Techno-Thrillers discussion

We nominated, we polled, we voted …
September 2024 Book of the Month

Artificial Wisdom by Thomas Weaver


Publisher’s Summary
It’s 2050, a decade after a heatwave that killed four hundred million across the Persian Gulf, including journalist Marcus Tully’s wife. Now he must uncover the truth: was the disaster natural? Or is the weather now a weapon of genocide?

A whistleblower pulls Tully into a murder investigation at the centre of an election battle for a global dictator, with a mandate to prevent a climate apocalypse. A former US President campaigns against the first AI politician for the position, but someone is trying to sway the outcome.

Tully must convince the world to face the truth and make hard choices about the future of the species. But will humanity ultimately choose salvation over freedom, whatever the cost?

An enthralling murder mystery with a vividly realised future world, forcing readers to grapple with hard hitting questions about the climate crisis, our relationship with Artificial Intelligence and the price we'd be willing to pay, as a species, to be saved. Perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Harlan Coben, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, Kim Stanley Robinson and RR Haywood.

OK, I’m reading ahead, and I am digging this book Artificial Wisdom. This sh%$@t is good!
It is still early. I’m maybe 1/3 into it. But this is tracking for a possible 5 star.

This doesn’t reach out and punch you in the face. It isn’t blowing the doors off with intensity of thrills or such, but presents an interesting futuristic world on a couple of fronts, and keeps up steady emerging intrigue. Right now, I think I’m liking it better than Recursion and Dark Matter. Recursion hit some thrills, and Dark Matter had a couple classic scenes. But they had a little hokey factor. This book feels a little more intellectual with a future world, unraveling due to climate change and striving to stave off dystopia. It is a society that maybe has a touch of darkness at times … not quite Blade Runner. It’s it’s own thing. I’m liking it. Might be my favorite techno-thriller this year.

This is the author’s debut novel?! Nailed it … so far. We’ll see if he sticks the landing. It is still a sleeper. Only 2,034 reviews so far. I wanted an artificial intelligence techno-thriller. Found this. Barely enough reviews to consider. Cool cover. It is an audiobook which I wanted. Turns out it is actually a good audiobook/narration. This is great so far … 1/3 into it. A very innovative future vision. Seem well thought out. OK, enough superlatives. Give it a look for yourself and tell me I’m wrong if you think so.

Coincidentally, Artificial Wisdom and First Contact (one of our August novellas) both have a nanomachines concept, ... and Artificial Wisdom and Ready Player One (August Novel) and Exit Strategy (another August novella) all share a sort of virtual interaction concept. They all do it a little different, but similar notions. I like it.

Finished it. Gave it 5/5. My favorite technothriller for 2024.
A good mix of several futuristic concepts.

started it. good so far, though I'm afraid I foresee the major twist already? but the characters don't!

Jed wrote: "started it. good so far, though I'm afraid I foresee the major twist already? but the characters don't!"

I felt I foresaw what seemed the most likely major twist. And, was disappointed that the characters conveniently were not looking out for it. That detracted a little from the book for me. I was setting myself to be disappointed that I foresaw it too early.

I’d pass this on without spoiler tags because I think it is OK and will actually add to the book. I did not actually foresee the obvious twist after all … not really. It didn’t happen. There was mainly one, but possibly two candidates for me. My second candidate was … in the ballpark, but I don’t think I can take credit for foreseeing what happened really. There was a twist in some sense. Not sure without a reread but I don’t think it can quite be anticipated, which is arguably a bit of a disappointment. The twist is kind of interesting. But, just liked the story in the moment regardless of any twists or such.

The author has spoken of having ideas for a sequel. We’ll see if that materializes or not.

Finished. Solid book, liked it fine, gave it 4 stars. I'm kinda tired of dystopias, which likely affected my enjoyment. I didn't enjoy the (view spoiler)[democracy sucks theme (hide spoiler)] or the (view spoiler)[casual disregard of civil liberties (hide spoiler)]. I did enjoy the AI stuff, thought it was done well.

Steve, it's funny how much our tastes can both converge and diverge! We both loved Murderbot but were not aligned on Delta-V, and then reversed on this one.

Jed wrote: "Finished. Solid book, liked it fine, gave it 4 stars. …
...
Steve, it's funny how much our tastes can both converge and diverge! …"

All good Jed. I concede I was initially very high on this book. Sometimes later, my regard for a book sort of drifts higher or lower with time. I made several Technothriller book lists to rank books within each decade, each century, and overall, and I couldn’t defend my initial super high ranking of this book. It lost its initial luster somewhat with time. With The Cardinal of the Kremlin, it was the opposite. I was so bored that I bombed the review, but the good parts keep coming back to me and its appeal has increased in my mind. Sometimes it takes me a year to settle. Sometimes a book isn’t as good on a second read, when I’m older and more mature. I feel like it takes 5-10 years for the broad consensus to stabilize on which books are best.