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The Yamanaka Factors: A Thriller
"The Yamanaka Factors placed 12th in BBNYA 2025 out of more than 240 entries!" —Book Bloggers' Novel of the Year Award
"The Yamanaka Factors is one of the year's best thrillers." —BestThrillers.com
"Henson hatches a unique concept. Touching on future technology and real-life research, as well as what a person would do with a second life, The Yamanaka Factors is a book readers won’t easily put down." —Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize
FALL 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”
When his treatment proves more difficult than expected and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the new technology will upend civilization.
A nihilist at heart with a dwindling number of friends, Mickey yearns to fade into the woodwork to live in peace, struggling to remember what matters in life. An analog old-timer has no chance to win in the digital age anyway, right?
"The Yamanaka Factors is one of the year's best thrillers." —BestThrillers.com
"Henson hatches a unique concept. Touching on future technology and real-life research, as well as what a person would do with a second life, The Yamanaka Factors is a book readers won’t easily put down." —Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize
FALL 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”
When his treatment proves more difficult than expected and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the new technology will upend civilization.
A nihilist at heart with a dwindling number of friends, Mickey yearns to fade into the woodwork to live in peace, struggling to remember what matters in life. An analog old-timer has no chance to win in the digital age anyway, right?
266 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 22, 2024
6 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Jed Henson
3 books7 followersJed Henson writes thrillers. Fast, lean, near-future thrillers, with hard science baked in. He published his first novel, a technothriller titled All In, in 2022, and his second, another techno-thriller titled The Yamanaka Factors, in 2024. Both are available on Amazon.
He also is a longtime magazine editor and website publisher, and got his professional start back in the day as a newspaper reporter. Jed currently lives in North Carolina with his family, including humans and hounds.
He also is a longtime magazine editor and website publisher, and got his professional start back in the day as a newspaper reporter. Jed currently lives in North Carolina with his family, including humans and hounds.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 19, 2025
I love a book that grabs an interesting premise and runs it to ground, rather than sweeping up all the adjacent ideas into a sloppy stew. This is one of those books. Incredible as it may seem, the premise of a modern-day fountain of youth is not even hard to believe—distressing news for those who have budgeted for a short post-retirement lives.
Our hero is a likable homeless alcoholic, another interesting premise. But Mickey does the job well and quickly establishes himself as a relatable lead character who has had some bad breaks and made some worse decisions in his 72 years. Now he gets a chance for a do-over.
It’s a thriller, so one can assume the arrival of greed-driven baddies, as well as help from an unlikely collection of misfit allies. They do their bits as Mickey sorts out how to live his second life, and how to relate to the survivors of his first. That’s the interesting part that Henson cracks open. Relating to family and friends from the first life, now so much older, is a nest of conflicts waiting to happen. We get some of it, but only enough to want more. Maybe in a sequel.
The action part is well-executed and serves as the canvas on which the age-reversal premise is painted. Not too much, not too little.
Highly recommended.
Our hero is a likable homeless alcoholic, another interesting premise. But Mickey does the job well and quickly establishes himself as a relatable lead character who has had some bad breaks and made some worse decisions in his 72 years. Now he gets a chance for a do-over.
It’s a thriller, so one can assume the arrival of greed-driven baddies, as well as help from an unlikely collection of misfit allies. They do their bits as Mickey sorts out how to live his second life, and how to relate to the survivors of his first. That’s the interesting part that Henson cracks open. Relating to family and friends from the first life, now so much older, is a nest of conflicts waiting to happen. We get some of it, but only enough to want more. Maybe in a sequel.
The action part is well-executed and serves as the canvas on which the age-reversal premise is painted. Not too much, not too little.
Highly recommended.
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July 22, 2025Not bad, Jed! Not bad!
December 24, 2025
"What would he do with his second life? He constantly had to remind himself this wasn't some indulgent daydream about winning the lottery. He had won the lottery."
Very interesting premise, but for a thriller I rarely felt a sense of urgency/suspense throughout any point in the book. Mickey's trial/treatment went swimmingly, he didn't need much convincing considering he's a homeless guy who's more likely to be taken advantage of by others, let alone by a profit seeking companies with outlandish claims. Both the company Ponce, and Mickey just trust each other from the get-go and are easily the 'good guys': they shake hands and boom, barely a morsel of complication, even though it's the first human trial too.
Then here come the bad evil Chinese government and corporation, and everything went downhill starting with that trope. Just feels incredibly dated and I feel like there could have been more interesting conversation surrounding the literal fountain of youth - it's kinda treated like it's no big deal besides the initial shock, which turns into immediate acceptance. Even if I ignore the thinly veiled McCarthyism here, it's a bit of a dry read. Just not enough thrilling moments.
Very interesting premise, but for a thriller I rarely felt a sense of urgency/suspense throughout any point in the book. Mickey's trial/treatment went swimmingly, he didn't need much convincing considering he's a homeless guy who's more likely to be taken advantage of by others, let alone by a profit seeking companies with outlandish claims. Both the company Ponce, and Mickey just trust each other from the get-go and are easily the 'good guys': they shake hands and boom, barely a morsel of complication, even though it's the first human trial too.
Then here come the bad evil Chinese government and corporation, and everything went downhill starting with that trope. Just feels incredibly dated and I feel like there could have been more interesting conversation surrounding the literal fountain of youth - it's kinda treated like it's no big deal besides the initial shock, which turns into immediate acceptance. Even if I ignore the thinly veiled McCarthyism here, it's a bit of a dry read. Just not enough thrilling moments.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews