Schools, churches and government all insisted that none of the sadistic and genocidal implac robots had survived the Great War, but Tommy McPherson never believed them. When he heard about a tunnel on the moon – one uncharted and too straight to be natural – he knew the time had come to investigate what was hidden there and face his most terrifying nightmares…
Excerpt
Deep in its tunnel, the machine blinked.
A reflex--a circuit unconnected to the self-awareness module--caused a cleansing membrane to wipe the optic sensors. In the airless tunnel, no dust had settled on the eye, so the reflex was unnecessary, an inefficient vestige of the machine’s remote origin as a human creation. But, inefficient or not, the machine blinked.
It blinked when the probe’s laser flashed.
On system check, it discovered its batteries were depleted, though all its modules appeared functional. Its power supply was low, but it was far from helpless.
IMPLAC is a story of A.I. gone horribly wrong. In the far future mankind has survived a nightmare of our own design. IMPLAC’s, a race of robots created by a terrorist group bent on purifying the species via “racial cleansing”, become self aware and decide all of humanity must parish. A war ensues in which humanity prevails. Though the author decided not to pursue this back story, it would have made for an exciting prequel to the stories relaxed pace.
With descriptive vistas of Venus and the Moon as colonized by humans, the story focuses on the possibility of IMPLAC’s surviving the “Great war”, waiting patiently, to once more take up their fight against humanity. The characters come to life through the story’s deeper plot. A mystery with many twists and turns, offer the reader opportunities to question the characters motives and even their friendships.
The author manages to build a future where interplanetary travel and communication are possible and all without the assistance of A.I., an outlawed practice after the IMPLAC war.
An interesting tale that should hold the mystery enthusiasts attention, as much as the science fiction lovers.
This is an evil robot story with a different twist in that it evaluates what's going on inside the mechanical monster's mind - excuse me, CPU. After going through a variety of adventures (and love affairs), the protagonist immobilizes the implac robot that has been in a lunar tunnel for sixty years. When he questions it, it claims its circuits have mutated so that it no longer hates humans. The robots had never been able to lie in the past - have they learned?
From the brutal opening scene that would sear any parent’s heart, to the nuclear heat of a Venusian explosion, and finally to the mental chess games played against biochemical-brained robots bent on the destruction of ‘organics’, Zaks’ hero leads the reader on a breathtaking roller coaster of action. Tommy’s early infatuation with the beautiful and mysterious Sylvia turns into a lifelong affair, but the ending will leave the reader feeling ‘I should have seen that!’.
"IMPLAC explores the psyche of a Berserker-type robot in a way Saberhagen never does." -the author
sadly since this is kindle i would not be able to buy it and read it unless....the author decide to make a paperback version of it. yeah i am an old school person i know.
i LOVE anti-organic Berserkers like robots but how could i read this beauty if is not on paperback yet?