Juris Ex Machina

by John W. Maly

With a click, the bread fell into the toaster. One circuit fired the heating coils. Others monitored bread temperature and color.Yet another circuit was quite unlike all the rest—as exotic as it was sinister;when it activated, 368 people would die.In the 23rd century, the justice system is airtight in the domed city of Arcadia. Human error has been removed. Yet somehow, a well-intentioned young kleptomaniac named Rainville falls through the cracks and is wrongfully convicted of mass murder.He is exiled to Wychwood Prison, a crumbling necropolis beyond the dome where the dead outnumber the living, where the inmates are also the guards. News of the crime follows him, and he becomes a marked man.Rainville’s only hope for survival is becoming the first inmate in history to escape Wychwood. Can he do it? The fate of Arcadia depends on it.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

442 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 5, 2024

About the author

John W. Maly is an author and futurist. With degrees in computer science, computer engineering, and law, he works in the field of intellectual property (a world every bit as magical and strange as any of his stories). His hobbies include long-distance motorcycling, caving, scuba diving, collecting tektites, pinball/video game restoration, and judging rum festivals. He resides near the Bermuda Triangle with his extraordinary daughter and a growing collection of strange beasts. He does not put ice in his whisky, nor should you.

JURIS EX MACHINA, winner of the Indies Today award for best 2024 Science Fiction novel, is his first book.

Reviews

[Jannelies (living between hope and fear) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What attracted me in the description was of course that it is SF, and talk of a ‘prison’ from where no one ever escaped.

I was not disappointed, on the contrary. The author wrote a very clever story full of surprises and old and new insights. We start with a bang, as Rainville, not even twenty years old, is already a very clever technician and a very clever shoplifter too! Of course it is absolutely wrong to try and rob a big store with a couple of friends, don’t get me wrong, but it is such a good scene to get to know our main character and the time and place he lives in. Arcadia is a city under a dome, and everything, literally everything, is controlled by computers. The weather, the food, the traffic, you name it. Rainville’s mother sadly passed away and he’s not exactly on speaking terms with his father, so he spends his time with his friends and helping out people with repairing their household appliances. However, one day the toaster he helped his elderly neighbour fixing explodes the first time the new owner uses it. Sadly the owner is a young woman, and she and her husband and hundreds of people die in the explosion.
Soon the police picks up Rainville and before he knows it, he’s found guilty and send to Wychwood, a prison that’s not a big building with guards but something completely different. Luckily, Rainville gets help from his girlfriend and an elderly solicitor and so we travel with them through the hidden depths of Arcadia – and find out not only who was responsible for the explosion, but also a lot of things about Arcadia itself.

This is a great book, whether you love SF or not. Rainville is a great character, although not flawless, and he gets help from a couple of interesting people. There is history (real or fake), there are some very strange and gruesome characters, there is despair and courage, there is even some romance. And all this set in a futuristic world that could be nearer than we think. I’m looking forward to the next book of John Maly.

Thanks to Highlander Press and Netgalley for this review copy.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for free from BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.

It's a story about an injustice in a society where justice is considered infallible and to correct that injustice even if no one believes you. It has it all, a sci fi plot, a love story, a likeable main character who is demonized. I don't want to give away any spoilers but check this book out, you won't regret it.

I really enjoyed this book, it takes on aspects of AI that I had never really thought about. This is the authors first book and I hope he writes another, I feel like we're just scratching the surface of both the characters and the world.

It had me hooked and I was able to finish it in a few days and left me wanting more.

[Kirk Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this futuristic, sci-fi legal thriller, by John W. Maly, Arcadia is a domed mega-city, housing mega-millions in mega-structures dubbed ‘dome-scrapers.’ The masses are appeased with mega-millions of computerized and interconnected bots, appliances, fabricators, and personal consoles. It is a dystopian paradise of modern contrivance offering a false sense of security to its oblivious inhabitants.
But the relative tranquility of Arcadia is shattered by the explosion of a small nuclear device. The tragedy unexpectedly brings together the lives of a tech-savvy (maybe too tech savvy) nineteen-year-old boy-man, Rainville; his nascent girlfriend, Vyanna, an urban spelunker; a crafty, old baseball-loving attorney, Foxwright, and a mid-level government computer expert. Caught up in a complex computerized legal system that quickly convicts him, Rainville is shunted off to a nightmare of a prison that would make Attica or Ryker’s Island look like Disneyland. Can he escape? Will he and his cohorts find the real killer or killers?
‘Juris Ex Machina’ serves up a potent recipe spiced with an inventive plot, characters to match, constant action, and tension so real you will bite through the inside of your lower lip. John Maly conjures an entirely new world that does not immerse you, it swallows you whole.
The usual cliched superlatives of ‘highly recommend,’ ‘page-turner’ and ‘rollercoaster ride’ do not do ‘Juris Ex Machina’ justice. Only the deft mind of a creative savant could pull off this high-level of novelistic magic and literary sleight of hand. Bravo!
‘Juris Ex Machina’ is a masterful work. An auspicious debut for an exceptionally talented writer.

Kirk Marty
Author, “Quantum Terra”

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Thank you to the author and publisher and LT for a chance to read and review it.

This book was amazing. I LOVED it! I literally had to force myself to put it down and turn off the light at 2am every night until I finished it. It was fast moving, the characters were well described and easy to envision, and the little bits of humour intersperced with the horrors that happen as the story goes along made this book a wonderful read.

My younger son is a machine-learning engineer and I hear a lot about AI and training machines in conversation around the house, so this book was really fascinating, and the future it described seemed entirely plausible in so many ways. It all just felt so real. As amazing as the future described was, it also had the same horrors and flaws that we see in human beings and society today, from small crimes to rebellions and vengeance.

I especially liked the character of Foxwright. His eagerness and drive to learn and understand... to get to the bottom of things, even when no one else seemed to care, was a trait I could really relate to and appreciated. Plus I enjoyed that the main character's girlfriend is smart, fierce, capable and works to rescue him, and does it with a sense of humour.

All in all, one of the best books I've ever read, and highly recommended for anyone in the mood for a great read.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts below are my own and are left voluntarily; they are not influenced by the author, publisher, or others involved in its creation.

Wow.

What more can I say about Juris Ex Machina?

From the very first page, this story had me hooked and it kept me there from start to finish. John W. Maly's way of telling a story is engaging and his characters are interesting but not overdeveloped. I did have a soft spot for Foxwright more than the main character, Rainville, and I would love a story about him where we get to learn his history, but this story is one of the best Sci Fi stories I've read in a while. It has so many layers to it, and while it spends time in different points of view, it does so at times when little is happening elsewhere, so the passage of time is still evident.

What I love the most about this story (and also what I find the most terrifying about it), is that this reality is something we could very well see happening in our future. With the rise of AI and the overreliance on technology, this is a perfectly feasible trajectory and there is a future in which this sort of story could become reality, but that makes it all the more interesting as a story to me.

If you love Science Fiction and have a soft spot for stories involving technological advancement (as well as grumpy old lawyer types), please give this a read, you won't be disappointed.

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous and serious at the same time, Juris ex machina is set in a domed city-state, where environmental conditions are carefully controlled and the massive use of artificial intelligence has reduced human error to zero, even in the administration of justice. Thus, when a toaster explodes, taking away an entire city district, it is easy to blame the young programmer - part time shoplifter - who hacked the elderly neighbour's fabricator used to produce the toaster. The case is clear and computerised justice sentences the boy to be locked up in Wychwood Prison, a kind of hell on earth. Not believing in his guilt are Foxwright, a lawyer who specialises in overturning the verdicts of computerised juries and is very sceptical about their impartiality, and Vyanna, the boy's girlfriend. With the help of the mysterious Pentridge, the two of them manage to break Rainville out of prison and save Arcadia from a sinister plot. As I said, the novel is full of humour, but the reflection it prompts about delegating all aspects of our lives to others, in this case artificial intelligence, is really its strong point.

[Donna Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

***I won a copy of this book through a LibraryThing Early Reviewers Giveaway. My review is strictly voluntary.***

Everything about this book was enjoyable. From the opening pages to the final breathtaking ending, there's not a dull moment to be had. I immediately threw my expectations out the window and just went along for the ride. And what a ride it is. The premise is very timely as well, as every day we see people innocently playing games with and watching AI generated videos and memes, reading articles and reviews, without realizing how insidious and potentially harmful, and even downright fatal, AI has the potential to become. This book explored what definitely could happen when complete autonomy is given over to technology and no checks or balances are put in place to prevent the dominance of the human race, without it even knowing it's being dominated.

The world building and characters really pulled me in and I hope the author explores these again, in some form or another. For a first novel, I was very impressed with the level of detail and the depth of experienced writing that went into this massive story. This is a cautionary tale that needed to be told. Whether people take heed is another story altogether. But this is one rousing good yarn and one you won't want to miss.

[J.C. Burnham · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a not-so-distant dystopian future where justice is meted out by AI jurists, Raineville is framed by an unknown foe. Now he must break free from prison to prove his innocence for a mass murder he didn’t commit. Navigating the prison’s underworld, he soon finds himself trapped in a digital labyrinth that not only threatens his life, but all of humanity as well. Only the beautiful Vyanna believes in his innocence and works on his behalf with a mysterious benefactor to piece together the alluding clues. But will their effort be in vain? Can Raineville survive long enough to see the outside world again and unravel the nefarious frame?

Deftly balancing reality and science fiction, Juris Ex machina presents a what-if tale of frightening proportions that forces the reader question the state of AI in the modern world. Intriguing. Frighteningly realistic. A futuristic look at the modern world.

[Harry Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts with a flashmob of independent shoplifters fleeing the mall when AI cameras are trained upon them, and shortly after that, we are treated to a murderous toaster that unleashes a terrorist bomb. Generally that conveys the fun of this book, which it manages to keep going, with relatable, if familiar, character types. It's becomes a sort of cross between "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" and -well I can't say the other films, spoilers, but you'll know when you get there. I was eager to see this book as true speculative fiction, a meditation on the use of AI in jurisprudence -- and there is some of that -- I especially appreciated the historical book snippets of many rather eyebrow raising examples of determination of guilt in the past, however, honestly, it doesn't quite go there. Maly also leaves you with questions about the world we're in, perhaps there will be more in the future? Regardless, it's a fun ride, I'd recommend this book looking for a good sf story.

[Dave Milbrandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a bit hard to get into and the dual storylines, at times, left me wanting to stay in one character's head or the other. Also,, while I get the idea of the prologues to each chapter, they were a bit much from my POV and could have been dealt with in one prologue at the beginning of the book that matches the chapter at the end.

Other than these elements, it was a pretty good story once it got going. If you made "I, Robot" about the legal system, that would be your story here. While I know we are supposed to be rooting for the protagonist, I particularly liked how the developed the "evil" AI in particular, though I was surprised that it had not adopted a name for itself beyond its own sentience.

[Charissa Costa Bauhaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

JURIS EX MACHINA is is sci-fi/fantasy at its best. Set in a futuristic society where humans rely on machines for damn near everything - including justice - Juris explores man’s dedication, reliance, and potential destruction at the hands of artificial intelligence. John W Maly weaves his knowledge of computer science and law into a fascinating, thrilling, and sometimes terrifying story of what could be. Highly recommended for those who love science fiction, dystopian fiction, and/or dark fantasy, JURIS is brilliantly written, very creative, and sometimes frightening. A must read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Highlander Press for an advanced copy. Check out Charm City Readers on Facebook or YouTube for an interview with the author.

[Kristyn Schrier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. I'm generally not a science-fiction reader but there was just something about this book that spoke to me. I've had it on my shelf for a few months and regret not picking it up sooner.

I loved the premise of the book and sped through it. I read over 100 pages the first time I picked it up!

It was fast paced and had you wanting to keep reading. I liked the short chapters and the different POVs.

I will most likely be looking for more by this author.

I received a copy from LibraryThing & the Author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Shelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, also fails the Bechdel test 😥. It's like the author went out of his way to explicitly avoid having two women communicate with each other, let alone have a real conversation. Overall the characters are mostly flat, and while there is some pretty clever and well thought out understanding of how AI technology would evolve and how logically which consequences have consequences, the book falls mostly flat on the interesting parts and spends way to much time in describing situations and scenarios that are just not interesting. At the end, there is no clever conclusion, it is exactly what you think it is, and too many things are left unexplained.

[Karen O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juris Ex Machina is a wildly inventive futuristic showdown between the law, AI and an innocent young man. It is compulsively readable and written with intelligence and wry humor. Maly reveals a deep understanding of both technology and law—creating a compelling story and characters that keeps the reader on the hook until the final page.

[Anastacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent techno thriller! Rainville is a hacker who meets a young woman in a store. Things go nicely until a toaster explodes with force. Rainville is blamed, and sent to a horrible prison. Can he prove his innocence?

This was a fast paced and interesting book. Humorous and sad in places,but makes you think about technology and how it affects society.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a thrill ride! A little something for everyone here…a little sci fi, romance, crime drama and a whole lot more. This is a tale that lures the reader in, then sends them hurtling through page after pulse racing page. This is an outstanding debut, and I’m looking forward to more from this author.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an exciting first novel by John Maly. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the first chapter. Wonderful vocabulary and engaging story. A must read for sci-fi enthusiasts and people who enjoy fantastically placed words. I highly recommend this book!

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Maly's debut novel, Juris Ex Machina, explores the dangers of artificial intelligence in a futuristic world where juries are made up of these "less fallible" entities. What happens when one of the systems goes rogue?

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this as a part of a good reads giveaway. I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It took me a while to read because I was only reading a bit per day.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a breath taking thrill ride of a book. Had to put down a time or two just so I could relax before continuing on. Scary to think that something like this could really happen.

[Jack Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fascinating read especially with the rapid rise of AI. Cross between sci fi and legal thriller. Would have given 4.5 stars

[Sally Mander · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, Sometimes being helpful is a mistake

JURIS EX MACHINA
by John W. Maly

I read the blurb, saw the cover and knew that I wanted to read this book. The title through me off a little bit, because it is Latin for Law of Machine (or something similar).

Rainville is a talented young man who is a whiz at electronics, this works great for him in the dome world of Arcadia. He is constantly inventing new gizmos to "stick it to the man."

He helps an old lady, who is a neighbor of his and his world explodes from there. He is wrongfully accused of a crime. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced quickly and pushed out of the dome he has always lived in, and sent to Wychwood Prison, from which there is no escape.

This is Rainville's story, it makes you think about computers and them being in control of everything. I know we are all told, that "Computers are only as smart as their programmer," but what if the programmer has gone rogue?

I received a complimentary copy of #JurisExMachina from #JohnWMaly and #HighlanderPress I was not obligated to post a review.

#dystopian #sciencefiction #fantasy #wrongfullyaccused #computers #programmers #AI #rogue #secretsocieties #arcadia #wychwoodprison #horror #thriller #crime

[Suanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juris Ex Machina is a genre-bending science fiction thriller set in the distant future. The city of Arcadia exists under a dome, and all its functions are controlled by artificial intelligence. Computers have taken over so entirely that they are the “jury” that decides the guilt or innocence of criminals. The story chapters are interspersed with excerpts from books both real (Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay) and imaginary (A Brief History of the Wychwood Penal Facility by A. R. Wilchcombe) which provide a background history of the means men used historically when judging the crimes of others.

The book starts out in a fairly light tone with a young man, Rainville, living his ordinary life. He’s a typical young adult whose crimes are limited to flash mob shoplifting and scamming pizza delivery robots out of their wares. It soon deepens.

This book has the most unusual ticking bomb I’ve ever read: a toaster. A rather anachronistic product, it works like any other conventional toaster—but inside lies a lethal circuit that destroys a section of Arcadia. Rainville is captured, wrongfully convicted, and sent to Wychwood prison outside the dome. Here, the tone darkens as this relatively innocent man is subjected to the horrors of Wychwood Penal Facility, enduring the torments of being inside, seeing people killed before his eyes, and the degradation of all the inmates into their most violent and primitive state. Rainville must escape and join forces with his lawyer and girlfriend to save the city of Arcadia from an unknown terrorist.

The world building here is extraordinary. I was easily able to suspend disbelief and enter life in Arcadia. The author has degrees in law and computer engineering and has worked in computer technology litigation, so he is well-versed in his subject matter. Juris Ex Machina is well worth reading for its insights into artificial intelligence.