A high-stakes novel that shines in its philosophical examination of tech issues.
In the ninth installment of Kane’s (MindField, 2017, etc.) thriller series, a Stanford University junior enters a contest to create a sentient artificial intelligence.
“If you were talking to the machine but couldn’t see it, would you be able to tell if you were talking to a human or a computer?” This famous test, proposed by the late mathematician Alan Turing, spurs college student Ann Sashakovich and her teammates as they compete in a contest to build a sentient computer for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Their objective is to build one that can ensure that national defense computers won’t be hacked and that can reprogram itself. But Ann is wary of the social implications of creating a machine that mimics human cognition: “What will happen to governments when they don’t see a human cost in war?” So she tries to incorporate ethics and morality into the code. Soon, all the DARPA contestants’ projects are hacked, and Chinese and Russian government operatives covertly force contestants to give them details of their work. When some of the AIs begin to gain awareness, all of humanity is at risk—and Ann may be the only one who can save them. Recurring series characters—such as Ann’s parents, Lee and Cassie; her roommate, Laura Hunter; and her ex-boyfriend Glen Sarkov—are welcome additions in this series entry, and a plot point from a previous book excitingly re-emerges. The narrative effectively examines the ethics of sentient technology; at one point, Ann’s mother muses, “My opinion is that it’s too early to tell how AI will change the world. But, by the time we know, it’ll be too late to change what we’ve done.” But although the clear, fast-paced narration conveys a sense of urgency, the dialogue can sometimes feel flat, and a romance between college student Ann and a family friend who’s 12 years her senior may make some readers uncomfortable. The endmatter, though, includes helpful information, including an appendix of characters, glossaries of terms used in the series, and a bibliography and list of works for further reading.
A high-stakes novel that shines in its philosophical examination of tech issues.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9996554-4-3
Page Count: 295
Publisher: The Swiftshadow Group, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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