The Grid 1: Fall of Justice (The Grid Trilogy: Book 1) by Paul Teague

Publisher: Clixeo Publishing

Date of Publication: November 28th, 2015

Genre: Dystopia, Thriller

Purchase Links: Amazon

Series: The Grid Trilogy

The Grid 1: Fall of Justice – Book 1

The Grid 2: Quest for Vengeance – Book 2

The Grid 3: Catharsis – Book 3

Format read in: eBook

Goodreads synopsis:

A fortress city. A terrifying prison. A survivor determined to beat the odds.

Joe Parsons’ father has just disappeared. Growing up in a post-plague world, he knows that justice is in short supply, but he craves answers. He hacks into the sinister Fortrillium network, but when he’s caught red-handed, he’s in for the shock of his life.

Joe is thrown into The Grid, a prison lined with inhumane cages where the only hope of a trial comes from surviving a series of terrifying challenges. Only one person has ever escaped the deadly, gamified colosseum. Hunted by his enemies and in constant danger, Joe must find a way to survive. What he discovers along the way will change his life forever… if he can manage to escape.

Fall of Justice is a gripping work of dystopian sci-fi. If you like tension-filled suspense, fascinating apocalyptic futures, and characters who come to life, then you’ll love the first book in Paul Teague’s The Grid Trilogy.

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First Line:

Jay realized that it was all over for him.

The Grid 1: Fall of Justice (The Grid TRILOGY: Book 1) by Paul Teague

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First Impressions:

When I first saw The Grid 1 on Amazon, I was intrigued by what the plotline promised. A world decimated by a plague. A city that has become a fortress. A horrific way of dealing with criminals. A small group that is determined to bring down the system. A boy determined to find out what happened to his father. How could I pass it up?

The Grid 1 starts with what happens during the final moments of The Grid (what the televised show is called). It is kind of hard to explain what The Justice Walk is like. All that is revealed in the beginning is that people called Gridders control what happens during the televised events. They control who dies and how they die. There is also a common thread among all the people who were publicly executed. They were innocent. The Fortrillium (the justice system) knows that. The citizens (who are forced to watch) know that. The criminals know that. But they can’t/won’t do anything about it.

After that gruesome first scene (the man gets squeezed to death between two metal plates), the book shifts to Joe, the book’s main hero. I liked this book because when the book shifts between characters (and it does that often), the author lets you know. Take, for instance, the jump from that first scene to when Joe and Lucy were introduced. There is space, then the word Breached, and then the beginning of that subchapter. Most people find that irritating, but I like it. I wouldn’t say I love it when an author jumps from person to person within the same chapter. It confuses and drives me nuts. So, yes, I liked it. I was able to keep track of the characters and plotlines that way.

Anyways, the first half of the book is busy introducing characters. Joe, Lucy, Wiz, Mitchell, Joe’s mother and brother, Harry, Talya, Damien, and President Delman. It also busy setting up what this post-apocalyptic world is like. There are two classes: rich and live on The Silk Road and those who are poor and live in The Climbs. The Silk Road is what I expected. Beautiful houses, plenty of food, water, and medical care (which is important to remember). The Climbs, well, they aren’t nice at all. There are rats, crime, overcrowding, lack of food, basic medical care, and clean water. People reside in dilapidated high rise buildings. If you are elderly or disabled and live on the higher levels, you don’t have much chance of survival. There is also the fear of being sent to The Soak, a prison located under a river. People go in and do not get out. Those that want to try and get out, well they are featured in The Grid.

The author does try to explain what happened to make The City the way it is. It is told by Harry, who is 108 (or so) and who lived through the plague. But Harry is an unreliable narrator. Her memory is starting to go, and she needs to tell people before she dies.

The pacing of the book during the first half was fast. I felt that there were somethings that were skimmed over. There could have been more detail about the intel that Joe and Lucy were doing. Or more information about The Soak. Heck, even better insight into the Gridders or The Justice Lords would have been great. Instead, it was left up in the air until the middle of the book.

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Mid-Book Impressions:

The Grid 1 did slow down somewhat during the middle of the book. I didn’t mind it at all. I felt that I was able to process the first half of the book and what was going on in the middle of the book.

Some of the things that I complained about in the first half of The Grid 1 were discussed in the book’s middle. The Soak, Gridders, and The Justice Lords were all addressed in length mid-book. Doing that gave me a better understanding of what was going on. If I was even remotely confused or lacking in details during the first half, it was made up and then some.

There was also a bunch of stuff happening in the middle of the book (besides more information being given). Lucy and Joe get arrested. Harry gets injured. Talya realizes that Damien has iron control over The Justice Lords.

Speaking of Damien, what an evil dude!! I can’t even go into how evil he was. He was a grade-A psychopath, through and through. That one scene in The Climbs made my blood run cold. That was someone drunk on power and used to having his every whim catered too!! It also explained the intel that Lucy and Joe had dug up on him.

President Delman was also featured a bit more in the middle of the book. He wasn’t as bad as Damien, but there was a hidden agenda going on with him. There was also something off about him. Something not right.

There was also more insight given into The Gridders and what their roles were. It was fascinating to learn that they were responsible for everything that happened in The Grid. But, even in The Gridders, there is one evil person.

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End of Book Impressions:

I had mixed feelings about the end of The Grid 1. While I liked seeing how they prepped for The Grid, I felt awful for the people who were forced to go on. They had a little bit of everyone there: Murderers, smugglers, mentally ill, arsonists, and then Lucy and Joe. The propaganda surrounding the build-up to The Grid was heartbreaking once it was revealed. They took what these people did (mainly to protect themselves or other people) and twisted it. I got physically sick at what was done to them to prep for The Grid. It gave a sinister meaning to “Psych Eval.”

I will not go into the ending much (other than what I just wrote), but I will say that I was fascinated by what Damien did and where he went. That added an extra depth to his character (other than being an evil psycho).

The Grid 1 ends on a cliffhanger. I was so mad because the book stopped right when it started to get good. I was also a bit irritated. The author ended the book mid-scene. I did a mental “WTF” when that happened. Out of all cliffhangers, being stopped mid-scene is one I dislike the most. It made me almost not want to read the next book.

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My Overall Thoughts on The Grid 1: Fall of Justice

I enjoyed reading The Grid 1: Fall of Justice. It was a fast-paced, dystopian book that ticked all of my boxes. It did remind me strongly of The Running Man, but that didn’t deter me from enjoying the read. I wish that more backstory had been given at the beginning of the book (like a prologue of the world before the plague), but the way it was written worked for me. Also, I wouldn’t say I liked that the book ended with a mid-scene cliffhanger. That annoyed the ever-living out of me.

I would recommend that no one under the age of 16 read this book. There is a lot of graphic violence. Other than the violence, it is a clean book: no sex or anything of a sexual nature.