This was pretty cool, conceptually, but I think could have used some editing. It's a little long.

3/5 Stars

Armand is the youngest of 6 brothers. After years of being the discarded, black sheep of his tech billionaire family, he's used to being treated poorly. That is until he discovers SOPHIA, a semi-sentient AI-like book, and Concordia, an illuminate-like karma cult run by the most powerful individuals in the world. His world is immediately turned upside down.

This book includes:
- Bitcoin, AI, and futuristic tech
- succession-like family dynamic
- WeWork style tech gurus
- techno spiritualism

There likely is an audience that would love "The Name and The Shadow." I could even see it becoming a cult classic. Unfortunately, I don't think I am part of that audience. The storyline was interesting and very creative, however, the writing style and the character-building wasnt for me. I also work in big tech and grew up just outside the Bay Area/Silicon Valley, so I am familiar with techno-spiritual bros and it could be that the character archetypes hit too close to home for me.

I admire the author's creativity and believe that this storyline is unique. I could see fans of "The Partition" who aren't so interested in the philosophical side of sci-fi eating this book up, and I will be recommending this book to some of my more computer sciencey friends.

I received this ebook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Mark Jeffery for the opportunity.

Armand works for his older brothers. Armand finds out that he has been cheated of his inheritance. He hires a lawyer and meets his brothers with their lawyers where Armand confronts them with what they have been doing to him. The brothers lose their case. Armand realizes that there is much he needs to learn and do to run the company. Armand learned about his cheating brothers whe Egyptian hieroglyphs in a found Egyptian book. The book has a voice telling Armand words are alive. It wanted a name which Armand gives. Giving the voice a name thrilled it so it told him about his cheating brothers. Arman will eventually learn about a potential threat that he must resolve.

Reading this book was fascinating. It is a book that had me thinking about the mythology and ancient history that brought the book to be sealed in a jar and only found as the jar was accidentally broken. I marvel at the author’s ingenuity writing this book. I won’t forget this book!

The Name and the Shadow by Mark Jeffrey

519 Pages
Publisher: BooksGoSocial
Release Date: June 3, 2023

General Fiction (Adult), Sci Fi, Fantasy, Artificial Intelligence, Organized Crimes, Karma

Armand Martel is the 7th son. His brothers inherited their father’s fortune while he can barely make ends meet. He is researching canobic jars from Egypt when he comes across an old book. It is a codex and as he goes through it he realizes it is an early. Form of artificial intelligence. He names her Sophia and helps her learn through his experiences. His brothers warn him of the Concordian organization. Their father gave his karma, along with all the brothers’ karma as a form of payment for success. Armand is the only son who maintains his karma. He begins investigating and tries to have their karma released but there are other plans for him.

The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. I really like the character of Sophia. I can see artificial intelligence to grow as she did. If you like

This was a really strange book, I loved the concept, but have issues with the writing style.
We meet 30-year-old Armand Martel, who works for GigaMeastro. He has six brothers with very unusual names, and strangely, Armand is not included in the trust his father left when he died.
He is used as a jack-of-all-trades by his brothers.

In an underground vault, he finds an Egyptian Codex that comes to life through his mind. 'Alive Words.' The Codex comes alive because it is looked at, and just like a book/text, as letters come alive simply because your eyes pass over them and you/your brain give them meaning.
The book is a bit philosophical and deals with issues like 'what is if it never was before.' Is it coming into existence then the birth of awareness/existence?
The story is more or less a thought experiment, and I must say that many of the ideas are quite original.
What I do have trouble with is the writing style: it's particularly informal, almost cartoonish, and
very 'in your face' - I do NOT understand the copious use of UPPERCASE IN THE TEXT - at least it's not very conducive to reading. The writing style is almost colloquial ('WORDS ALIVE? ) - with lots of swearing words like crap, dude, shit, and maybe it might be fun to count how many times the word F*K appears in the story (and I can tell you, A LOT!)
It appears to be a bit of a US overkill of over-the-top and in-your-face, I therefore recommend editing it here and there for the sake of readability. In fact, I get the feeling that the writer is selling himself short with this. I continuously felt like I was reading a 400-page sales advertisement, esp. with the use of CAPITALS ALL THE TIME!
I found the concept of AI - which can pass the Turing Test and the question of whether AI are self-aware very fascinating to read. In short, good story, but in terms of writing style, it could do with some editing.

3.5 stars. Thank you Netgalley and BooksgoSocial for this review copy. I leave this review voluntarily.

This was so good! The mix of the ancient Egypt history and adventure with lots of action. I enjoyed this book so much! This would make a great movie!
I just reviewed The Name and the Shadow by Mark Jeffrey. #TheNameandtheShadow #NetGalley
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I think the premise is interesting but the use of AI and just the big blocks of capped text to signify the relic talking was a bit too much - I'm also avoidant in using AI so I don't know how I feel about it being in books already.

A book that mixes AI with classic action+adventure tropes and I had a lot of fun in reading it.
It's a bit weird at the beginning but i was hooked after a couple of chapters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was a fast-paced, interesting read, that I found I did not want to put down! Great, multi-faceted characters. Vivid descriptions. Kept me captivated from the first page to the last. A uniquely-cool read!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

This was such a good action-adventure novel, it does everything that I was hoping for. I enjoyed the concept overall and thought the artificial intelligence concept was scary. The characters were what I was hoping for and glad I was able to read this. It was a great concept in the Armand Ptolemy series.

I struggled a bit with this book. Being a technophobic grandma probably was not the demographic this book was aiming at, so trying to understand the concepts and language around technology was a bit challenging. That said, it was a good story ( although it did make me think that my ideas about technology were not paranoid) and my grandson enjoyed it immensly.

Rating: 3.6/5

Review: This started out in cringeville with the dialogue between brothers sounding like a group of stoned surfers. Almost DNF'ed it but held on to what turned out to be a very creative story line. Armand's character is well built and you find yourself pulling for him at every turn. Would like to see Armand continue, perhaps aspiring to a Himalayan abode.

I am sure the editors will work out the pages and pages of grammatical errors. A bit distracting.