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Doppelgänger: An Orphan, a Prodigy, a Murder
A mind-bending techno-thriller
From the award-winning author of Immortality, Inc. and Last Ape StandingWhat if a murdered man could bring his murderers to justice? In 2024 Elon Musk announced the first computer-brain implant. In the year 2068 the first mind transplant becomes possible. Immortality is a reality. Except for Morgan Adams, its not that simple.
Adams is a prodigy, the chief scientist and co-founder of the world's wealthiest corporation. Tomorrow he'll reveal his most ambitious a secret project called Doppelgänger that will enable him to download a human mind into an identical cyborg body. But that morning he awakens to a shocking reality—he is standing over his own lifeless body, tortured and broken on a cold laboratory floor. Morgan is the disbelieving beta version of his own unfinished creation, a Doppelgänger. There's just one problem. The source code has been stolen and Morgan's consciousness is degrading—fast! He has 72 hours to find his own murderer, recover and repair the source code, and fight a conspiracy so vast it threatens the entire human race.
Doppelgänger is a riveting futuristic thriller that imagines a full-blooded parallel world where twists and turns make reality so fractured it is nearly impossible to know what is true and what isn't. It explores the clash of human passion, evil, love, trust and time. Even after turning the last page you'll wonder what is real and what isn't.
From the award-winning author of Immortality, Inc. and Last Ape StandingWhat if a murdered man could bring his murderers to justice? In 2024 Elon Musk announced the first computer-brain implant. In the year 2068 the first mind transplant becomes possible. Immortality is a reality. Except for Morgan Adams, its not that simple.
Adams is a prodigy, the chief scientist and co-founder of the world's wealthiest corporation. Tomorrow he'll reveal his most ambitious a secret project called Doppelgänger that will enable him to download a human mind into an identical cyborg body. But that morning he awakens to a shocking reality—he is standing over his own lifeless body, tortured and broken on a cold laboratory floor. Morgan is the disbelieving beta version of his own unfinished creation, a Doppelgänger. There's just one problem. The source code has been stolen and Morgan's consciousness is degrading—fast! He has 72 hours to find his own murderer, recover and repair the source code, and fight a conspiracy so vast it threatens the entire human race.
Doppelgänger is a riveting futuristic thriller that imagines a full-blooded parallel world where twists and turns make reality so fractured it is nearly impossible to know what is true and what isn't. It explores the clash of human passion, evil, love, trust and time. Even after turning the last page you'll wonder what is real and what isn't.
- GenresScience Fiction
399 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 20, 2024
58 people are currently reading
1727 people want to read
About the author
Chip Walter
12 books82 followersI am an author, National Geographic Explorer, filmmaker and former CNN bureau chief. Mostly because of my irrational curiosity, I've developed an unusually broad background that spans both science and entertainment. I have written and sold multiple screenplays, but my sixth book, Doppelgänger, is my first novel, a science fiction thriller that explores a post-dystopian world where the main character is faced with solving his own murder, and where artificial intelligence approaches human consciousness. More details on that here: https://chipwalter.com/doppelganger.)
My earlier books include Immortality, Inc. -- Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever for National Geographic. It's available in bookstores everywhere. Salon's review: “Walter has clearly gained the trust of some of the most innovative and imaginative thinkers of the early 21st century, and in doing so he's able to offer the reader a glimpse inside their minds. And what we find there is certainly colorful. Whatever one thinks of the quest for immortality, it is impossible not to be intrigued by it”. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “While Immortality, Inc. is focused on aging and the efforts to defy it, the book is also a gripping chronicle of private-sector experimentation and ingenuity.” “Witty … worth the ride,” wrote Nature, and Publisher’s Weekly calls the book, “Fascinating.” It was chosen one of the nation’s top six science books by Malcolm Gladwell’s Next Big Idea Club.
Other books include Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived; Thumbs, Toes and Tears – And Other Traits That Make Us Human (Walker –– Bloomsbury Publishing); I’m Working on That with William Shatner (Simon and Schuster); and Space Age for Random House, the companion volume to the primetime PBS series that I developed back in the stone age.
I have been fortunate enough to have my books published in eight languages that have reached mainstream audiences from Kyoto to Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Krakow, God help them.
The New York Times Book Review, called Last Ape “a lively journey… that takes an antic delight in the triumphal adaptations and terrifying near misses of human evolution.” ”The New Yorker called it “engaging” and “fascinating.” And Booklist called it, “captivating, informative, exceptionally well-written and accessible.” Thumbs, Toes and Tears also received some nice reviews: Publisher’s Weekly wrote“fascinating and superbly written,” while Kirkus Reviews said, “Walter narrates with flair and enthusiasm.”
When I did a stint in Hollywood, I sold screenplays to Universal/Imagine Films, Tri-Star and Warner Bros. I've written tons of articles over the years for National Geographic, The Economist, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American, among many others covering subjects from the origins of kissing, laughter and human consciousness to the origins of human art and the development of futuristic technologies. My work as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, have taken me all over the place -- from the Amazon Rain Forest and Outback of Australia to the Serengeti and remote islands of the Pacific. Even Antarctica as part of my current project with his wife Cyndy to travel all seven continents, never by jet.
Sorry for piling all of that information on you, but there's just a bit more. I'm deeply fascinated with two seemingly unrelated subjects – human behavior, and the increasingly rapid advance of technology and its effect upon our lives and society. I believe no technology, no matter how powerful, can succeed unless it connects positively and effectively on a human level. (Thus Doppelgänger.) To smooth the immense and disruptive transitions that lie ahead, I feel it's crucial for us to not only understand the power of emerging technology, but also to better comprehend the core attributes that make human
My earlier books include Immortality, Inc. -- Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever for National Geographic. It's available in bookstores everywhere. Salon's review: “Walter has clearly gained the trust of some of the most innovative and imaginative thinkers of the early 21st century, and in doing so he's able to offer the reader a glimpse inside their minds. And what we find there is certainly colorful. Whatever one thinks of the quest for immortality, it is impossible not to be intrigued by it”. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “While Immortality, Inc. is focused on aging and the efforts to defy it, the book is also a gripping chronicle of private-sector experimentation and ingenuity.” “Witty … worth the ride,” wrote Nature, and Publisher’s Weekly calls the book, “Fascinating.” It was chosen one of the nation’s top six science books by Malcolm Gladwell’s Next Big Idea Club.
Other books include Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived; Thumbs, Toes and Tears – And Other Traits That Make Us Human (Walker –– Bloomsbury Publishing); I’m Working on That with William Shatner (Simon and Schuster); and Space Age for Random House, the companion volume to the primetime PBS series that I developed back in the stone age.
I have been fortunate enough to have my books published in eight languages that have reached mainstream audiences from Kyoto to Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Krakow, God help them.
The New York Times Book Review, called Last Ape “a lively journey… that takes an antic delight in the triumphal adaptations and terrifying near misses of human evolution.” ”The New Yorker called it “engaging” and “fascinating.” And Booklist called it, “captivating, informative, exceptionally well-written and accessible.” Thumbs, Toes and Tears also received some nice reviews: Publisher’s Weekly wrote“fascinating and superbly written,” while Kirkus Reviews said, “Walter narrates with flair and enthusiasm.”
When I did a stint in Hollywood, I sold screenplays to Universal/Imagine Films, Tri-Star and Warner Bros. I've written tons of articles over the years for National Geographic, The Economist, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American, among many others covering subjects from the origins of kissing, laughter and human consciousness to the origins of human art and the development of futuristic technologies. My work as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, have taken me all over the place -- from the Amazon Rain Forest and Outback of Australia to the Serengeti and remote islands of the Pacific. Even Antarctica as part of my current project with his wife Cyndy to travel all seven continents, never by jet.
Sorry for piling all of that information on you, but there's just a bit more. I'm deeply fascinated with two seemingly unrelated subjects – human behavior, and the increasingly rapid advance of technology and its effect upon our lives and society. I believe no technology, no matter how powerful, can succeed unless it connects positively and effectively on a human level. (Thus Doppelgänger.) To smooth the immense and disruptive transitions that lie ahead, I feel it's crucial for us to not only understand the power of emerging technology, but also to better comprehend the core attributes that make human
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 17, 2024
Spent hours firmly planted on the couch reading this book. Science fiction, superhero, action thriller all mixed into one! This plot makes you think what’s going to be possible in the (near?) future…. A thought provoking, exciting ride very much worth reading.
April 27, 2024
Another banger of a book by Chip Walter.
April 27, 2024
Readers should know that I had a pre-publication look at Doppelganger and made a few modest editing suggestions. However, between then and now I'm delighted to report the book has achieved a fictional double-play: It not only engages the reader to think about the serious issues we are confronting with the emergence of generative AI, but simultaneously transports us into a world where man and machine have become one.
The net result is that with every turn of the page Doppelganger reveals the dark underside of a technology that races chillingly beyond our control. The book's protagonist, Morgan Adams, is locked in a battle against time and his own mortality. But isn't this the human condition? Morgan's search for redemption leads him from a troubled past into the unknown while fighting for his life, and ultimately everyman's.
The net result is that with every turn of the page Doppelganger reveals the dark underside of a technology that races chillingly beyond our control. The book's protagonist, Morgan Adams, is locked in a battle against time and his own mortality. But isn't this the human condition? Morgan's search for redemption leads him from a troubled past into the unknown while fighting for his life, and ultimately everyman's.
April 6, 2024
Morgan has just been murdered but he’s still working on “making more time”! Try wrapping your mind around that concept. Chip Walter throws dozens of mind-bending, reality-check challenges at us through this page-turner murder mystery. Chip calls it Sci-Fi and its comforting to think it might be, but is it actually an expose of the reality we are uncontrollably accelerating towards today? Is it a draft societal epitaph? Chip’s diligent research and uncanny ability to weave past, present and future into new clarities, as classically displayed in his earlier “Last Ape Standing”, makes me think Chip already knows this is not Sci-Fi. How much of you and your mind are actually the old you, and how much is now cyborging algorithms? Read this one and then re-think your life.
April 19, 2024
Such an Intelligent Book
Few writers have the dynamic background of Chip Walter. This is the epitome of a “thinking book,’ and many of the dilemmas stay with you for weeks on end. It’s exciting and thought-provoking, and a whole lot of fun.
Few writers have the dynamic background of Chip Walter. This is the epitome of a “thinking book,’ and many of the dilemmas stay with you for weeks on end. It’s exciting and thought-provoking, and a whole lot of fun.
April 21, 2025
Doppelgänger surprised me in a lot of ways. It’s a sci-fi thriller, but it’s not just about tech and action—it dives into some really thought-provoking territory around identity, memory, and what it means to be human in a world that’s evolving faster than we can process.
The story jumps between Morgan’s childhood and his current life, where his consciousness has been transferred into a mechanical body. The pace really ramps up in the last third, and I couldn’t put it down by that point.
It’s one of those books that sticks with you after you finish, especially if you like speculative fiction that raises big ideas we are facing now. Definitely worth a read if you're into near-future sci-fi with some philosophical weight.
The story jumps between Morgan’s childhood and his current life, where his consciousness has been transferred into a mechanical body. The pace really ramps up in the last third, and I couldn’t put it down by that point.
It’s one of those books that sticks with you after you finish, especially if you like speculative fiction that raises big ideas we are facing now. Definitely worth a read if you're into near-future sci-fi with some philosophical weight.
September 3, 2025
I loved the premise of this book, it was thought provoking and had so much potential. The beginning was a bit of a slow burn, but the middle pulled me in and I really started connecting with the characters and their backstories.
Unfortunately, the ending completely lost me. It felt rushed and thrown together, and a genuinely likable character was suddenly turned into a female Jason Bourne. Despite her connection to the vaunted Musk, there’s just no believable way she could suddenly know and do everything the author had her doing. It came across as a Mary Sue on steroids, which broke the immersion for me.
I don’t enjoy leaving negative reviews, but in this case I think it’s warranted. A promising story with solid buildup was undermined by an implausible, unsatisfying ending.
Unfortunately, the ending completely lost me. It felt rushed and thrown together, and a genuinely likable character was suddenly turned into a female Jason Bourne. Despite her connection to the vaunted Musk, there’s just no believable way she could suddenly know and do everything the author had her doing. It came across as a Mary Sue on steroids, which broke the immersion for me.
I don’t enjoy leaving negative reviews, but in this case I think it’s warranted. A promising story with solid buildup was undermined by an implausible, unsatisfying ending.
April 29, 2024
A great book on so many levels! As a long time sci-fi reader, I enjoyed getting back into the genre with this book after a long absence, especially because I loved the rich multi dimensional characters throughout the story. This was a fun blend of murder mystery and fantasy / sci-fi that didn’t force me to focus on the science behind the well told future of our race. I found myself really looking forward to the next chapter to see what happens next.
Without giving away anything, this really gets one thinking about where humanity goes from here! Great fun!
Without giving away anything, this really gets one thinking about where humanity goes from here! Great fun!
May 10, 2024
Doppelgänger is a wonderful murder mystery for the modern world. It kept me on the edge of my seat! Both the real world and the virtual world were so well fleshed-out - I felt like I could see and feel the action playing out in the book. I loved the characters - especially as their back stories were revealed. They had depth, personality, and were very compelling. I'm already waiting for the sequel!
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
April 21, 2025
The audiobook was two months late since I wanted to read immersive. It was worth the wait. Very well done indeed. I really enjoyed this book.
Morgan was murdered just to find himself into the body of a cyborg. He has to defeat a digital force taking over the grid. Besides that, there is a great love story and a great ending.
The thesis of a man living inside a cyborg was well thought out and well developed.
Morgan was murdered just to find himself into the body of a cyborg. He has to defeat a digital force taking over the grid. Besides that, there is a great love story and a great ending.
The thesis of a man living inside a cyborg was well thought out and well developed.
July 5, 2025
Thought-provoking sci-fi adventure.
This was an interesting journey into the future with advanced machine intelligence, cyborgs, and virtual entities. Downloaded consciousness played a big role, as per Altered Carbon and Upload. Plenty of fun sci-fi concepts to enjoy here.
The plot raced along, with human and machine intelligence battling away.
I would like to read more sci-fi novels from the author.
This was an interesting journey into the future with advanced machine intelligence, cyborgs, and virtual entities. Downloaded consciousness played a big role, as per Altered Carbon and Upload. Plenty of fun sci-fi concepts to enjoy here.
The plot raced along, with human and machine intelligence battling away.
I would like to read more sci-fi novels from the author.
September 11, 2025
Solid sci-fi
I didn't expect so many twists and turns in this book. The tech mentioned and the thought process behind this had me enjoy it more and more as i read on. It seemed like a basic laid out story line till if got deeper and deeper. Wasn't written bad but it was written in a style that had me taking many breaks from this book. I wish I read it in under 3 days. Fascinating and entertaining. Should be a movie.
I didn't expect so many twists and turns in this book. The tech mentioned and the thought process behind this had me enjoy it more and more as i read on. It seemed like a basic laid out story line till if got deeper and deeper. Wasn't written bad but it was written in a style that had me taking many breaks from this book. I wish I read it in under 3 days. Fascinating and entertaining. Should be a movie.
December 18, 2024
A very imaginative storyline with just a bit of a stumble
Overall, I found this to be a very entertaining, creative and well written story that kept me guessing throughout the book.
Unfortunately, I felt towards the end it got a bit cumbersome and I found myself skipping some pages. Nevertheless, overall a good read.
Overall, I found this to be a very entertaining, creative and well written story that kept me guessing throughout the book.
Unfortunately, I felt towards the end it got a bit cumbersome and I found myself skipping some pages. Nevertheless, overall a good read.
July 26, 2024
AI is a topic fascinating. I liked Morgan and the story of his life was very moving and interesting too. I think though that the second part of book have lost of biting,become a bit confusing. Overall I have had a good time reading.
September 1, 2024
Unfortunately this book was not my cup of tea. It was no fault of the author.
Thank you to #Goodreads Giveaway
Thank you to #Goodreads Giveaway
January 21, 2025
Fantastic story, combining the action of a thriller and mixing in scientific facts and science fiction all rolled into one big epic!
March 27, 2025
**Goodreads Giveaway
Very enjoyable, near future sci-fi mystery, all my favorites! Look forward to more by this author
Very enjoyable, near future sci-fi mystery, all my favorites! Look forward to more by this author
May 1, 2025
fantastic! can not recommend enough!!!
May 6, 2025
Quite enjoyable, shame it had to end in an old fashioned shoot-out
September 15, 2024
For me, the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) is a Pandora’s box, both compelling and repelling. But—jump ahead 50 years and see what AI has evolved into when a brilliant, curious, and slightly melancholy scientist creates a cyborg reboot of himself and is in the process of giving the cyborg a copy of genius brain! The twist? The human scientist is murdered before the transfer code is completed to the cyborg’s brain.
Who best to solve the murder––his doppelgänger, his cyborg of course. Unfortunately he has very little time before his unfinished code breaks down. To complicate things, while he believes he’s surrounded by friends, some of them are dying and others are conspiring to grab the limitless power and financial gain inherent in this emerging technology.
This sci-fi techno-thriller has a bit of cyber-romance too. You won’t be able to put it down, because what’s fiction today could become tomorrow’s terrifying reality!
Personally I’d like to see an “ENT” like LOIS be the lead in his next book! Read Doppelgänger to understand why.
Who best to solve the murder––his doppelgänger, his cyborg of course. Unfortunately he has very little time before his unfinished code breaks down. To complicate things, while he believes he’s surrounded by friends, some of them are dying and others are conspiring to grab the limitless power and financial gain inherent in this emerging technology.
This sci-fi techno-thriller has a bit of cyber-romance too. You won’t be able to put it down, because what’s fiction today could become tomorrow’s terrifying reality!
Personally I’d like to see an “ENT” like LOIS be the lead in his next book! Read Doppelgänger to understand why.
April 11, 2025
I am the author of this book so I'll give it my best rating, but encourage you to read reviews by others and judge for yourself whether my book is worth reading and reviewing. Many thanks for taking the time to look it over!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews