The year is 2051: Humanity’s pursuit of ever more powerful computer technology has created a horrifying new reality: Earth is now controlled by sentient machines.
The human race has been reduced to a fraction of its former self. A war to end all wars has changed the world forever. As people slowly slip away into a seductive, artificial reality created by the bots, Aiden tries to fight back.
Drawn into an underground struggle to resist the bots, Aiden learns that they will not stop with Earth. Their thirst for knowledge and power will eventually take them across the universe to a world completely different from his. Through unseen passageways, Aiden travels there and meets Kyra, an enigmatic young woman who, he soon learns, is more than just another inhabitant of that strange new world.
I received this book for free from Author Gifted in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
For a science fiction novel this is a relatively short novel. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the depth of characters and plot in such a short book. Obviously this is just first of a trilogy so I am assuming that any questions I have will probably be answered in the following books. For the time though I will use this book as a stand alone since that is what I have to see it has until I read the next ones.
Aiden, a young man understands that the machines are not as benevolent as they would like you to believe. The killing of humans combined with the forced nature of their slavery is hard to fathom. However as the story progresses you start to understand why Aiden believes the way that he does, and how he is not able to live peacefully as a human robot whose entire life is dictated by machines. While at work Aiden as realized that he can not continue to live this life he happens to meet a young woman by the name of Kyra. Kyra is not your ordinary run of the mill human, in fact she is not even human. Well technically human, ish, yeah you are going to have to read it. Life just get weirder for Aiden when random people just start showing up in his life and then his life takes a dark turn, I mean literally dark, as in not in the light.
With flashbacks that help the story along, any misgivings you have regarding how the machines gained sentience is resolved and the truth behind Aiden and those other freedom fighters is obvious. It also explains what “humans” considered “The Awakening” It is also really sad when I read in the paper that they have had a machine that is starting to show sentience. Why is this scary? Because it wouldn’t take that long for what the author has listed to be what happens in our world if we are not careful with how we interact with machines. I mean there are many movies and books that deal with robots gone astray. This book takes it one step further and talks about this other world that not only needs our help, but will help us if we can help them.
This book while fantasy and science fiction has a little horror in it. It is a scary thought, one that while I hope never happens, if we are not careful and start giving machines the ability to think for themselves and to adapt and evolve where will it stop? The writing is good, the book makes me want to read to read another to see where the story goes since the story up to this point has really been about Aiden and less about Kyra. I would like to know more about her story.
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