Run Ono-Marks is more machine than man. Selling his humanity was the only way to survive.
Now, he lives charge to charge, doing gig work in the Commonwealth’s moneyed Overcity. If you can call that living.
When a stranger offers him a shot at a life-saving upgrade to his synth body, Run must descend into an underground resistance… and a tangled web of conspirators.
Featured on Tor.com’s Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction (Sept/Oct 2022)
Available now in paperback and ebook with the follow retailers:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Bookshop
Books & Books
ThriftBooks
Better World Books
“One Person Can’t Make a Difference is everything you could ever want from a pure, old school cyberpunk novel, but updated perfectly for our dark time. Ragolia’s prose crackles and pops like electricity directly from the mainframe, a livewire for your senses running the taut narrative through every inch of your nervous system.”
— Jordan A. Rothacker, author of The Pit, and No Other Stories
“One Person Can’t Make a Difference confronts the traditional dystopian novel and shimmies its way beyond into new territory. Ragolia depicts familiar current conflict with secret hidden tracks and B-sides a reader would never expect in a cyberpunk novel. With a deep dive into darkness and storytelling of one character’s spirit, Ragolia has created a world riddled with struggle and hope, light and dark, and within this balance, a reason to champion the underdog.
— Hillary Leftwich, author of Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock and Aura
“Through the dystopian din, Ragolia pens a clarion call for radical hope and perseverance. One Person Can’t Make a Difference plants seeds in the cyperpunk genre, bioengineers them with reverence and emotional precision, and cultivates a nourishing garden for the weary-hearted.”
— O’Brian Gunn, author of Furies: Thus Spoke
“Nate Ragolia’s One Person Can’t Make a Difference is a slangy, manic blend of cyberpunk action and social commentary that will leave you ripping headlong through the streets of a future America in which the physical, moral, and intellectual trappings of humanity have melted away in the pursuit of unbridled capitalism and the technology it seems to deform at every turn. While Ragolia may ask the titular question of whether the individual can stand against the massed power of state, ethos, and, in truth, the species itself, he weaves in smaller, subtler concerns about what it means to be human and whether the loss of some elements of that ‘humanity’ might actually be for the best. Buy this book now!”
— Kurt Baumeister, author of Pax Americana
“Nate Ragolia does an amazing job both pulling us into his world and providing an escape-worthy narrative and mirroring our late-stage capitalist experience with the bleak future implied by literally selling one’s body parts to make ends meet. Riveting, action-packed, and full of a message we need to hear in 2022.”
— Addison Herron-Wheeler, editor at Q Publishing House, and author of Respirator
“With a touch of noire, our hopeful hero, Mr. Run Ono-Marks reads like a synth Humphrey Bogart, narrating his life and walking the rain-soaked pavement in the dead of night. Only our world in Ragolia’s cyberpunk novel is long gone from Humphrey’s. (Or is it?) Sci-fi is alive and well in this story, yet while laced in futuristic excitements like holos (holograms), “flying” “cars,” and people made of robotic parts, we learn that when it comes to democracy and plain old right and wrong, not a damn thing has changed. This new world is mechanical and gross and controlling — and high on the haves vs the have nots. With shortened, abbreviated words that make you feel like a robot yourself, there is a mechanical grind to the pacing. Yet, with a brevity of words, it is also quick to the punch which keeps you plugged into the story like a synth getting a recharge.”
— Peppur Chambers, author of Harlem’s Awakening
“One Person Can’t Make a Difference is a well-written, fast-paced thrill ride! Author Nate Ragolia transports us to another time and place through the eyes of our “hero” Run Ono-Marks, who has his work cut out for him navigating this futuristic world, trying to figure out the “good guys” from the “bad” and which side he is ultimately on. This book will keep you guessing and entertained till the very end!”
— Nick Shelton, Author of An Introvert’s Guide To World Domination
“One Person Can’t Make a Difference is true cyberpunk, through and through. Deeply political and subversive, the novel is a strong yet hopeful indictment of the rampant corruption, inequality, and the lack of humanity in our world today.”
— Johnny Redway, author of The Cost of Living