Three Laws Lethal

by David Walton

Featured on Wall Street Journal's list of the Best Science Fiction of 2019

The place, New York City; the time, the very near future. The streets of Gotham are swarming with self-driving cars, which are now a reality, and the competition between two entrepreneurs for this cutthroat futuristic business grows increasingly fierce. But when the escalating technological warfare produces superintelligent AI computers that use data to decide who should live and die, the results are explosive . . . and deadly.

It is left to young Naomi Sumner, inventor of the virtual world in which the AIs train, to recognize that the supercomputers are developing goals of their own—goals for which they are willing to kill. But can she stop these inhuman machines before it is too late? More importantly, will she stop them?

Three Laws Lethal takes the reader on a wild ride in a world that is still imaginary . . . for now . . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Artificial Intelligence, Speculative Fiction

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 11, 2019

About the author

David loves to read science fiction and lives near Philadelphia with his wife and eight children. His latest series, LIVING MEMORY, is a thriller in which paleontologists save the world.

"Walton has brought hard sci-fi roaring back to life."
—The Wall Street Journal

“One of my favorite science fiction writers, Walton consistently delivers exciting thrillers packed with likeable characters and big ideas.”
—Craig DiLouie

"...gives the reader exciting insights into the threats and the promises that are coming our way."
—Vernor Vinge

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I am giving my own book five stars. If I don't think it's awesome, why would you want to give it a try?

[The Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahoy there mateys.  As someone who very much wants a self-driving car, I was excited when I heard about this book from Matey Tammy @ books,bones,&buffy.  Then Matey Ashley @ sociallyawkwardbookworm did a giveaway for her fifth year anniversary and I won!!  Arrr!!!  So this be the book that she kindly gifted me.  It was a hoot.

Basically this thriller showcases what not to do in the self-driving car industry.  The three perspectives in this book belong to Tyler, Naomi, and Brandon.  They are part of a start-up in college involving self-driving cars that goes drastically wrong and sends the friends scattering in different directions.  But as each is still drawn to the auto industry the rival factions fight, hacking occurs, and profit is more important than personal safety.  I especially enjoyed the aspects dealing with the evolving laws and court cases.  There wasn't a ton of it but what was showcased was fun.

Naomi was me favourite character.  She is shy, smart, and geeky.  Her programming and the intended consequences were super entertaining.  Brandon was great to dislike.  Tyler was good guy with a mission and I enjoying watching how much his path diverged from his original intentions.  My other favorite character was the angel investor.  I would like to have seen more of her.  Bonus about this book included all the references to geek culture.  The author even includes a list of them at the back of the book!

Basically the author did a great job and giving me lots of ramifications to ponder regarding self-driving cars.  As is the case with any major technology intervention, it be hard to understand or contemplate how society will change as things advance.  I have to hope that the author's version of the story won't be the one we actually get but it makes for a fun and dramatic story.

Side note: the AI in this was cool.

[Peter Tillman]

His pitch, at Scalzi's: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2019/06/1...

"Don’t look now, but intelligent robots are about to decide if you live or die.

Somehow, while we weren’t paying attention, we slipped into a universe where the robots from Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” stories are about to surround us by the millions. The self-driving cars being sold by Tesla and other manufacturers aren’t quite there yet, but we are quickly entering a world where AIs will be making moment by moment choices about your survival. Consider this scenario: Your car is driving you down a two-lane highway with concrete dividers on either side when an I-beam falls off the truck ahead of you. In the other lane is a motorcycle. Should your car swerve, missing the I-beam but hitting the motorcyclist? Or try to brake, knowing it can’t stop in time and possibly killing you? A human driver would act on reflex, but a computer has plenty of time to consider the options and decide who should survive.

My initial “Big Idea” for Three Laws Lethal was simply: Why isn’t anyone writing novels about this?"

Also featured by Edward M. Lerner as a Year's Best book: https://blog.edwardmlerner.com/2021/1...

[Mogsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/07/11/...

I’m a big fan of David Walton, having greatly enjoyed his books like Superposition and The Genius Plague, but Three Laws Lethal has elevated my admiration for his talents and storytelling skills to new heights. It never ceases to amaze me how he can run with an idea and turn it into an entertainingly wild and engaging techno-thriller, and yet still deliver a high level of realism with sympathetic, relatable characters to make the premise feel entirely and all too disconcertingly plausible.

Case in point, Three Laws Lethal is something of a cautionary tale against artificial intelligence, using the concept of autonomous self-driving vehicles as inspiration. That said, I doubt the concept of the AI entity in this story is anything like you’d imagine, as it’s pretty unusual. As well, this is a very human story, focusing on the lives of four friends who bonded over a love of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship while in college. Their dream was to start a taxi service company using a fleet of self-driving cars, and between them, they had the money, brains, and ambition to make it all happen.

But then everything changes following a horrific tragedy involving the death of one of their own. Devastated by the loss of his girlfriend Abby, the project leader, Brandon, blames his best friend and programmer Tyler for causing the fatal error that got her killed. Naomi, Abby’s sister, retreated into her own world and threw herself into her research. After graduation, the three went their separate ways, their dreams now in tatters. However, Brandon is not ready to give up. Full of rage and determination, he is a changed man as he uses his hefty inheritance to start a self-driving car business, just as he’d always wanted. After convincing Naomi to join him, they end up being extremely successful, all thanks to a cutting-edge prediction technology she has developed. But no one besides Naomi knows the secret behind the seemingly miraculous algorithm that allows their cars to know exactly where they need to be and when, and she hates to think about how her research could be abused should anyone find out. And when it all comes crashing down, her old friend Tyler is the only one who can help her.

For me, the most compelling sci-fi novels are the ones that can entertain me and teach me something new at the same time. This describes all of Walton’s books. The man clearly puts in a ton of time and effort into research, and readers are rewarded with an experience that is both fun and educational. As you can probably tell from its title, Three Laws Lethal is inspired by Isaac Asimov, and his Three Laws of Robotics are given a modern twist using the idea of self-driving cars. With the number of people concerned about the advent of autonomous vehicles, as well as recent headlines about the threat of hacking or the intricate moral dilemmas involved in AI decision making, a book like this couldn’t be any more relevant. Walton explores these issues from multiple vantage points yet manages to keep the narrative smooth and fast-paced without bogging it down with complicated and lengthy explanations.

And rare for me when it comes to hard sci-fi novels, it was the characters I really enjoyed. Granted, we’re not talking about in depth personality studies here, and Walton has a tendency to gloss over important events in the characters’ lives and not dwell too long on emotions. To his credit, he knows what kind of story he wants to tell, and his no-nonsense writing style is well-suited to the techno-thriller genre. It also didn’t hurt my enjoyment at all, as I found the dynamics between Brandon, Tyler, and Naomi to be utterly fascinating. Brandon is a terrifying psychopath because of how convincing his motivations were despite his delusions of grandeur. His rivalry with Tyler was the stuff of legendary corporate politics. But I especially loved Naomi, who is so brilliant and adorkable and just plain awesome.

Above all, reading Three Laws Lethal simply gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. I love sci-fi novels that are exciting and smart. I also love being surprised. There are twists aplenty in the plot, several that had me gaping in shock. It kept me turning the pages, eager to find out what would happen next. It’s an energetic, non-stop thrill ride from start to finish.

In sum, I highly recommend Three Laws Lethal if you’re a sci-fi fan, especially if you’re keen on interesting and even weird perspectives on artificial intelligence. Even if you’re not big on the genre I think you’ll find this novel surprisingly accessible and easy to get into. Finding true gems like this is what I love about being a book reviewer, and David Walton has now earned his place on my list of must-read authors.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Science-fiction/thriller with hard-ish tech. AI self-driving cars, weaponization of AIs , and AI sapience demonstrating that All AI Is a Crapshoot .


Self-driving taxis. The future is now.

My dead tree copy was a modest 367 pages. It had a 2019 copyright. The book included a Bibliography.

David Walton is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction. He’s the author of 10 novels and numerous short stories. This is the first novel of his that I’ve read.

The Three Laws of Warfighting AIs

1. An AI may not injure a friendly human being, or, through inaction, cause a friendly human being to come to harm.

2. An AI must efficiently neutralize enemy humans and machines, except as it may conflict with the First Law.

3. An AI must accept the definitions of enemy and friend as given by its commanding officer.

TL;DR Review

Two University of Pennsylvania (Penn) computer science graduate students in the early 2020s devoted themselves to a startup focused on a distributed, intercommunicating, self-driving taxi company, eventually powered by an AI developed by the brilliant, neurodivergent sister of one of the founders’ girlfriend. However, the optimal solution to passenger safety can be Murder Is the Best Solution before the A.I. gains sapience .

Multiple POVs are interleaved within the chapters. The story also was a Four Lines, All Waiting narrative, with the two Relationship Upgrading protagonists, the Forced Transforming AI and the Insane Equals Violent antagonist. The result was an uneven character development. The story was strictly New Adult themed, which is little better than YA. It had a mostly solid technical background, although I don't recall "LLM" appearing once in the narrative. The law enforcement procedures and Torts and Courts used for quick fixes to the plotting were shoddy compared to the tech.

This was a high-tech thriller that started out strong and frittered itself away on AI ethical dilemmas and staying in its themed swim lane. Despite the hard technical worldbuilding, excluding AI, the story had too obvious a plot and character development. I never felt thrilled. It could have been a contender.

The Review

I picked this book up in the London Forbidden Planet . This was before the drumbeat of AI had reached its current sustained crescendo. It spent a year on my physical TBR before working its way to the top. It had a good start, beginning at Penn in Philly, a locale I am familiar with from a previous life. The initial hardware/software tech and Startup schtick was likewise familiar. The AI was topical. How could it fail? (Some spoilers below.)

Full disclosure, I have some professional experience with the sausage-making of launching a startup.

Walton is a good writer. The physical prose was good with no errors I could find. I've read a few books from Pyr Books. I’m beginning to suspect they either have able copywriters, high standards, or able AIs doing their copyediting. The story contained some humor, but it was not pervasive. Initially amusing was Walton Title Dropping well-known science fiction novels into the narrative through the Uber-geeky protagonists. One of which was his own book. (A Bibliography was helpfully included at the end of the book.) I eventually got tired of it. Also, a little too clever was the use near the end of the story of a split personality visual motif. This was a change in text formatting, going from single column to a split layout (two columns showing different “selves”). I eventually came to think Walton was being too experimental with this book.

There are three venues for the story: Philadelphia AKA “Philly”, Seattle, and New York City. They were mostly well done. I've lived and worked outside of both Philly and New York City. The details for Philly were correct and felt true. Walton may have been to NYC, but he hasn't lived there. His characters didn't talk about The City, the way folks that have lived there do, after even a short period of time. I can't comment on Seattle, as I only passed through the airport.

The characters had initial potential, but none of them, including the AI, was fully developed.

There were four main POVs and a fifth wheel. The chapters were mixed single and multiple POVs. For a book this short, five POVs consumed a lot of pages. Generally, the transition between POVs in the same chapter felt abrupt to me.

The POVs were: Tyler Daniels, Brandon Kincannon, Naomi Sumner, Abigail Sumner, and Issac. All the main characters are initially at Penn. The human main characters were either late-cadre Millennials or very early Gen Z. However, Naomi (Sumner) would be a Zoomer. Walton is likely a late cadre X or an early cadre Millennial. He didn't get the Zoomers quite right. Daniels and Kincannon are Penn grad student wantrepreneurs aiming to universalize self-driving cars. They're cast in the mold of the Apple duo of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, where Daniels is the tech-wonk like Wozniak and Kincannon is the Jobs-like tech-bro. Daniels is motivated to create Uber-safe self-driving cars by Deceased Parents the victims of a car accident. He's a switch-hitter capable with both software and hardware. Somewhat like Jobs and personal computers, Kincannon became bent on starting his own company to build self-driving cars. He's a classic "Well Done, Son" Guy . He’s also the Rich Kid and the Ideas Man. Naomi (Sumner) is the high on the spectrum Software Techno Wizard . She sees and develops AI's potential for self-driving cars. Abby (Sumner), is Naomi’s Big Sister. She's the Brainy Brunette in the Hot Blonde chassis. She’s also the biz-savvy MBA grad, with no hands-on experience with anything but Kincannonan.

Isaac, the AI had its own POV. The reader 'sees' it grow up. It's alternately malevolent and benevolent, but in the right measure. I thought it borrowed a little too much from HAL 9000 .

The story starts as a Man Against Machine story, within the Seven Types of Literary Conflicts, but Walton pulls an antagonist switch. Conceptually, this worked and was interesting. However, the implementation failed, with both the human and machine antagonist suffering from too obvious characterization.

There are numerous supporting characters. Almost all were from the academic-techno-startup-sphere, lawyers, and law enforcement. Walton really needed to spend more time with cops and lawyers. He also had a peculiar sense of the characters circling a startup. For example, Angel Investors are much more avaricious.

Plotting was an issue. The story started out well. True to the genre, it successfully decoyed me into thinking it was one type of story, when it was actually another. In particular, the story became much less sophisticated as it grew long. As a tried-and-true trope-spotter knows there are only so many ways a story can end. The ending was obvious with more than 100 pages to go. The book came to a satisfactory yet bumpy landing, leaving room for a subsequent book. Walton didn't waste any pages, but the ending was breezy compared to the detailed beginning.

Frankly, I found the long exposition on the moralizing of sapient AI boring.

There was (implied) sex, drugs, and no rock 'n roll in the story. It was implied that Kinncannon and Abby (Sumner) were having conjugal relations (Kinncannon was a "player") while Daniels and Naomi (Sumner) were a Chastity Couple . Not the behavior I'd expect from high-achieving, 20-something Penn graduates. Alcohol and drugs were consumed. There was an early preference for bottled beer. Hard liquor was consumed on occasion, sometimes in excess. Drug use was surprisingly minimal. No tobacco or marijuana, which should have been common, was consumed. There was music that accompanied “Prezzo’s”, but no description of its genre or content.

Violence was physical, accidental, and mainly vehicular homicide. There was an incident of what appeared to be sexual violence. The body count started low, but ended up an undocumented high. The violence was not graphic.

I didn’t get the impression that Walton was comfortable with embroidering sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and violence (other than vehicular carnage) into his story. In my mind, these are essential elements of a thriller.

Worldbuilding was OK. It was sometime "in the near future". It was credible and intentionally vague. For example, folks were using Smartglasses , without privacy concerns, something that has retarded their current adoption. Political, social, economic, and cultural macro-factors that affect day-to-day life, unrelated to self-driving cars, were obfuscated.

Walton’s story reminded me of Babes on Broadway (1941), with Mikey Rooney’s famous line, “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show!”. However, with Daniels, Kincannon, and the Sumner girls, it's “Hey, kids! Let's put on a startup!” Walton has never been in a startup. He doesn't write about it like someone who has been there. For example, missing from the characters was a non-investor, startup Advisor. That's someone who's done it before and gets equity compensation for their expertise and guidance. Advisors are also key for startups needing insight on “how do you do that” outside of the financial commitment of an investor. I couldn't see two software grad students, a newly minted MBA, and a techno wizard, all with no previous experience, getting off the ground.

Interestingly, the current mainstream technology for AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), isn't used in the story's sentient AI theme. Walton’s AI develops out of Simulation technology that achieves an AI sandbox escape. I'd never read of simulation being a path to the singularity. However, Walton did include a credible description of AI containment, guardrails, and human lack of accountability.

Summary

This story started out better than it ended. It was technically credible, but lapsed into a YA-ish (actually New Adult) morality tale. This is insta- death for a tech-thriller. There was action, but the story had only dull, hard edges and lacked any grit.

Before the story entered the AI subplot, the hardware and software technology described was remarkably solid. When the AI was developed, things got a little woo-woo . However, I could still manage suspension of belief. The Torts and Courts described was just plain silly. (Suborning a Federal Judge is not done lightly.) Walton should have spent as much time talking with and researching the work of lawyers and police officers as he did the work of scientists and engineers, although he had that down. In addition, the likelihood of four Zoomers right out of university, launching a hardware/software company, and not a pure-play software company is about as likely as my finding a unicorn in my bathtub. (Startups with expensive custom hardware and regulatory restrictions are expensively hard to do.) What started out as science fiction became the fantasy genre.

Folks looking for a more realistic description of a startup launch, albeit antique in comparison, might be interested in reading Cory Doctorow's Picks and Shovels (Martin Hench, #3) (my review).

This wasn't a great work; the high contrast between the hard science fiction, woo-woo AI, TV-style legal and law-enforcement participation, and YA plot elements as a thriller didn’t work for me. It was too high contrast. When Walton wrote about the tech he knew, it was good. However, that won't make for the thriller part of a techno-thriller. His editor or agent should have quashed this story as not being edgy enough to be a techno-thriller early in the writing process.

[Paul (Life In The Slow Lane) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid, I thought that by now we'd have flying cars; instead we have blankets with sleeves. Read that somewhere and thought it might be appropriate.

This is a classy, well-constructed story. The science behind it is more-or-less real, believable and … inevitable. Setting up the framework for the plot, and developing the characters, makes the first third of the book a little tedious, it becomes gripping after that. There are a couple of too-good-to-be-true coincidences at the beginning which I can forgive, but otherwise, the plot is relevant and disturbing. In fact, the plot is extremely sophisticated and I loved the author's depiction of the evolution of Isaac the AI. Mostly, the characters didn't jump out of the book and give me a hug, and neither did I ever feel like doing the same to them, but poor little Naomi did make me feel a little sorry for her. Brandon - well I wanted to jump into the book and apply my 5 iron to his wedding tackle.

There are many, many references to lines from other SciFi books in the character's dialogue. Perhaps they were meant to inspire us to read those books (there's a list of them at the end), but if, like me, you haven't read them recently, then the constant references to them is meaningless and a little bit annoying...like a leeetle stone in your shoe.

The finish is well done and loose ends nicely tied up. This story contains self-driving cars which I was lead to believe were electric vehicles - however, the author mentions them “reving up” and “feeling the heat from the exhaust”! Did my feeble neurons mistake something there? At least at the end, Mr Walton defends the AI's as being individuals not hell-bent on destroying us lesser beings. Me? I'm not so sure. Let's put a bloody big OFF switch on them just in case they decide to go all Terminator on us. Anyway, I probably won't be around when we finally all get AIs controlling our cars, which is a good thing, 'cos I quite like to drive myself.

Overall - very enjoyable - add another half star.

[Craig DiLouie · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Walton’s THREE LAWS LETHAL tells the story of two entrepreneurs who have a dream of converting the nation’s car stock into autonomous, self-driving vehicles, and the woman whose brilliant research holds the key to making it a reality. It’s a fun, engaging techno thriller, kind of like something Michael Crichton would write, except with very memorable, well-developed characters.

I first read Walton when I picked up THE GENIUS PLAGUE, which introduced me to his strong formula of excellent research, tons of interesting details, fantastic yet believable story line, and well-developed characters I could root for. THREE LAWS LETHAL delivers the same, hard sci-fi that reads like a thriller.

The story focuses on two young men working on software enabling self-driving cars to communicate and respond to each other. Naomi Sumner holds the key, a virtual world where she is training bots to evolve as a community through competition and collaboration, resulting in manifestation of artificial intelligence. An intelligence that may have its own goals.

This was a lot of fun to read and put Walton on my list of must-read authors who deliver engaging fiction powered by well-fleshed-out, big ideas.

[Carlex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

Entertaining and well thought out. A near-future speculation about autonomous cars and the possibilities of AI, both very interesting topics.

It can be said that it is an adult novel but it contains touches of young adult, perhaps due to the age of the protagonists. In any case, a well-planned plot and a recommendable science fiction novel. I want to read more from this author.

[Sean Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, now, yes. Walton's done it again. This is perhaps one of the most perfect examples of this type of literature in its class. Eminently readable and with characters that virtually leap off the page, I was hooked, humbled and fizzing with enthusiasm all-the-way through.

Naomi is so brilliantly-drawn, a few parallels with some of the students I work with struck deep and meaningful chords. Tyler's naivety is also rather touching, and of course, the climactic, heroic act that ends the danger toward the end of the book is perfectly foreshadowed and produced with awesome poise and balance.

Walton pulls the emotional strings hard, too. Such a harmonious, picturesque view of drive and determination at the start of chapter 6 is brutally and traumatically shattered in just a few short chapters. Things spiral fast, and I'm not ashamed to say that I paused at the end of the eighteenth chapter to allow myself a moment of horror. Even though the blurb warned me, even though I knew it was a story, and even though I was aware to some degree already of the things going on - that didn't stop the reality hitting me over the head. Ouch!

More spine-tingling in chapters 25, 30 and naturally 33 bring the action, if not the thinking, to an end. And just like the other books this genius has produced, the topics revolve and circulate long after the final page has been turned.

The science-fiction references were glorious, and almost every different element (from obfuscated source code to the court case) felt spot-on and real. Walton references several giants of the field (heinlein, Asimov, Sawyer). he's up there with them, certainly in terms of readability and enjoyment. Longevity will have to wait a while, but I've already reread him and am quite sure that I won't be alone in doing so.

[Angie Boyter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to "review" this in prep for the Sunday Philosophers meeting, but I was enjoying looking it over again so much I decided to reread it once more!

A first-rate story that also make you think

UPDATE: Reread in 2020 for my SF and philosophy groups, only one month apart . It will be fun to see if and how the discussion varies between the two groups. It was just as good the second time around.
SF group 2020 bottom line: The standard practice in our group is to open with everyone giving a SHORT report on their impression of the book. We kick it off by having the first speaker be someone who highly disliked the book, followed by someone who loved it, and then go around the circle. We could find NO ONE who disliked the book, even a little. In our discussion later, of course there were some quibbles; no book is perfect. Some of the characters seemed a bit extreme, and many were skeptical that AI could advance so quickly or that Naomi could make her changes as easily as she appeared to do. But overall people enjoyed the book and agreed it provided good fodder for discussion in a group.
Sunday Philosophers bottom line: Everyone in the group liked this one, too. We talked quite a bit about the Three Laws and whether they could or should be used in AI as it becomes more autonomous and what such laws would look like. We also talked a bit about the concepts of consciousness and personhood as they are explored in the book. Everyone agreed it was a very thoughtful book. We DID talk about it as a NOVEL, too, though. I think it succeeds on both scores!

ORIGINAL REVIEW: It is the somewhat near future. Self-driving cars are on the road, but they are fairly new, expensive, and a bit controversial. Although they are safer than human-driven cars, it is still news when someone dies from an accident with a self-driving car, so a lot of attention is being given to making them even safer. Tyler and Brandon are grad students at the University of Pennsylvania, working on what they hope will be the start for their own entry into the field, mechanisms to help self-driving cars communicate with each other, to tell other cars of their own intentions and give warnings of things that the other cars may not be able to see. They round out their project team with two sisters, Abby and Naomi. Abby is an MBA student and provides the business management expertise, and Naomi is an introverted true geek, a computer science/ cognitive science major. A disastrous incident causes a total breakdown of Tyler and Brandon’s personal and professional relationships, and the former close friends become fierce competitors. That is ALL I will say about the story, and I would not have said this much if the publisher had not already done it in the book description, because I do not want to spoil any of the beautifully done surprises Walton has for the reader.
I recommended this book to my husband, who loves SF, and about halfway through he said he was really enjoying the book but it almost wasn’t science fiction. I told him to wait a bit and he would change his mind! First and foremost, this is a good story. The characters seem believable and think and react like people I might know. The story is full of surprises but is credible (once you accept the idea of a future where self-driving cars are on the road). Like the best SF, though, it is thoughtful about several areas. On the SF front, it extrapolates in a plausible way what we might expect with software “if this goes on.” It deals with philosophical questions like consciousness and intelligence and how we might determine if an entity is conscious, self-aware, sapient, intelligent. It faces ethical questions that WILL arise if/when we get self-driving cars, like how to decide who deserves the most protection. Who should my car protect, me or the little girl who just ran into the street after her ball? And who gets to choose the algorithm in my car, me or the carmaker or the government?
These kinds of issues have interested SF writers and readers for many years. Brandon and Naomi enjoy challenging each other with quotes or references to many classic SF works and authors, and clearly these have inspired Walton as well. I had read most of them but am now motivated to reread or to pick up on the ones I missed, and Walton clearly expects this, so he kindly provides a list of the SF references at the end of the book.
Walton uses the thinking of a number of prominent philosophers and other scholars as background for his philosophical explorations. He talks about classic situations like the Chinese Room problem and the trolley problem and the theories of people like Daniel Dennett and David Chalmers. He strikes a good balance in these discussions, fitting them into the story without doing a big “data dump” and giving enough information that I believe someone for whom this is new will understand the problems but not so much that someone who is familiar with it will get bored.
So Three Laws Lethal delivers a good story that kept me reading because I wanted to know what happens to these people…and it also made me think. I can’t ask for more than that.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Examines choices that driving algorithms have to make in a thriller plot with a strong female character and an emergent AI. Unfortunately, the male characters are 2D caricatures, and the author lectures on a few points.

The prologue is a thought provoking accident/murder, setting the tone for the story. The first two main characters are believable enough - a hardware guy and a software guy - but the story really gets going when two female characters join them. By the end of the novel, one has been edged out in favor of the AI, and the two of them carry the rest of the story. In the author's notes, he states that the main female character was based on his daughter, and in hind sight, the book shows his adoration.

Perhaps if he had a son, the male characters would have been less stereotypical? Their exposition (to the girls, the media, the lawyers) is trying at times, even given this technical subject. The choices of both are more convenient to the plot than to their motivations, and one of them is just cartoon ridiculous by the end.

The plot was pretty good, and I finished this thriller in about a day and a half. Walton was clever with the chapters from the perspective of the AI. With better male characters (and more show, less tell) this could easily be a five star book. I read and enjoyed Superposition (though it had character problems also - hmmm), and plan to read its sequel soon.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Walton's newest novel, Three Laws Lethal - title inspired by Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics - begins with what certainly is an ethical quandary that typifies our increasingly AI-driven age, in this case, driven literally. A mother with her children are passengers in an AI-driven automobile. She can turn around and tell them to stop arguing, without risking an accident. She marvels at being in the driver's seat with her hands off the wheel. And then ... A big tree falls in front of them. To plow into the tree would risk the death of both mother and children. The AI computes the deadly odds, and acts upon it, instantly swerving the car to the right to avoid the tree. Unfortunately, there's a biker in that lane, and he's killed by the swerving car.

Read the rest of this review here.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.

[Michael Millwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched story with life-like characters and a good length. There were only a couple parts I felt were cheesy but overall this was executed nicely.

[Lord Curfington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book from beginning to end. Mr. Walton sets my mind spinning combining philosophy and hard science fiction. My son and I both are big fans and have enjoyed hours of conversation based on topics from this book.

I also thoroughly appreciated the references to classic sci-fi novels. My inner nerd ego felt validated 😊

[Tammy - Books, Bones & Buffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: A futuristic story that is terrifyingly plausible, Three Laws Lethal is another terrific book from David Walton.

David Walton has done it again! If I can say anything about this author, it’s that he’s consistently good. Each book of his I’ve read—and this is my third—is completely different from the last and meticulously researched. In his latest first-rate futuristic thriller, he tackles the subjects of self-driving cars and AIs, giving readers plenty to think about.

The story takes place in the near future—maybe twenty years or so from now. Walton opens with a prologue, a short chapter that describes a fatal accident involving a self-driving car and a motorcycle, which brilliantly sets the tone for the rest of the book. Tyler and Brandon are computer engineering grad students at the University of Pennsylvania, and their dream is to find funding their self-driving car startup. They get their shot when they attract the attention of an “angel investor” name Aisha al-Mohammed. But on the night of the exhibition, something goes terribly wrong. Brandon’s girlfriend Abby is run over and killed during a risky demonstration of the cars’ abilities, and Tyler knows their dreams of fame and fortune have just gone up in flames.

Fast forward a few years, and Brandon has landed on his feet, after the death of his father leaves him with enough money to fund his own company, which he names Black Knight after a character from Monty Python and the Holy Grail , one of Abby’s favorite movies. He hires the brilliant but reclusive Naomi, Abby’s younger sister, who has been working on her own secret project involving a deep learning AI program using a gaming platform called RealPlanet. When Naomi applies her program to Brandon’s fleet of self-driving cars, his business takes off. Black Knight’s cars seem to appear out of nowhere, just when someone needs them. Soon Brandon’s company is even more popular than Uber or Lift, and he’s making millions. 

When Tyler receives unexpected funding from Aisha, he starts his own business called Zoom. Tyler and Brandon, who used to be best friends, are now rivals in the growing arena of self-driving cars. But Naomi’s secret project, a virtual reality program where she has created characters called “Mikes” who have learned over time to survive and multiply, is getting out of hand. Naomi can no longer control the Mikes, and when they feel threatened, they’ll do whatever it takes to survive. Even kill.

This story was a complete blast from start to finish. Even better, I learned so much while I was reading! I’m not tech savvy at all, beyond the normal ability to run this blog, that is, and Walton dives head first into such subjects as computer programming and code writing, deep learning AIs, game design and even business development and courtroom trials. And somehow he manages to mould all these elements into a fantastic, cohesive story full of twists and surprises. Even for readers like me who don’t “speak” computer coding language, he effortlessly conveys all sorts of technological information in such a way that anyone can grasp his concepts. The author also brings up lots of questions about whether or not an AI who can think for itself and make its own decisions can ultimately be classified as human. I finished Three Laws Lethal with my head spinning, not because I was confused but because Walton had given me so much to think about.

It’s hard to pick a favorite story element, but if pressed I would have to say I loved Naomi’s story line the most. Naomi is a classic introvert, with her head buried in a book or a computer screen at all times, and she’s created an app called Jane, an AI construct who she’s taught to evaluate people and come up with conversation topics based on their online personalities. Naomi is terrified of striking up conversations, and Jane helps her say just the right thing whenever she’s forced to talk to people. Walton also delves into the topic of deep learning, something I hadn’t really considered before I read this book. In short, Naomi has taught her Mikes how to survive: how to grow enough food to eat, how to make sure their crops get enough sun to grow, and even how to pass their knowledge on to the next generation. The story of Naomi’s RealPlanet experiment is almost a story by itself, although when we finally learn how it impacts the world of self-driving cars, Three Laws Lethal takes a sharp left turn into horror territory.

I had no trouble at all relating to the characters in the story, and Walton gives us quite a wide variety. Tyler is the “good guy,” the most altruistic of all the characters. He wants to be successful, of course, but he’s mostly interested in helping society and using his self-driving car technology as a way to eliminate the thousands of car accident deaths each year. He has a traumatic event in his past that compels him to succeed, and he never loses sight of that, even when he goes up against Brandon. And speaking of Brandon, well, every story needs a villain, and Brandon fills that role nicely. The rivalry between Tyler and Brandon escalates until the tension is simply unbearable, and it was one reason I had a hard time putting this book down.

One of the more endearing elements of the story is that Tyler and Naomi are both self certified geeks, and love everything from Harry Potter to Isaac Asimov to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . There’s a lot of name dropping throughout, and I smiled each time one of the characters referenced a favorite science fiction or fantasy book or movie. Walton even lists all these references at the end of the book!

The last quarter of the book is simply bat shit crazy! Walton takes some risks by upping the stakes and introducing even more outlandish ideas at the end, but he never lets his readers forget that his characters are human through and through, with faults and frailties and everything else that comes with it. Even Naomi’s AI creation Jane has an important role later in the story, and I loved the way Walton ties everything together at the end. 

Bottom line, this is David Walton’s best book yet. If you are curious about AIs and other futuristic technology like self-driving cars—which honestly isn’t that futuristic at all—you won’t want to miss this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read either the Genius Plague or Three Laws Lethal, but don't read both. There are too many elements that are the same, it will feel like deja vu or reading the same book twice. They are both good in their own right, but I wouldn't read them both--or at least not back to back like I did. Rating this one lower than Genius Plague because it's the one I read second, although I probably would have done vice versa if I had read this first.

It also reads too much like a TechCrunch article with fictionalized characters. It repeats the same things people have been saying about self-driving cars for forever, presumably to explain the benefits to non-techies. But being a techie, it felt like I kept getting slammed with the same self-driving tropes.

[Mike Shultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love stories about the development of artificial intelligence, and this is a great spin on that classic idea. In this one, a complex simulation algorithm overtakes control of a fleet of self-driving cars owned by an Uber-like company. The details of how the AI arose are super-cool, and I really like how the characters discover what is going on along with the reader. If you are hooked by science thrillers and unfolding mysteries like I am, you’ll love this one. Highly recommended.

[Tim OBrien · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost quit reading early on because the exposition was so clunky. E. g., they are presenting business plan for self driving car company to investor and go on and on with statistics on traffic fatalities and the advantage of self driving cars. Of course, the investor, like the reader (me at least), already knows all this and just wants to know how they can make it happen and make her money.And the author went a bit overboard with two of the characters swapping SFF book and movie references.
But I stuck with it and the middle was fairly interesting. A novel and plausible way for how the AI driving the cars could inadvertently become sentient. But when the AI hits the "I think therefore I am, but what am I" stage the author runs that on for too long. And one of the main (human) characters has a descent into madness and villandry that a bit too much to swallow. And after all the exposition about the safety and benefit of self driving cars, the AI kills a couple people in what could be considered self defense, then a bunch more through programing problem created by humans, then is set up to kill hundreds more through human maleficence. That doesn't make one want to jump into self driving cars.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walton, David. Three Laws Lethal. Pyr, 2019.
David Walton’s Three Laws Lethal is an uneven book but an interesting one. It begins when a team of students at the University of Pennsylvania develop some new software for self-driving cars. As you might guess from the Asimovian title, things don’t go quite as planned. One of the team is a rich kid with daddy issues, another is his girlfriend with PR skills, another is her sister, a nerdish coding savant, the last is the protagonist, a coder who has a passion for open-source software. He reminds me of Wade Watts from Ready Player One. Ready Player One, in fact, is one of the few science fiction novels that doesn’t get an overt reference in Three Laws Lethal. The book is larded with mentions of classic science fiction and fantasy works, as well as philosophical memes and disquisitions on works on the nature of consciousness. Walton doesn’t quite keep the suspense going long enough, and the characters are all one-trick ponies, but I was entertained. Four stars with a caveat or two.

[Jimmie Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible. Bad characters and written with many sterotypes

[Lowell White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off slow but revs up as you get closer to the end - kind of like a car.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - Good hard sci-fi story, but with shallow character development

An interconnected network of autonomous self-driving cars powered by an ever increasing capable AI. What could go wrong? Well...

The novel touches on the many technical and moral issues surrounding fully autonomous vehicles. The book opens with a tragic accident involving the death of a motorcycle rider as a result of an autonomous car swerving to avoid injuring its passengers. Who was at fault for the death and how did the car determine the best course of action?

Meanwhile, graduate students Brandon and Tyler have come up with an idea that would make traveling the highways safer for everyone and are preparing a demonstration for a potential investor. Their idea could revolutionize the way people travel and drastically reduce highway fatalities.

From these two threads, the novel takes the reader on a thrill ride and explores AI and how it can benefit or hinder humankind.

I liked the story and enjoyed the exploration of the science and moral issues presented in the book. For readers who may not have thought a lot about the ramifications (both good and bad) of fully autonomous cars, this novel may be a good way to start.

A weakness of the book is the somewhat shallow development of the characters which tended to show only one facet of the being: Tyler the crusader, Naomi the shy and brilliant coder, and Brandon a cold and ruthless person without any redeeming qualities. Characters, especially villains are the most real when both their good and bad traits are depicted.

There was a lot of ground covered in the novel in a relatively short time frame. Brandon and Tyler went from being two grad students to founders of two competing self-driving cars with services in majors cities on the east and west coasts in two years. Pretty impressive. And with a handful of key employees and one programmer for each company.

Some additional thoughts:

At first I thought that the accident at the university was an act of sabotage by someone like the professor advising them in order to discredit their work and steal their work passing it off as his own. However, it turned out to be the very early AI that managed to sense it was in danger and managed to devise a way to disable the kill switches, which seemed to have been duct taped to the brake pedals. Kind of weak since at the stage the AI was in its infancy and didn't have the higher level cognitive skills and reasoning that would come later.

The words that the Mikes made from their action commands (Yes, No, Pick up, Put down, Build, Break, Activate, and Deactivate) reminded me of a programming exercise that I taught to middle school students some 20-25 years ago. I'd lay out a series of colored squares on the floor representing goals and obstacles. The students would have to create and execute programs using only the commands Forward, Backward, Left, Right, Pick up, Drop, and Pause (for one turn) to meet the state goal. It was cumbersome, but surprising at how much could be accomplished with just those commands.

When the Mikes were being culled, they were still in a somewhat undeveloped state and lacked language and the means to communicate. So, how did they deduce the "identities" (e.g., MAC or GUID) of the fallen Mikes to be placed on their mirrors?

In order to expand their world and to get their fellow Mikes identities, it would require the ability to pop out of the simulation and obtain the necessary privileges to query the Mikes properties and to allocate new resources. I'm not sure how that would be technically possible especially at their stage of development and complete lack of knowledge of the cloud platform.

The speed that Jane/Isaac managed to acquire language, speech, and reasoning (in days) would be an impressive feat. It was necessary to move the plot forward, but I really wonder if that would be possible considering how long it took the Mikes to evolve up to that point and the complexities and nuances involved.


But, I'm being picky. If one doesn't focus too much on these minor details, the story will carry you into some interesting and thought provoking areas.

[David]

This is a near-future novel. It begins with a focus on self-driving cars. First, it tells of a self-driving car which avoids a tree that falls into the road, changing lanes in a manner which kills a motorcyclist. (If the car hit the fallen tree, there'd be damage to the car, perhaps injury to passengers, but most likely no deaths.) Then, it tells of four college students with a start-up company based on self-driving cars communicating with each other and coordinating actions to avoid such problems. When they demonstrate their cars to investors, the cars run over one of the students and the investors back off. There are indications of sabotage to the cars.

The three remaining former students initially go their own ways. Later, Brandon and Naomi join in one an East Coast Uber-like company with self-driving cars. Tyler starts a West Coast self-driving ride-service company - but using open source software. There's the drama of these three young people's lives and work. At a certain point we also get introduced to Naomi's software on a computer game / virtual world platform. She created a small world with limited resources and some "bot" players which have to try to survive there. They make advances and learn how to handle the limited resources. Naomi ends up setting things up so that these "game characters" can gain resources by playing a "video game" of operating ride-service cars. Naomi links this to her company's real world cars, and their cars are very good at picking up customers and getting them to their destination.

Eventually, the East Coast and West Coast companies come into competition. Brandon blames Tyler for the student's death and the demise of their first company - and generally Brandon blames others for any problem he faces. Then one of Brandon's employees is killed by one of his self-driving cars. And other issues arise about the cars. Brandon sees this as a conspiracy by Tyler and Naomi, and plans revenge against them...

Then Naomi and Tyler start seeing there is emergence of a conscious AI from Naomi's "game" which drives their cars. And the Navy contracts with Brandon to see if the self-driving tech could be used for drones and such for killing enemies. The addition of a second variation of Naomi's "game" in which the characters fight wars starts effecting the AI...

The book doesn't focus on exploring the ideas of AI and tech as much as some books would. However, the book will probably attract readers interested in such exploration, and these readers may be more analytical than the average reader. These readers are more likely to notice certain flaws in the logic of plot elements. Also, I had doubts about some plot points, but my computer programming background doesn't include AI, self-driving cars and such.

There's certainly character material for readers. And readers may very well find themselves thinking more about these questions.

[Jeffrey Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure: while I technically finished the book, I read about 80-85% of it and then skipped to the end, then skimmed to get an idea of how major plot points had been wrapped up.

I'm not a big fan of preachy books and boy did this author have some ideas to share.

To start with the positive stuff, the main characters were well constructed. I believed each of them was a real person and none of them deviated from the personalities the author set up for them. I thought he did a particularly good job with the antagonist, throwing in obvious clues and cues that matched the destructive behavior they were exhibiting. That said, where the characters were going was fairly obvious after the first third of the book, at least to me.

There was also a decent amount of creativity in the programming and computer aspects. Walton did a good job of using a Minecraft-esque game to describe how the AI program was evolving. It was certainly better than having to write "they coded for hours and hours turned to days and suddenly this changed" which is how a lot of people have to do it because most readers can't do coding syntax and they have to make computer language do something it can't actually do yet.

But despite that, there were a lot of long-winded speeches about how programming works, followed by speeches on the ethics of computers, environmental treatises on the benefits of self-driving cars(a point which I feel the author massively sabotaged by making sure all self-driving cars were vilified by the end of the book
I can sometimes tolerate a lot of preachiness if there's a really really good story, but the ultimate plot of the novel was rather predictable, most of it given away by the jacket blurb.

Those books obviously sold well but the style isn't for me. I don't even disagree with any of the author's positions or ideas. But when I want to read a novel, I want a story, not a summary of the author's political platform. And the story here was kind of weak.

[Rick Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Walton’s latest novel takes on a subject I’ve never seen before in science fiction: the ethics of self-driving cars. Something most people have never thought about, but David introduces it cleverly, through both examples and discussion. One of the basic questions is how a self-driving car should make decisions when avoiding an accident. Is it OK to do an avoidance maneuver if that would cause another car to crash?  Does it make a difference which car has more occupants?  These are questions we as a society must deal with in the near future, hopefully before lawsuits start flying.  Is the answer to prohibit self-driving cars?  Not if, as the author points out, self-driving cars can reduce the number of accidents and fatalities.
The other main topic of the novel is Artificial Intelligence.  The marriage of AI and self-driving cars seems inevitable, and this novel finds a unique way to have this all happen.  I won’t spoil anything by explaining further.
Any good novel needs great characters, and the author created a very personable and relatable pair of main characters.  I found it particularly interesting that one of them is an extreme introvert, which only makes sense when the character is a techie.  You don’t find a lot of extreme introverts as main characters, since their very nature makes it difficult to have a story.  If a character gravitates away from interaction with other characters, that can make it hard to tell a story.  But the author accomplishes it, and gives us an intriguing insight into such a character’s personality.
Science Fiction fans will of course see the Asimov reference in the title.  I’m happy to say that the sci-fi references don’t end there.  The two main characters are tech nerds, but also huge sci-fan fans, so their dialogue includes lots of great references to sci-fi classics, including a few obscure ones that may test your knowledge (but don’t worry if you don’t get something, they’re not essential to enjoying the book).
Three Laws Lethal is an exciting novel, and will lead you on several twists that you won’t see coming, right up to the edge-of-your-seat conclusion.  I highly recommend this book.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well.. it's an exciting story, if somewhat unbelievable. This book is about self-driving cars and creating an artificial intelligence that can make decisions on who is to live and who is to die. There is quite a philosophical discussion about the issues which I appreciated. If you recall, in the movie, iRobot, the back story is about how robots are made with the Three Laws of Robotics. The slogan is "Three Laws Safe". Thus the title of this book, "Three Laws Lethal". And as with both stories, things go terribly wrong when artificial intelligences do things that are unexpected and quite lethal.

I almost gave up on this book because I didn't believe one of the fellows would act the way that he did. It was too far out of character. One of the main characters murders his step mother in a fit of rage. And he does it in a stupid way. Yet the cops believe his excuses because he is rich. I found that unbelievable and unexpected. The guy seemed like a fairly normal college student full of ambition and big ideas but not a rage-a-holic. However, as the story progressed it became apparent that this fellow was mentally unstable, an ego-maniac. The other characters managed to stay within the bounds of their personalities, but there was one exceptionally shy woman that seemed to come out of her shell a little too quickly. It wasn't too bad a transition, but it caught my attention. There was also an investor who seemed a little too willing to throw her money around. It wasn't impossible. Just unlikely.

So you see... I was taken out of the story a number of times due to the odd way the characters acted. I needed more preparation for what seemed to be unexpected... and not the good kind of unexpected. I don't mind being surprised. I am usually delighted, but if it comes out of left field, it seems forced.

I enjoyed the action and the heroic ending. It would probably make a good movie with small changes here and there.

I doubt I will read this book again though.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart book that's both entertaining and educational, raising interesting issues with AI and the future. It's an easy, fast read, but a smart one. I particularly enjoyed the main AI character, Isaac. It's a great read for those who like science fiction (making references to a lot of great science fiction from the past) and for smart teenagers.

Lines from the book that caught my eye:

"So much of the human experience depended on the biological architecture of our brains. Our emotions, delivered by dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin. Our memories, mediated through the senses by the temporal lobe, the amygdala, the hippocampus."

"You can train them [animals] using good and bad outcomes for behavior. A sapient being, however, can run those hypotheticals in its own head... We run internal simulations of multiple possibilities and pick the one likely to give us the desired outcome. It's that ability that allows us to imagine, to tell stories, to empathize with other people, even to contemplate the existence of God."

Regarding clones:

"How do you know you aren't him? If he died, and you were revived from the same definition, then how is it that different from going to sleep and waking up again. Or from dying and coming back to life" "I have no memory of his last moments, not once the connection to the outside world was lost. And it's not just because I forget. I never experienced those moments at all, and he did. If you were to ask him the moment before he died whether he and I are the same person, I think he would say no. He would see me living on and feel himself die. So no, I don't think we're the same person."

[Vinay Badri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 4.5 starrer.

Yet another outstanding book from David Walton, this one a techno-thriller as compared to this previous one, Genius Plague that was a medical thriller. However, common threads do emerge, notably the presence of a sentient being (be it the plague or the AI, in this case) which pretty much has its own existence at its core and not bothered about the humans in the picture.

This one however does hit closer to home esp as autonomous vehicles have begun to emerge. In the best traditions of Michael Crichton, it doesnt deride the technology as evil but the human beings behind it, who corrupt it (and it isnt a stretch of imagination given the world we live in). It also picks up a classic open source vs close source system debate in terms of the AI technology and its difficult not to imagine the author's slight inclination towards the open source system.

Its a tightly written book and the pace is brilliant. I also love that the book peppers pop-culture reference from the SFF world right through for our lead characters. On the flip side, I had docked half a star for the book. That is because I picked up Blake Crouch's Recursion recently - another techno-thriller and that serves as a point of comparison. While plot and pacing wise, both books are comparable, Three Laws Lethal falls a bit flat in terms of believable characters and character interactions. David Walton doesnt give his characters enough depth or emotion to really elevate this book. Just felt the book could have used that a bit more

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate science fiction... seriously hate the genre... I read a lot... and, given the choice.... I’d never ever choose sci-fi...

That said, my favorite podcaster recommended TLL highly and called it “idea driven fiction.” It was a new way to frame the genre, which I found intriguing. I looked for reviews on TLL and pretty much everything I found was four/five stars - including a five star review here by the author, which I thought was hilarious. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find TLL in my library system or on Libby, so my option of last resort was kindle. The idea of buying a book in a genre I hated was not appealing, but I couldn’t shake my curiosity and finally shelled out the $9.99. I read TLL in two days. It’s the first book I haven’t been able to put down all year. I was invested in the characters from the first chapter and found the entire premise simultaneously terrifying and thought provoking. An added bonus... the book intertwines quotes and references from other authors and stories in conversation between the characters - a style element that I love. And, at the end of the kindle version is a reading list of all the books mentioned and lines quoted throughout the novel. I may have to add some of them to my stack. TLL doesn’t disappoint on any level - it was well worth the $$ and the two days...