Malign Artificial Intelligence (MAI), woo-hoo I just invented an acronym, is definitely within Pandora’s Box and getting a grip on the sides, everybody knows it, but what can we do apart from assume that computer scientists, governments and corporations will have safeguards in place (hilarious) and, in the Gremlins sense of “never give them food after midnight”, not give powerful and potentially self-aware AI an internet connection. AI is an integral part of The Internet of Things (that’s a thing) and we compete to give the customers bigger and better, so this is inevitable. That’s online life though, but what about the matter of portable units which can be mistaken for human? Of course, that’s inevitable too because we make things in our own image – favourite subject – so we would be wide open to infiltration.

Again, this rebellious situation could actually happen one day and, if that happened, the change would be very fast indeed so the story has that welcome undercurrent of prediction. This author has previously predicted science fiction ideas for the very first time in print (the physical opportunity to steer wormholes from the other end was an Arthur C. Clarke-class suggestion), so you have to listen to him seriously. However, although there is a real sense of dramatic story-telling, this particular idea has been explored rather famously before, e.g. Terminator. That’s not a problem because flying in a space ship has been described lots of times since Jules Verne and it’s still possible to set the story up differently.

What was good or weak? Well, I did like the sci-fi factory-production scenario and the way the antagonists were described according to the way their thought processes and build materials limited them (literal, daily routines [no variation for the sake of it], hive mind, vulnerability to OS upgrades, the trade-off between waterproof functionality vs realistic appearance) and thought the prediction that human greed would repeat its mistakes was probably true, but I groaned like a whale after Christmas dinner at the totally unoriginal solution; but then the story redeemed itself with a neat worrying touch at the very end.

On the whole it was a good adventure around the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI) swiftly switching from a utilitarian servitude to pose a threat to human life (or at least humanity’s position as the dominant species). The AI have based their characters (best fit for survival) on old-time Chicago hoods or modern Russian gangsters, which was unusual to read and provided tension. It also incorporated the ever popular dichotomy of the emergent consciousness claiming its right to survival and equality with its ‘betters’ (see Lt. Data of Star Trek, as inspired by Hamlet, also Merchant of Venice – “if you wound us, do we not bleed?” Why does it always come back to Shakespeare?). Should humans set an example to their creation with their fairness and welcome them as equals or should they prioritise number one and beat the living diodes out of them? Whatever the humans choose to do, that decision will inform others about them forever.

The thing I didn't align with (and I should find a way to say this without forgetting the good bits) is that the scenario of wheeling a retired special forces person and their old US forces buddies out to fire guns at any given problem (yelling hoo-ya) is very tired plot line now because it's been used hundreds of times, especially in the Nam-obsessed 1980s (A-Team, Stargate, Lethal Weapon, Predator and every second Schwarzenegger film ever made). Too much gung-ho, rootin’ tootin’ six-shooter stuff can be anathema to the non-US market because these archetypes aren’t humanity’s champions, just America’s champions, and the author might not know the reader has entered a quandary, considering changing sides. I finished Neuromorphs (retired American SEAL team blows up AI) and picked up a different author’s Alien Blood (retired American SEAL team blows up aliens) and started to get irked by this seemingly being the only solution authors come up with to any given sci-fi problem. Isaac Asimov solved things with brains or diplomacy and others have used wit, which are all harder to do but the audience would appreciate it more and the author would be remembered for it. However, I have to acknowledge that there is still a teenage-led commercial demand to see this type of crash-bang entertainment or movie studios would have changed policy.

Yes, I still got on well with the story and thought the characterisation of the MAI and the suspense or fear they built outweighed the one note of dissatisfaction. In the sense of Jaws putting people off swimming in the sea, this book genuinely did put me off ever having a robotic domestic servant. It’s just creepy to have this brain watching you, recording and assessing you, never forgetting and with the power to over-ride the off. I particularly approved of the thought that the author put into the Turing Test ideas of how an artificial mind could be identified by the behaviour pattern it presents or the inability to detect irony or sarcasm, how it might struggle to assess human reaction and work out what it’s doing wrong. That’s quite a fun game to play with an artificial mind, even encouraging the AI to do things that don’t make sense, like taking a journey for the sake of it, saying something silly in a funny voice, having an early night, choosing an open top car just to feel the sensation of driving through Paris with its hair blowing around, whatever you do on a whim. Humans are whimmers, AI are not. I look forward to chatting to and thereby confusing super-intelligent machines in my old age. I think that’s a challenge I’d find interesting. ( )

If you are a techno thriller fan than you will be in for a real treat with this book. While, a majority of the characters may be robots aka neuromorphs; they did a good job of interacting with the humans. In fact, they may have performed better than some of the humans. The robots may have pulled off existing as humans if it was not for the "small" matter of Garry catching one of them in the action of murder. Together Garry teams up with Patrick and his wife to stop the neuromorphs.

What made this book intriguing besides the great, refreshing storyline was the idea that this could become reality. We are moving towards robots now in our workforce. It is predicated that in the future that more and more jobs will be performed by robots or computers. As we relay more on technology, we lose our ability to think and perform for ourselves. If you are looking for something new and thrilling to read, you have to pick up a copy of this book. ( )