Juris Ex Machina

By: John W. Maly

Narrated by: Marc Thompson

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 22nd-century domed city of Arcadia, the AI justice system is airtight. 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.

Juris Ex Machina is a fast-paced science-fiction legal thriller about artificial intelligence, justice, and the dangerous consequences of technological perfection.

Performed by Audie Award-winning narrator Marc Thompson.

Winner, Best Science Fiction Novel - 2025 American Fiction Awards and 2025 Best Book Awards; Winner, Best Science Fiction Novel of 2024 - Indies Today.

©2024 John Maly (P)2026 Arcadian Intellectual Property OU

A Future That Feels A Little Too Close

Some sci-fi lives so far out in the future that you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. Juris Ex Machina isn’t that. It felt like it could be near future, and that’s what got me. In Arcadia, AI juries decide guilt instead of a jury of your peers, and honestly, we’re not too far off from trusting AI to do something like this (Black Mirror vibes, anyone?).

Rainville is a regular 20-year-old who gets wrongly convicted and sent away for life. Watching him go from regular guy to prisoner, while the system was trying to bury and forget him, was excellent.

The opening scene setting was incredible, quietly revealing the characters and their habits along with the city around them. I wanted to spend even more time in all of the places those first chapters hinted at. And just when it starts to feel a little too familiar, Maly reminds you that you’re living in a domed city, with its different biomes and animals and the safety features holding it all together. Slowly pulling back like a slow zoom out. Similarly, the way he set up the logic around the new judicial system, with its checks and balances and the ways AI was used, all felt eerily accurate. Even the failure percentages compared to their human jury counterparts (and the logic around why they were implemented in the first place). Even the small, probably throwaway line about dynamic advertising was chill-inducing (I work in a similar field).

Rainville is an excellent main character, and him being one of the main points of view helps move this story along. I like that at times we’re reminded he’s young and inexperienced, and that his story follows his emotions, speeding up or slowing down as his comfort and emotion allowed (as it would for a 20-year-old). Similarly, the “savior” Foxwright turns into his 20-year-old self while trying to help who he sees as a younger version of himself. Both of them being “solution guys” was right up my alley. I have a similar mind and love problem solving like this. I loved the way Foxwright dealt with certain situations (no spoilers!) and the ways he used, trusted, or distrusted technology. Excellent character writing in a book surrounded by incredible scene setting.

The pacing moves around a bit. At times it reads fast and hectic with short chapters, and at others it’s long and drawn out (especially in the middle, when Rainville is learning the ropes his first few days in his new environment). I don’t think it will bother everyone, but it’s there. The narration, on the other hand, was excellent. Marc Thompson gives it the right amount of performance without overdoing it, and the same goes for the sound effects. They’re scattered throughout but never overdone. It’s not full-production audio-drama levels, but a story like this would die without the love and care Marc gave it. Consider me impressed!

I’m not surprised this is an award-winning book (Best Science Fiction Novel at the 2025 American Fiction Awards, among others). It felt like it through and through, and the audiobook deserves the same love.

Bonus thought: Arcadia being the city’s name kept pivoting my brain to Sleep Token, especially “Even In Arcadia…” Whenever bad things would happen, that line would be repeating in my head. So, at the end of the day, I got a nice combination of music and a great, gripping sci-fi.