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Surrender
It is 2050. Kat Keeper, an entrepreneur, hires an AI savant to recreate the consciousness of her husband, who has passed away. Soon, she is drawn into a love triangle with her husband's mind and the man who created it.
Kat learns, only too late, that the man she hired leads a tech company that is working to capture the inner thoughts of all people, and use them to control the weather, all tech and learning, and even human will. Kat knows she must stop this, but doesn’t know how. She is pursued by a secret circle of women who say they have the answer, and want her to lead them.
Surrender takes place in a future where a global machine intelligence manages our climate disaster. While a tech company works to harvest every citizen’s thoughts, a secret band of resisters struggles to keep human thought safe and free.
Kat learns, only too late, that the man she hired leads a tech company that is working to capture the inner thoughts of all people, and use them to control the weather, all tech and learning, and even human will. Kat knows she must stop this, but doesn’t know how. She is pursued by a secret circle of women who say they have the answer, and want her to lead them.
Surrender takes place in a future where a global machine intelligence manages our climate disaster. While a tech company works to harvest every citizen’s thoughts, a secret band of resisters struggles to keep human thought safe and free.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
374 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 28, 2022
3165 people want to read
About the author
Lee Schneider
10 books26 followersLee Schneider is a novelist, futurist, producer, and veteran storyteller whose career spans television, film, podcasting, and books. He is the author of the Utopia Engine Trilogy—SURRENDER, RESIST, and LIBERATION — a sweeping speculative saga about artificial intelligence, climate manipulation, and human resilience.
Schneider’s inspiration for the Trilogy grew out of real-world crises. During California’s devastating wildfire seasons, unable to go for his regular runs, he filled notebooks with story ideas about climate change, AI, and the collision of technology and humanity. Many of the “futuristic” concepts in the series — corporate control of data, memory manipulation, and weather engineering — are already being tested today.
Before turning to fiction, Schneider built a distinguished career in media. He has written for Good Morning America and the classic cartoon ThunderCats, produced and directed documentaries for the History Channel, The Learning Channel, CourtTV, Discovery Health, the Food Network, and ReelzTV, and created a ReelzTV series exploring the science behind science fiction. His work in theater includes writing and producing Off-Broadway plays in New York, while in Los Angeles he served as a producer for Dateline NBC.
An entrepreneurial creative, Schneider founded Red Cup Agency, an award-winning podcast production company. He also serves as Artistic Director of FutureX, a platform for futurist projects, and the host and producer of The Future Lab with Lee Schneider, a podcast featuring leading authors, publishers, and cultural thinkers in science fiction and fantasy.
A teacher as well as a creator, Schneider leads storytelling masterclasses (called the Storyline Sessions) and is an adjunct assistant professor at the USC School of Architecture. He lives in Santa Monica, California, with his family.
Schneider’s inspiration for the Trilogy grew out of real-world crises. During California’s devastating wildfire seasons, unable to go for his regular runs, he filled notebooks with story ideas about climate change, AI, and the collision of technology and humanity. Many of the “futuristic” concepts in the series — corporate control of data, memory manipulation, and weather engineering — are already being tested today.
Before turning to fiction, Schneider built a distinguished career in media. He has written for Good Morning America and the classic cartoon ThunderCats, produced and directed documentaries for the History Channel, The Learning Channel, CourtTV, Discovery Health, the Food Network, and ReelzTV, and created a ReelzTV series exploring the science behind science fiction. His work in theater includes writing and producing Off-Broadway plays in New York, while in Los Angeles he served as a producer for Dateline NBC.
An entrepreneurial creative, Schneider founded Red Cup Agency, an award-winning podcast production company. He also serves as Artistic Director of FutureX, a platform for futurist projects, and the host and producer of The Future Lab with Lee Schneider, a podcast featuring leading authors, publishers, and cultural thinkers in science fiction and fantasy.
A teacher as well as a creator, Schneider leads storytelling masterclasses (called the Storyline Sessions) and is an adjunct assistant professor at the USC School of Architecture. He lives in Santa Monica, California, with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 20, 2023
This was a new type of read for me! It’s very futuristic, and very creative. This book really is our technology nightmare come true with technology taking over the world. It’s 2050 and the world as we know it in 2023 doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t know how Schneider came up with all the details in this book – running record players with blood, why they don’t need toothbrushes anymore, how AI technology works in general, pods, comms etc…but it was all there, and it all worked. The world he created was a vision and I could easily picture it. What I liked most about this book is that while it takes place in 2050 and it is about using technology nefariously, I could see how it relates to our world today. In our world, internet privacy is heavily debated – big brother spying on us. The only difference is that in the book, it’s a private corporation doing it. This book is perfect for any science fiction reader!
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July 24, 2024The majority of sci-fi books are either about race gender or climate change.
May 29, 2023
The setting of this story references the United States and the rest of the world we know as only a distant memory. Air is controlled, water can be artificial, and even the humans can be modified, for a price.
The "official synopsis" is extremely brief and concise for a complex book with a sequel already planned. Yes, Kat Keeper and Bradley15 work together to build the consciousness of her deceased husband into essentially a desktop version. While this is going on, readers are also introduced to Hopper (a less-than-stable man with claims to mind expansiveness and astral projection), Alon6 (a modified human whose greed and rage may eventually consume everything he holds dear), Ravven (an activist Bradley15 dated until their arrest), and several women with unique backstories who become part of Kat’s inner circle. The severe climate change and infrastructure designs, as well as changes to the world caused by repeated pandemics were also substantial influences to the way the story developed.
This was definitely not a story to rush through. The changes to the world as it is now known by the time the story takes place in 2050 are staggering. The explanation of how and why some humans are modified is compelling and detailed. The threats and benefits of more and more AI control in the everyday world is frightening and fascinating.
Overall, this book earned 3 out of 5 stars. While it is definitely a story about a potential future, the style of the descriptive telling and heavy technology influence would probably be enjoyed more by fans of science fiction than speculative fiction.
The "official synopsis" is extremely brief and concise for a complex book with a sequel already planned. Yes, Kat Keeper and Bradley15 work together to build the consciousness of her deceased husband into essentially a desktop version. While this is going on, readers are also introduced to Hopper (a less-than-stable man with claims to mind expansiveness and astral projection), Alon6 (a modified human whose greed and rage may eventually consume everything he holds dear), Ravven (an activist Bradley15 dated until their arrest), and several women with unique backstories who become part of Kat’s inner circle. The severe climate change and infrastructure designs, as well as changes to the world caused by repeated pandemics were also substantial influences to the way the story developed.
This was definitely not a story to rush through. The changes to the world as it is now known by the time the story takes place in 2050 are staggering. The explanation of how and why some humans are modified is compelling and detailed. The threats and benefits of more and more AI control in the everyday world is frightening and fascinating.
Overall, this book earned 3 out of 5 stars. While it is definitely a story about a potential future, the style of the descriptive telling and heavy technology influence would probably be enjoyed more by fans of science fiction than speculative fiction.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews