cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/73619858

A tech thriller set in a near future in which AIs, both corporate and personal, have become ubiquitous. Julia is a gifted young hacker with a troubled past, trying to put the troubles behind her. A man comes to her desperate for help finding his famous wife who disappeared and may have been kidnapped. The future in this book is very believable, especially in the growth, use, and misuse of AI. It's also very disconcerting. Interesting characters, though some don't feel as fleshed out as they might have deserved. I enjoyed it.

A tech thriller set in a near future in which AIs, both corporate and personal, have become ubiquitous. Julia is a gifted young hacker with a troubled past, trying to put the troubles behind her. A man comes to her desperate for help finding his famous wife who disappeared and may have been kidnapped. The future in this book is very believable, especially in the growth, use, and misuse of AI. It's also very disconcerting. Interesting characters, though some don't feel as fleshed out as they might have deserved. I enjoyed it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/73441710

Book five of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Carl and Donut get to the next level, get into more trouble, get additional skills and levels, and figure more things out. In this level, hunters from the “real world" alien races are there killing the crawlers. This one felt somewhat less superficial and a little more gritty than prior books, but still in keeping with the series. It continues to hold true that if you liked the prior books, you'll probably like this one.

Book five of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Carl and Donut get to the next level, get into more trouble, get additional skills and levels, and figure more things out. In this level, hunters from the “real world" alien races are there killing the crawlers. This one felt somewhat less superficial and a little more gritty than prior books, but still in keeping with the series. It continues to hold true that if you liked the prior books, you'll probably like this one.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/73113357

Set in a future in which there are basically two types of governments: the Eastern countries have formed into a brutal autocracy called “The Federation,” which is ruled by a president who gets copied into a new body when the old one fails, and the Western countries have each turned to AI Prime Ministers, programmed to make the most beneficial decisions without human influence, with less than utopian results. We follow the stories of dissidents of the former, and cabinet members of the latter, as the world is fundamentally changed. I enjoyed the book for its exploration of how technology might be used by different sorts of governments (especially to keep the powerful in power), and for the way it captures the way people keep finding hope, even when they feel they've lost it all. It's definitely a cautionary tale for our times.

Set in a future in which there are basically two types of governments: the Eastern countries have formed into a brutal autocracy called “The Federation,” which is ruled by a president who gets copied into a new body when the old one fails, and the Western countries have each turned to AI Prime Ministers, programmed to make the most beneficial decisions without human influence, with less than utopian results. We follow the stories of dissidents of the former, and cabinet members of the latter, as the world is fundamentally changed. I enjoyed the book for its exploration of how technology might be used by different sorts of governments (especially to keep the powerful in power), and for the way it captures the way people keep finding hope, even when they feel they've lost it all. It's definitely a cautionary tale for our times.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/72797259

The story takes place some years in the aftermath of a war that ended with a reunited Korea, in a future where robots are ubiquitous. Ruijie is a disabled young girl who walks with the aid of automated braces. While exploring a scrap yard she finds a damaged but charming robot in the shape of a boy. Jun and Morgan are estranged brother and sister, each with emotional scars from the disappearance of their older brother, a lifelike robot created by their visionary roboticist father. Jun, now a cop, is investigating the disappearance of an older model child robot, and Morgan, now a roboticist herself, is preparing for the rollout of her company's new line of advanced child robots. The story has a lot going on, with a number of interesting characters, both human and robot. There's a little too much coincidence in the circumstances that reconnect the siblings for my tastes, but the story is otherwise interesting, with a lot of exploration of how we're shaped by memories and what it means to be human.

The story takes place some years in the aftermath of a war that ended with a reunited Korea, in a future where robots are ubiquitous. Ruijie is a disabled young girl who walks with the aid of automated braces. While exploring a scrap yard she finds a damaged but charming robot in the shape of a boy. Jun and Morgan are estranged brother and sister, each with emotional scars from the disappearance of their older brother, a lifelike robot created by their visionary roboticist father. Jun, now a cop, is investigating the disappearance of an older model child robot, and Morgan, now a roboticist herself, is preparing for the rollout of her company's new line of advanced child robots. The story has a lot going on, with a number of interesting characters, both human and robot. There's a little too much coincidence in the circumstances that reconnect the siblings for my tastes, but the story is otherwise interesting, with a lot of exploration of how we're shaped by memories and what it means to be human.

Natalie is the perfect Christian trad(itional)wife. An influencer with millions of followers, she's the perfect cook, the perfect wife to her sweet cowboy husband, and the perfect mother to her five kids (with a sixth on the way). She's a most likable woman living a perfectly traditional life on a perfectly traditional farm. At least, that's what she presents on her social media accounts; behind the camera, things are much less rosy. Things take a sharp turn when she awakens to find herself struggling to survive in a nineteenth century version of her farm house, with a harder version of her husband and similar but different children. The story alternates between the influencer timeline and the prairie timeline as things seem to get worse in both. This is an interesting book, but it's not enjoyable. The only likable character is a small child, though I at least felt sympathy for some of the other side characters. The book has a lot to say about social media, conservatism, and kindness.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/72211462

Sequel to Foundryside, set in the same city in which inanimate objects can be "scrived” to somewhat change their structure or state (make a wooden door behave more like stone, or a sword behave like it's moving much faster than it is). In the prior book we learned that this ability was learned from recovered fragments from a long gone civilization of "hierophants” who were masters of it. Here, Sancha and most of the main characters from the prior book have settled into a new life, but learn that someone is attempting to resurrect the original and greatest hierophant, who is likely to destroy their world. As with the first, I enjoyed this book. The world is interesting, the characters relatable, and the action kept the pages turning.