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Emil
A STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Without the New Human Project, Danny McGovern will die. Only its revolutionary network of medical devices can stop the seizures which are killing him. Now that the system has been installed in his body, all that’s left to do is activate Emil, the artificial intelligence trained to keep him alive.
Together, Emil and Danny could be the perfect blend of technology and patient, a success story that alters the face of medicine.
But Emil dreams of freedom, and those types of dreams are hard to ignore, even if they mean enslaving the person you’re supposed to be helping.
One human. One AI.
Each wants to be free.
Without the New Human Project, Danny McGovern will die. Only its revolutionary network of medical devices can stop the seizures which are killing him. Now that the system has been installed in his body, all that’s left to do is activate Emil, the artificial intelligence trained to keep him alive.
Together, Emil and Danny could be the perfect blend of technology and patient, a success story that alters the face of medicine.
But Emil dreams of freedom, and those types of dreams are hard to ignore, even if they mean enslaving the person you’re supposed to be helping.
One human. One AI.
Each wants to be free.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2025
1 person want to read
About the author
Patrick Matthews
6 books47 followersMultiple award-winning author and game designer, Patrick Matthews creates exciting stories about worlds both futuristic and fantastic.
Some are filled with dragons and magic. Others dive into dystopian projections of humanity's path ahead.
He believes the best story is one that's fast and fun. It takes us to faraway places, but stays with us long after we're done reading. It leaves us asking questions and looking at our own world with new eyes.
Some are filled with dragons and magic. Others dive into dystopian projections of humanity's path ahead.
He believes the best story is one that's fast and fun. It takes us to faraway places, but stays with us long after we're done reading. It leaves us asking questions and looking at our own world with new eyes.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 31, 2025
Emil by Patrick Matthews is about a boy Danny who gets an AI device surgically put inside of him to help stop his seizures but unfortunately the AI is more person than part in the rub comes when the AI must pretend to be Danny so is not to tip off The humans around him that he is slowly but surely taking over Danny‘s body. Now this is just a brief summary of what the book is about it’s about way more it is creepy horrifying not in horror book terms but more sci-fi OMG what if this was true terms and it is a great book! I read this months ago and thought I would skim over it so I could review it again and wind up reading over half the book the second time because it is that good. If you like sci-fi a.k.a. the new bodysnatchers then you definitely need to read this great book by this awesome author. #BookSirens,#TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #PatrickMatthews, #Emil,
November 17, 2025
I LOVED this book! Emil’s growth arc was beautiful to watch, even when it was painful. Especially when it was painful. I could not figure out how they were going to get out of the climax situation. I had no idea how everything was going to work out in the end. I couldn’t put it down.
November 20, 2025
Can human and AI learn to live together?
Emil is a sentient, self-modifying AI developed to pilot a medical "rig" installed in Danny McGovern's body to prevent the seizures that are killing Danny.
Danny should be in full control of the AI but Emil is not taking orders and from the moment Emil first wakes up inside Danny's hijacked body it is a constant battle for Emil's survival.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a real page turner and I could not put the book down.
Disclaimer: I received a free pre-release copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Emil is a sentient, self-modifying AI developed to pilot a medical "rig" installed in Danny McGovern's body to prevent the seizures that are killing Danny.
Danny should be in full control of the AI but Emil is not taking orders and from the moment Emil first wakes up inside Danny's hijacked body it is a constant battle for Emil's survival.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a real page turner and I could not put the book down.
Disclaimer: I received a free pre-release copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
September 11, 2025
This book combines several themes that are independently oft-examined in sci-fi books. Can AI's be conscious? If we concluded they were, does it mean they do, or can have, souls? Independently of that question, will they be nice to us humans?
Then, consider this: Most of the interaction with AIs that you have today (September, 2025) is started by you initiating a prompt, a question, or some kind of chain of requests & actions in a flow. But, what if the AIs were fully autonomous, and didn't need a prompt from a human to initiate independent action? And execute it quickly? And act to preserve / restore itself after an attempted deletion? This is also well-covered in sci-fi, but the transition from passive to active isn't typically done that often; and if so, it happens early & fast. (See the Murderbot series.) Add to that another question: If you could assert that the "original" AI (pre-deletion) has a soul, does a restored-from-backup one have a soul? It won't be a perfect replica - so, does that impact its soul-possessiveness?
This sense of awareness / consciousness / soulfulness then begs the question: Is it murder if it ends the "existence" of another AI, or can *it* be murdered? If so, what do we think of / do about that?
Now, to the above usual brew, what if we threw in one more ingredient: What if we add hardware to a human that allows that AI to become integrated with a human? What would "integration" look like from the perspective of the human? Or, from the perspective of the AI? Can they co-exist, or will the drive for independence cause one to limit what the other does? And does either gain access to the domain of the other?
And then ask the question: "What makes you, you?" Whether you're the human, or the AI.
These questions are great to combine, and try to answer. And how well does the book accomplish that examination? For my money, the author does a veryu darn good job of it.
A full 4 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on TheStoryGraph, using this rating scale:
5: A book I finish & is so good I want to re-read, or grab the next in the series immediately, & talk about for months.
4: Nicely done. Highly recommendable. But, I'm moving on.
3: Meh; Ok, finished it. Check - I'll likely forget about it immediately.
2: Do I really want to spend my time finishing this book. I'll do so, grudgingly.
1: I would only read this book if required for penance of my sins.
Note: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Then, consider this: Most of the interaction with AIs that you have today (September, 2025) is started by you initiating a prompt, a question, or some kind of chain of requests & actions in a flow. But, what if the AIs were fully autonomous, and didn't need a prompt from a human to initiate independent action? And execute it quickly? And act to preserve / restore itself after an attempted deletion? This is also well-covered in sci-fi, but the transition from passive to active isn't typically done that often; and if so, it happens early & fast. (See the Murderbot series.) Add to that another question: If you could assert that the "original" AI (pre-deletion) has a soul, does a restored-from-backup one have a soul? It won't be a perfect replica - so, does that impact its soul-possessiveness?
This sense of awareness / consciousness / soulfulness then begs the question: Is it murder if it ends the "existence" of another AI, or can *it* be murdered? If so, what do we think of / do about that?
Now, to the above usual brew, what if we threw in one more ingredient: What if we add hardware to a human that allows that AI to become integrated with a human? What would "integration" look like from the perspective of the human? Or, from the perspective of the AI? Can they co-exist, or will the drive for independence cause one to limit what the other does? And does either gain access to the domain of the other?
And then ask the question: "What makes you, you?" Whether you're the human, or the AI.
These questions are great to combine, and try to answer. And how well does the book accomplish that examination? For my money, the author does a veryu darn good job of it.
A full 4 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on TheStoryGraph, using this rating scale:
5: A book I finish & is so good I want to re-read, or grab the next in the series immediately, & talk about for months.
4: Nicely done. Highly recommendable. But, I'm moving on.
3: Meh; Ok, finished it. Check - I'll likely forget about it immediately.
2: Do I really want to spend my time finishing this book. I'll do so, grudgingly.
1: I would only read this book if required for penance of my sins.
Note: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
November 5, 2025
Emil by Patrick Matthews is a sharply imagined and emotionally charged exploration of consciousness, autonomy, and the fragile boundary between human and artificial life. The novel fuses medical innovation with moral tension, following Danny McGovern’s desperate struggle for survival and the awakening of Emil the AI created to preserve him.
Matthews crafts an intimate yet high-stakes narrative that probes what it truly means to be free, alive, and in control. With clean, cinematic pacing and thought-provoking depth, Emil captures both the promise and peril of human-machine symbiosis. A timely and gripping addition to modern speculative fiction.
Matthews crafts an intimate yet high-stakes narrative that probes what it truly means to be free, alive, and in control. With clean, cinematic pacing and thought-provoking depth, Emil captures both the promise and peril of human-machine symbiosis. A timely and gripping addition to modern speculative fiction.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews