About Alex Hori

Isn’t "this is who I am" where everything starts?

What can I say? I was born in England, spent too much time in the insurance industry, survived the dot-com boom and bust, did a lot of consulting work and ended up in Japan.

What I’m writing is cyberpunk. Sort of. I’m not in to the overdone rain and neon lights variety though. I wanted to go back to the roots of it in hardboiled pulp fiction. With a bit of luck that’s what I’ve done through the character Hiro “Maku” McGill and his exploits as a disgraced ex-cop making a living as a trouble-shooter for hire.

Nor am I trying to write over-complicated and stressed novels that pile tonnes of technology and social commentary on a flimsy plot. It’s there, if you look, but I’m not laying it on thick. Sure, I mention “augmented limbs” (augs in the parlance) but I’m not going to spend 5,000 words explaining their history, mechanics or examining the three corporations who hold a monopoly over the market. I’ll let you know if you need to know.

(By the way, I have written the bullets for all this so at least I should be more or less consistent. But when was the last time you explained something in exactly the same way you did the last twenty times?)

My stories are novelettes - somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 words, that you can get through in a single sitting. They’re written to a pulp style, fast, mixing up genres a bit and not always closing loops. That’s good because I leave the loops open for the next time we meet. And, like real life, there’s a core cast of revolving characters who circulate around Maku.

As for Maku - he’s mixed race - mum’s from Kobe (where the stories are centred), dad from Dundee. That’s a deliberate choice because it gives me a chance to tell the stories the way I see Japan without having to step all the way outside.

I'll be active on BlueSky and maybe Reddit (still not sure on that last onesubstack if you don't mind me invading your inbox once or twice a month.

Alex, April 2025, Kansai.