Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this
"clever...gritty" (Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings) science
fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor
rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy--from Hugo Award
nominee S.B. Divya.
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to
retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It's, 2095 and
people don't usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent
on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete
with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy.
Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips
and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the
healing process.
All that changes when Welga's client is killed by The Machinehood, a new
and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several
major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human,
part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an
ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week.
Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill.
Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US
government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One
that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight.
Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into
intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the
Machinehood, and what do they really want?
A "fantastic, big-idea thriller" (Malka Older, Hugo Award finalist for
The Centenal Cycle series) that asks: if we won't see machines as human,
will we instead see humans as machines?
