The Socrates Project

by Daron Sheehan

The Socrates Project is a secret attempt by the United Nations to avert the predicted collapse of our civilisations. Simon Oceandis heads up the sicads, who must blend modern science and ancient wisdom to find the solutions before time runs out.

Not everybody welcomes the Project. An influential secret society plots to discredit and destroy the sicads.

Torn between the love of a beautiful scientist and a fiery tribeswoman, Simon discovers an exotic world of adventure and wonder. To find the answers to save humanity, he must undergo a deep inner journey, yet his life becomes a frantic race for survival...

Is it happening? Could it happen? Should it happen?

Decide for yourself!

Live the story...

424 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

My novels draw inspiration from my diverse experiences from life as a chef, hedge fund manager, adventurer and sustainability consultant.

My adventures have seen me cycling across continents, crossing mountain ranges on skis, navigating wild African rivers and scaling rock faces hundreds of metres high.

I am married with three adult children and I have met a fascinating band of global characters through my international work ventures, adventure expeditions and the charitable projects I have supported.

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free from goodreads giveaway.

Wow, I didn't know what to expect but I could not put this book down. It was thrilling, insightful and made me ponder deep questions regarding life on every page. Over and over I was surprised by the twists and turns of the paths for each character. I will recommend this book to everyone.

[Rianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was in doubt between 2 and 3 stars. It's an entertaining enough book, but all the 'hippie-crap' made me skip through quite a bit of philosophical dialogue. The book makes its point with about the subtlety of a sledgehammer, which I don't particularly like. Three stars for entertaining robot story, minus one star for too much hippy philosophical exposition instead of story.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is fast-paced and exciting, as well as innovative and thought-provoking. A brilliant first novel for Daron Sheehan - can't wait for his next book!

[Damian Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book interesting story. With eco message

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting idea, enjoyed the plot, but too idealistic to read it straight. Needed to suspend my disbelief for most of the book.

[Sarah-Jayne Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads Giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers. Also mentions of adult themes that could be triggering).

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book when I received it. The whole premise seemed interesting, but a lot of the book was... very slow-moving. The pace doesn't pick up until the last hundred or so pages - at which point, it did pull me in to keep reading; but I was very disappointed in well over half of the book.

I don't like whole passages of time being glossed over. Whole months shot by in the space of a few paragraphs - and all of this character development was just skipped over.

This brings me to another point - I really didn't like Osiris. (Or Jia, for that matter). What she (Osiris, that is) did to Simon the first night of meeting him was... basically non-con. (He wasn't technically asleep, but she didn't know that and was touching him very suggestively and licking him. That doesn't endear her to me. At all). Plus, I couldn't really see much chemistry on Simon's side - only really physical. Osiris was in love with him, but I think the story would have been much better if they hadn't formed a romantic relationship.

I liked a lot of the ideas that were put forth in the book and there was a lot of truth to them. Humanity is harming the Earth. Unfortunately, many people don't see it. Or simply don't care, because it won't affect them in their lifetimes. It would be nice if something could bring mankind together like in this book... but it won't happen.

I liked Simon. And I liked the rest of the sicads. I don't think I quite understood everything about them, but I believe I got the general idea. And I really emphasised with them.

I appreciated the attempts to make Gort a well-balanced character. I still intensely disliked him. I did also notice a lot of info-dumping - for instance, it suddenly comes out that Jia's afraid of dogs, instead of it being raised earlier in the storyline in a form of foreshadowing.

I really did like this book. The above review might say otherwise, but the issues were pretty minor flaws in a very good storyline and an interesting world. I did notice some errors in the book, though, and confusion over who was saying what. There were several occasions were a character would perform an action - and then speak on the second line. (That's confusing - and not really great grammatically).

All in all, though, I think I'd recommend this book to people who like that kind of storyline. If there was a sequel written, I might well read it.

[David Czupryna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have loved to love this book. The original idea that underlies the narrative is a beautiful one that would deserve to get a wide audience. It is indeed because humans have lost the connection with nature, that we have become remote to our animal spirit, that's cruelty towards animal and the destruction of our shared earth have become so widespread. Unfortunately, the book quickly sinks into a Dan Brown like storyline with oversimplistic characters and a 500 words vocabulary. Actually it is not doing justice to Dan Brown to compare him with this book. At least he stories, but the lease the best ones of them, are based on some believable, if a bit over stretched, historical facts. The supra tease project is marred by its generous but superficial and very naïve as well as completely unbelievable portrayal of the worlds largest religions. If you are going to read this book you should be prepared to savagely without remorse flip through lengthy pointless monologues and concentrate on the just of the "story". It was one of these books where I was relieved to reach the end, not feeding at all the sense of abandonment that would characterize the ending of a good book.
And if you remove the reviewers who had actually received the book for free, which I think most definitely influences their opinion, the average note would probably drop by at least one star

[Davidw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein Politthriller, ein Naturabenteuer, Science-Fiction, Gesellschaftsroman, verzaubernde Utopie.....
Es fällt schwer, dieses Buch in eine Schublade zu stecken und ihm trotzdem dabei gerecht zu werden. Und trotzdem hat man nicht das Gefühl, dass versucht wurde alles unter einen Hut zu bekommen. Dies mag vielleicht den ein oder anderen Abschrecken, ich fand es dadurch jedoch erfrischend. The Socrates Project schafft es die reale Komplexität der Gesellschaft und ihre Beziehung zur Grundlage allen Lebens - der Erde - authentisch darzustellen und dadurch über einen 08/15 Thriller hinaus ethische Fragen aufzuwerfen und Tiefgang zu erreichen.
Die Entwicklung der Charactere im Verlauf des Buches ist je nach Charakter unterschiedlich ausgeprägt aber ein vergleichsweise sehr kleiner Makel. Ein sehr lesenswertes Buch, das genau zur richtigen Zeit kommt. Damit es noch mehr Menschen zugänglich ist, hoffe ich, dass es bald auch eine deutsche Übersetzung gibt!

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book through a goodreads giveaway.

This book was a brilliant read and I enjoyed the twists in store throughout. The themes were interesting and very different to what I would usually read and I was pleasantly surprised. The only negative I have for this book is the pace which seemed a bit slow for my liking and it was only nearer the end of the book that this sorted itself out. I'm not sure how the author would have changed this as it seemed essential to the plot to be slower and more descriptive in the beginning.

I recommend this book to anyone and think even if the description does not appeal to you or the genre is not what you are used to you will still enjoy the read.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I received this book through the Goodread's First Read's Program, and I'll admit the 400 pages seemed a little daunting. The book was, however, a fascinating and captivating read.

The Socrates Project follows the story of the highly advanced robots, the sciads who face the challenge of convincing humans that they are killing off the earth. But what make this book so compelling is the way the story unfolds around Simon, the head sciads, and his journey to understand humanity and why we're all here.

[Leo Van gerwen]

Het Socrates Project is een geheime poging van de Verenigde Naties om de voorspelde wereldwijde instorting van onze beschaving te voorkomen. Simon Oceandis leidt de sicads, die moderne wetenschap en eeuwenoude wijsheid moeten combineren om een oplossing te vinden voor het te laat is.

Een fantastisch boek! Op een spannende wijze wordt de noodzaak van een gemeenschappelijk verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel beschreven.

[Kyra Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a highly readable, excellent novel and I couldn't put it down.

The Socrates Project has all the elements of a good thriller, whilst also conveying an important message about the state of our planet.

I hope there are more books to come from this author.

[Victorvanr · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read it but did not really enjoy it. I simply had no other book.
The pseudo reli-philosophical reflections are simplistic. The fatherly tone forced me to speed read. I was happy to finish it and to be able to start something better.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won this books through a Goodreads giveaway! Full review to come!