Hello fellow hackers and cyberpunk enthusiasts,

After 12 months of writing and research, I’m excited (and honestly a bit nervous) to share my first tech-thriller novella “Connection Timeout: The PingStarved Chronicles” with this community. This is my first time publishing fiction, so I’m both shy and thrilled to finally put it out there.

Set in 2030 Barcelona, it follows Andrés “PingStarved” Reyes, a 56-year-old. When mysterious forces target his old friend—a surveillance company CEO who sold out their shared ideals—and threaten to unleash chaos unless Andrés surrenders his greatest creation—a revolutionary mesh networking protocol that could free global communications—he faces an impossible choice.

What makes this different from typical cyberpunk:

Features real mesh networking protocols (Meshtastic, Reticulum) Based on actual security research and exploitation techniques Grounded in technologies currently in development Authentic hacker culture representation - written by someone who lives it NO DRM - All formats are DRM-free because information wants to be free This has been a labor of love, combining my passion for privacy tech and resistance against surveillance capitalism into a narrative that I hope resonates with our community. As someone who’s been hacking for years but never written fiction before, I poured everything I know and believe about our culture into these pages.

Details:

29,429 words (86 pages, 2-3 hour read) Available in PDF and EPUB formats Price: $4.99 USD / €4.99 EUR DRM-FREE on all platforms Available at:

Gumroad (DRM-FREE): https://rek2.gumroad.com/l/connection-timeout-cyberpunk Amazon Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPZ18STC Amazon Kindle Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0FPZ18STC Also available on Amazon in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Australia, and many other countries If you enjoyed Neuromancer, Little Brother, or Mr. Robot, this explores similar themes of surveillance capitalism, digital liberty, and technological resistance - but grounded in the real tech we’re building today.

Any feedback from the community would mean the world to me. Thanks for reading!

P.S. - For those who prefer open platforms, the Gumroad version comes with both PDF and EPUB, completely DRM-free. Support indie publishing and digital freedom!

  • promitheas@programming.dev
    2·
    2 months ago

    Hey, so Id like to give this a read, but the gumroad reviews im reading on trustpilot dont inspire too much confidence, but most other reviews dont seem to have more than the usual ‘cons’ to mention. Whats the case here? Is it really not safe or is it just that only people with bad experiences would post on trustpilot?

    Id be open to paying you directly for the file somehow, if thats a possibility.

    • ReK2@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      1 month ago

      Hello, this is the first I hear about gumroad, I honestly did not even knew about it I just wanted an indie place so it was not just on kindle for people who is more privacy oriented to have an option, I could had code a site and host it but this is the first time I am doing this kind of literature, so wanted to test the waters before I actually a full store on my own. So far I got people to buy it on gumroad with no problem, nobody has complained so far 🤷 do you know a indie platform that will be better? I could set it up, I actually want to support people that are into not using big-tech like amazon.

      • promitheas@programming.dev
        1·
        1 month ago

        Im not aware of such a platform but Ill give it a look and see what i can find, and hopefully more knowledgeable people can suggest some here for you :)

        Heres the site I found with the negative reviews of it: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/gumroad.com

        Ive never used gumroad, so you can check if the things said align with your experience, but thats mainly what lead to my hesitation with it.

        • ReK2@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          1 month ago

          Thanks for the link, I just read. WOW I had no idea, so far nobody has complained to me, but of course I am there only a couple weeks, from the people who did purchased the book, I had no complaints so far, they were able to come back each time and get my latest errata update, etc… but yes I will research a new place as well… msg me in private your email and I can send you the .epub

          • promitheas@programming.dev
            2·
            1 month ago

            Thanks, I’ll dm you in a sec. Meanwhile, I did a quick search and came upon Payhip. Ive never used it myself as Im not a creator so definitely do your own research, but at first glance it seems to be good for your purpose. Of course the ideal scenario would be to have your own simple static website for the book, but I understand depending on your skill level with setting something like that up it might be unrealistic. I wish I had experience integrating payment processors into static web pages so I could do that for you over a weekend and leave the domain/hosting to you, but alas Ive never had to deal with that kind of integration.

            • ReK2@lemmy.mlOP
              2·
              1 month ago

              Thank you! will take a very close look. I have experience I just do not have the time ;) maybe if I decide to do out of this book a series then for sure!