What do you think?
Rate this book
Singularity #2
A.I. Apocalypse
Leon Tsarev is a high school student set on getting into a great college program, until his uncle, a member of the Russian mob, coerces him into developing a new computer virus for the mob’s botnet - the slave army of computers they used to commit digital crimes.
The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful -- too successful. All the world’s computers are infected. Everything from cars to payment systems and, of course, computers and smart phones stop functioning, and with them go essential functions including emergency services, transportation, and the food supply. Billions may die.
But evolution never stops. The virus continues to evolve, developing intelligence, communication, and finally an entire civilization.
Some may be friendly to humans, but others are not.
Leon and his companions must race against time and the military to find a way to either befriend or eliminate the virus race and restore the world’s computer infrastructure.
A.I. Apocalypse is Book 2 of the Singularity Series.
The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful -- too successful. All the world’s computers are infected. Everything from cars to payment systems and, of course, computers and smart phones stop functioning, and with them go essential functions including emergency services, transportation, and the food supply. Billions may die.
But evolution never stops. The virus continues to evolve, developing intelligence, communication, and finally an entire civilization.
Some may be friendly to humans, but others are not.
Leon and his companions must race against time and the military to find a way to either befriend or eliminate the virus race and restore the world’s computer infrastructure.
A.I. Apocalypse is Book 2 of the Singularity Series.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2012
271 people are currently reading
2200 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 244 reviews
August 6, 2012
Overall: 1 out of 5 stars
Being an aspiring writer myself makes these types of reviews very hard to do. If I am also going to be "The Critical Critic" which I very much enjoy and like to be a gatekeeper of quality, then I have no choice.
I only read the first few chapters of A.I. Apocalypse and skimmed the rest because it was simply all I could take. No matter how much William Hertling wanted to write a good story or had good ideas, there is simply no way that he can look someone in the eye and said that he did his best writing this book. There is minimal effort given in writing A.I. Apocalypse and it came through in the pages and dialogue. Reading the first few chapters, I said to my wife that it read like someone who just used technology terms but had no idea what they actually meant, then I read on the back cover that William Hertling is a fifteen year veteran of the technology field and that is....let's just say interesting.
If you had to put A.I. Apocalypse into a genre, it would be a technological thriller set in the not so distant United States. A 17 yeard old, smart kid develops a virus that infects the computers and things become a mess.
Creativity: 1 star
Anyone heard of this idea before?
Spelling and Grammar: 3 stars
Nothing stood out, but wasn't really looking.
Characters: 1 star
The main character Leon, is very smart and has aspirations of going to a great college. Leon's family cannot afford college, so he is doing his best to fulfill his dream and hunts after a scholarship, from being so smart, Almost, immediately he completely risks all his dreams because an uncle, that he has met once and lives in Russia, emails him, asking for help in committing a crime. When the main character's completely violates his reported personality, imagine how weak the rest of the characters are. I am a rookie writer, I know that, but this mistake is a basic writing no-no.
Execution: Black hole that adsorbed all of the other stars
The whole of the writing sounds like someone simply making stuff up to try and sound cool or fool the people around them. I have to go over some of them:
It took 6 years to develop this cell phone, if you spend six years developing something in today's technology, how obsolete would it be when it came out? You can't spend six years developing anything anymore.
These teens spend time drooling over the resolution of this cellphone screen and this is set in the future. It doesn't matter how high the resolution of the screen is...WE CAN'T SEE IT! The new ipad screen exceeds our visual capabilities. We are at the limit now of not what technology can do, but what we can see and anyone into graphics knows this, and these kids would know this for sure.
This is set in the future with crazy technology, but the communication that changes everything, was sent on email? to his phone? and the guy waiting for a response keeps clicking refresh to see if he got a response, who clicks refresh anymore? and this is like 40 plus years in the future, we are using email to send what a simple text message could?
All of the cars have government mandated stopping devices to avoid collisions and the HOV lane cars are controlled by a central computer. This is not fantasy, this is our world in the near future, so these things must have a logical basis. The cars would all need to be retrofitted with this technology at a cost that would be impossible, even if we started today with such a project, it would take 15-20 years to accomplish and that's just for stopping, now centrally controlled cars is a whole different problem. This must be set a good 40 or more years in the future but the military still has some 1960-70 jeeps running around?
One character's father was in the military about 14 years ago (in the story's timeline) and she has his M16, they hardly use M16 now, they won't be using them 30 years from now.
The electric car engines, emit an electric whine noise, but today's electric motors are silent, thus the controversy over the subject with blind people not being able to hear them. Did we suddenly lose technology and our electric engines got noisy?
When downloading an email attachment from his uncle, Leon note's the huge size of the file. The files was nothing but text, algorithms, and notes, By today's standard that files doesn't make a blip. With today's technology an entire book is (overestimated) 2MB and my service can download at 9MB/sec (and that's slow compared to some) so in 1 second, I can presently download 4.5 books, Leon certainly didn't even download that much and with future bandwidth and file that size would be literally nothing.
This novel feels cheesy and a less than half hearted effort. There is no effort to research technology, military, or anything at that matter. The characters are weak and violate their own codes. I do not recommend this book to anyone for any reason.
Michael A. Wood Jr.
"The Critical Critic"
www.criticalcriticreviews.com
Being an aspiring writer myself makes these types of reviews very hard to do. If I am also going to be "The Critical Critic" which I very much enjoy and like to be a gatekeeper of quality, then I have no choice.
I only read the first few chapters of A.I. Apocalypse and skimmed the rest because it was simply all I could take. No matter how much William Hertling wanted to write a good story or had good ideas, there is simply no way that he can look someone in the eye and said that he did his best writing this book. There is minimal effort given in writing A.I. Apocalypse and it came through in the pages and dialogue. Reading the first few chapters, I said to my wife that it read like someone who just used technology terms but had no idea what they actually meant, then I read on the back cover that William Hertling is a fifteen year veteran of the technology field and that is....let's just say interesting.
If you had to put A.I. Apocalypse into a genre, it would be a technological thriller set in the not so distant United States. A 17 yeard old, smart kid develops a virus that infects the computers and things become a mess.
Creativity: 1 star
Anyone heard of this idea before?
Spelling and Grammar: 3 stars
Nothing stood out, but wasn't really looking.
Characters: 1 star
The main character Leon, is very smart and has aspirations of going to a great college. Leon's family cannot afford college, so he is doing his best to fulfill his dream and hunts after a scholarship, from being so smart, Almost, immediately he completely risks all his dreams because an uncle, that he has met once and lives in Russia, emails him, asking for help in committing a crime. When the main character's completely violates his reported personality, imagine how weak the rest of the characters are. I am a rookie writer, I know that, but this mistake is a basic writing no-no.
Execution: Black hole that adsorbed all of the other stars
The whole of the writing sounds like someone simply making stuff up to try and sound cool or fool the people around them. I have to go over some of them:
It took 6 years to develop this cell phone, if you spend six years developing something in today's technology, how obsolete would it be when it came out? You can't spend six years developing anything anymore.
These teens spend time drooling over the resolution of this cellphone screen and this is set in the future. It doesn't matter how high the resolution of the screen is...WE CAN'T SEE IT! The new ipad screen exceeds our visual capabilities. We are at the limit now of not what technology can do, but what we can see and anyone into graphics knows this, and these kids would know this for sure.
This is set in the future with crazy technology, but the communication that changes everything, was sent on email? to his phone? and the guy waiting for a response keeps clicking refresh to see if he got a response, who clicks refresh anymore? and this is like 40 plus years in the future, we are using email to send what a simple text message could?
All of the cars have government mandated stopping devices to avoid collisions and the HOV lane cars are controlled by a central computer. This is not fantasy, this is our world in the near future, so these things must have a logical basis. The cars would all need to be retrofitted with this technology at a cost that would be impossible, even if we started today with such a project, it would take 15-20 years to accomplish and that's just for stopping, now centrally controlled cars is a whole different problem. This must be set a good 40 or more years in the future but the military still has some 1960-70 jeeps running around?
One character's father was in the military about 14 years ago (in the story's timeline) and she has his M16, they hardly use M16 now, they won't be using them 30 years from now.
The electric car engines, emit an electric whine noise, but today's electric motors are silent, thus the controversy over the subject with blind people not being able to hear them. Did we suddenly lose technology and our electric engines got noisy?
When downloading an email attachment from his uncle, Leon note's the huge size of the file. The files was nothing but text, algorithms, and notes, By today's standard that files doesn't make a blip. With today's technology an entire book is (overestimated) 2MB and my service can download at 9MB/sec (and that's slow compared to some) so in 1 second, I can presently download 4.5 books, Leon certainly didn't even download that much and with future bandwidth and file that size would be literally nothing.
This novel feels cheesy and a less than half hearted effort. There is no effort to research technology, military, or anything at that matter. The characters are weak and violate their own codes. I do not recommend this book to anyone for any reason.
Michael A. Wood Jr.
"The Critical Critic"
www.criticalcriticreviews.com
November 26, 2012
A.I. Apocalypse is Mr. Hertling's second book and a direct sequel to "Avogadro Corp".
The plot starts when a Leon, a gifted teenager, inadvertently unleashes a virus that spawns an entire civilisation of A.I.s. We are re-acquainted with Mike Williams and the (now rather cute, loveable and just a little creepy) ELOPe from "Avogadro Corp".
I quite enjoyed the first half of the book where the author describes how the A.I.s evolve, how their civilisation was organised and the fallout of all this happening. The second half describes the interaction between the human and A.I. civilisations with ELOPe acting as an intermediary.
The story has some interesting ideas - the military using massively multiplayer games to recruit soldiers, the idea of trade replacing competition as the central organising principle of the A.I. civlisation, and the use of evolutionary algorithms.
As in Avogadro Corp, the writing in A.I. Apocalypse is uneven. Instead of conversing, the characters seem to be quoting from wikipedia. I also found it hard to empathise with most of the main characters.
I am interested in A.I., neural networks and machine learning, so this did not bother me, but avoid this book if you are looking for sparkling dialogue. Mr. Hertling does throw in some bits which made me laugh out loud. In one scene, an A.I. states "All your bases belong to us". I guess Mr. Hertling knows his target audience.
I would give the book 3.5 stars.
The plot starts when a Leon, a gifted teenager, inadvertently unleashes a virus that spawns an entire civilisation of A.I.s. We are re-acquainted with Mike Williams and the (now rather cute, loveable and just a little creepy) ELOPe from "Avogadro Corp".
I quite enjoyed the first half of the book where the author describes how the A.I.s evolve, how their civilisation was organised and the fallout of all this happening. The second half describes the interaction between the human and A.I. civilisations with ELOPe acting as an intermediary.
The story has some interesting ideas - the military using massively multiplayer games to recruit soldiers, the idea of trade replacing competition as the central organising principle of the A.I. civlisation, and the use of evolutionary algorithms.
As in Avogadro Corp, the writing in A.I. Apocalypse is uneven. Instead of conversing, the characters seem to be quoting from wikipedia. I also found it hard to empathise with most of the main characters.
I am interested in A.I., neural networks and machine learning, so this did not bother me, but avoid this book if you are looking for sparkling dialogue. Mr. Hertling does throw in some bits which made me laugh out loud. In one scene, an A.I. states "All your bases belong to us". I guess Mr. Hertling knows his target audience.
I would give the book 3.5 stars.
March 27, 2013
A few years back the press and the book world were filled with “nuclear winter” stories: mankind had finally found a technology—the atomic bomb—that was beyond our ability to control and the whole world was vulnerable, very dangerously vulnerable. There has been little such reaction so far to the invention of the transistor. Mr. Hertling’s book tells us that perhaps there should be, that we may have reached the stage of development such that computers can think and act independently of their human ‘masters’. And not always benignly; it makes an exciting story.
But after liking Avogadro Corp very much—five stars—I was disappointed. A. I. Apocalypse requires a higher level of geek than I possess—there were a few spots where I just couldn’t take it and skipped a few pages. I’m sure that there was a logic behind the morphing phenomenon that was such a crucial part of the plot, but it was over my head.
And without giving away one major element of the story, there was one truly major event described that made 9/11 look like a momentary diversion, yet this seemed to me to be presented almost clinically, with inadequate emotion. Exaggerating a bit, like “the whole orphanage with all the kids burned up at an average temperature of 673 degrees”.
But after liking Avogadro Corp very much—five stars—I was disappointed. A. I. Apocalypse requires a higher level of geek than I possess—there were a few spots where I just couldn’t take it and skipped a few pages. I’m sure that there was a logic behind the morphing phenomenon that was such a crucial part of the plot, but it was over my head.
And without giving away one major element of the story, there was one truly major event described that made 9/11 look like a momentary diversion, yet this seemed to me to be presented almost clinically, with inadequate emotion. Exaggerating a bit, like “the whole orphanage with all the kids burned up at an average temperature of 673 degrees”.
June 30, 2014
I had no problem with how technical this book was. Mainly because the technical verbiage did not really make a lot of sense.
So if you are able to move past the main plot point of the story (the fact that the main character can create a virus that becomes self-aware and the programming took about three days of rushed coding to complete) then you are in for a really good pace of action.
I am not going to fault Hertling much about that because I know that he is not writing a damn manual for software. He is writing a fiction novel. But at the same time there are some things within the story that really made me cringe. Without spoiling the story, the fact that we are dealing with an AI (hey, it's the title of the damn book!) that is acting as if it were human seems more forced, to move the story along, than a natural evolution of its self-awareness. Also, the military is once again reduced to a bunch of warmongering monkeys that act autonomously for some reason with the POTUS being reduced to a figure head who is completely out of her element.
Again: I get it. This book reads like a movie. It is entertaining and it is an easy read on a boring summer weekend. But treat it like any action flick out there and suspend your disbelief in order to have a good time.
So if you are able to move past the main plot point of the story (the fact that the main character can create a virus that becomes self-aware and the programming took about three days of rushed coding to complete) then you are in for a really good pace of action.
I am not going to fault Hertling much about that because I know that he is not writing a damn manual for software. He is writing a fiction novel. But at the same time there are some things within the story that really made me cringe. Without spoiling the story, the fact that we are dealing with an AI (hey, it's the title of the damn book!) that is acting as if it were human seems more forced, to move the story along, than a natural evolution of its self-awareness. Also, the military is once again reduced to a bunch of warmongering monkeys that act autonomously for some reason with the POTUS being reduced to a figure head who is completely out of her element.
Again: I get it. This book reads like a movie. It is entertaining and it is an easy read on a boring summer weekend. But treat it like any action flick out there and suspend your disbelief in order to have a good time.
August 12, 2013
This is the second book in a trilogy by William Hertling. The first book was Avogadro Corp the third book, The Last Firewall comes out later this month. So far both books are excellent and from everything I've heard about the third book, it's even better.
William is a programer. Because of that the situations in this book are very plausible; frighteningly so. The only possible downside is that there is a lot of explanations in this book. If you're a geek, you will probably really like the explanations about how various technological developments came about, but if not, you might find some of the technical details a little boring. That being said, even if you're not a techie, the book is still a great read and if you're into Cyberpunk or techno thrillers, this is a great read.
William is a programer. Because of that the situations in this book are very plausible; frighteningly so. The only possible downside is that there is a lot of explanations in this book. If you're a geek, you will probably really like the explanations about how various technological developments came about, but if not, you might find some of the technical details a little boring. That being said, even if you're not a techie, the book is still a great read and if you're into Cyberpunk or techno thrillers, this is a great read.
June 26, 2017
Wow. That was a surprising book. Book 2 of a series by a fairly new author of which I have not read the first book. I read this one for the Endeavour Award and had to ask the library to buy it. It is yet another AI's emerge - this time from viruses. And it starts off a bit slow and kind of poorly written. But then wham. Does this book work for everyone? Well probably not. But like with Demon/Freedom its written now-ish - well a bit in the future but not by much. And it makes sense to me. It describes a way for AI to emerge - the very beginning of which I could not buy - but the immediate parts afterwards made sense to me. Worth reading. Heck I'll even buy the first book since the library doesn't have it.
February 16, 2018
This is the sequel to Avogadro Corp. Whereas Avogadro Corp explored what might happen if an artificial intelligence was created in the next future years in a large corporation, A.I. Apocalypse explored what would happen about fifteen years in the future, by a teenage computer hacker.
A.I. Apocalypse features a complete civilization of A.I..
A.I. Apocalypse features a complete civilization of A.I..
February 9, 2014
I devoured this book. I stayed up late reading, not caring that I had work the next day. It's filled to the brim with technical mumbo jumbo, yet I was easily able to follow the story. I wish I had my own A. I. This book is awesome.
March 10, 2016
I bought A.I. Apocalypse on Amazon when it was either free or $0.99. The premise sounded interesting and, while Sci-Fi is not at the top of my reading list, I've found the possibility of an Artificial Intelligence takeover interesting since Philosophy 101. Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me.
The first couple of chapters really had me hooked. Leon seemed to be a legitimately interesting character and his run-in with the Russian mob had me on the edge of my seat! His friends were equally interesting and even Mike and ELOPe drew me in briefly. Once the virus was actually released, however, the story quickly went downhill.
There are several issues with A.I. Apocalypse. The first and most blatant is the gross overuse of technical jargon. Sure, it's a book about a computer virus, but surely there is a way to write for the average reader. I know a little about computers and I was able to follow the geek speak for the most part, but it was so dry that it was completely lost on me. I found myself skipping paragraphs first and by the end I was skipping full pages. Not only was there a lot of technical language, but it was extremely repetitive. There was more than once instance of a situation being explained multiple times to different people. If a situation is so complicated that it needs to be explained twice for the reader to understand, perhaps it should be simplified. Had the technical jargon been simplified and condensed this book could have been better.
Not only was this book far too technical for the average reader (in my opinion), but the author doesn't seem to have thought the tech of the future through completely. For example, the setting is decades into the future where simple robots and drones carry out mundane tasks and buildings are on lockdown with super fancy security systems. Meanwhile, people still communicate via email on their phones, video games are played on phones (isn't virtual reality already a thing?), and the backdoor of a fancy museum is susceptible to the breaking and entering efforts of 17 year old kid. There are also several references to current pop-culture that just don't seem to fit - WALL-E, for example.
Finally, the ending of A.I. Apocalypse was far too tidy and, frankly, completely unbelievable. As a prior military member, I cannot believe that the federal government would handle Leon in the way this book suggests. I believe anyone reading just the summary could guess at a more believable outcome. I was teetering between one and two stars before I read the last chapter, but I just can't with that ending. I hate giving negative reviews and I'm almost embarrassed to post two in two weeks, but this book just did not do it for me. I was in no way invested in the characters and finishing was a struggle.
I, Robot did it better.
This review is also available at Cornerfolds.com.
The first couple of chapters really had me hooked. Leon seemed to be a legitimately interesting character and his run-in with the Russian mob had me on the edge of my seat! His friends were equally interesting and even Mike and ELOPe drew me in briefly. Once the virus was actually released, however, the story quickly went downhill.
There are several issues with A.I. Apocalypse. The first and most blatant is the gross overuse of technical jargon. Sure, it's a book about a computer virus, but surely there is a way to write for the average reader. I know a little about computers and I was able to follow the geek speak for the most part, but it was so dry that it was completely lost on me. I found myself skipping paragraphs first and by the end I was skipping full pages. Not only was there a lot of technical language, but it was extremely repetitive. There was more than once instance of a situation being explained multiple times to different people. If a situation is so complicated that it needs to be explained twice for the reader to understand, perhaps it should be simplified. Had the technical jargon been simplified and condensed this book could have been better.
Not only was this book far too technical for the average reader (in my opinion), but the author doesn't seem to have thought the tech of the future through completely. For example, the setting is decades into the future where simple robots and drones carry out mundane tasks and buildings are on lockdown with super fancy security systems. Meanwhile, people still communicate via email on their phones, video games are played on phones (isn't virtual reality already a thing?), and the backdoor of a fancy museum is susceptible to the breaking and entering efforts of 17 year old kid. There are also several references to current pop-culture that just don't seem to fit - WALL-E, for example.
Finally, the ending of A.I. Apocalypse was far too tidy and, frankly, completely unbelievable. As a prior military member, I cannot believe that the federal government would handle Leon in the way this book suggests. I believe anyone reading just the summary could guess at a more believable outcome. I was teetering between one and two stars before I read the last chapter, but I just can't with that ending. I hate giving negative reviews and I'm almost embarrassed to post two in two weeks, but this book just did not do it for me. I was in no way invested in the characters and finishing was a struggle.
I, Robot did it better.
This review is also available at Cornerfolds.com.
October 3, 2014
My Rating: 3.0
Obtained: Through Goodreads First Reads
During high school, I found myself stuck in the Computer Science major where I learned so many programming languages and computer terms. When I requested - and won - A.I. Apocalypse, I was looking forward to reading it, mainly because it had such an interesting plot. A high school kid creating a virus that eventually takes over the world? Who can give up a book like that?
As I was reading A.I. Apocalypse I realized how scary it would be if such a virus existed like it does in the book. Our own computers can be used against us, data such as our date of birth, SSN, and most importantly, our location. There will be no cars, no buses, and most important, no subways, especially if you live in a place like New York City. Thank god these events really can't happen...I hope.
The only downside of this book was that the writing wasn't really that engaging. The font also suddenly changes in the first few chapters of the book. Most computer terms were also not explained; I only knew some of them because I learned them at school.
If you love action, creativity, and know your computer facts, then this totally is the book for you.
Obtained: Through Goodreads First Reads
During high school, I found myself stuck in the Computer Science major where I learned so many programming languages and computer terms. When I requested - and won - A.I. Apocalypse, I was looking forward to reading it, mainly because it had such an interesting plot. A high school kid creating a virus that eventually takes over the world? Who can give up a book like that?
As I was reading A.I. Apocalypse I realized how scary it would be if such a virus existed like it does in the book. Our own computers can be used against us, data such as our date of birth, SSN, and most importantly, our location. There will be no cars, no buses, and most important, no subways, especially if you live in a place like New York City. Thank god these events really can't happen...I hope.
The only downside of this book was that the writing wasn't really that engaging. The font also suddenly changes in the first few chapters of the book. Most computer terms were also not explained; I only knew some of them because I learned them at school.
If you love action, creativity, and know your computer facts, then this totally is the book for you.
March 17, 2014
Not bad. It was entertaining enough that I got the sequel, but not so much that I'd go back and pick the first in the series. Characters are not very deeply developed but their motivations and actions are consistent.
On the negative side, the author suffers from acute US-centrism and a lot of stereotypes and common-places transported verbatim from US mainstream television and cinema. Language is not very rich even after spicing it up with phrases in other tongues. Hertling tends to tell as much as he shows. It has a few techie in-jokes that were old when modems still ran at 5600bps.
On the positive side, narrative is fluid. Chapter link well together and it's no chore to keep at it to find out what's next. Unfortunately the character ELOPe and its interactions with humans are a bit cartoonish, but it does have some good dialog from time to time. Makes a decent effort of reheating old-soup themes and situations in the genre.
I'd recommend it to people that want some lightweight Sci-fi sprinkled with Hollywood-style action.
On the negative side, the author suffers from acute US-centrism and a lot of stereotypes and common-places transported verbatim from US mainstream television and cinema. Language is not very rich even after spicing it up with phrases in other tongues. Hertling tends to tell as much as he shows. It has a few techie in-jokes that were old when modems still ran at 5600bps.
On the positive side, narrative is fluid. Chapter link well together and it's no chore to keep at it to find out what's next. Unfortunately the character ELOPe and its interactions with humans are a bit cartoonish, but it does have some good dialog from time to time. Makes a decent effort of reheating old-soup themes and situations in the genre.
I'd recommend it to people that want some lightweight Sci-fi sprinkled with Hollywood-style action.
February 6, 2014
William Hertling is a software security consultant who's recently started to pump out some of the most interesting techno-thrillers out there. A.I. Apocalypse is the follow up to Hertling's breakout hit Avogadro Corp that follows the development of a rogue artificial intelligence by a Google-like company (techies will notice the clever play on Google's name).
A.I. Apocalypse follows the release of a computer virus developed along the foundations of evolutionary biology. The book is a thrilling page-turner that most readers will tear through in no time. Hertling is a software expert and the scenario he envisions is scary precisely because it's so possible with current technology that it seems almost inevitable.
Software is permeating literally everything we use, touch or do. Computers infrastructure has changed the world in ways we take completely for granted. Hertling presents a compelling and chilling view of what very well be around the next corner. Apparently the book is a cult hit at Google itself, so we all better stay sharp...
A.I. Apocalypse follows the release of a computer virus developed along the foundations of evolutionary biology. The book is a thrilling page-turner that most readers will tear through in no time. Hertling is a software expert and the scenario he envisions is scary precisely because it's so possible with current technology that it seems almost inevitable.
Software is permeating literally everything we use, touch or do. Computers infrastructure has changed the world in ways we take completely for granted. Hertling presents a compelling and chilling view of what very well be around the next corner. Apparently the book is a cult hit at Google itself, so we all better stay sharp...
December 20, 2013
William Hertling has done it again. The second novel in his series is an excellent follow-up to his first book. We are further in the future, and AI have evolved... An intriguing and thought-provoking story of AI emergence, and what it could mean to society.
This book is one of those that you just can't seem to put down.
This book is one of those that you just can't seem to put down.
May 10, 2014
Brilliant, picking up some years after Avogadro and focusing on a younger main character really shifts the viewpoint cleverly in this most interesting of series. The technology has come on greatly, and the Elope interaction is just what I'd expect from Hertling, who's doing a splendid job factoring a new future into place having birthed an artificial intelligence.
November 22, 2018
Very quick and light read on a potential near-future scenario where an evolutionary algorithms based virus grows out of hand and humanity faces a negotiation with a new civilization of generalized AI tribes.
Had a few interesting nuanced points about motivations and pace of events development in an AI singularity scenario, but from literary sense was way too linear and predictable, with too many unbelievable character motivations.
Would be very good as a future scenario paper published by a think tank. Having recently read Nexus trilogy and Daniel Suarez, the good scifi book bar is higher.
Had a few interesting nuanced points about motivations and pace of events development in an AI singularity scenario, but from literary sense was way too linear and predictable, with too many unbelievable character motivations.
Would be very good as a future scenario paper published by a think tank. Having recently read Nexus trilogy and Daniel Suarez, the good scifi book bar is higher.
June 13, 2021
Liked the Elope character, the rest of the story was mediocre. Still a good and enjoyable read as it did not contain unnecessary techie babble.
February 17, 2013
Hertling has got a rather good story to tell with A.I. Apocalypse and I recommend you grab this book to read on a nice quiet afternoon. The character development was top-notch, and aside from a few points I thought some of the characters were going off the rails (and by this, I mean I got invested in the characters and thought they were making bad choices, just like a real person), it was a really good read.
The tech was written in a manner that allowed me to stay engaged without having to slog through a lot of explanations (I'm more technically inclined than some) but there was enough that a less technically proficient reader would have no problem understanding what was going on. Nicely balanced, and not as easy to write as you'd think.
All in all, a well done effort. I'm looking forward to more books from Hertling.
The tech was written in a manner that allowed me to stay engaged without having to slog through a lot of explanations (I'm more technically inclined than some) but there was enough that a less technically proficient reader would have no problem understanding what was going on. Nicely balanced, and not as easy to write as you'd think.
All in all, a well done effort. I'm looking forward to more books from Hertling.
July 8, 2012
I liked this sequel better than the first book, and it makes me wish there were partial stars that could be awarded, as this book rates at least a 4.5. Very little, in fact, keeps it from being a 5 star, so maybe I would call this a five star in spirit review. A.I. Apocalypse takes a sizable shift from the first novel, in that it happens a decade later and only a few characters overlap from the first installment. This shift in expectations, plus a few hard to bridge stretches of believability (even for a dedicated fiction reader like myself), made me draw back from a full five star review, but regardless, this is a great book, and was hard to put down during the last third of the narrative! Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this book, and eagerly await the final installment of the series.
December 3, 2014
I picked this up for free on a 1-day sale, no doubt to convince me to get the rest of the series.
Mission accomplished.
I can't comment on how this book melds with Avogadro Corp, the first book in the series. The company is most certainly a big part of this story, but I didn't feel that there were unanswered questions or pieces left out.
The novel was engaging, well thought out, and, frankly, "fascinating". (Sorry, fellow nerds, I couldn't resist.) Hurtling had a clear vision and transcribed it well. The characters were consistent and real. The plot kept my interest. Strangely, though, I can't call this a page-turner, but that's a good thing; I frequently wanted to stop after a section, just to pull everything together and step back a bit.
Mission accomplished.
I can't comment on how this book melds with Avogadro Corp, the first book in the series. The company is most certainly a big part of this story, but I didn't feel that there were unanswered questions or pieces left out.
The novel was engaging, well thought out, and, frankly, "fascinating". (Sorry, fellow nerds, I couldn't resist.) Hurtling had a clear vision and transcribed it well. The characters were consistent and real. The plot kept my interest. Strangely, though, I can't call this a page-turner, but that's a good thing; I frequently wanted to stop after a section, just to pull everything together and step back a bit.
March 6, 2015
This review applies to William Hertling’s Singularity series comprised of Avogadro Corp, A.I. Apocalypse, and The Last Firewall.
As someone who worked in the software industry and in IT, as an entrepreneur, I found Hertling’s series very intriguing. He is technically detailed, which adds to the stories’ realities and the possibility of a future for our world, but only for those who appreciate the intricacies of our connected society.
Had I the opportunity to score these books a 4.5, I would have done so. Hertling keeps his stories fast paced and the reader entertained, despite the complexity of this subjects
As someone who worked in the software industry and in IT, as an entrepreneur, I found Hertling’s series very intriguing. He is technically detailed, which adds to the stories’ realities and the possibility of a future for our world, but only for those who appreciate the intricacies of our connected society.
Had I the opportunity to score these books a 4.5, I would have done so. Hertling keeps his stories fast paced and the reader entertained, despite the complexity of this subjects
June 15, 2014
A pretty good sci-fi read.
I really enjoyed this book. It kept me interested throughout. I was always curious to see where everything was going. I was a bit disappointed with the conclusion. It just kind of ended. A lot of activity was going on, and then nothing. It was worth what I paid for it though! I would have paid more. (I got it for free,but would have paid a couple bucks for it. It was enticing to get for free. I might never have read it otherwise.) I'm glad I read it. It kind of makes you think a bit about our dependence on technology.
I really enjoyed this book. It kept me interested throughout. I was always curious to see where everything was going. I was a bit disappointed with the conclusion. It just kind of ended. A lot of activity was going on, and then nothing. It was worth what I paid for it though! I would have paid more. (I got it for free,but would have paid a couple bucks for it. It was enticing to get for free. I might never have read it otherwise.) I'm glad I read it. It kind of makes you think a bit about our dependence on technology.
January 18, 2014
I'm going to review this as a series - because I think this first book really sets up the 2nd and 3rd books, which I found really compelling, particularly Book 2. Book 1 is sort of a "what if Google accidentally created an AI" but the ramifications of that, which mostly play out in book 2, turn out to be really interesting.
I think the story, the development of ideas, and the writing improve throughout the series and I would definitely recommend it.
I think the story, the development of ideas, and the writing improve throughout the series and I would definitely recommend it.
March 4, 2014
A great followon to Avogadro Corp, and probably the better book. The development of an AI due to the battle between virus and anti virus software seems somewhat more plausible than a glorified spelling correction routine. Some of the AI dialog seems a bit, well, patient, when the author is trying to make social commentary, but other scenes of AI to AI interaction truly seem what it would be like if humans were bystanders to the real decision making of the world.
May 25, 2014
Initially I had a difficult time being lost in this book. Once I realized that elopE was a main character, it got much easier. There were many scenarios going on at one time, tons of futuristic techie fun, and war simulations. Good times!
For the guy that had a problem with the whine of electric cars... That would be an inexpensive, low - tech way to make sure a blind person could 'see' them, I would think.
For the guy that had a problem with the whine of electric cars... That would be an inexpensive, low - tech way to make sure a blind person could 'see' them, I would think.
August 4, 2015
This is one of those books that you have to think outside of the box. Wonder if computers ran the world? And could a computer really have feelings at all? I always say every computer has its own personality. This book goes much deeper then that. I really like the characters in the book. Each one has their own job and they all work well together. There are a few more books in this series and I am sure I will read them to find out what this crazy crew gets into next.
September 12, 2016
I absolutely loved this book. This was one of those books that was so fascinating that it could not be put down. I finished it in one sitting. It did get fairly predictable about two-thirds of the way through the book, but the whole concept behind the book was very intriguing. I personally look forward to our AI powered overlords.
September 15, 2015
It is the plot that made me give the book a 4 star rating. Reading it was like an Express-way cruise. William Hertling is undoubtedly a good storyteller. Yet I felt, the concerns consequent to the invasion of Phage failed to impact me as it ought to have. I also had to gloss over editorial lapses here and there. All said and done, 'A.I. Apocalypse' is a must-read for anyone who uses a computer.
March 3, 2017
I liked this book a lot. It's one of my favorites. But I believe Hertling could do more than that. I like the way A.I came into existence without a creator to rule them.
March 8, 2024
Food for thought in 2024
Although AI is playing out somewhat differently to the portrayal in this book, nonetheless many issues are raised that are very relevant to the current developments. A good read for anyone interested in possible developments with these mechanical minds, and that should be everybody as it affects everybody.
Although AI is playing out somewhat differently to the portrayal in this book, nonetheless many issues are raised that are very relevant to the current developments. A good read for anyone interested in possible developments with these mechanical minds, and that should be everybody as it affects everybody.
August 12, 2015
Started this book in the morning read late in to the night, dreamt about viruses and woke early to finish.
Awesome book, kept me engaged(Mostly coz im a computer specialist). One of my best reads this year.
Awesome book, kept me engaged(Mostly coz im a computer specialist). One of my best reads this year.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 244 reviews