Rogue AI: The exciting new dystopian sci-fi thriller from Mark Eluzai

by Mark Eluzai

The AI would be the hand, the city the glove.

On the surface, Datong is the world’s flagship smart city – the fulfilment of Irving’s lifelong vision. It’s Twelve Spires, a majesty of technoscape, where the most talented individuals in the world come to make dreams a reality.

But Irving, the visionary architect, is dead. A shadowy corporation is in charge, and an astonishingly powerful general intelligence has hidden its full potential.

Who will decide the city’s future, now? Irving’s ambitious apprentice, his arch-rival, his failed protégé?

Or the AI itself?

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Rogue AI is an intelligent, science fiction thriller exploring our dreams for a better world and the risks we will take to get there.

361 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2025

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Eluzai’s vision of a future long past knocking at the door and already sitting by most of our fires is compelling and concerning in equal measure. He boldly captures the unintended consequences of the smart cities of the future with evocative writing reminiscent of great speculative fiction authors. This is intelligent, experiential storytelling that draws you in and holds you from start to finish.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting look at where AI might be headed. The book worried and intrigued me in equal measure, so much so that I read it really quickly. I think it's a really prescient novel.
I found Hugo a really interesting guy, thrown into the mix by his old mentor and watching Oracle develop and flex their powers was also really interesting. The idea of giving AI control over a city at the start seemed so far fetched, but it feels like we might be just days away from Datong becoming real.