by Russel Barrie
Release Date: September 30, 2023
2023 Independently Published
Ebook Edition; 441 Pages
ISBN: 978-1739060718
ASIN: B0C71YFYHK
Genre: Fiction / Thriller
Source: Review copy from author
4.5 / 5 Stars
Summary
Reid Sheraton is a man in search of a challenge,
designing games to keep his haunted mind busy to avoid his past. But
when his company is bought by the Horizon Corporation, the mysterious
Esin has other plans. At Horizon, the greatest event is their Labyrinth,
a vast maze of puzzles and trials meant to test their people and push
them beyond their limits. Esin wants to win, and in Reid she sees her
chance.With that, the two are swept up in Horizon, a world of dazzling
technology, corporate intrigue and a drive to change the world. But as
the Labyrinth approaches, sinister things are in motion at Horizon. One
man’s ruthless maneuvering corrupts their technology with a betrayal so
deep nothing will be the same.As Reid, Esin and the players enter the
Labyrinth, something will go murderously wrong…
My Thoughts
The Wickedest of Things was a really fun read, but it does have a somewhat slower build up so you can get to know the characters, the company, and some other important pieces of information that play a huge role later on in the story. It takes patience, but the payoff is worth it. The author's writing is so engaging though, that I didn't really mind. And to be honest, I needed some time to organize my thoughts around some of the concepts/themes in this book.
It says a lot about an author's writing strength when my favourite character happens to be AI. ACESO was developed as a leading-edge medic, capable of withstanding bombs, artillery fire, and other such attacks in order to save people in very dangerous situations. She was compassionate and caring, and wanted to really learn how to interact with people. I absolutely fell in love with her character. So, when everything when bust, and I still felt so much compassion for this AI machine, I have to give credit to the author's writing skills.
The character building is quite exceptional. While most of the book is from Reid's POV, the author doesn't neglect his secondary characters, so you really appreciate their strengths and weaknesses and root for them all. I especially developed a fondness for Aster, the engineer who created ACESO; he really showed strength when it was needed and was always there for his team mates. And even though Reid has an eidetic memory, it wasn't used to further along the story and get them out of difficult situations, but more as a personality trait, useful when needed, but not something used as a overused plot device, something for which I was grateful.
While the plot did start off slowly, I still found it really interesting. The whole concept of AI and how it should be used came up constantly in this book, with the owner of the company having more a pacifist bent while one of his vps longed to take the company into a more offensive mode. And there were some players willing to pay a lot of money for this developed technology. So when the vp decides to take matters into his own hands, things take a turn to the nasty side and this is where the book picked up and literally took off. The whole point of this story was for the company to challenge this labyrinth again, something they do every year, and the prizes for the winning team are huge, including grant money for their departments. Made up of a series of locked-room puzzles, it's meant to challenge the players; it was the perfect scenario to unleash a devastating machine on the players and to see how everything would play out. There were so many twists and turns, it left me dizzy. But I couldn't stop turning the pages and stayed up late to finish.
And while the book was great, the ending...just ended. While there was a bit of a conclusion, and I wasn't disappointed with what happened, there were a lot of threads left dangling and I wanted to know what happened.
Verdict
The Wickedest of Things was both heartbreaking and visceral, flipping back and forth between aggressive behaviour and tenderness, showing the complexity of AI technology and what could happen when technology is capable of showing human understanding and empathy. It's both frightening and compulsive at the same time. And while I love science-fiction, I am definitely not ready for this in my real world. Full of well-developed characters and a complex plot, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the complexities of artificial intelligence and what that could mean for humans.
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