Son of Sedonia

Ben Chaney

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Imagine growing up in the largest slum on the planet in the year 2080AD. Twenty million people are your neighbors, huddled together in an ocean of rusted dwellings made from whatever Sedonia City, the towering metropolis in the distance, decides to throw away. Gang members, known as the T99s, are the heads of your community: smuggling tech, trafficking drugs, and fighting a constant guerilla war against the City’s bio-augmented EXO police force. There is little hope for survival. None for escape to a better life beyond the half-mile high Border between city and slum.

This is Matteo’s world. A bright kid, but sick and weak since childhood, he is painfully dependent on Jogun: loving older brother, and hardened soldier for the T99s. When a luxury transport from Sedonia’s aerial traffic crash-lands in Rasalla, it threatens to change Matteo and Jogun’s fate forever.

And all fates are connected. The Dwellers of Rasalla, bound by family in the scrap, ashes, and dirt. The Citizens of Sedonia, oblivious to danger in the buzzing twilight of the Neuro-Social Revolution. The EXOs, placing themselves in harm’s way to perform their duty to protect their homes and fellow officers.

And the Ruling Elite, whose long-buried secrets and desperate plans could spell the end of civilization... or a new beginning. Son of Sedonia is an action-filled science fiction epic with a soul and a clear message. Its characters live, breathe, suffer, and love in their different worlds, each brought to the brink as the Third-World collides with the First.

Their future could well be ours

Review by Paul Lappen (030625) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 9/10
This story is about a young man who is the spark needed to bring change to a near-future Earth.

Less than 60 years from now, Sedonia City is home to over 40 million people. It is a bright, shining city, with giant skyscrapers, and neural implants called meurals that can provide any needed distraction. On the other side of the half-mile high Border is the Rasalla slum. Home to another 20 million people, it was cut off from the Future like a diseased limb, and allowed to collapse. A gang called the T99 runs the slum.

Among its residents are brothers Jogun and Matteo. If an airship, for instance, from Sedonia City is unlucky enough to crash in Rasalla, within minutes it is stripped clean of every useful bit of electronics. Anyone found alive in the wreckage is quickly murdered. During a paramilitary crackdown to root out suspected "terrorists," Jogun is taken away.

Matteo manages as best he can, until, several years later, he too is taken into custody (Matteo is not your average slum resident). He finds himself in a prison on the Moon, where the inmates are forced to mine an element called Helium-3. It seems that Sedonia City is in serious danger of using up the entire known supply. If the citizens lose their modern conveniences, things will get very unpleasant for those in power.

While in prison, Matteo meets up with Jogun, who tells him some very interesting things about his origin. The prisoners stage a jailbreak, hijack several ships and head back to Earth, where they plan to do something about their treatment by Sedonia City. It seems like the entire Rasalla slum is in open rebellion, but not if Sedonia City's paramilitary force, the EXOs, have anything to say about it. There are many pitched battles.

Imagine this story as Black Hawk Down in the world of Blade Runner. It's got heart, emotion, good writing and plenty of action. It is a gem of a book.
Paul Lappen (3rd June 2025)