Blue Screen: How Peter Gustafson Defragmented the World

by Kyle Benzle

Peter Gustafson wants to save the world. In the year 2984, Peter is an average kid with a secret; he’s a well-behaved tenth-grader by day but cryptographic entrepreneur and hacker by night. When the electricity mysteriously goes out in his hometown, Peter takes it upon himself to investigate. The adventure leads the young hacker to a large transmitting station and into a battle of wits with the greatest AI ever created. The machine requires a human to help "throw the switch" and give it full control so engineered the power outage as a test to lure its latest recruit, Peter Gustafson.

Genres: Science Fiction

164 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 3, 2020

About the author

Like many science fiction writers before him, Kyle Benzle was born and raised in the midwest, served in the US Navy, then spent 10+ years working as a research scientist in academia. In a failed attempt to fight burnout Kyle started writing science fiction before turning to it full time in 2019. Kyle is deeply involved in the cypherpunk movement and writes for a variety of reviewers and blogs. He lives with his two young children in Columbus, Ohio.

Reviews

[Robbie Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terminator?

As a first novel Kyle Benzle has done a good job in capturing what might happen if the Skynet(tm) or others like it were to take over, but not in an insane military way.

Looking forward to more from Kyle

[Thelmar Geraldashk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book from a first time author. Think 1st Harry Potter + Snow Crash. Great for hard science fiction lovers :)

[Victor Powler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kyle Benzle you book deserve 10 star rating but I am giving you 5 star as a first time writer. Keep it up. I will surely recommend it.wel done work

[Bryan Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprising and Mind Blowing

This is a neat book to read for a good 2 hours or so. I was shocked at the twists and turns the novella provided and the novella as a whole left me in shock. I also appreciate the many tech references this books throws out every once in a while, and after reading this book, you'll question the morality and ethics of AI. Great book for a good time.

[Robert L Hutcherson Jr]

Good read... entertaining

A good interesting read with good characters, if a bit one dimensional. An interesting plot twist makes this hard to put down.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very unusual and, possibly, unique story. Not always easy to follow but always interesting and thought provoking. It lost at least one star for me owing to the regular use of computer jargon in the story and while this was arguably necessary for the story it made it difficult to understand.

[Kayrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flew through this story today, I didn't want to stop reading! If you liked Snow Crash and Black Mirror, I predict that it's likely you will also enjoy this :-)

Having a computer science background helps with understanding the more technical aspects of the book.

[AudioBookReviews.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good AI book and this is one of my favorite in a long time. Its fun to image what a super powered AI would act like and Blue Screen does a great job of exploring that.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blue Screen presented a fascinating concept, and was interesting to read. I have to admit to getting lost in some of the coding sections, but the idea was strong and the story pulled me in.

[dawn makowski]

I was unable to review this book as I could not download it

[Kathryn Finneran · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book by a promising new author!

[Scott Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun fast read

Pretty easy book to read. Read it on a plane ride home in one sitting. I’d recommend it any day.

[Johnie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it highly to anyone that like machine intelligence and its' consequences.