial tech layer of cyberpunk. However, the book is steeped in Americanisms that fall prey to traditional military fictions. With phrases such as “Americans are just more moral”, “they don’t care about ethical issues like we do”, “we can help ourselves by helping the government” and being “honored to work with American military”; the story is rife with the sentiment that Americans, particularly the military, are benign entities that are involved in foreign affairs for the sole purpose of aid. Progressively the book becomes more and more blatant and aggressive in its binary political views, using expressions like “aggressive communist countries” that are against the “free world” freely in dialogue where speech like this is not necessary. Throughout the book the United States is explicitly equated to a leader of the so-called free world without a single hint of criticism or irony. The idea that the American military is a concerned and ultimately benevolent outfit is an extremely prevalent sentiment in American science fiction, and especially so in debut works. It’s an overworked topic that is a disadvantage through the predictability that it brings to the outcome of the plot.

Very generally speaking, the essence of science fiction imagines futures or realities that in some way present cultural shifts to modern problems. In form it provides small countercultures that question the current state of the world and the futures that can be envisioned, rather than relying on the structures and ideologies that already exist with no modifications. In this sense, this novel falls rather short of the essential alternative future-thinking trait that is so necessary to science fiction and to cyberpunk.

The essential worldview that is presented in The Hawk Enigma is undeniably a cheer towards American military operatives which can certainly find an audience in American science fiction and military fiction readers. Yet as a techno-thriller that is marketed as a science fiction novel, it doesn’t quite seem to understand itself. However, J.L. Hancock is certainly a very talented writer who is undoubtedly in his element when imagining A.I. realities and incorporates landscape and spirituality that are in general missing from cyberpunk works, and this is a welcome perspective to the otherwise uber-urban genre. Hancock is also knowledgeable about Japanese, Japanese culture and Shinto religion (at least to a layperson) and incorporates this actively into the plot. One can only look forward to an improved attempt at cyberpunk fiction.