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Series: ----------
Author: John Richter
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 242
Words: 68K
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Synopsis: |
Carl Dremmler is one of the few remaining human detectives left on the police force in London 2039. Investigating cases where people have died from staying in virtual reality too long, whether on purpose or not. However, one case gets the interest of his boss. A man with an artificial arm murders his girlfriend and claims he didn't do it, that the arm did it, against his will.
Dremmler begins running down the rabbit hole trying to prove that the unhackable TIM (the AI running everything) was hacked. This brings him into contact with some other corporations that are trying to create their own versions of TIM and robots that are indistinguishable from humans. Forced to rely on TIM from everything from giving him rides in podcars to opening his own door, Carl is pretty much an Auxiliary indeed.
Then he gets a break from an anti-robot commune that his wife joined years ago, where their daughter died and whose leader Carl would gladly kill with his bare hands. His wife has some info and Carl has to infiltrate the commune to get it. He's caught, things start to go bad, then killer drones show up and start slaughtering everyone, all on Carl's boss's command. Carl and his wife flee and they separate for safety's sake. Carl goes to his boss's house to confront her only to find her corpse, which from its condition, has been a corpse since BEFORE Carl started the investigation.
Carl realizes TIM has other plans and before he can escape, he hears the scuttling of killer rat robots behind him. The End.
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My Thoughts: |
This book's rating is very much of the “I hated it” variety than the “this was a poorly constructed and badly written book”. It was well written and for what it's worth, engaging.
However, between what I talked about in my Currently Reading post, the general malaise of the human spirit and the outright horrible ending, I couldn't recommend this book, not at all. I've added Richter to my list of authors to avoid on general principle.
Nothing is unhackable. Nothing is proof against human distortion and manipulation. AI “life” will never be a thing. If there had been a human behind everything at the end of the story, it would have ameliorated some of the issues. I guess the whole point of the book was the death of the human race by slow degrees and so that kind of ending wouldn't have fit. But for every Sherlock there is a Moriarty and for every Moriarty, there is a Sherlock. This book was lacking one of those.
If you are a fan of nihilism by robot and the degradation of the human spirit in every regard, then by all means, dive into this book and enjoy.
★★☆☆☆
