Taking the fall for his younger brother, Richard Candle went from being a cyber cop to a condemned criminal. After four years of "UnMinding"—with his mind suppressed and his body enslaved—he's released to discover his brother has slipped back into the underworld of the V-Rat: the virtual reality addict. Meanwhile, Candle's harried by the murderous Grist, the head of the world's biggest multinational. But his real enemy is something else: a conscious program, the Multisemblant, a meld of copied personalities, the dark side of five powerful people, with its own brutal agenda. Human society is sinking ever deeper into a mire of escapism, but Richard Candle, looking for his missing brother, fights his way through the real world of underground stock markets, flying guns, the trash-walled labyrinth of Rooftown, and the fringe of the fringe.

Like most cyberpunk novels, the books depict a dystopian future, set in a hypothetical early 21st century where the Soviet Union did not fall, and by the time of the action in the novel, has invaded Western Europe, causing massive disruption and destruction. Their armies are only repelled by the (unseen) use of tactical nuclear weapons, resulting in a stalemate, somewhat like the middle years of World War I.

A Song Called Youth, Book 3.

A Song Called Youth, Book 2.

Further explore the world of Watch Dogs with a new story, an entirely digital novel project created inside Ubisoft in collaboration with John Shirley, prolific author and pioneer of the cyberpunk movement. John Shirley naturally transcribed Watch Dogs’ atmosphere, the world of hacking and of a not that fictional Chicago, into a thriller combining high-tech crimes and a bunch of known and new characters. The novel introduces Mick Wolfe, a veteran, who get caught in a dangerous game in Chicago’s hyper connected and violent underground.