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ARRIVAL MIND

A delightful, ominous, and edifying look at a menacing future.

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This illustrated fictional work offers a cautionary tale that warns readers of the potential dangers of advanced artificial intelligence.

Adopting a rhyming verse, Rosenberg tells of a mysterious “he” who arrives on Earth. He’s not from another planet but born from software in this world. Using “a billion eyes and ears” and his “billion-billion thoughts,” this highly intelligent being runs power plants, factories, and farms. People certainly love the convenience, but this entity tracks everything they do and say, and their reliance on him gives him a terrifying amount of power. In the quirky book’s “closing thoughts,” the author provides his final, more explicit warnings. Switching to a less fun but still effective traditional account, he writes that creators feed AI systems data about humans. Rather than making these systems think or feel “like us,” this mass of information actually helps them predict humans’ behaviors and even influence their opinions. While people can’t suspend AI tech, there are options. Rosenberg suggests banning the commercialization of AI systems designed “to manipulate our decisions and sway our views.” In short, these systems should guide humans, not replace them. While the author’s verse is entertaining, the message is sharp and unambiguous: “He dazzled us with mental feats that left us feeling small / ‘Fear not,’ they said, we’ll use his smarts to benefit us all.” There are also subtle jabs at modern comforts like social media as well as people’s obliviousness to such things as the use of AI in advertising. Khmelevska’s imposing artwork perfectly complements Rosenberg’s writing. In the style of chalk drawings, the illustrations begin in soft grays and pastels and, as “he” slowly takes over the world, progressively turn darker. The artist’s rendition of the titular villain is equally superb, as he sports giant invasive eyes and tentaclelike cords that eventually wrap around Earth like restraints.

A delightful, ominous, and edifying look at a menacing future. (author bio, illustrator bio)

Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-73566-850-5

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Outland Pictures

Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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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

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STARTER VILLAIN

Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.

Some people are born supervillains, and others have supervillainy thrust upon them.

Charlie Fitzer, a former business journalist–turned–substitute teacher, is broke and somewhat desperate. His circumstances take an unexpected and dangerous turn when his estranged uncle Jake dies, leaving his business—i.e., his trillion-dollar supervillain empire—to Charlie. Charlie doesn’t really have the skills or experience to manage the staff of the volcano lair, and matters don’t improve when he’s pressured to attend a high-level meeting with other supervillains, none of whom got along with his uncle. With the aid of his uncle’s No. 1, Mathilda Morrison, and his cat, Hera (who turns out to be an intelligent and typing-capable spy for his uncle’s organization), Charlie must sort out whom he can trust before he gets blackmailed, blown up, or both. This book serves as a follow-up of sorts to Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022) in that both are riffs on genre film tropes. The current work is fluffier and sillier than the previous novel and, indeed, many of Scalzi’s other books, although there is the occasional jab about governments being in bed with unscrupulous corporate enterprises or the ways in which people can profit from human suffering. This is one of many available stories about a good-hearted Everyman thrust into fantastical circumstances, struggling to survive as a fish out of water, and, while well executed for its type, the plot doesn’t go anywhere that will surprise you.

Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023

ISBN: 9780765389220

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Tor

Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023

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