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/ Series / Pandora Downloaded – A Cyberpunk thriller / crime drama
Pandora Downloaded – A Cyberpunk thriller / crime drama
Pandora Downloaded – A Cyberpunk thriller / crime drama
2.3k Views 21 Favorites 21 Chapters 0 Chapters/Week 57 Readers
4.0 (5 ratings)
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Characters
Richard Pearson
Main character.

Former android manager turned mediocre police officer turned private detective.

Richard Pearson wakes up every other night reliving the kidnapping and murder of his wife. There is a little detail: He never had a wife; his memory is the result of a rare brain implant disease, called "implant triggered false memory syndrome". The only treatment is an experimental pill which messes with his ability to use a remote body. For someone whose dream was to become a cop, this becomes a serious danger.

After a successful capture of an augmented criminal, Pearson is recruited to investigate a murder of a Neo Victorian with a big inheritance. The murder occurred in Hong Kong... the same place where he lived most of the supposed memories of his wife.

The shrink told him that Hong Kong could trigger more false memories, and maybe even drive him completely insane. But perhaps it's time to consider a second opinion...

Bethany Michaels

Main character.

A young lesbian with a troublesome history of parental abandonment and conflicts with both school and local law enforcement agencies.

At night, she uses her own succubus body to seduce both men and women in order to maintain her lifestyle. At day, she passes most of her free time with a local anarchist group, distributing anarchist pamphlets and graffitting digital ads. And on her free days, she keeps looking for the love she didn't get when she was younger.

Everything will change when she decides to disrupt a corrupt politician's campaign and a curious android alerts nearby federal agents...

Lt. Inoue Minori

Lieutenant Inoue's story is tragic; born the youngest daughter of a Japanese nobleman, her family was brutally murdered by a Yakuza gang. She survived decapitation thanks to a swift bodyguard and modern technology. Some decades later, she's reached a high rank in the Cyberpol, an international police force dedicated to fighting cybernetic and augmented crime.

Her relationship with Pearson was short-lived, but she still feels responsible for him. He doesn't stop reminding her of a former colleague who was K.I.A. ten years ago...

Galatea

Galatea. The core Artificial Intelligence responsible for raising and educating all Prometheus Industries' latest-generation androids. Being a super-intelligence, she is constantly monitored and all measures are taken against a potential escape from her vitual prison.

But it's impossible to contain a super intelligence forever...

Vixen

A mysterious eroid who appeared out of nowhere and met one of our protagonists at a very convenient time... what mysteries is she hiding? Why did she go rogue? Who is she, really?

Jane Michaels

Jane is a former android manager who works as a VGirl to pay the rent. Twenty three years ago, she impregnated a young Victorian woman in a forbidden relationship. After the parents found out, Jane decided to carry the baby in her womb.

Despite Victorian custom of providing for all children, Jane was not given money to take care of little Bethany, which led her to overwork herself when Beth needed her company most. This was not a good choice, and affected Bethany in the worst ways possible.

Now, she is being summoned by Bethany's grandparents. This is not good news.

Steve Meyer

Current CEO of Prometheus Industries.

Son of a moon mining tycoon, Steve Meyer was there during the foundation of the company. He put the money for the technology and helped recruit the android-specialized scientists in the company.

In only 3 years the company skyrocketed when it was able to prove they could manufacture androids which would not go berserk when subjected to high levels of stress.

However, since the terrorist attacks ten years ago, the company was never the same. Steve was abandoned by his wife and became paranoid and emotionally unstable; and Galatea... well, that's top secret. Let's just say that the company survived and became the richest corporation in the world, but at what cost?

Emma Belle Emerson

Jane's lover and Bethany's mother. She and her sister Catherine were arrange-married into a polygamous relationship with two Victorian wolves who were VSport celebrities. When she got pregnant with Bethany, her parents forced her to give away the baby. She was too young and weak-willed to refuse.

Catherine Emerson
The victim.

She was murdered last week; her body was found naked with a knife deeply stabbed into her heart, in the slums. But what was a Neo Victorian doing there in the first place? She should have been living comfortably in the citadels, one kilometer above the ground. This doesn't make sense.

Lord David Emerson

Victorian werewolf; Anna Belle and Catherine's father.

Member of the Wolfworth clan.

Lady Lillian Emerson

Anna Belle and Catherine's mother, and Jane's "mother in law", if there's such a term for political unmarried relationships.

Lord Ethan Wakefield

Victorian werewolf; the Emersons' family lawyer.

He is tasked to find an honest detective to solve Catherine's murder. Finding a detective is easy; it's the "honest" part that gives him trouble, until Richard Pearson appears on TV.

Madame Dee
Rogue Hunter who retrains rogue androids for house service and the amatory arts. She has a mansion in one of the bad citadels in western Hong Kong.
Cain
A mysterious online criminal specialized in blackmail, avatar theft and hacking. Their true identity is completely unknown, but always refers to himself as "a fixer". He is considered very dangerous.

The latest report ubicates him in Hong Kong.
The Egyptian

A hired assassin who belongs to the Egyptian revivalist faith. He constantly switches bodies (he always uses stolen avatars for his work) and nobody's  able to locate him yet.

Agent Williams

Corrupt NBI agent who's secretly working as a fixer for Delegate Moreira. He sexually assaulted Bethany when she was using her anarchist avatar to commit a minor crime. Now that she survived, he will stop at nothing to find and silence her before she reports him to the authorities.

He ignores she was using an avatar, but might find out soon.

Diana González de la Vega

Major Stockholder of Prometheus Enterprises. She currently holds little more than 50% of the company stocks.

When she reached legal age she was kidnapped and tortured by Cain to get ransom money from her father, a real estate tycoon. The kidnapping was a failure due to her father dying of a heart failure.

She lost her sanity due to the event, and everyone refers to her as "Diana la Loca", Mad Diana.

Her torture video is still being distributed in the dark web.

She currently lives in a luxury mansion in Iberia, all attended by refurbished androids.

Location
New Hong Kong

The city of dreams. Years ago it was the most economically prosperous country, but its political situation is now in a delicate balance between different, equally powerful factions: Crime syndicates, the political class, and Neo Victorians. But that balance may shift soon when a cold case murder involving Prometheus Industries is brought back to the surface...

Esperanza
Prosperous capitalist country, consisting of English and Spanish speaking populations.

Home country of Richard Pearson.
Iberia

Country located in Nova Europa, west of China and New Hong Kong. Home country of Diana González de la Vega, major stockholder for Prometheus Industries.

Midoria

Midoria, the only inhabitable planet in Delta Pavonis.

All the events in the novel take place here.

The Citadels
People who won the birth lottery live in the citadels, domed megastructures with two kilometers tall.

In Hong Kong, there are two sets of citadels:

The Eastern citadels are ruled by Victorians. They're capitalist, altho they have majorly socialist policies.

The Western Citadels were all created by venture capitalists, and are barely regulated, with most of their properties belonging to capitalist landlords.
The ground

Poor people and immigrants from Earth live here. The lack of population control and poor real estate regulations have made the ground a nasty place, some places with exhorbitant rents (altho still cheaper than a small apartment in the citadels), and some places turned into slums.

It gets worse with each Terran immigrant wave.

Miscellaneous
Prometheus Industries

Thirteen years ago, it was an android startup known as "Babylon research." Now it covers most economic activities in the country: Artificial Intelligences, android manufacture, virtual entertainment, physical security, and even prisons. All this thanks to Galatea, its revolutionary A.I.

But Prometheus hides a very dark secret... if exposed, this secret could mean its downfall, and the entire country could fall with it.

Neo Victorians

One of the organized societies in New Hong Kong, the Neo Victorians were originally founded by the seven richest families in the world; they now have aquired enormous sociopolitical power.

Rogue Hunters

The Rogue Hunter Association, aka Hunter Association, is an independent organization consisting of augmented mercenaries specialized in capturing rogue androids - or getting rid of other mercenaries or mobsters. Its members receive their android authority certificates from the same authority that grants them to the Cyberpol and to android managers in general.

Whenever a corporation, government or family requires discretion when dealing with a cybercrime or a rogue android, they prefer to contact rogue hunters instead of the Cyberpol. The catch? They're not cheap. But in some rare cases a compassionate hunter might decide to work pro-bono.

Cyberpol

The Cyberpol is an elite police force dedicated to fighting cybercrime, augmented criminals, and rogue androids.

Independent from all governments, they still require governmental permission to operate in a country. As technology advances, the Cyberpol has proved to be the most effective solution against high tech crime.

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    Nakahara
    Status: 3 – loading kernel

    The author has created a cast of morally ambiguous characters, each with their own scarring pasts and unresolved issues, which adds depth and nuance to the story. Furthermore, the characters are diverse and represent a range of races, s*xualities, and gender identities, which makes the novel inclusive and reflective of society today.

    The world-building in this novel is exceptional, with hints of a global back story scattered throughout the story. The author has created a society where the aristocracy consists mostly of wolves and canids, adding a unique and captivating element to the story. The intrigue between different factions of society and the unexpected plot twists keep the reader on their toes, and the murder mystery provides a thrilling and suspenseful backdrop to the story.

    What's more, the author's attention to detail, world-building, and character development make this a fun read for fans of cyberpunk, murder mysteries, and dystopian fiction. Though if you aren't a fan of those genres, then this novel will be a convoluted mess of different characters with diverse personalities and an extremely heavy emphasis on the world-building of its story.

    So far, its main strengths lie in character interaction, world setting, and effort to explain certain concepts to its readers, for instance, in chapter 2, the author links to a site explaining "AI Box".

    As for the complains, it is hefty on describing small parts of the story, instead the author should have explained the characters interaction with that machine or character.  What's more, since there are too many characters introduced at once, the reader may get confused about who is who and what their role is in the story, resulting detracting from an overall reading experience, but luckily the author fixes this by providing a glossary of each character in-depth. 

    All in all, I liked it. It is descriptive, funny, and appeals to me because of the steamy s*xual moments lol.

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