Paige Daniels’s NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR starts with a great premise. In her imagined dystopian future, governments mandate high-tech neural implants as a way to make social processes, from economics to national defense, move more smoothly. Those who reject the technology are exiled to a Non-Compliance Sector, a combination ghetto, refugee camp, and frontier settlement.

Set against this intriguing backdrop, Daniels creates a complex outlaw heroine. Shea Kelly is a tough lady, a skilled computer and electronics hacker, and a fiercely loyal friend. She’s ready to fight when she needs to, which in the rough world of the Non-Compliance Sector is often, but she’s also capable of love, trust, and even yearning. It says a lot for Daniels’s skill that she’s found new twists to put on the noir hero(ine)’s outsider code, and the nuances of Shea’s rebellion and resistance are compelling.

NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR is a fast-paced read that delivers plenty of action along with its intriguingly imagined world. And it has a sequel, NON-COMPLIANCE: THE TRANSITION, for those wanting further Shea Kelly adventure!