Chance Griffin is barely making ends meet for his wife and son as a police officer in a cyberpunk future. After society collapsed, pockets of high-tech civilization formed around major urban areas. In these pockets, people scrape by and divert themselves with 24/7 entertainment. One of these sources of entertainment is The Zone, a streaming reality show in which Enforcers—former police officers given superhero strength and status—fight crime for accolades and cash prizes. Officers like Griffin look down on these Enforcers… but he’s about to become one.
Seeing the opportunity to give his infant son the expensive operation he needs, Griffin steps into The Zone as a new Enforcer named Justice. His loose cannon tendencies, throwing aside bounties in favor of doing the right thing, quickly earn him praise and success. But while he’s climbing the ranks, his former partner Benny is in trouble, and undergoing an unpleasant transformation of his own. Meanwhile, schemes are afoot at every level of society. Enforcers are taking dubious side jobs under the radar. A mysterious entity named Mage is transporting information that could turn society on its head. And the makers of The Zone have their fingers on the trigger to do anything—and destroy anyone—necessary to keep ratings high and the populace complacent.
THE ZONE is neither subtle nor apologetic about its ties to modern society. Griffin endures unskippable tailored ads shepherding him toward The Zone. Billboards fly by spouting recognizable brand names. However, as on-the-nose as these messages are, they’re couched in a setting that keeps them from feeling stilted. This world is, regrettably, a believable one; and constructing a world like it takes intelligent extrapolation. That’s the true strength of Stu Jones’s writing: a combination of technical intelligence, social knowledge, and sci-fi flights of fancy that merge into a frighteningly believable future. The characters of THE ZONE are varied and unique, as well. Chance’s wife Hannah is a delightful character: equal parts strong and exhausted, delighted by the existence of chili dogs one moment and ready to fight to the death for her son the next. Even Chance’s AI assistant, the sultry-voiced RITA, is engaging as a character. These characters are put through their paces in thrilling action scenes, described in exciting cinematic detail.
Combining compelling worldbuilding and smart storytelling to create a world that’s equal parts terrifying and all too believable, Stu Jones’s THE ZONE: A Cyberpunk Thriller is everything a cyberpunk thriller should be: observational, engaging, and full of high-octane action.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader