Binary by CR Buchanan & John Lewis

Having just completed earning another degree from The Institute, Alexis receives an unexpected job offer from someone who can’t identify themselves and will only identify what she would be working on as “The Project.” And though the man that raised her is very suspicious of the job offer, when she speaks with the woman in charge, Alexis cannot pass up the opportunity they offer her. Even with the secrecy and mysterious conditions surrounding the position, it is too good of an offer for her to pass up, regardless of the danger taking the job seems to place her in. The promises of answers to a forgotten past is more than she can turn down.

I read a review copy of this science fiction novel and very much enjoyed it. This book has the main character working with an AI held within a robot body. But this AI seems different. It appears to be self aware. One of the things that Alexis is tasked with is to determine if it actually is self aware, or is it simply an extremely advanced form of AI that can imitate life better than any that have been developed so far. This was an extremely interesting book with quite a few twists and turns along the way. I read a large number of books every year, and while I often can figure out the ending before I reach it, this one surprised me. I came close to guessing what was going on, but did not completely figure the entire twist out. And with the number of books I read and review, that fact alone impresses me.

I did enjoy reading this book, though I was left with one unanswered question. But I’m not going to ask it here as my question does not actually have anything to do with the plot of the story itself. It was simply something that caught my attention and that I wonder about. (Perhaps if I ever meet the authors in person, I will get the chance to ask them someday.)

Overall, I truly enjoyed reading this book. It is a fascinating look at what actually makes someone or something alive and sentient. Can an AI ever truly be sentient, and if so, does that make it a living creature as we understand them to be or something completely new? I think that anyone who enjoys science fiction with some philosophical questions thrown in will enjoy it. I also think that anyone with an interest in artificial intelligence, robots, and novels with a fair amount of action will enjoy this book.

Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.