The Genesis Backup

I enjoy a science fiction book that explores new frontiers and I feel this novel does that. Harwin's book is action packed and will keep the reader engaged until the last page. I am looking forward to the sequel of The Genesis Backup.

Professor William Ell is having a bad week. First his father dies, leaving him a cryptic black book and an impossible gemstone, and then his quiet academic life is blown apart by an international conspiracy involving AI technology.

Ell’s quest for answers about his inheritance takes him to a dizzying variety of locations, including Phoenix, London, Hong Kong, and Dubai, traveling across three continents using nearly every mode of modern transportation. Along the way, Ell picks up allies old and new, with no choice but to rely on them if he hopes to survive the many kidnappings and attacks inflicted on him by an unknown enemy who seems to track his every move. An FBI unit chasing a master criminal adds still more complexity to the plot when Ell comes under suspicion.

The reader too must solve some mysteries, starting at page 1: Why does the book open in 2042, then come back to the present day? Who or what is the entity, briefly seen in chapter 1, that has been waiting thousands of years for the right moment to begin intervening directly? What is the actual purpose of CyberSim Labs? “The Genesis Backup” is the first volume of a trilogy, so presumably some of the questions left tantalizingly unanswered at the end of this novel will be addressed by later books.

Fast paced and told from the point of view of dozens of characters, some of whom appear for only a single scene before disappearing again, this imaginative novel barely allows the reader to draw a breath before rocketing onward again. Exploring the plot in detail would inevitably lead to spoilers, so suffice it to say that the AI technology in this novel is akin to Skynet in the “Terminator” series of films—a dangerous combination of power and amorality.

Ably translated from the original German, “The Genesis Backup” combines global espionage with a cyber element in a frighteningly plausible adventure story.

Loved the story and cant wait to see what happens next. The story was a bit disorienting until much later in the book when you say,oh thats what that was about. Love the brit attitudes.

This inventive and thrilling sci-fi novel hits a particularly timely topic: What happens when AI advances to the point of transcending into consciousness? And what role would morality play if any in guiding the AI’s behavior? Given all the flurry of current news around the astonishing progress of diverse AI’s, this speculative novel grabs your attention with a thriller that races across the world, from Phoenix to Hong Kong to London to Afghanistan and more in between, as two powerful AI’s seek to find and destroy each other.

The novel switches between the present time and 2042, opening in with the death of the high-tech, entrepreneurial father of a Boston math professor. Professor Willian Ell has flown to London for his estranged father’s funeral, meeting up with his sister who has flown in from her family farm in New Zealand. Ell’s father has left him a small black notebook filled with cryptic writing and a safety deposit box in Zurich with a large green diamond with what turns out to be advanced tech embedded inside it. Ell’s assessment of the jewel and following his Dad’s footsteps leads him to a secret research facility outside of Phoenix that hosts phenomenal computing power. Along for the ride: London auction house appraiser Chang Feng Zhao with ties to Chinese mafia, Trina Shaw the senior programmer of the research facility who’s flooded by anxieties, and FBI senior agent Gray who has been searching for the source of a huge, cover-up stock market disruption.

The novel, translated from the German and written under a pseudonym, deftly tackles quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces, and in what direction future AI could evolve. Only flaw: I found the translation to English from German to be filled with English cliches and less than sophisticated wording in places.

But all this get wrapped up in an edge of your seat plot, that has me definitely seeking more from this author!

Thanks to P. Arnold Ahrweiler and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

As the first book in a trilogy, It is perhaps reasonable for the writer to want to get in a lot of background, early. Especially with the widely varying characters involved. So, it isn't until the middle of the book that much of the real range of the story is revealed. Also some characters that seem very minor in that first half of the book expand in importance in the second half almost as much as the technical ideas underlying the plot expand. And those technical ideas really really expand. Artificial intelligence alone can be a huge topic, but when the nature of the AI is somehow related to the fundimental nature of our universe...

I was in the mood for a science fiction read and based on the marketing copy, this book piqued my interest. Although it's more technothriller than sci-fi, it was still good enough to scratch my science fiction reading itch.

Professor William Ell's father was just killed in a hit-and-run accident and, while settling his estate, he realizes how little he knew about what his father was doing. Not only had he lost millions, but he had also managed to build an underground supercomputing complex in the Arizona desert and had a mysterious green gemstone whose properties Ells can only guess at. As Will digs more into his father's dealing he becomes convinced that the death was not an accident, but murder. And what's with that green gemstone containing a computer chip? What is it for and who is this woman named Allison who has gotten in contact with him about the stone? Soon Will and his newly acquired friends are up to their necks in the mystery and, perhaps, revolutionary new computer technology.

This is a timely story about artificial intelligence and its role in society; it raises ethical and moral questions that are making today's headlines. It is a fast-paced, engrossing read that I quickly finished only to discover this is the first of a planned three-book series. Not that that is bad, I just like to know ahead of time if a book is a standalone or part of a series. I admit some of the technology discussion was over my head, but I found this did not detract from the story itself. All-in-all, this was a very satisfying read and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next book in the trilogy.