NEW YORK - TelAve -- Steven Cooper's darkly satirical dystopian novel imagines a society where every action is scored, and doing the wrong thing may be the fastest way to get ahead.

In the world of No Good Deed, being a good person isn't simply a matter of conscience. It's measurable. It's recorded. And it determines almost everything about your life.

Steven Cooper's dystopian novel No Good Deed introduces readers to a near-future society governed by Karmic Scores, where an individual's behavior can determine their job, home, opportunities, social standing, and freedom. For Adam Wells, whose score is rapidly approaching zero, the consequences are becoming frighteningly real.

Then his elderly neighbor dies.

What she leaves behind could completely change Adam's life: an opportunity to gain enough Karmic points to escape the bottom of society and reclaim the future that has been slipping away from him.
There is just one condition.

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Adam must complete a series of tasks involving strangers.

The assignments quickly become difficult to justify. They aren't acts most people would consider kind, moral, or even decent. Yet Adam, desperate to save himself, begins completing them anyway.

And his Karmic Score rises.

With every questionable decision, the very system designed to measure goodness rewards Adam for behaving badly. What initially appears to be a contradiction soon suggests something far more disturbing. Someone, or something may be watching Adam more closely than he realizes, and the seven tasks may be part of a much larger test.

As Adam moves closer to completing the list, the line between right and wrong becomes increasingly difficult to recognize. He must confront not only what the system expects from him, but what morality means when human behavior has been reduced to data, surveillance, rewards, and punishment.

Set against a world of constant monitoring and algorithmic judgment, No Good Deed explores questions surrounding privacy, technology, social conformity, public reputation, and the danger of allowing an automated system to determine human worth. The book combines dystopian fiction with dark humor, mystery, moral dilemmas, and an increasingly unsettling question: If a system rewards you for doing the wrong thing, is the problem you, or the system?

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No Good Deed will appeal to readers who enjoy dystopian and speculative fiction built around unsettling versions of technologies and social behaviors that already feel familiar.

About the Author
Steven Cooper lives in South Africa with his wife, two children, three cats, and four goldfish. He holds degrees in both science and psychology, and his work reflects a lifelong fascination with the places where science, technology, and the human mind collide.

No Good Deed is available on Amazon in select formats.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3PFG9RB

Book Information
Title: No Good Deed
Author: Steven Cooper
Publisher: Independently Published
Publication Date: November 24, 2025
Genre: Dystopian Fiction