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The Singularity Race
The Singularity-the looming point of no return when Artificial Intelligence surpasses human cognitive abilities, with consequences no one can foresee, and only a handful of people understand.
Rusty Mullins, ex-Secret Service, has never heard of the Singularity. He only knows that after the deadly challenges of his last job for security firm Prime Protection, he swore he'd stop risking his life on assignments. Then his good friend Ted Lewison, head of Prime Protection, asks him back for a routine mission guarding Chinese scientist Dr. Lisa Li and her seven-year-old nephew, Peter, and Mullins agrees.
The conference on AI bringing Dr. Li to Washington, DC, is barely under way when a team of assassins storms the room. The carnage is great but Mullins saves Dr. Li and Peter while the attackers kill the two other AI experts, along with Lewison.
His widow begs Mullins to uncover the power behind the group claiming credit for the assassinations. Is "Double H" homegrown, or part of a larger international conspiracy? Enter eccentric tech billionaire Robert Brentwood who requests Mullins continue to guard Dr. Li and Peter. Brentwood seeks the Singularity and believes Dr. Li holds the key. Mullins agrees in exchange for running his investigation through Brentwood's extraordinary computer resources.
The quest leads him on an unexpected path from Naval Intelligence and the Oval Office to a secret research lab in the North Carolina mountains. No one can be trusted-the race for the Singularity is a global winner-takes-all contest. Yet, terrifyingly, a machine with capacity exceeding human intelligence can outstrip all controls while possessing no moral or ethical brakes. As the AI stakeholders go all out, Mullins must face his own singularity-the point of no return-when not just he but his family and Dr. Li's will become casualties in what amounts to war.
Rusty Mullins, ex-Secret Service, has never heard of the Singularity. He only knows that after the deadly challenges of his last job for security firm Prime Protection, he swore he'd stop risking his life on assignments. Then his good friend Ted Lewison, head of Prime Protection, asks him back for a routine mission guarding Chinese scientist Dr. Lisa Li and her seven-year-old nephew, Peter, and Mullins agrees.
The conference on AI bringing Dr. Li to Washington, DC, is barely under way when a team of assassins storms the room. The carnage is great but Mullins saves Dr. Li and Peter while the attackers kill the two other AI experts, along with Lewison.
His widow begs Mullins to uncover the power behind the group claiming credit for the assassinations. Is "Double H" homegrown, or part of a larger international conspiracy? Enter eccentric tech billionaire Robert Brentwood who requests Mullins continue to guard Dr. Li and Peter. Brentwood seeks the Singularity and believes Dr. Li holds the key. Mullins agrees in exchange for running his investigation through Brentwood's extraordinary computer resources.
The quest leads him on an unexpected path from Naval Intelligence and the Oval Office to a secret research lab in the North Carolina mountains. No one can be trusted-the race for the Singularity is a global winner-takes-all contest. Yet, terrifyingly, a machine with capacity exceeding human intelligence can outstrip all controls while possessing no moral or ethical brakes. As the AI stakeholders go all out, Mullins must face his own singularity-the point of no return-when not just he but his family and Dr. Li's will become casualties in what amounts to war.
- GenresThriller
278 pages, Hardcover
Published October 4, 2016
12 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Mark de Castrique
29 books166 followersMark de Castrique is an author, playwright, public speaker, and television producer living in Charlotte.
Through his company MARK et al., he writes, shoots, and edits projects for a variety of clients.
His work has earned CLIO, TELLY, and EMMY awards.
Mark has scripted stories aired on PBS and commercial network affiliates, as well as created video presentations for major corporations.
Through his company MARK et al., he writes, shoots, and edits projects for a variety of clients.
His work has earned CLIO, TELLY, and EMMY awards.
Mark has scripted stories aired on PBS and commercial network affiliates, as well as created video presentations for major corporations.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 20, 2016
Great read
This book was interesting and an easy fun read. The premise of AI infiltrating and taking over the digital world was realistic and a bit scary. I love the protagonist Rusty and the other characters were developed well and relatable. It was very suspenseful at times and not easy to see how the ending would play out. I highly recommend.
This book was interesting and an easy fun read. The premise of AI infiltrating and taking over the digital world was realistic and a bit scary. I love the protagonist Rusty and the other characters were developed well and relatable. It was very suspenseful at times and not easy to see how the ending would play out. I highly recommend.
October 11, 2017
This was my first Mark de Castrique, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Somewhat familiar with the current AI developments, I thought he did a perfect job of eerily mixing fact with fiction. He didn't get too techie, at least not for me, but made it real enough, with real factual information to make it feel real. The use of real companies and even the current Deep Learning AI that is currently being used in cars, tablets, cellphones, etc, make this story feel all too real. Clearly, the author did his homework. Mix in ex-secret service agent turned security agent, Rusty Mullins, and we have us one heck of a mystery. Rusty is not some 20-30 something year old pin-up detective, which made him all the more interesting. He was older, wiser, more experienced and cool under pressure. Just the person you want guarding your back when your life is in danger and you have no idea who is friend or foe. Friends are enemies and enemies are friends.
This book was chosen as a group listen, and I just can't wait to get started talking about so many aspects of it. Characters were intriguing, mystery well thought out with me wanting to move faster to find out what was going to happen next, but not wanting to miss a thing.
And the narration! Not my first listen of EBM. He always brings something to a narration that makes it enjoyable, and yet he still always seems to surprise me. His narration of the kids was great, and spot on. He grabbed you from the beginning with Rusty, making you become enthralled with the quiet, humble man who loved his family and was just doing his job, but that was clearly the hero. EBM played each character with such realism, it was hard not to get caught up in their fears, concerns, and anxieties. I loved it and want more. This should be a series.
This book was chosen as a group listen, and I just can't wait to get started talking about so many aspects of it. Characters were intriguing, mystery well thought out with me wanting to move faster to find out what was going to happen next, but not wanting to miss a thing.
And the narration! Not my first listen of EBM. He always brings something to a narration that makes it enjoyable, and yet he still always seems to surprise me. His narration of the kids was great, and spot on. He grabbed you from the beginning with Rusty, making you become enthralled with the quiet, humble man who loved his family and was just doing his job, but that was clearly the hero. EBM played each character with such realism, it was hard not to get caught up in their fears, concerns, and anxieties. I loved it and want more. This should be a series.
October 3, 2016
Mark de Castrique's standalone thriller is fast-paced and absorbing, filled with hair-trigger action and cross after double cross. With the rise of computers, information warfare is "where it's at," and the need for a super computer with moral parameters is a must. I grew up on Sci-Fi movies about computers taking over the world and making Orwell's 1984 look like a walk in the park, so I definitely found The Singularity Race to be an interesting read.
Normally I am a character-driven reader, and de Castrique's characters do not disappoint-- from Rusty Mullins to Dr. Li and Peter Wang to Brentwood the eccentric billionaire; however, I do think the story could have used a bit more about the computer that was being built. It stayed a bit too much in the shadows when it could've given the book more substance.
If you like your mysteries and thrillers with a bit of science fiction, I think you should give The Singularity Race a try.
Normally I am a character-driven reader, and de Castrique's characters do not disappoint-- from Rusty Mullins to Dr. Li and Peter Wang to Brentwood the eccentric billionaire; however, I do think the story could have used a bit more about the computer that was being built. It stayed a bit too much in the shadows when it could've given the book more substance.
If you like your mysteries and thrillers with a bit of science fiction, I think you should give The Singularity Race a try.
October 11, 2017
With Eric Bryan Moore narrating this techno thriller, I knew I was in for an incredible listen. What I didn't expect was how engrossed into this book I would get. From the very start, the character of Rusty Mullins took me into his world to find the killer of his friend, and the possibility of a super smart computer. There are so many well developed sub plots that all intertwine making this an incredible whodunnit. So many times I thought I knew the villain, but Mark de Castrique would introduce a new fact or character, changing the entire answer. From the Oval Office to the Navy, to the billionaire's compound in North Carolina there is no one to trust, lots of information to sift through and of course, Apollo the ultimate computer to watch become smarter. There is family to protect, Dr. Li with her son Peter(he steals the show) with her own secrets, the President of the United States, assassins, burner phones, baseball games, secret meetings, secret service agents, and so much more to make this thriller full of mystery and intrigue. The scary part of this whole book is how true it could be in today's world. That fact made the book that much more exciting and I had to find out how it ended.
Eric Bryan Moore gives his narration the flexibility needed in a book like this. He is able to to take the rough sound of a detective type voice and flip to the Chinese woman of Dr. Li with seamless transitions. You can hear his ability to convey the surprise, fear, sadness and enthusiasm throughtout this book depending on the context of the situation. Add in Peter at age 7 and you can appreciate the talent of his performance.
August 4, 2022
This is a quaint sci-fi B-movie in novel form.
The plot's simple: Robert Brentwood, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, hires Lisa, a Chinese computer scientist to work on his Artificial Intelligence project. Brentwood also hires Rusty, a former secret service agent, to protect her from kidnappings and assassinations.
Who's trying to kill Lisa? What's Brentwood's AI project really about? Does anyone win the singularity race? Is it Skynet?
Read the novel.
The plot's enjoyable. The prose is very readable. The characters... are very stereotyped. Rusty is the very picture of Rugged Individualism. He always protects the women and children first. All the ladies love him.
Lisa does have some agency- she plays a central role in the main plot- but she's primarily the love interest for Rusty. This novel fails the Bechdel Test by a great margin.
There are other characters, but they're also stereotypes of one kind or another.
The technology feels like it's from the 90s at the latest. There are references to cell phones, but they could easily be 90s Nokia bricks or flip phones from the early 00s. Forget the cell phones and the plot could be set in the 60s.
It's enjoyable for what it is.
The plot's simple: Robert Brentwood, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, hires Lisa, a Chinese computer scientist to work on his Artificial Intelligence project. Brentwood also hires Rusty, a former secret service agent, to protect her from kidnappings and assassinations.
Who's trying to kill Lisa? What's Brentwood's AI project really about? Does anyone win the singularity race? Is it Skynet?
Read the novel.
The plot's enjoyable. The prose is very readable. The characters... are very stereotyped. Rusty is the very picture of Rugged Individualism. He always protects the women and children first. All the ladies love him.
Lisa does have some agency- she plays a central role in the main plot- but she's primarily the love interest for Rusty. This novel fails the Bechdel Test by a great margin.
There are other characters, but they're also stereotypes of one kind or another.
The technology feels like it's from the 90s at the latest. There are references to cell phones, but they could easily be 90s Nokia bricks or flip phones from the early 00s. Forget the cell phones and the plot could be set in the 60s.
It's enjoyable for what it is.
June 16, 2017
Not too far into our future, several companies and governments are on the verge of creating the Singularity, the ultimate in Artificial Intelligence (AI). What if they create a machine mind that can surpass human intelligence, can control all of our communications, and has no moral values?
The plot twists and turns, leaving you trying to figure out who are the good guys and bad guys. Are Mullins, Dr. Li, and Peter protected or prisoners? Murder, kidnappings, missing scientists, Mullins’ family threatened…
Fast-paced and intriguing, the book kept me reading. I have to admit there were a couple of places where I thought Mullins missed the obvious or came to a realization a little late. I enjoyed the ride and will go back for more from author de Castrique.
The plot twists and turns, leaving you trying to figure out who are the good guys and bad guys. Are Mullins, Dr. Li, and Peter protected or prisoners? Murder, kidnappings, missing scientists, Mullins’ family threatened…
Fast-paced and intriguing, the book kept me reading. I have to admit there were a couple of places where I thought Mullins missed the obvious or came to a realization a little late. I enjoyed the ride and will go back for more from author de Castrique.
March 21, 2018
Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot frequently, with dire warnings about how the Chinese look to be outrunning us in the race to come up with AI that can think better than humans. This book uses AI as the "weapon" and our hero, Rusty Mullins , is racing to stop a computer from taking over the US infrastructure and indeed the whole world. The technology isn't the focus so much as the human relationships and basic spy work. As such this book works really well as an adventure fiction/thriller. It certainly was hard to put down. So far there only seem to be two books (this is the 2nd) in the series, so it may just be a two book set. I haven't read any of de Castrique's other books.
December 25, 2018
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." This story came my way around the time Douglas Rains, the actor whose voice delivered that chilling message from HAL in "2001, A Space Odyssey," died. That phrase comes to my mind when people (including myself) interact with Siri and Alexa. AI is amazing AND terrifying, in some respects. Stay tuned.
October 16, 2017
4 1/2 Stars
This is a topic that interest me very much, it was a great read with lots of twist and turns.
Some great characters that had you invested in them and their future.
Narrative was spot on, very enjoyable to listen.
This is a topic that interest me very much, it was a great read with lots of twist and turns.
Some great characters that had you invested in them and their future.
Narrative was spot on, very enjoyable to listen.
February 21, 2021
Dan Brown meets Crystal Society
March 17, 2021
A fun read. Active plot as events unfold with enough mystery to remain exciting.
Characters are believable and well developed.
Characters are believable and well developed.
January 6, 2022
Scary and good. Like his books.
December 5, 2023
Was a good book!. I was hoping for more of an AI story
January 7, 2024
I love the deCastrique thrillers. This one focuses on the manipulation and danger of AI. The cast of characters, young and old, are perfect for my enjoyment. I hope you like them as much as I did.
September 20, 2024
Crazy or Genius......
The story was both thrilling and a mystery at the same time. Keeps you guessing and reading all in one. Great story.
The story was both thrilling and a mystery at the same time. Keeps you guessing and reading all in one. Great story.
June 2, 2025
Mostly espionage story ... Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited, read with the Alexa audio assist application.
August 25, 2017
#2 in the Rusty Mullins series. A 2016 techno-thriller featuring ex-Secret Service agent Rusty Mullins, last seen in The 13th Target (2012). Slam bang action chasing the bad guys and protecting a beautiful Chinese neuroscientist and her young nephew. Pages turn fast enough so you don't worry about holes in the plot (or what, exactly, the singularity means). Plot twists upon twists lead to a climax that may be too pat, but the lead characters are likeable and the book is enjoyable.
Rusty Mullins, a former Secret Service agent, is on a private assignment protecting Chinese neuroscientist Lisa Li and her seven-year-old nephew at a scientific conference in Washington, D.C. When a team of professional assassins attacks the conference, many people die, but Mullins manages to save Dr. Li. Mullins is approached by Robert Brentwood, a billionaire tech mogul who's financing research toward the singularity, that linchpin moment when computer-programmed artificial intelligence will become self-aware. Dr. Li is the key to developing the necessary safeguards against AI self-awareness that might doom humankind, and Brentwood wants Mullins to protect her.
Rusty Mullins, a former Secret Service agent, is on a private assignment protecting Chinese neuroscientist Lisa Li and her seven-year-old nephew at a scientific conference in Washington, D.C. When a team of professional assassins attacks the conference, many people die, but Mullins manages to save Dr. Li. Mullins is approached by Robert Brentwood, a billionaire tech mogul who's financing research toward the singularity, that linchpin moment when computer-programmed artificial intelligence will become self-aware. Dr. Li is the key to developing the necessary safeguards against AI self-awareness that might doom humankind, and Brentwood wants Mullins to protect her.
September 9, 2025
A tad unrealistic in sequences. A retired Secret Service officer takes on the duty of protecting a Chinese AI scientist and her 7 year old nephew at the behest of the Chief of Naval Intelligence and the President whom he doesn't seem to either like or respect. Despite his supposed qualifications, he makes a lot of assumptions about things such as who kidnapped his daughter and his 3 year old grandson without being unduly concerned for their safety. He is working with his son-in-law who was supposedly commanding a ship at sea but is secretly brought back to Washington for the job. I kept wondering why no one on the ship missed him and why the son-in-law didn't seemed overly concerned about his wife and child's disappearance either. Lots of holes in this story.
November 3, 2016
So glad Rusty Mullins is back
A true Artificial Intelligence book, a work of fiction, but one that has a great plot, some wonderful returning characters and a whole slew of new ones. Great pacing, good storyline. A thoughtful thriller that I think many will enjoy!
A true Artificial Intelligence book, a work of fiction, but one that has a great plot, some wonderful returning characters and a whole slew of new ones. Great pacing, good storyline. A thoughtful thriller that I think many will enjoy!
April 15, 2017
A fun read about a retired Secret Service agent who works in private security and must protect a prominent scientist who works on projects related to artificial intelligence. I think the whole AI storyline was interesting (the race they refer to in the title) and I really liked the characters, especially the agent Rusty, the scientist Lisa, and her nephew, but aspects of the story seemed implausible and some of the characters cartoonish, particularly the bad guys; nevertheless, I enjoyed it and would recommend!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews