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The ABACUS Protocol
In the 30th century humanity has spread across the galaxy, organizing itself into a loose confederation of worlds. Vivian Skye has just landed her first job on the distant Extra-Galactic Observatory. Her task is to perform routine upgrades on the space station’s quantum supercomputer, quIRK—one of the most advanced pieces of equipment in the galaxy.
Then, it all goes wrong. The administrator of the station, Bryce Zimmer, is threatened by Vivian, and quIRK’s recent string of eccentric behavior. Eventually, Bryce’s jealousy and ambition compel him to pit Vivian and quIRK against each other in a conflict he hopes will consume them both. Vivian must fight for her rightful place in the galaxy, and survive the emerging super intelligence that is quIRK.
Can the thing that’s trying to kill her also be her salvation?
Then, it all goes wrong. The administrator of the station, Bryce Zimmer, is threatened by Vivian, and quIRK’s recent string of eccentric behavior. Eventually, Bryce’s jealousy and ambition compel him to pit Vivian and quIRK against each other in a conflict he hopes will consume them both. Vivian must fight for her rightful place in the galaxy, and survive the emerging super intelligence that is quIRK.
Can the thing that’s trying to kill her also be her salvation?
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 12, 2014
4 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Thea Isis Gregory
12 books33 followersThea Gregory is a farm girl from English Western Quebec, a total nerd, and she loves science fiction, zombies and physics. Between marathon cooking sessions, her clerktastic day job, and part-time studies, she manages to find time to write.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 20, 2012
The first in The ABACUS Protocol series, Sanity Vacuum by Thea Gregory is the best pure science-fiction book I’ve read in years. Beginning with a blue-skinned protagonist leaving her home world to work on a quantum computer housed on a distant space station, the book maintains a nice balance between fun and dark. Deep, compelling characters presented in a conversational prose speed the reader through layers of intrigue, which compound through the entire story.
The book carries several themes through the plot without heavy-handed treatment. Symbolic colors, extreme isolation, and the nature of life are among the ideas carving deeply into the work. An abstract treatment of music, food, and the ties between people presents a rich human experience among the harsh outer reaches of space. The entire work drives home questions of identity and reality without presuming to force external ideas on the explorer. It left me thinking, and I really like books to leave me thinking.
...read the rest of the review at http://www.speculatorsclub.com
The book carries several themes through the plot without heavy-handed treatment. Symbolic colors, extreme isolation, and the nature of life are among the ideas carving deeply into the work. An abstract treatment of music, food, and the ties between people presents a rich human experience among the harsh outer reaches of space. The entire work drives home questions of identity and reality without presuming to force external ideas on the explorer. It left me thinking, and I really like books to leave me thinking.
...read the rest of the review at http://www.speculatorsclub.com
September 26, 2013
Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of softer sci-fi/space opera
Trigger Warnings: murder, attempted murder, racial epithets (of the people of the future, not modern ones)
My Thoughts: A very interesting story, albeit one with a bittersweet ending. The author has a great grasp of characterization and plot, and her presentation of quIRK is very appealing. I felt badly for both quIRK and Vivian. Bryce is a really horrible person whose only concern is his own quest for power and status.
I loved that quIRK had two cats, and was amused by their names: Muon and Lepton. I also liked the bits and pieces we learn about the different societies and the various differences between the planets after humans have left Earth. If you like softer sci-fi and/or space opera, you should check this book out, it has some really interesting ideas.
Disclosure: I received a copy from Curiosity Quills via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Vivian Skye just finished university, and landed a dream internship.
Not many would consider the distant and isolated Extra-Galactic Observatory cushy, but to Vivian it’s a dream come true. Hailing from the low-tech planet of Aurora, she studied for years to work on advanced quantum supercomputers. This is her chance to start a career and leave her past life behind.
Her assignment is simple: a routine upgrade for the station’s supercomputer, quIRK.
Her reception isn’t a friendly, one, and she finds that her only friend is quIRK. However, the station’s administrator, Bryce Zimmer is obsessed with quIRK—he suspects that the AI may have achieved sentience, something explicitly prohibited by the ABACUS Protocol.
Bryce’s traumatic and privileged past makes him distrust Vivian from the beginning; his jealously compels him to set Vivian and quIRK against each other. Deciding that the ends justify the means, his power-hungry sabotage threatens to consume the entire station and send them into the unknown void of intergalactic space.
Vivian must struggle to survive not only Bryce’s megalomania, but also the emerging artificial super intelligence that is quIRK.
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of softer sci-fi/space opera
Trigger Warnings: murder, attempted murder, racial epithets (of the people of the future, not modern ones)
My Thoughts: A very interesting story, albeit one with a bittersweet ending. The author has a great grasp of characterization and plot, and her presentation of quIRK is very appealing. I felt badly for both quIRK and Vivian. Bryce is a really horrible person whose only concern is his own quest for power and status.
I loved that quIRK had two cats, and was amused by their names: Muon and Lepton. I also liked the bits and pieces we learn about the different societies and the various differences between the planets after humans have left Earth. If you like softer sci-fi and/or space opera, you should check this book out, it has some really interesting ideas.
Disclosure: I received a copy from Curiosity Quills via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Vivian Skye just finished university, and landed a dream internship.
Not many would consider the distant and isolated Extra-Galactic Observatory cushy, but to Vivian it’s a dream come true. Hailing from the low-tech planet of Aurora, she studied for years to work on advanced quantum supercomputers. This is her chance to start a career and leave her past life behind.
Her assignment is simple: a routine upgrade for the station’s supercomputer, quIRK.
Her reception isn’t a friendly, one, and she finds that her only friend is quIRK. However, the station’s administrator, Bryce Zimmer is obsessed with quIRK—he suspects that the AI may have achieved sentience, something explicitly prohibited by the ABACUS Protocol.
Bryce’s traumatic and privileged past makes him distrust Vivian from the beginning; his jealously compels him to set Vivian and quIRK against each other. Deciding that the ends justify the means, his power-hungry sabotage threatens to consume the entire station and send them into the unknown void of intergalactic space.
Vivian must struggle to survive not only Bryce’s megalomania, but also the emerging artificial super intelligence that is quIRK.
June 3, 2013
I thought the book would be more exciting because of the blurb, but it wasn’t. Action scenes were few and irregular, considering they were in regard to the villain trying to kill the heroine. Yet everything worked for me. I enjoyed the book.
+ the plot
The plot moved leisurely, but I never once felt the inclination to skim, and the book largely consisted of quotidian science work and introspection. “Hi, I’m Vivian, a scientist. I’m doing science.” “Hi, I’m quIRK, a sentient AI. I’m contemplating my existence.” Sure, there were the occasional scenes where Bryce did his deranged best to furtively kill Vivian. “Hi, I’m Bryce, Vivian’s boss. I’m trying to kill Vivian. Sssh. Secret.” But largely it was “science” and “to be or not to be,” and it worked. The alternating 3rd person POVs between Vivian, quIRK, and Bryce engrossed me.
+ the characters
I liked Vivian. It was the second time in the month where I read about protagonist who is a person of color, specifically blue. LOL. (First time was And All the Stars, though to be precise she mutated into blue but it still counts IMO.) Vivian was very believable as a scientist, and I liked the fact she was the kind of scientist who had ambitions, won’t be cowed, and kept a level head when danger struck. I liked how half of the time when danger struck she rescued herself and the other characters who were collateral damage, that she wasn’t just going to lie down and accept the role of the Damsel in Distress the plot repeatedly forced upon her.
Even quIRK was part of the collateral damage. In the beginning, he alienated me with his jokes and thoughts because they were kind of cold and threatening in which I didn’t know if he was being serious and I hoped it was just gallows humor and not a setup as an Evil Machine (trope: A.I. Is a Crapshoot). But after a couple chapters, I warmed up to him. quIRK was a tolerated, neglected, lonely being who was just trying to learn about people and morals. I liked that through quIRK the book turned the overused trope of Evil Machine on its head and showed that maybe it’s not the machine that are bad, but the humans themselves.
Bryce served as a good example. I liked his character development, such that the book didn’t dismiss the character as someone who was just born evil and not worthy of readers’ consideration, that however deranged the guy was, his reasons for his deplorable actions were all too human. I really liked the juxtaposition between Bryce and quIRK. On one hand, you have someone, flesh and blood, who believed in his superior existence and held no qualms doing whatever to rise to the top and assert his existence. On the other hand you have someone, of wires and circuits, who had to hide his sentience for fear of being “killed” and tried to understand why people do bad things.
In Conclusion
I rate Sanity Vacuum 3-stars for I liked it. The horror elements may have been subtle, the plot not that exciting, but the book was no less interesting. The book had a lot going against it because of my literary preferences but the characters and the accessible science fiction elements won me over.
+ the plot
The plot moved leisurely, but I never once felt the inclination to skim, and the book largely consisted of quotidian science work and introspection. “Hi, I’m Vivian, a scientist. I’m doing science.” “Hi, I’m quIRK, a sentient AI. I’m contemplating my existence.” Sure, there were the occasional scenes where Bryce did his deranged best to furtively kill Vivian. “Hi, I’m Bryce, Vivian’s boss. I’m trying to kill Vivian. Sssh. Secret.” But largely it was “science” and “to be or not to be,” and it worked. The alternating 3rd person POVs between Vivian, quIRK, and Bryce engrossed me.
+ the characters
I liked Vivian. It was the second time in the month where I read about protagonist who is a person of color, specifically blue. LOL. (First time was And All the Stars, though to be precise she mutated into blue but it still counts IMO.) Vivian was very believable as a scientist, and I liked the fact she was the kind of scientist who had ambitions, won’t be cowed, and kept a level head when danger struck. I liked how half of the time when danger struck she rescued herself and the other characters who were collateral damage, that she wasn’t just going to lie down and accept the role of the Damsel in Distress the plot repeatedly forced upon her.
Even quIRK was part of the collateral damage. In the beginning, he alienated me with his jokes and thoughts because they were kind of cold and threatening in which I didn’t know if he was being serious and I hoped it was just gallows humor and not a setup as an Evil Machine (trope: A.I. Is a Crapshoot). But after a couple chapters, I warmed up to him. quIRK was a tolerated, neglected, lonely being who was just trying to learn about people and morals. I liked that through quIRK the book turned the overused trope of Evil Machine on its head and showed that maybe it’s not the machine that are bad, but the humans themselves.
Bryce served as a good example. I liked his character development, such that the book didn’t dismiss the character as someone who was just born evil and not worthy of readers’ consideration, that however deranged the guy was, his reasons for his deplorable actions were all too human. I really liked the juxtaposition between Bryce and quIRK. On one hand, you have someone, flesh and blood, who believed in his superior existence and held no qualms doing whatever to rise to the top and assert his existence. On the other hand you have someone, of wires and circuits, who had to hide his sentience for fear of being “killed” and tried to understand why people do bad things.
In Conclusion
I rate Sanity Vacuum 3-stars for I liked it. The horror elements may have been subtle, the plot not that exciting, but the book was no less interesting. The book had a lot going against it because of my literary preferences but the characters and the accessible science fiction elements won me over.
July 16, 2025
What a read!
Thea does it again. Great story with great characters and that ending. YES!
I need more, so going to download book 2 now.
Thea does it again. Great story with great characters and that ending. YES!
I need more, so going to download book 2 now.
February 28, 2015
Protocol is a science fiction suspense novel set on a remote quantum computing space station. Due to a terrible breach that allowed the ABACUS system to attain sentience, quIRK and all newer quantum computers are governed by strict protocols to prevent emergent consciousness. Vivian, a recent graduate and Auroran, is selected to make routine upgrades to quIRK. She discovers that many protocols have not been followed, but isn't sure if quIRK is self-aware, or if his adaptive program to integrate with humans has only made him seem Turing-complete. The drama with quIRK is augmented by the difficulties Vivian has fitting in on the station. As both the only (blue-skinned) Auroran and the only woman, she meets with both bigotry and misogyny.
Gregory does an outstanding job painting the different cultures, and using the cultural influences to show how insidious cultural assumptions can be - and how hurtful they are to the target. A successful theme in Protocol, and one that is examined from many different angles, is the theme of parent-child relationships. Gregory is aware how deep those roots are, and how awful the severing of them can be. Whether it is sheer galactic distance, or the even farther frontier of being disowned, Protocol is peopled by characters who ache from the separation. Even the nastiest, most unlikeable character yearns for his mother in his twisted little heart. There are some shortcomings in Protocol. The plot suffers from lag due to repetition of known points without adding any new details or reflection. Later, when quIRK reveals his secret to Vivian, she reacts with a facile helpfulness that is not nearly as burdened by terror as it should be given her background in quantum informatics. Despite any shortcomings, Protocol offers an intriguing and rich science-fiction universe informed by solid physics.
Protocol ends at the cusp of events that will likely change humanity's future. There is an excellent set up here for a sequel, and lots of good cultural details to continue world building. I read Protocol while spending several hours in the Atlanta Airport, and there was a nice synchronicity between the story and my own personal unmooring during travel.
Gregory does an outstanding job painting the different cultures, and using the cultural influences to show how insidious cultural assumptions can be - and how hurtful they are to the target. A successful theme in Protocol, and one that is examined from many different angles, is the theme of parent-child relationships. Gregory is aware how deep those roots are, and how awful the severing of them can be. Whether it is sheer galactic distance, or the even farther frontier of being disowned, Protocol is peopled by characters who ache from the separation. Even the nastiest, most unlikeable character yearns for his mother in his twisted little heart. There are some shortcomings in Protocol. The plot suffers from lag due to repetition of known points without adding any new details or reflection. Later, when quIRK reveals his secret to Vivian, she reacts with a facile helpfulness that is not nearly as burdened by terror as it should be given her background in quantum informatics. Despite any shortcomings, Protocol offers an intriguing and rich science-fiction universe informed by solid physics.
Protocol ends at the cusp of events that will likely change humanity's future. There is an excellent set up here for a sequel, and lots of good cultural details to continue world building. I read Protocol while spending several hours in the Atlanta Airport, and there was a nice synchronicity between the story and my own personal unmooring during travel.
November 6, 2016
Mediocre Effort For New Author, Too Much PC, Too Little Spine
"The ABACUS Protocol," is a mediocre effort for a new author: OK storyline, with an unfortunate lightweight writing style. There's much liberal PC and very little backbone. Both females and males need to put on some big girls' and big boys' pants in this novella.
One-thousand tears in the future, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy. Earth has been intentionally cut off and quarantined, long ago, due to the discovery of a sentient AI. No rhyme or reason for this, other than computer sentience. A bright, insecure, recent university grad, leaves her agrarian home world, for assignment on a remote, galactic edge, observatory space station, with a highly advanced computer. Upon arrival, she discovers the station in woefully undermanned, administered by a space happy tyrant, crewed by three (3) other unfortunates, and operated by a super intelligent computer (easy to see where this is headed, right?). Intrigue, conflict, unhappiness, all ensue-not a good work environment.
First thing our intrepid heroine does after bad conduct by the villainous, bully of a boss, is to fire off a complaint to HR, four (4) weeks till receipt. Meanwhile, dangerous sabotage is occurring-scalding showers (burns), loss of environmental controls, hatches closing (head trauma), computer threatening to kill heroine-and geez, none of the rocket scientists on a SPACE (caps intentional) station think things are amuck. Everyone loves the cats that the computer had shipped to the station, good for morale.
The author apparently thinks safe spaces are more important that real safety. Would any sane human, on a space station, in space-vacuum, cold, microgravity, radiation, remember?-not take one quick look around, send a "MAYDAY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!", grab supplies, and make for the nearest defensible position? The PC liberal ideology that permeates the author's novella, illustrates how great it is as a mind numbing, soul sucking, controlling force, but completely impotent in the real world.
Due to both this being a novella in length, not an eBook, and the author's lack of a reasonable plot, "The ABACUS Protocol," is not recommended. It was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
"The ABACUS Protocol," is a mediocre effort for a new author: OK storyline, with an unfortunate lightweight writing style. There's much liberal PC and very little backbone. Both females and males need to put on some big girls' and big boys' pants in this novella.
One-thousand tears in the future, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy. Earth has been intentionally cut off and quarantined, long ago, due to the discovery of a sentient AI. No rhyme or reason for this, other than computer sentience. A bright, insecure, recent university grad, leaves her agrarian home world, for assignment on a remote, galactic edge, observatory space station, with a highly advanced computer. Upon arrival, she discovers the station in woefully undermanned, administered by a space happy tyrant, crewed by three (3) other unfortunates, and operated by a super intelligent computer (easy to see where this is headed, right?). Intrigue, conflict, unhappiness, all ensue-not a good work environment.
First thing our intrepid heroine does after bad conduct by the villainous, bully of a boss, is to fire off a complaint to HR, four (4) weeks till receipt. Meanwhile, dangerous sabotage is occurring-scalding showers (burns), loss of environmental controls, hatches closing (head trauma), computer threatening to kill heroine-and geez, none of the rocket scientists on a SPACE (caps intentional) station think things are amuck. Everyone loves the cats that the computer had shipped to the station, good for morale.
The author apparently thinks safe spaces are more important that real safety. Would any sane human, on a space station, in space-vacuum, cold, microgravity, radiation, remember?-not take one quick look around, send a "MAYDAY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!", grab supplies, and make for the nearest defensible position? The PC liberal ideology that permeates the author's novella, illustrates how great it is as a mind numbing, soul sucking, controlling force, but completely impotent in the real world.
Due to both this being a novella in length, not an eBook, and the author's lack of a reasonable plot, "The ABACUS Protocol," is not recommended. It was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
September 21, 2013
In Sanity Vacuum, we follow recent university graduate Vivian Skye on her first internship. Vivian, from a farming town on the technology-suspicious planet of Aurora, has always been interested in working with quantum supercomputers--even though it led to a rift with her family. This internship will give her the opportunity to live her dream. All she had to do is complete a routine upgrade on quIRK, the supercomputer of the Extra-Galactic Observatory.
The routine upgrade doesn't work out according to plan. After a series of accidents, Vivian is left with little time to figure out what is going on before all life on the observatory is placed in danger.
quIRK easily stole the show during this book. I liked Vivian, she was a smart and interesting character, but quIRK is by far the coolest supercomputer anyone could share a space observatory with. It is obvious early on that quIRK is becoming something more than a computer--the AI has achieved sentience and must do everything possible to prevent anyone from finding out or he will be destroyed. I enjoyed seeing the AI grapple with his own existence. We don't normally think of computers as being able to come alive, but quIRK could make someone reconsider the definition of life.
"It was a dangerous gambit, but quIRK was desperate. He didn���t want to die, or be killed, and it seemed the only way to ensure his own survival was to . . . "
Thea's world-building was wonderful. It was fun to see how she took concepts from our own cultures to create tweaked nuances for the cultures within the book, like the holidays Thanksgivings on Aurora and Exmis on Elyssia.
My verdict--it's one of my favorite new sci-fi novels.
The routine upgrade doesn't work out according to plan. After a series of accidents, Vivian is left with little time to figure out what is going on before all life on the observatory is placed in danger.
quIRK easily stole the show during this book. I liked Vivian, she was a smart and interesting character, but quIRK is by far the coolest supercomputer anyone could share a space observatory with. It is obvious early on that quIRK is becoming something more than a computer--the AI has achieved sentience and must do everything possible to prevent anyone from finding out or he will be destroyed. I enjoyed seeing the AI grapple with his own existence. We don't normally think of computers as being able to come alive, but quIRK could make someone reconsider the definition of life.
"It was a dangerous gambit, but quIRK was desperate. He didn���t want to die, or be killed, and it seemed the only way to ensure his own survival was to . . . "
Thea's world-building was wonderful. It was fun to see how she took concepts from our own cultures to create tweaked nuances for the cultures within the book, like the holidays Thanksgivings on Aurora and Exmis on Elyssia.
My verdict--it's one of my favorite new sci-fi novels.
June 4, 2013
Vivian Skye, right out of university, lands her dream job on the Extra-Galactic Observatory, a distant and isolated space station where she hopes to make a name for herself working on their advance quantum computer, quIRK. But it's not all she was hoping for, with a crew that maintains a distance from her, and a horrible, bigot of a boss that clearly has a grudge against Vivian. And soon, Vivian starts to realise that quIRK may be showing signs of sentience, which is strictly forbidden by the ABACUS Protocol.
I don't read a lot of sci fi (which is strange considering that's most of what I watch), and this book made me really wonder why. Even aside from the human interactions in this book, which were interesting, the story of a quantum computer developing a personality, and finally sentience, is a fascinating one. quIRK was a great character.
The story also explores other themes, like the effects of extreme isolation on people, which I find to be a really interesting subject. Different types of people are affected in different ways, and some of them are quite disturbing.
5 stars. Recommended for any and all sci fi lovers.
Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.
This review is copied from my blog, The Towering Pile. It was originally published here.
I don't read a lot of sci fi (which is strange considering that's most of what I watch), and this book made me really wonder why. Even aside from the human interactions in this book, which were interesting, the story of a quantum computer developing a personality, and finally sentience, is a fascinating one. quIRK was a great character.
The story also explores other themes, like the effects of extreme isolation on people, which I find to be a really interesting subject. Different types of people are affected in different ways, and some of them are quite disturbing.
5 stars. Recommended for any and all sci fi lovers.
Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.
This review is copied from my blog, The Towering Pile. It was originally published here.
July 31, 2013
I was sucked into the book from page one. The thought and detail that went into The ABACUS Protocol was deep. I did not feel overloaded from an information dump as some books describing new worlds and things can often do. I thought the book flowed well, and had just the right amount of balance of information sharing at the right places. I would of loved to see a romantic interest for Vivian… like say Sven! I would recommend this book to any who love science fiction. This book was given for an honest review.
January 12, 2013
Fun sci-fi. Bittersweet ending.
September 1, 2013
I really loved this little trip into sci-fi! quIRK is so damn cool! I would recommend this story just for quIRK alone, Thea really brought him to life.
July 3, 2021
I would highly recommend this brilliant book written by Thea Isis Gregory.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews