The Paradise Factory – Jim Keen
She's a policewoman with a past. In a future ruled by AI, one bad decision could get her killed... or worse.
New York, 2055. Former UN Marine Alice Yu is a beat-down cop running from guilt in a bankrupt city. Brutally ambushed and left for dead, she's powerless to prevent a ruthless crime boss from abducting the partner she idolizes. Though it will cost her job in a world with 99% unemployment, she vows to bring him back from the lawless and forbidden Fourth Ward Territory.
Fighting through injuries and resurfacing trauma, Yu relentlessly tracks her mentor's trail. But when her PTSD flares in the face of a cartel death squad, her bloody background could spell her demise. And if she doesn't succeed, the entire city is doomed.
Can Yu save the man she failed, or will her quest for redemption become a suicide mission?
The Paradise Factory is the pulse-pounding first book in the Cortex cyberpunk science fiction series. If you like gritty heroines, loyal friends, and dystopian high-tech worlds, then you'll love Jim Keen's action-packed adventure.
Buy The Paradise Factory to discover this amazing new series today!
SPSFC Year
Subgenres: Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic, Artificial Intelligence, Cyberpunk, Dystopian, Techno Thriller
Date first published: April 11, 2020
On Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Book Links
Author Information
Twitter: @Jim_Keen_
Website: https://jimkeen.com
Biography: William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Iain M Banks, Neal Asher ... thank you. I grew up in Manchester, where my father was a fighter pilot for the RAF. When not flying aircraft he spent his free time in a leaky garage rebuilding old cars. As a little boy I'd sneak into that garage when he was out, wander through the broken and twisted metal forms, smell the oil and antifreeze. Time passed, and I didn't think about that frigid space, or its inhabitants, for years. Or so I thought. I left Manchester at eighteen to study architecture at Portsmouth and Kingston Universities, then moved to Sydney, Australia. After an eventful twelve months (some of which I can almost remember) I spent a year in India and Nepal, before moving to New York. I loved it, but when my visa expired I returned to the UK. Back in London, I took a fantastic job at Grimshaw Architects designing spaceship-looking buildings. They won awards and went over budget in equal measure. It was during this time I started to write in earnest, and after a few false starts completed my first novel, U.K.Ultra. Inspired by the works of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson the story was an alternate history of the UK, where the British government used drugs to pacify and control the population. It was rubbish. However, I enjoyed writing it so much I left Grimshaw to work part time at KPF architects. There I wrote my second book, Honeysuckle, about an alcoholic priest with a bad gambling habit. Better, it got some agent attention, but no prizes. By this point I'd been in London for ten years and was itchy to travel again. New York had been so much fun I moved back, taking nothing with me but two badly written books and some pants. During the days I designed towers for KPF, in the evenings I wrote a new new sci-fi novel, Mechanical. This one worked, and I finished runner-up in an international writing competition. Close, but no cigar. Yeah, it still burns. Life moves on. I got married and had two kids, moved to Gensler Architects for a more family-oriented lifestyle, and won more awards. However, it turns out there's no such thing as a family lifestyle in architecture and I got fired for pointing that out. It was time to work for myself, so I started a company producing hand-drawn illustrations. During my architectural career I'd seen computer renderings become so overused they lost any impact they once had. I'd had success in my own presentations using sketched perspectives, so decided to do it professionally. It went far better than expected, and within a year I was featured by Apple. It seems our AI overlords were monitoring me. At home, with time on my hands, I had an idea for a new book. A woman walks along a beach and steps on something. She pauses... then disintegrates. That kernel started me working on An Eden For All. Whilst writing that I realized the twisted and broken Brooklyn I had created was my father's garage on a dreamlike scale, humans nothing more than tiny, inconsequential beings surrounded by unknowable and terrifying machinery. You can't escape your upbringing, no matter how hard you try. So that's why I write about New York in the 2050s. That's why automation and murder. That's why sentient, pathological machines. I hope you like the Cortex series, its inhabitants and settings. I love hearing from readers, so drop me an email anytime at jim@jimkeen.com and let's chat. Jim Keen, Brooklyn, 2020. (It's raining, but there are no flying cars... yet)
Other information
Cover artist name: I did it myself 🙂
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