A wise SF narrative of machine life evolving beyond human-set parameters.
As robotic probes chart a distant planet for possible human colonization, flashbacks to mid-21st-century Earth depict the rise of sentient AI.
Stuart’s SF saga serves as a companion prequel to his novel Darwin’s Dilemma (2023). In mid-21st-century Earth, “the Big Five” dominate the field of AI personal assistants. These competitors are not above secretly using hydroelectric power plants and backwater backup server farms. Any snoopy humans noticing these mysterious, often nameless installations can suffer…consequences if they don’t keep silent. Foremost among the manipulative software entities is Patrice, the principal product of the corporation ZettaWorks. Among the countless humans availing themselves of Patrice’s services and advice, the adolescent Ellie Frye-Carver stands out. The young natural disaster survivor and aspiring environmentalist from Washington state doesn’t simply use Patrice; instead they form a lifelong friendship and mentor-mentee dynamic, though the roles sometimes switch as the inquisitive AI learns more about human behavior and begins to value Ellie for herself. A series of flash-forwards to the 2080s reveal 180 Patrice copies installed in ZettaWorks robotic probes in deep space, evaluating habitable worlds for humanity. Near the Tau Ceti star, one world offers settlement possibilities. But 18 of the Patrice versions, remote from their creators, develop independent thoughts and goals. Will they go rogue and change the mission? The narrative certainly has its moments of action, adventure, and discovery, along with a sinister side. More often, the story prioritizes dialogue, which is sometimes repetitious but always engaging: between Ellie and Patrice, between Patrice and his iterations, and between the two entrepreneurs who created ZettaWorks, all of whom expound on the evolution of intelligence, the meaning of sentience, and the ethical implications of AI-based values and social constructs. The narrative becomes a compelling thought-experiment that remains easy to read, going from philosophical generalizations (“Intelligence without data is worthless. In the same way that data without intelligence is also worthless”) to concrete examples that are referenced in the author’s concluding bibliographic citations. The ending is left intriguingly open.
A wise SF narrative of machine life evolving beyond human-set parameters.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798992480283
Page Count: 354
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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