Mindstock by Richard Yonck
The Future Is Written in Disinformation
Richard Yonck’s Mindstock is a near-future science fiction novel that imagines a world rebuilt in the aftermath of catastrophic information collapse, where truth, trust, and attention have become society’s most valuable commodities. Blending political intrigue, cyber-noir detective work, and sharp cultural commentary, Yonck delivers a cautionary tale that feels both speculative and disturbingly plausible.
Set in the decades following the “Great Unknowing”—a global event triggered by weaponized misinformation, massive cyberattacks, and the erasure of digital and physical knowledge—Mindstock explores a society in fragile recovery. The megastructures of power, embodied in the Citadel and its ruling technoligarchs, preside over a population required to “donate attention” to sustain the new economy. At the story’s core is Robyn Sheridan, a former government researcher turned reluctant truth investigator. Drawn into a missing-persons case that connects to deeper conspiracies, Robyn finds herself entangled in the unresolved legacies of the Data War, corporate authoritarianism, and the fragility of restored knowledge systems. Alongside underground artists, hackers, and activists, she navigates a world where reality itself can be hacked, commodified, or erased.
Yonck weaves together several resonant themes:
Truth and Trust in the Post-Digital Era – The novel interrogates how societies can function when foundational information is unreliable, echoing contemporary anxieties about disinformation and AI-generated “hallucinations.”
Corporate Power vs. Democracy – The technoligarchs’ stranglehold on governance, under the guise of rebuilding civilization, recalls critiques of unchecked capitalism and surveillance economies.
Identity and Legacy – Through both Robyn and underground artist Darius (“Phynyty”), Yonck explores what it means to leave a lasting impact in a culture where digital creations vanish almost as quickly as they appear.
Conspiracy as Coping Mechanism – The seductive power of conspiracies is shown as both dangerous and humanizing, a survival strategy in a fractured epistemic landscape.
The novel’s strength lies in its vividly realized characters. Robyn Sheridan is not simply a trope of the “disgraced expert”; she is sharp, disillusioned, and driven by a mix of integrity and regret. Darius, the artist whose subversive work immortalizes the “Vanished,” provides a poignant counterpoint, embodying creativity under siege. Secondary figures such as Gerry Tremaine—the desperate father seeking his daughter—and the enigmatic Premier Scion lend texture to a world where power and desperation coexist.
The setting is one of Mindstock’s most compelling elements. From the gleaming Citadel piercing the skyline to the dark alleys where guerrilla art blooms on hacked billboards, Yonck creates a layered environment that feels at once futuristic and eerily familiar. The world-building rivals that of novels like Ready Player One in its ability to merge spectacle with social critique, grounding its speculative elements in recognizable trends of today’s tech-driven society.
Mindstock sustains momentum through a blend of political drama, noir-style investigation, and action sequences. The opening scenes in the Assembly chamber are cinematic in scope, setting the stage for the personal, street-level mysteries that follow. The novel is most gripping when Yonck juxtaposes large-scale systemic crises with intimate human stories—parents searching for vanished children, lovers caught between safety and conviction, artists risking annihilation for truth. While the pacing occasionally slows during expository passages, the stakes remain consistently high.
Yonck writes with clarity and a futurist’s precision, embedding speculative technologies seamlessly into dialogue and description. The prose oscillates between crisp, cinematic action and dense socio-political reflection, the latter sometimes bordering on didactic but always relevant. The integration of neologisms, augmented reality interfaces, and post-digital slang is convincing without overwhelming the reader. His background in futures studies and technology writing is evident, lending credibility to even the most outlandish scenarios.
Particularly striking is Yonck’s portrayal of “boarder art”—digital graffiti that reclaims hacked urban screens as platforms of dissent. These sequences capture the subversive beauty of resistance in a mediated world and lend the novel both visual energy and emotional resonance. Equally effective is the motif of the “Vanished,” missing persons whose absence symbolizes both personal grief and systemic erasure.
Mindstock succeeds as both a fast-paced speculative thriller and a sobering meditation on our informational future. Its strengths lie in its ambitious world-building, sharply drawn characters, and its ability to refract contemporary issues of disinformation, corporate power, and cultural memory through a near-future lens. At times, its exposition may feel heavy-handed, particularly in lecture-like sections where characters explicate the history of the Data War. Yet even these moments serve to ground the reader in the frightening plausibility of Yonck’s vision.
The novel will appeal to readers of dystopian and cyberpunk fiction, especially those drawn to works like William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, or Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. It will also resonate with readers concerned about AI, deepfakes, and the commodification of human attention.
Richard Yonck has crafted a bold, original work that entertains while interrogating the very foundations of trust and reality in the digital age. Though not flawless, Mindstock is a provocative and necessary addition to contemporary science fiction.
—N3UR4L Reviews
