Extinction: The Book of Judas

by Baltar Xinzo

During the mid-21st century, humans created the first artificially intelligent beings on Earth. Corporations spearheaded a new AI-based economy, but the false promise of ending poverty led to a worldwide recession, followed by war. An apparently insignificant actor in this new order, a machine calling itself Judas, began its quest to save noetic civilization from being enslaved by human greed. Introducing Emmanuel and his peculiar familial a bizarre object with apparent supernatural properties, attempting to establish contact by causing paranormal phenomena. Fast-forward to the final decades of the 21st century, to a world facing the most devastating climate disaster in history, as hordes flock to warmer parts of the planet protected by their new mechanical overlords. In the midst of a new ice age, a veteran from humanity’s final war and a young Jesuit priest joined forces to excavate an Emmanuel's artifact buried beneath the icy tundra of what was once called Canada. This otherworldly artifact is the key to unraveling a centuries-old enigma and maybe to freeing humanity from the dominion of artificial overlords.
Fast-forward to a distant future where sentient animals gather around the warm glow of a heater column to hear stories about humans, semi-mythical beings who were the sole masters of the planet before disappearing. They left behind an ancient compilation of legends, tales about humans and their last mighty creation, the intelligent machines, which are the only true nexus connecting animals and that magical, ancient world. The dogma says that the last humans compiled the stories as a legacy for the animals, to share how they struggled to survive in a hostile world and about the epic fight of their machines to protect them. Furthermore, the dogma also says that humans endowed some animal species with intelligence and then directed their caretakers, the intelligent machines, to guard their cherished creation after they died. But the validity of these stories began to be questioned. Why did humans become extinct? What was the role of machines in human extinction? And most important of all, are the animals condemned to the same destiny?
Now the secret begins to unfold.

355 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2025

About the author

Baltar Xinzo is the pen name of an Argentine-Canadian author based in Ottawa. A scientist and engineer by training, Xinzo writes reflective tales that often have a dark undertone typical of the noir genre but also have a sense of hope and optimism atypical of that subgenre. While Xinzo has defined his style as 'analytical fiction,' he frequently dives into existentialism, repurposing literary elements from genres such as cyberpunk, hard science fiction, transhumanism, and transrealism.