Amazing Grace

by Leonard Seet

In a future where a simulated sun shines upon holographic trees and surveillance drones swarm the sky, a police detective must hunt down a serial killer terrorizing the streets of New York. While androids threaten to displace humans in all echelons of society, he struggles to cope with his girlfriend’s disappearance years ago. His partner dying in the hands of the killer only deepens his crisis. After he survives a fall from a building, time seems to shift back and forth and he can no longer distinguish between the real and the virtual world. When a simulacrum of his girlfriend appears before him and his colleagues vanish into a portal, he begins to question his senses and even his sanity. Only the hope of finding his girlfriend drives him to catch the killer, who may be linked to her disappearance.

From the writer of Sharper Mind Darker Dreams comes another mind boggling science fiction thriller, where artificial intelligence threatens human existence and reality and illusion seem to intermingle into a dreamscape. If we cannot trust our senses, and if our memories may deceive us, how do we discern reality from fantasy?

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Leonard is the author of the novels Sharper Mind Darker Dreams, Magnolias in Paradise and Meditation On Space-Time. His short fiction have appeared in the Duende Literary Journal, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and Pilcrow & Dagger. His story Black-Naped Oriole in Hokkaido Snow was a podcast winner at Pilcrow & Dagger. He received Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future competition for the story Don't Be Afraid of the Black Rain. He enrolled in the Jennie McKean Moore Fiction Workshop at George Washington University with Tim Johnston and Brando Skyhorse .

He received the B.S. in Physics and B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgetown University.

His favorite novels include The Brothers Karamozov, War and Peace, 1984, The Stranger, and A Hundred Years of Solitude. And his favorite non-fictions include Reaching Out, New Seeds of Contemplation, Moral Man and Immoral Society, The Creative Mind, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and The Competitive Advantages of Nations.

Reviews

[Leonard]

As scheduled, the book will be available on Nov. 1, 2022.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the New York of the near future, where androids coexist with humans and the populace finds recreation and leisure in virtual chambers, a serial killer is stalking the citizens, removing the heads as trophies. NYPD Detective Shimada must search through the toxin-filled streets for the killer, but his determination is both fueled and undermined by the loss of his sweetheart years ago. It is only the hope of finding her that gives him the strength to get up in the morning. However, it is also the desire to find her that distracts him from his investigation. The death of his police partner in the hands of the killer further challenges his determination. Yet, what undermines his investigation may ultimately be his sense that reality is shifting, and that he is having a difficult time distinguishing between fact and fiction. It is as if he is in a dream, or his virtual chamber where he recuperates during the still hours of the night. His dream of falling off a skyscraper recurs night after night until he begins to sense it even during the daytime. It is as if he is in the process of dying a long death but never reaching it. Though he begins to question his sanity, he must find the killer and avenge his partner. Even if everything isn’t real…

Amazing Grace is a spectacular scifi novel that makes the reader question the how reality differs from fantasy especially in this age of A.I. and virtual reality.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detective Shimada must look for a serial killer in the near future New York. However, after he recovered from his fall from a building, the reality around him seemed surreal. He felt as if he were in a dream. The death of his partner at work only added to his sense of unreality. When reality seemed to repeat again and again, he feared losing his mind. Then, the girlfriend who went missing years ago suddenly surfaced, only to disappear again. Only his determination to locate the serial killer kept him going day after day, in spite of the simulated world around him.

Amazing Grace is a scifi thriller that plunges the reader into a futuristic world of A.I. and virtual reality. The premise of the novel is especially relevant in today’s world.