Review by Booklist Review
Ashton (Antimatter Blues, 2023) sets his latest stand-alone in a near-future world where artificial intelligences exist and humans--especially wealthy ones--technologically enhance their bodies, while a growing movement of dispossessed people opposes this use of technology. Armed conflict flares between the enhanced Federalist forces and unenhanced Humanists. But not all is as it seems, and the Humanists may not be as pure as they claim. Mal, an artificial intelligence living in the infosphere who specializes in infiltrating other systems, embeds himself in the corpse of a cyborg human to learn more about the conflict on the ground. Through a series of gruesome and darkly comic mishaps, he becomes deeply embroiled and cut off from the infosphere. This is a funny, fast-paced, fish-out-of-water tale that should satisfy Ashton's growing fan base. Exploring the nature of AI is a hot topic, and the contrast between the literalism of computers and human emotions is perennially fascinating. As we've seen in his Mickey7 series, Ashton has a talent for handling nonhuman characters. This should also appeal to fans of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ashton (Antimatter Blues) shrewdly injects satire into a dystopian thriller helmed by Mal, an AI (though he prefers to be called a Silico-American). In the near future, debate around technological human augmentations has led to civil war. The conflict began with a paranoid rumor that the NIH developed a nanobot that, after being injected into a person, transformed them into a superhuman capable of infecting others, as part of a government scheme to control the population. That belief sparked riots in Maryland, which devolved into all-out war, with so-called Humanists dumping anyone suspected of being augmented into burn pits. Amid this violent chaos, Mal, who is untethered to any system, slips inside the body of an augmented female corpse which had the necessary hardware for him to "puppeteer" it. Mal finds himself with more than he'd bargained for, however, when the dead woman, Mika, turns out to have been the protector of Kayleigh, a genetically modified 18-year-old, who insists that Mal continue to serve as her bodyguard against the Humanists. Ashton's vision of the future feels all too plausible and his blend of action and humor keeps the pages flying. This is sure to please the author's fans. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Mal (short for Malware) thinks that humans are stupid, their wars are even stupider, and that AIs have no dog in that fight. Mal also thinks that having a body might occasionally be convenient and decides to take one for a test drive, but he gets stuck when the war takes down the data towers he relies on. He's trapped behind enemy lines in the corpse of an augmented bodyguard and feels dutybound do their job--protecting an augmented little girl who is more deadly than Mal on his best day. Mal goes to war and learns about honor, duty, and doing the wrong thing for the right reason. Mal's voice has all of Murderbot's snark, along with its uncomfortable regard for humans. His escapades with the misfit gang that gathers around his charge compel the reader through his adventures even as the costs of the war grow higher. VERDICT Ashton (Antimatter Blues) offers a technothriller with heart that will appeal to fans of the "Murderbot Diaries" from Martha Wells but also to readers looking for more AI-led stories like Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill and Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden.--Marlene Harris
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