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AI Fleet #1
Forerunner
A fleet of warships operated by the digitized minds of former humans. An unknown enemy lurking in the dark of space. The one man who hopes to conquer them both. Jain was the lieutenant commander of an elite SEAL team. He was accustomed to order and discipline, which he used to give the men under his command that particular brand of killer instinct his unit was known for. But one day that semi-comfortable, ordered life ended when he opened his eyes to find his body replaced by a starship. His mind had become its AI core. He is somewhere in deep space. Most of his systems are badly damaged. He has no memory of how he got here, or what his mission is. Evidence points to an attack by an unknown entity. He finds other damaged vessels in the vicinity and reactivates them. They, too, have no memory of the events leading up to their current situation. Jain, thrust into a leadership role, soon learns that commanding a fleet of starships isn't all that different from leading a platoon of SEALs. It helps that his database is chock-full of tactics and military strategies gleaned from every space battle humanity has ever fought. As he and his fleet explore their surroundings and slowly piece together what happened to them, they realize their attacker is not from any human system. And that any misstep means not only the loss of his fleet, but potentially the destruction of humanity itself.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 24, 2018
806 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Hooke
102 books508 followersIsaac Hooke is the best-selling author of the Ethan Galaal series of thriller novels, as well as the SF-themed ATLAS trilogy. When Isaac isn't writing, publishing, and blogging, he's busy cycling and taking pictures in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has a degree in Engineering Physics.
You can follow Isaac on Twitter @IsaacHooke and his website http://IsaacHooke.com.
You can follow Isaac on Twitter @IsaacHooke and his website http://IsaacHooke.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 17, 2020
tl;dr: A cringe-worthy garbage, don't waste your time on it
I may be somewhat spoiled by mostly reading good sci-fi from acclaimed authors, and didn't have high expectation while deciding to read a book by unknown author enticed by what seemed like an interesting premise. But I really didn't expect utter trashy garbage like it turned to be, especially not with a relatively high rating like it has. The plot and world building made no sense whatsoever (e.g. why do they keep years old pre-training backup of AI onboard, but never a recent one? Or spaceship with a sword for ramming, seriously?!). The characters were bland, two-dimensional, dense and bickering between themselves like a bunch of teenagers, not advanced AI captains based on minds of veteran human soldiers. The writing was of poor amateurish fanfic-level at best, 70% of book volume been dialogs exactly following template "blah-blah, X said. blah-blah, Y said. (repeat 100 times)". But the worst offender is cringe-worthy technobabble and technology. Author opted for semi-realistic ships physics, spends a great deal of time talking about collecting and expanding propellant, delta-V, gravity assists and so on, but clearly have no idea how physics really work, resulting in hilarious moments like ships "assuming geostationary orbit" around tidally-locked non-rotating satellites, ship hovering above arbitrary points on planets, landing and taking off planets at will, black holes "sucking" object into them and so on. I'm perfectly fine with fantasy physics in sci-fi if it is backed by the world's lore, just let them have anti-grav tech or something, that's fine. But pretending to have real physics but then completely f*ck it up is beyond pathetic. Also, the author frequently uses existing modern technological terms, but evidently having no clue what they actually mean in real life, so he uses them mostly incorrectly. Just to name a few hilarious examples: he calls a ship's internal knowledge database a "cloud storage" *facepalm* and at one point one AI character in futuristic hyper-realistic VR environment reprimands another for using "ray-tracing shadows" as wasteful. *double facepalm*
I may be somewhat spoiled by mostly reading good sci-fi from acclaimed authors, and didn't have high expectation while deciding to read a book by unknown author enticed by what seemed like an interesting premise. But I really didn't expect utter trashy garbage like it turned to be, especially not with a relatively high rating like it has. The plot and world building made no sense whatsoever (e.g. why do they keep years old pre-training backup of AI onboard, but never a recent one? Or spaceship with a sword for ramming, seriously?!). The characters were bland, two-dimensional, dense and bickering between themselves like a bunch of teenagers, not advanced AI captains based on minds of veteran human soldiers. The writing was of poor amateurish fanfic-level at best, 70% of book volume been dialogs exactly following template "blah-blah, X said. blah-blah, Y said. (repeat 100 times)". But the worst offender is cringe-worthy technobabble and technology. Author opted for semi-realistic ships physics, spends a great deal of time talking about collecting and expanding propellant, delta-V, gravity assists and so on, but clearly have no idea how physics really work, resulting in hilarious moments like ships "assuming geostationary orbit" around tidally-locked non-rotating satellites, ship hovering above arbitrary points on planets, landing and taking off planets at will, black holes "sucking" object into them and so on. I'm perfectly fine with fantasy physics in sci-fi if it is backed by the world's lore, just let them have anti-grav tech or something, that's fine. But pretending to have real physics but then completely f*ck it up is beyond pathetic. Also, the author frequently uses existing modern technological terms, but evidently having no clue what they actually mean in real life, so he uses them mostly incorrectly. Just to name a few hilarious examples: he calls a ship's internal knowledge database a "cloud storage" *facepalm* and at one point one AI character in futuristic hyper-realistic VR environment reprimands another for using "ray-tracing shadows" as wasteful. *double facepalm*
December 22, 2024
Bad fantasy pretending to be sci-fi.
The difference between sci-fi and fantasy is that one discusses physics and the other discusses magic. How do you know the difference? Magic doesn’t need to be plausible or constrained. Physics requires plausibility and constraints. The difference then is in how hand-wavy the author is - do they make an effort to explain the complexity they’re hinting at?
This book is my new favourite example of “having technology doesn’t make it sci-fi”
None of the magical technology in this book is plausibly explained. It was stolen from other alien civilisations, that’s it. The list of magical powers bestowed by these alien artefacts read like a child’s superpower wishlist. Invisibility, teleportation, “shockwave”, big space sword, robot swarm army..
This is cheap fantasy masquerading as sci-fi. Low effort, primary school level storytelling. Would have been better if it were witches and wizards in space.
This is the 109th book I have read this year, and so far, the worst.
The difference between sci-fi and fantasy is that one discusses physics and the other discusses magic. How do you know the difference? Magic doesn’t need to be plausible or constrained. Physics requires plausibility and constraints. The difference then is in how hand-wavy the author is - do they make an effort to explain the complexity they’re hinting at?
This book is my new favourite example of “having technology doesn’t make it sci-fi”
None of the magical technology in this book is plausibly explained. It was stolen from other alien civilisations, that’s it. The list of magical powers bestowed by these alien artefacts read like a child’s superpower wishlist. Invisibility, teleportation, “shockwave”, big space sword, robot swarm army..
This is cheap fantasy masquerading as sci-fi. Low effort, primary school level storytelling. Would have been better if it were witches and wizards in space.
This is the 109th book I have read this year, and so far, the worst.
December 12, 2018
Disappointed!
For a "Best selling author", I thought this would have been a better read. The beginning was a waste of time and read like a teenager wrote it. A lot of the story just didn't make sense and had poor flow. Done with Isaac.
For a "Best selling author", I thought this would have been a better read. The beginning was a waste of time and read like a teenager wrote it. A lot of the story just didn't make sense and had poor flow. Done with Isaac.
April 28, 2021
This review refers to the audiobook version
In the future people have volunteered to have their minds recorded and inserted into systems that control space warships. The story starts with one such group of warships who have been involved in some battle and severely damaged. They regroup and repair and then find another ship in a decaying orbit near a gas giant and decide to save it. But things aren't as they seem.
There is a reasonable amount of character development with several existential questions being posed along the way, including do the warship "minds" have souls and the continuity (Start Trek transporter) problem.
The bad-guy aliens are much as expected but seem almost overpowered and the good guys really shouldn't stand any chance against them. A bit of suspension of disbelief is required here.
One glaring thing that bugged me was although each warship has an unique ability (teleporting, cloaking, shooting black holes, etc) they each only have one of these abilities because the tech was stolen by humans from aliens and the humans just use it without understanding it and can't duplicate it. That doesn't bug me. Then another group of warships arrives to investigate what happened to this group and at least one of these ships has several/all of the abilities "that can't be duplicated"????
Anyway, overall a very enjoyable, easy read/listen and I will definitely be reading the next book.
In the future people have volunteered to have their minds recorded and inserted into systems that control space warships. The story starts with one such group of warships who have been involved in some battle and severely damaged. They regroup and repair and then find another ship in a decaying orbit near a gas giant and decide to save it. But things aren't as they seem.
There is a reasonable amount of character development with several existential questions being posed along the way, including do the warship "minds" have souls and the continuity (Start Trek transporter) problem.
The bad-guy aliens are much as expected but seem almost overpowered and the good guys really shouldn't stand any chance against them. A bit of suspension of disbelief is required here.
One glaring thing that bugged me was although each warship has an unique ability (teleporting, cloaking, shooting black holes, etc) they each only have one of these abilities because the tech was stolen by humans from aliens and the humans just use it without understanding it and can't duplicate it. That doesn't bug me. Then another group of warships arrives to investigate what happened to this group and at least one of these ships has several/all of the abilities "that can't be duplicated"????
Anyway, overall a very enjoyable, easy read/listen and I will definitely be reading the next book.
November 9, 2018
Great story!
Written in the MindRefurb universe but several years, centuries?, have passed. Now earth has the ability to put minds in control of space ships as the controlling AI and they are almost indestructible.
As a human Jain was a navy seal when he volunteered for the program to be able to command a spaceship. When he comes on line he realizes he had lost most of his recent memory and almost all of his past. He discovers he is now an AI in a ship. He has an assistant his mind created that has brought him back online and is able to fill in some blank spots. From a fleet of 8 ships 6 have survived and five will need their AI cores rebooted. Jain is faced with repairing his fleet and finding out what happened to them.
It is a fast paced , well thought out story. It's got lots of space battle, human drama, and is a good next step for the MindRefurb universe. I enjoyed reading it very much and will continue to follow the series.
Written in the MindRefurb universe but several years, centuries?, have passed. Now earth has the ability to put minds in control of space ships as the controlling AI and they are almost indestructible.
As a human Jain was a navy seal when he volunteered for the program to be able to command a spaceship. When he comes on line he realizes he had lost most of his recent memory and almost all of his past. He discovers he is now an AI in a ship. He has an assistant his mind created that has brought him back online and is able to fill in some blank spots. From a fleet of 8 ships 6 have survived and five will need their AI cores rebooted. Jain is faced with repairing his fleet and finding out what happened to them.
It is a fast paced , well thought out story. It's got lots of space battle, human drama, and is a good next step for the MindRefurb universe. I enjoyed reading it very much and will continue to follow the series.
September 26, 2018
"On the whim of some second rate admiral."
" Where am i? Where is my body? " When Jain awoke he seemed to be floating in deep space. And he was: his Accompanying A.I. let him view himself from outside. Jain was now a spaceship, a mind refurb - a human implanted into a machine, becoming that machine. Is he still human? The mind refurbs themselves, in the past, have often debated this very notion.
And with him are five other ships, each mind refurb controlled. Together, they are The Space Machinists.
After Mr.Hooke's excellent two series with the melding of man (and woman) and mech, these new refurbs are even bigger, better and a pleasure to read. For anyone who enjoys military science fiction action combined with larger than life characters, great dialogue and humour wrapped up in an intriguing story this is an absolute Do Not Miss.
" Where am i? Where is my body? " When Jain awoke he seemed to be floating in deep space. And he was: his Accompanying A.I. let him view himself from outside. Jain was now a spaceship, a mind refurb - a human implanted into a machine, becoming that machine. Is he still human? The mind refurbs themselves, in the past, have often debated this very notion.
And with him are five other ships, each mind refurb controlled. Together, they are The Space Machinists.
After Mr.Hooke's excellent two series with the melding of man (and woman) and mech, these new refurbs are even bigger, better and a pleasure to read. For anyone who enjoys military science fiction action combined with larger than life characters, great dialogue and humour wrapped up in an intriguing story this is an absolute Do Not Miss.
January 12, 2019
Interesting
This book has an interesting concept, one I haven't run across before. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the book and plan to read on to the sequel.
There are flaws in the book, though. It is good hard science fiction, but quite often it gets bogged down with too much complexity regarding the minutiae and loses the flow of the story. The background of the crew could also be explored further to help the reader establish more of a connection with them.
Overall, Mr. Hooke seemed to become more comfortable with his characters as the book progressed and I suspect this will continue into the second book and beyond. I enjoyed Forerunner, and look forward to seeing what develops next!
This book has an interesting concept, one I haven't run across before. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the book and plan to read on to the sequel.
There are flaws in the book, though. It is good hard science fiction, but quite often it gets bogged down with too much complexity regarding the minutiae and loses the flow of the story. The background of the crew could also be explored further to help the reader establish more of a connection with them.
Overall, Mr. Hooke seemed to become more comfortable with his characters as the book progressed and I suspect this will continue into the second book and beyond. I enjoyed Forerunner, and look forward to seeing what develops next!
August 11, 2021
The future and the need to travel enormous distances has made humanity create digitized minds from scanned individuals. Once the electronic brains are operating they are placed in space going vessels. In this particular series a fleet of Military Ships is recovering after being attacked by an unknown entity and we meet Jain a scan of a ex-Navy Seal. He takes command of the fleet of Digitized Starships. They need to repair and seek what attacked them and how they survived. What follows is a great book filled with action and with the strangest way of seeing AI and Digitized Humans. This one is a great one for the challenges it puts on what could be our future.
October 17, 2018
I was surprised at this book, it's not the typical thing this author writes, but I really liked it,
If you like Jack Campbell's series with Blackjack, then you'll probably like this one, they're both fighting against impossible odds, and doing the best they can to sae their home worlds, even if the people they're fighting for don't know or care it's happening. Very good stuff here, and I certainly hope there's more in the series, I'm adding this series to my watch list to be sure. Very well done here.
If you like Jack Campbell's series with Blackjack, then you'll probably like this one, they're both fighting against impossible odds, and doing the best they can to sae their home worlds, even if the people they're fighting for don't know or care it's happening. Very good stuff here, and I certainly hope there's more in the series, I'm adding this series to my watch list to be sure. Very well done here.
November 28, 2018
Good book, easy to read
Isaac Hooke is new to me. His first AI fleet book is a great sci-fi read, easy to.get through and not too heavy on the science fiction bits. It is a little undeveloped in some areas when compared to other authors, but as it stands I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a refreshing new read that helped me relax into an easy to get into story at the end of a days work. It was super easy honour down and pick up throughout the week. I would recommend it to anyone.
Isaac Hooke is new to me. His first AI fleet book is a great sci-fi read, easy to.get through and not too heavy on the science fiction bits. It is a little undeveloped in some areas when compared to other authors, but as it stands I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a refreshing new read that helped me relax into an easy to get into story at the end of a days work. It was super easy honour down and pick up throughout the week. I would recommend it to anyone.
September 24, 2018
Jain wakes up to fine himself as an AI in a spaceship. He then finds 5 more AI both males and female in the same situation and noone knows what happened.They then find an alien spaceship which provokes them but to fight but ends up in a drwa. Later they meet a fleet from Earth who does not believe their tale and tehy must fight them also .Luckily they have a rift craft and they can leave but meet the alien spaceship again. A well written book and a surprised ending.
September 26, 2018
Wow just wow.
I thought these books were going to get any better and damn they got way better!
If you like somebody trying to figure their way, out against large odds, then this is the book for you because I really enjoyed it.
A great deal of action, thinking and deciding what human and non-human is, and of course never-ending stupidity of military thinking. By this book it's worth the money!
I thought these books were going to get any better and damn they got way better!
If you like somebody trying to figure their way, out against large odds, then this is the book for you because I really enjoyed it.
A great deal of action, thinking and deciding what human and non-human is, and of course never-ending stupidity of military thinking. By this book it's worth the money!
October 22, 2018
He does It again
The a whole new group of mind refurbs are back. As with his other series he has brought us to a new place, time and a new group to explore the reaches of space , and their own “humanity”. Oh and a serious amount of explosions, space battles, and death. I can’t wait to read the next one. If Mr. Hooke happens to read this then .. hell of a great job sir...hell of a great job.
The a whole new group of mind refurbs are back. As with his other series he has brought us to a new place, time and a new group to explore the reaches of space , and their own “humanity”. Oh and a serious amount of explosions, space battles, and death. I can’t wait to read the next one. If Mr. Hooke happens to read this then .. hell of a great job sir...hell of a great job.
September 26, 2018
Good book, but same old story.
I enjoyed the book, I enjoyed the character, but same old story. Good guys fighting aliens with inferior technology always the underdog. I would like to see a sequel with the good guys having superior technology and whipping the aliens back sides. Will be awaiting the next book if he writes a sequel, you will enjoy this book as well.
I enjoyed the book, I enjoyed the character, but same old story. Good guys fighting aliens with inferior technology always the underdog. I would like to see a sequel with the good guys having superior technology and whipping the aliens back sides. Will be awaiting the next book if he writes a sequel, you will enjoy this book as well.
September 29, 2018
I bought this while I was in the airport before a long flight. The flight went by in the blink of an eye!
I really like the overall idea of the book (Mind Refurbs) and the way the author approached their lives as ships. The action in the book is super well thought out, and very satisfying. I am looking forward to the next one in the series.
I really like the overall idea of the book (Mind Refurbs) and the way the author approached their lives as ships. The action in the book is super well thought out, and very satisfying. I am looking forward to the next one in the series.
October 4, 2018
I liked the plot and concept but the amount of dialog wore on me and I found I had to push to finish the book. I prefer staying in the action and not having characters constantly argue about things like the meaning of life, existence or … I get way to much of this in real life and prefer my entertainment to be entertainment an extension of real life verbal conflict. So three stars...
October 18, 2018
Like D&D with spaceships.
Forerunner makes me think, most of all, of a Dungeons & Dragons party-group adventure story with the characters as spaceships.
Some of it aspires to be hard sci-fi in a way that just falls flat with a lot of the elements in it which are anything but, but overall it was a very good, enjoyable read.
Forerunner makes me think, most of all, of a Dungeons & Dragons party-group adventure story with the characters as spaceships.
Some of it aspires to be hard sci-fi in a way that just falls flat with a lot of the elements in it which are anything but, but overall it was a very good, enjoyable read.
January 7, 2019
Too slow
The story overall was interesting, unfortunately it didn’t move quickly enough. There were too many details about the minutia of AI living and not enough conflict and story progression. However, the writing was good and the conflicts that did happen were well written and fun to read. I plan to continue reading and hope the pacing improves.
The story overall was interesting, unfortunately it didn’t move quickly enough. There were too many details about the minutia of AI living and not enough conflict and story progression. However, the writing was good and the conflicts that did happen were well written and fun to read. I plan to continue reading and hope the pacing improves.
February 7, 2019
AI Power
Jain is a MindReferb, a human mind digitized with a space ship for a body. He awakens with no knowledge of what has happened to him. His companions find themselves in a similar situation. The action starts, and builds in a crescendo to the end. Jain is a competent character. I look forward to the next book.
Jain is a MindReferb, a human mind digitized with a space ship for a body. He awakens with no knowledge of what has happened to him. His companions find themselves in a similar situation. The action starts, and builds in a crescendo to the end. Jain is a competent character. I look forward to the next book.
February 15, 2019
I’ve read so many Isaac Hooke books that I’ve lost track, but everything that made you love his writing before is present in this new adventure, Forerunner, the first book of the AI Fleet series. Hooke's changed it up again in this adventure with all the main characters being AIs! I hope to read more from Isaac Hooke in future works.
February 28, 2019
well i got to dk maybe 30 percent but then stopped, the thing is its just poorly executed.
We have a bunch of ex human now AIs who in the end then play human again, we dont get to see much of them as starships because the 30 % i read only played in their vr.
the only thing he adds through the hole starship/AI thing are discussions about the spoul and god and thats it.
We have a bunch of ex human now AIs who in the end then play human again, we dont get to see much of them as starships because the 30 % i read only played in their vr.
the only thing he adds through the hole starship/AI thing are discussions about the spoul and god and thats it.
June 8, 2019
Human brain starships
An amazing sci-fi action novel. The view point of the human brain uploaded into a starship is an unusually entertaining concept and I loved every page.
Great characters with realistic situations and lots of action and adventure.
Aliens and swarm robots attack. Our heroes escape........for now.
I look forward to more from this series 😁
An amazing sci-fi action novel. The view point of the human brain uploaded into a starship is an unusually entertaining concept and I loved every page.
Great characters with realistic situations and lots of action and adventure.
Aliens and swarm robots attack. Our heroes escape........for now.
I look forward to more from this series 😁
September 10, 2022
9 Mobile rift runner. AI with social skills and colloquial speech offsite backups. A Jedi like companion. Drones. I just couldn’t get into this one. Again a great premise but just too ‘blokey’ for me. Explanations of battle strategy. Void warriors. All very noble but not able to recommend to the normal crew at this time.
September 28, 2018
Interesting take on space exploration and the problems that exploration can run into.
Nice solid story that keeps moving, with twists on the reanimation of a human mind, and questions on the topic of having a soul when you are a copy of a human mind.
Nice solid story that keeps moving, with twists on the reanimation of a human mind, and questions on the topic of having a soul when you are a copy of a human mind.
October 14, 2018
Next please
I hate to type, but l liked this book so here goes. If your consciousness is in a machine then you are still the same person, just almost immortal. So all ahead full, to the center of the core worlds.
I hate to type, but l liked this book so here goes. If your consciousness is in a machine then you are still the same person, just almost immortal. So all ahead full, to the center of the core worlds.
October 16, 2018
Enjoyed reading
Enjoyed reading different kind of tale than I usually read mind referb AI controlled ships battling an unknown powerful alien something. Will be looking for a continuing sequel.
Enjoyed reading different kind of tale than I usually read mind referb AI controlled ships battling an unknown powerful alien something. Will be looking for a continuing sequel.
November 18, 2018
This was an unexpected find. I enjoyed the fast paced adventure but the highlight of the book was the clever science. Isaac knows his stuff and does a great job of integrating believable (even if extraordinary) science into this book. Clever concept, well crafted.
January 15, 2019
A good read for new to the refurbs
A good read for the ones new to the refurb minds. I had started with this and lost my place but in a way was glad in the end as ended up reading the whole book twice. Look forward to reading the stories of the ship refurbs
A good read for the ones new to the refurb minds. I had started with this and lost my place but in a way was glad in the end as ended up reading the whole book twice. Look forward to reading the stories of the ship refurbs
February 25, 2019
After beginning Very Good
The beginning of this book has editorial issues with every other chapter repeating. This story of soldiers uploading into war space ships fighting hive mind aliens is very entertaining story.
The beginning of this book has editorial issues with every other chapter repeating. This story of soldiers uploading into war space ships fighting hive mind aliens is very entertaining story.
November 22, 2020
I was pleasantly surprised of how good this book was. Imagine yourself being put into a spaceship. Then, add alien attacks to the mix. We get to see the development of this AI fleet. It was extemely action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews