The Name and the Shadow

Armand Ptolemy #1

by Mark Jeffrey

Meet your masters: the mystical artificial intelligences.

Armand Ptolemy's brothers want to cheat him out of his inheritance. Armand, a young man with a unique ability to read hieroglyphs, is caught in a dangerous game of power and manipulation as he uncovers the secrets of an ancient Egyptian AI: Sophia.

He must quickly navigate the hidden world where synchronicity engines, tokenized karma cryptocurrencies, mystical artificial intelligences and corporate greed threaten to destroy everything we hold dear, for profit.

As he delves deeper, he discovers that the future of humanity is at stake. He must act fast. With danger around every corner, this mind blowing tale will linger long after it is finished.

Blending the latest in modern technologies with ancient lore, The Name and the Shadow pits Armand against real sinister forces as he races to uncover his father's history -- while falling in love with 'living information' made flesh in the beguiling Sophia.

An action adventure packed with speculation on the nature of the latest AI's like ChatGPT, Jungian concepts and our true place in the universe! Join Armand on this astonishing quest into our near future, today.

"The Name and The Shadow, by Mark Jeffrey is a thrilling and thought-provoking novel, an up to the minute zeitgeist-blend of science fiction, mystery, and adventure, with a compelling slice of ancient history and mythology thrown in. This is likely to become a cult classic. Read it early to say you were among the first to do so.

The story moves at a breakneck speed with an excellent balance of action and exposition, taking us from the United States, to Dubai, Cairo. Burning Man, The Valley of the Queens and beyond.

What really intrigued me and drew me in was the detailed speculation and ground breaking ideas presented in the book. From ancient Egyptian codices to AI djinns and artificial intelligence, the author weaves a truly fascinating web of concepts guaranteed to leave readers thinking long after they finish the book, as they did for me. The way in which the author blends the latest hard science with mythology is unique and impressive, creating a world that feels both strangely familiar and entirely new.

"The Name and The Shadow" provides true entertainment value. The story is gripping and exciting, especially towards the end, with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing. You will find yourself rooting for the characters too.

Overall, "The Name and The Shadow," is a must-read for fans of science fiction, mystery, and adventure. My only criticism is that I can't wait for another installment! The book is a masterclass and among my highlights of the year so far for its compelling and dramatic storytelling.

Highly recommended for both entertainment and ideas." -- The International Review of Books.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

405 pages, Hardcover

Published May 23, 2023

About the author

Serial entrepreneur and Harper Collins author | Host HASH RATE Web3 pod | General Partner: Boolean Fund | Founder & CEO, Guardian Circle ‘Friends & Family 9-1-1’ app (Partner: XPRIZE, NEWSWEEK Blockchain Impact Award (2019), FAST COMPANY ‘World Changing Idea’ 2018) | CTO Mahalo (backed by Sequoia, Elon Musk, Jason Calacanis) | Co-Founder & CEO ThisWeekIn podcast network with Kevin Pollak & Jason Calacanis | Founder: ZeroDegrees (2002) business social network (sold to IAC 2004) | Founder: The Palace (Metaverse) 1995-2000, 10M users, backed by SOFTBANK, Intel, Time Warner (sold to Communities.com 1999) | Participated in the Ethereum ICO, Bitcoin class of 2013 | Worked with UBER founder Travis Kalanick on Red Swoosh | First serialized podcast novel (The Pocket and the Pendant) 2005 (2.3M downloads) Harper Collins hardcover 2011| Author: BITCOIN EXPLAINED SIMPLY (2013), THE CASE FOR BITCOIN (2015) | Featured in ‘Trust Machine’ blockchain film (Alex Winter, Rosario Dawson), Apple's PLANET OF THE APPS reality TV show, RISE OF BLOCKCHAIN with Akon.

Reviews

[tinynightingales · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure I am biased. I’ve been friends with the author for many years now.

This book has so many interesting concepts that I don’t know where to begin. I also don’t know how to talk about it without spoilers. But this is a book that I wouldn’t want to know a thing about it so I’m not going to give spoilers. I will say that I love the AI themes. I’m someone who is equal parts fascinated and terrified of AI and this book really played into those two feelings and I loved it. I love how fast paced this book is! The adventure Armand go on is wild. I don’t know about anyone else who has read this book, but with everything goin on in the world right now I’ve been thinking a lot about machines and karma. That’s all I’ll say about that. Sophia is bad ass and adored her from the very beginning.

I was a fan of the first Armand Ptolemy book, but Mark out did himself with this one. The cover. OMG the cover is gorgeous! Mark designed it himself with the use of AI. Beautiful!!!! I can’t wait for the next book.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting exploration into AI possibilities.. Enjoyed the links to ancient Egypt. Made me think of Ancient Alien theories and ties to extra-terrestrials. Just hope Armand and Sophia can still connect.

[Chae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wordy, but worth it!

The story is well thought out and well written, but finds itself bogged down by the sheer amount of time it takes to explain the phycho/techno-babble behind the actual plot. While it's not my usual genre, I was still intrigued and never bored by it. I give it a 3/5 only because this amazing adventure seems held back by the sheer amount of information thrown at you. I would have liked it more if the story took a book or three to fully unfold so that nothing would feel rushed or crammed in.

Disclosure: Received book as a free prize from the publisher

[Barry Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

good story

Gets a little outlandish but kept me interested to the end. I would recommend this to those who are open to plots a little out of the norm.

[Renae Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book when I started, but it was really good. It kept me interested, and made me think. The characters are well developed, and you care about them more and more as you go along.

[Joel Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleasantly Surprised

When I first saw someone I follow in Crypto on Twitter (X, whatever) I didn’t have much hope for a fictional novel. However, the book is very well written, the characters well developed, and story line is paced to be engaging and pull you in. Being able to write this well is a gift. I look forward to reading more of his writing.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

great ai novel

i liked the egyptology aspects
i didnt like the karma aspect of the book as i dont believe in karma
overall a good ai book

[Karen T. Baccari · Rating 5 out of 5]

High Concept, Great Read

A very topical novel that explores many concepts in a grounded highly entertaining way. I don't want to spoil too much, but if you like grounded science fiction, industrial espionage, WEF conspiracies, adventure, or Egyptology- give this a try.
I look forward to more from this author

[Michael J. Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

different and enjoyable

sometimes a novel incorporating new and abstract concepts becomes impossible to present as a narrative, but this one manages it. well done

[RentedMule · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did Not Finish: Read up to the 20% mark, skimmed through until ~34%. Could tolerate no more.

Quick, Back-of-the-Book Blurb I'd write:
"Man heavily invested in Cryptocurrency and Crypto-culture writes about a fictitious near-future where Cryptocurrency is successful, normalized, gets you in with the Illuminati, brings you closer to spiritual enlightenment, gives you spiritual superpowers, and gets you a hot totally-real-not-fake Chat-GPT/'AI' girlfriend."

Before I go into my actual review, a foreword:
While I would by no means consider myself an expert on the subject, I have learned enough about CryptoCurrency to know that for most intents and purposes, it is a Scam. It is a flawed industry, built on misconceptions of the technologies they use, psychologically manipulative hype, and empty promises. I went into the book with this mindset, and review as such. It is unfortunately, very relevant to this book.


Review:
At least for me, this book particularly suffered because of its ideology.

This book contains many elements that are, to put it bluntly, wrong. Conspiracy theories about new-world-orders, karma-and-chakra spiritualism, misinterpretations of quantum mechanics, and flawed philosophical attempts at boiling all of human society into two distinct camps, are just some of the most prominent. All of these elements, and more, are cobbled together into a strange mega-ideology, that mirrors all of the worst parts of what humans can be fooled into believing in the real world. The only praise I could possibly give it is that it is a semi-novel combination of ideas.

Perhaps, if set in another, more fantastical setting, I could pass off these falsehoods as "just the way this fictional world works". But the story is set in a highly contemporary setting, nearly indistinguishable from our modern day; and the presented falsehoods do have modern-day real-world believers, even if only as cult-like sects. Thus, these various falsehoods instead strike the feeling of the author attempting to sell the reader on actually believing these things about our real world. This becomes particularly the case when the story begins to spiritualize and pseudo-philosophize about Cryptocurrency, as the author undoubtedly "has a horse in that race".

While I cannot know if the author genuinely believes these things, nor if they want the reader to genuinely believe these things; I nonetheless could not help but feel like the book was proselytizing at me about how all the conspiracy theories are actually true, which was uncomfortable to say the least.

However, there is somewhat more to this book. It is not all proselytization. There is also the story of a put-upon young man finding a sort-of-'AI' friend, who helps him reclaim his inheritance and start on a world-spanning adventure.
In this, the story also falls a bit flat.
The main character largely just sits and nods along as people explain things to him, without reacting to most of the revelations in a believable manner. There is some amount of intrigue and suspense, but most if it ends up feeling like "okay, so how is the author going to describe the not-Illuminati this time?".
The writing style also suffers from inconsistency. There are multiple paragraphs written in a strange, almost-poetry level of flowery-language that is not seen anywhere else. The story goes from scenes of winding and interconnected dialogues, to scenes of disconnected little vignettes that seem as if they're little more than expanded footnotes.
The story also goes out of its way to force in references to CryptoCulture, made all the more forced as it additionally forced in explanations of these references/jokes, so newcomers wouldn't be left out.

There is one bright spot: the 'AI' girlfriend. I picked up this book expressly for this character, and their introduction, explanation of how they work, and subsequent "dating" scenes are the few bits of this book I will actually care to remember. Unfortunately, however, it's not all that great in the fine details, as this too is subsumed into the strange mega-ideology the story has going. I would personally have much rather have just read an SCP-esque short story focusing solely on 'her' specifically.
(Also, micro-spoilers: the "AI" is better described as a "Memetohazard", if you're familiar with SCP terminology).


Overall, the only people I could imagine enjoying this book are people already swept up in the CryptoCurrency fad, or people who are uninformed enough to take this book seriously.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the present-to-near future, The Name and the Shadow kicks off with Armand Ptolemy's discovery of life-like artificial intelligence, buried in an ancient object. The discovery transforms his life, giving him superhuman abilities.

But this book is way, way more than a science fiction novel. It is a peer into the future, a commentary on the VC-tech space, the state of our world, and an analysis of AI technology and its implications.

For some context, this book was published in 2023, near the height of the "AI" craze. At the time, every technologist was trying to figure out what LLMs were, what made them tick, and what were their limits.

Mark Jeffrey, a venture capitalist, futurist and philosopher, has a deep understanding of human history, our technologies, and our potential. With "The Name and The Shadow," Mark puts this on full display.

If you want to understand the inner workings of large language models, as well as the potential direction of this industry, read this book.

By stroke of luck, while midway through the book I chanced upon a few documentaries discussing the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. Gaining new insight into ancient technological achievements -- such as the Pyramids of Giza -- has been fascinating, but also made me appreciate this book even more.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

[Patricia Frantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads. This was totally not a book for me. I’m not tech savvy, nor do I know about cryptocurrency. But this book includes secret societies with technology, AI, and mythology, all tied into one. It reads very quickly but all the tech talk confused me often. If you’re into tech stuff, you probably will love this book. Me, not so much. It was just ok for me.

[BONNIE SMITH · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this kindle edition from a Goodreads giveaway.
A very interesting concept, creating an AI character that evolves, intertwining Egyptology AND family secrets.
For me, it was a little too techie, I got lost in some of the tech talk, but enjoyed the story. I don’t know if I would buy the book and rush to get the next one, but I was entertained.
If you like Star Trek, dystopian novels and AI concepts, this is for you.

[Connie Engle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was challenging for me to get through. Between 0 and 18% I kept falling asleep, waking to find my tablet in my lap. So I put it aside and read another book. Between 19 and 38% I was annoyed by the quantity of seemingly useless text. So I put it aside and read another book. After I picked it back up and got to 45% I was able to coast along till I finished it. My thanks to GoodreadsGiveaway for this ebook literary challenge.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This seemed like an intriguing idea, but at 12%, I'm just not buying it. It's all too weird and the formatting - specifically when the codex is talking vs when he is talking to it (for want of a better description) is annoying. The codex 'voice' is in all caps and which is harder to read, I think. And there's other mysterious things going on, but Ifind I'm just not very interested. DNF for me.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about this book. Parts were really good. Others just took forever to get through. The major problem was not the story but the many typos and other mistakes in the writing. Really needed a proofreader and if there was one, there needs to be another one. The many errors in writing took away from the story.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many words

Pretty thin concept undergirding this universe. No basis in magic, science or philosophy. Just kind of bogus artificial magicy stuff.

[Sandra Vdplaats · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.