Privatized Freedom

By: Rhys Constance

Narrated by: Hector Carrillo

In the frozen heart of Svalbard, the future is privately owned.

Ashton Frey is a washed-up private investigator with a burned-out neural implant and a job he should’ve walked away from. Now he’s chasing a corporate conspiracy from the gutters of Helsinki to the permafrost of the Arctic north. Haunted by his past, hunted by kill teams, and carrying an ego-maniacal AI in his head that won’t shut up.

Privatized Freedom is a gritty Nordic cyberpunk thriller soaked in corporate absurdity and razor-edged satire, where AIs are in therapy, assassins offer customer satisfaction surveys, and rebellion comes with a subscription fee.

Equal parts high-velocity action and dark comedy, it’s a savage ride through a future that’s already been bought and sold.

©2025 Rhys Constance (P)2025 Rhys Constance

A really fun cyberpunk read

Saw an ad for this on sale and figured I’d give it a shot, given the satire angle and how much I love Snow Crash. I read a lot of cyberpunk and was honestly feeling a bit burned out by the genre, but this one really surprised me. The humor is sharp and consistent, not gag heavy, just solid banter and snark that actually works and doesnt become marvel slop. The characters are a lot of fun, especially the AIs, who are funny, weird, and somehow the most human characters in the book, which feels very cyberpunk in the best way.

A little to slow to start, but once it kicks off, it dont let up. The world building is strong and original. It drops you straight into its weird post-apoc world and expects you to keep up, which I appreciated. No long lore dumps, just a world that reveals itself as the story goes. It’s funny, dark, and clearly written by someone who knowsand loves scifi. I don’t usually write reviews, but this feels criminally overlooked. Sequel please!

FLAT story, no layers, no humor, very basic

Not interesting, not imaginative, very basic writing.

Also, I was annoyed that the narration sounded AI.

DNF around Chapter 7.

Maybe it's because I just spent the past month listening to Discworld books and the narration was fantastic.
This narration was just cheerful reading. The writing is simple and the blurb was more interesting than the book.