This Automatic Eden

Cortex #2

by Jim Keen

When 99% of humans are unemployed, it’s only a matter of time before they become 100% expendable.

New York City, 2057. Still recovering from her tortured past, ex-NYPD cop Alice Yu’s life has crashed. But when a murdered government witness turns out to be an illegal human copy, she seizes the chance to win back her badge by helping the investigation. Partnered with a mysterious FBI agent, she quickly finds herself in the crosshairs of a brutal conspiracy.

Barely surviving assassination, they follow the trail to Washington, D.C. But Yu’s partner has his own agenda. And the powers that be have no intention of allowing her to solve this case…

Can Yu expose their devastating plot before she becomes its next victim?

This Automatic Eden is the second nail-biting novel in the Cortex cyberpunk science fiction series. If you like tough action heroines, dark visions of the future, and atmospheric settings, then you’ll love Jim Keen’s AI thriller.

Buy This Automatic Eden to decode the truth today!

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 9, 2020

About the author

I write books about the people who fascinate me in worlds that amaze me. What is humanity’s future post AI? What happens when automation consumes the workforce? What will colonies look like on the Moon, Mars, and Europa? What if X happens?

I love crime, thrillers, and stories about people with secrets. If there’s not a big twist along the way, I’d never write the first word.

My own story has had its own share of curves and surprises. I’ve been writing about intelligent machines, spaceships and desperate heroes since my childhood, but that happened while I pursued a twenty-year career as an architect. After working and winning awards in London, Sydney, and New York, I left that profession behind to become a full-time author.

The international bestselling Alice Yu series takes place forty years from now, in a world transformed by mechanical intelligences—AI’s big brother. Yu is a loner cop atoning for past sins. Through the series she discovers what it is to be human, while becoming something much more in the process. If you like the steely future noir of William Gibson, James S. A. Corey, and Martha Wells, you’ll love these sci-fi thrillers.

Alongside the Alice Yu trilogy, I’ve written four free novellas, plus drawn hundreds of illustrations and designs from the future. You can get all of those for free at https://jimkeen.com.

I hope you like the Alice Yu series, its inhabitants and settings. I love hearing from readers, so drop me an email anytime at jim@jimkeen.com and let’s chat.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Automatic Eden isn't just a cyberpunk mystery story. It picks up a year after the end of The Paradise Factory and delves into things only hinted at there. Yes, robots and machine intelligence have made the vast majority f workers unnecessary and most are now the great permanently unemployed. But, there are things going on beyond mere survival. Not only do the 3D printers replicate body parts and body organs, but there are entire reprints walking around where plastic, metal, and flesh have merged so well no one can tell the difference. And the great MI machines like global versions of IBM's Big Blue are evolving into sentient intelligences to rival anything Clarke's Hal 2000 or Orson Scott Card's hive minds could fathom. On the way, we grapple with the questions of what it means to be human or machine or where one begins and one ends. And what in the end is the value of the millions wandering lost hoping to be transmitted to a new world. Far more than just a futuristic adventure, This Automatic Eden takes us places we may not want to go.

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting and entertaining to a point.

This Automatic Eden is an ARC that I received from BookSirens. At first glance, I was intrigued to see what this futuristic book will give me. Didn't even know I got the second book of this series either until I actually look it up on Goodreads. Have no fear, that didn't stop me from diving into the book but it probably would've made more sense to me if I read the first one. Just saying.

After committing that horrible readers crime, I will admit that I was intrigued by a lot of stuff that happened in this book. For example every little thing that came out of the 3D printers. I mean body parts and organs are pretty interesting and I assume it's quite easy to print those out. Never done it before but it doesn't mean it hasn't or will never happen - ya know?

Other than that, this book did have it's fair share of boring parts. Trust me, you will know once you get to them. In the end, I liked it enough since I finished it .. but I'm wondering if I should dive into the first book now? Or just kind of go on with my life.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keen blew my socks off with the second installment in his Cortex Series. The world and the horror revealed in the first continues with even more intrigue and conspiracy in this story. He made the world feel so real, cyber and physical parts alike, and I found myself thinking about how the world could change to become something like this. The characters are astounding. Alice really develops and new characters are introduced which add a lot to the story as well. If you enjoy sci-fi and stories about being human, this one is for you.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ ⭐, rounded down

Let me preface this by saying that I chose this book based on the description and cover art and it wasn't until I downloaded it and noticed the "#2" in the title that I realized I had chosen the second book in a series. Oops!

This book has everything from machine intelligence (machines that are instilled not only with intelligence but with a seemingly HAL-like sentience), to 3D printers that can print replacement body parts or even entire new bodies, to human-machine hybrids living among us that are indiscernible to the naked eye, to space colonization by something akin to teleportation. All of these elements were brought into the story early on so I was drawn in.

The story has a unique premise (to me anyway, as I only started really getting into sci-fi in the last couple years): Machines have become an integral cog in the, well, machine, and by this humans have become somewhat obsolete while the rift between rich and not rich has widened. These humans are given the option to colonize other planets and moons in the solar system and are lining up, just waiting for their turn to go, in conditions not unlike the combination of lining up for a government hand-out and a concentration camp. But what are the true motivations of the people behind the curtain? Are they really doing this for the greater good? Freeing the obsolete humans from their status as undesirables with promises of a better future on a new world? Or is it something more sinister?

I feel that this dystopian future could be the basis for some really great story-telling. It's also a bit unnerving given current events and the way the world is going...could it actually happen?

Unfortunately, about ⅔ of the way through I started to feel annoyed with the way the main character (and the other characters for that matter) simply seemed to accept circumstances without question. The way they accepted their realities without weighing the moral implications as I had expected they would based on their character development to that point was unrealistic and seemed a means to an end, glossing over the issues simply to make the story go on.

When I first started this book, before I was even 10% in, I thought I wanted to read book one and three after, however, after finishing this book, I think I won't read further. I'm still considering book one though.

Do I think having read book one first would've helped me understand this story more? Yes and no. This book is clearly a continuation of the story, but it does give a lot of background on the events of the first book. So I think it did okay as a stand-alone. The only thing that was missing was the relationship and character development from the previous story.

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
Excitement: ⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐ ½, rounded down

Thank-you to BookSirens and the publisher for my advanced reader copy!

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you, BookSirens and Transmissions Digital, LLC for providing me with a copy of "This Automatic Eden" in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe it's not fair to critique this book in . . . um . . . isolation. It is the second installment in a sci-fi series, which is often the "transitional" entry in a franchise. ("Dune" remains a masterpiece, "Dune Messiah" remains my reason for giving up on science fiction.) So perhaps the epic expository passages, in which characters explain everything to heroine rogue cop Jennifer Yu, are boring but necessary exercises in world-building. What doesn't strike me at all necessary, though, is the lavish detail with which Mr. Keen describes the futuristic weapons, uniforms, and . . . I had to read this twice to make sure I wasn't missing something . . . shipping containers he has envisioned for mid-21st century America. He has a great and, it must be said, exhaustive imagination when it comes to technology. But to prove he's not just a gadget geek, he throws in some bone-dry political theorizing built on the premise that no one has ever read the US Constitution.

Didn't work for me.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 5 out of 5]

We plant the seeds of our own destruction in the examples we set for the AI'S we evolute into being. A dystopian future brought about by greed and uncontrolled AIs and other unstabilizing technologies. Purchased 2nd of three in the sequel for $3.99 on August 15, 2022. Attempts to control AI'S prove to be ineffective. This second in the series involves the despicable government Homeland Security Agency being used to kill all except the richest 1%. The use of AI's to destroy and the corruption of everything that makes America beautiful through corrupt politics. Our heroine dies many different deaths along with most who are close to her.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved where this author took future tech, and the relationship he built between humans and mechanical intelligence . It’s a great read, just the right amount of mystery in a future that’s not so far from possibility becoming our reality. Defines one of my favourite books I’ve read this year.

[David Moyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another solid thriller. It would be hard to review without spoilers. Suffice to say that if you enjoyed The Paradise Factory, you will not be disappointed. This Automatic Eden takes the ideas from its predecessor to a whole new level.

[Merri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great follow-up read from a forward thinking author.

Can't wait for what's next! Aargh! This series may be slotted as cyberpunk but it's way more. Very forward thinking.

[Patricia L Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must read.

The series absolutely kept my attention. The premise scares the piss out of me as I could see this happening sometime soon.