THE PARADISE FACTORY by Jim Keen is the first book in the Cortex series and is a New York 2055 cyberpunk story. Alice Yu is a New York policewoman andTHE PARADISE FACTORY by Jim Keen is the first book in the Cortex series and is a New York 2055 cyberpunk story. Alice Yu is a New York policewoman and a former United Nations marine. The book starts with her and her partner being ambushed. He is abducted and she is left on the street injured. With New York bankrupt and 99% unemployment, she elects to bring her partner back from the forbidden Fourth Ward Territory against orders and without backup. As she works to rescue her partner, a young boy, Red, is trying to deliver a letter to Manhattan. Their paths cross and they team up on the lawless Brooklyn Bridge that is ruled by a criminal empire.
The story line is interesting with a setting where sentient machines leading to a breakdown in the human social order and Alice and Red’s dual tasks. However, the writing style of flashbacks and switching points of view between Alice and Red broke up the rhythm and flow of the story for me. Both Alice and Red were characters that you could root for and both had clear goals. The world building needed some work to fully satisfy me. The plot twists were believable and several were unexpected. The ending was dramatic.
Overall, this was an entertaining and intense read. It includes several themes including PTSD, sentient machines, unemployment, greed, criminal empires, murder and much more. While my rating is three stars, I do plan to read the next book in the series. I recommend this to science fiction and cyberpunk fans.
Thanks to BooksGoSocial and Jim Keen for a complimentary ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way....more
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