A deft and enjoyable satire of the near future.
Domingos offers a speculative novel that looks at the future of American politics driven by artificial intelligence and culture wars.
A presidential debate in the year 2040 features two candidates: Republican PresiBot, an AI created by KumbAI, a startup tech company; and Democrat John Raging Bull, a Lakota chief. The Democrat expresses disdain for “the colonizers’ machine”; the Republican accuses Raging Bull of not being Native American. After a mechanical malfunction causes chaos, Ethan Burnswagger and Arvind Subramanian (KumbAI’s CEO and CTO, respectively) brainstorm strategy and recount how they came to be in this situation. Soon, they’re whisked away to Washington, D.C., to meet with Dave Newald, the successful CEO of Happinet, which uses technology to control people’s emotions; he offers them $350 million for their company. As Raging Bull discusses political strategy with his campaign manager, Naomi Jackson, Arvin pitches PresiBot’s AI system to Mike Granite, another potential investor. Along the way, the KumbAI duo navigates various threats to PresiBot while aiming to keeping him running properly. Externally, they face the public skepticism, media scrutiny, and the unpredictable actions of a political opponent; internally, they face the technological limitations and flaws of PresiBot itself, as well as tensions within their own team about how to manage them. The novel reaches its climax during a follow-up debate; afterward, as one character puts it, “the real roller coaster ride begins.” Domingos’ novel is a fast-paced adventure that satirizes politics and the tech world. He not only succeeds at illustrating the dangers of advanced AI, but also finds just the right element in each scene to keep readers engaged and laughing (while keeping the preachiness to a minimum). The book is full of great lines that highlight technology’s modern influence on humanity, as when Newald comments, “Emotions are just numbers. They can be measured and tweaked like anything else.” Nonetheless, the story is rife with tension, and it never lets readers forget how dangerously close fiction can be to reality.
A deft and enjoyable satire of the near future.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798350963342
Page Count: 226
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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