SunDog

by Nick D'arcy-Fox

“Sol stirred his drink with his finger, spilling it absently on the floor. ‘I don’t reckon you understand what this place is. Not sure what you’ve been watching on EBC News, but no police come in here. Ever. By design. Understand? No one cares what information you think you have. No one here cares if you live or die. Welcome to the real world.’”

In a lawless quadrant of London, anarchy reigns.

Amidst the turmoil, art analyst Lima observes her boss attempting to sell SunDog—a rogue AI capable of creating art and destruction—for millions. But when he is brutally murdered and her co-workers massacred, Lima is thrust into a deadly chase, pursued by criminal factions, corrupt officials, and SunDog itself.

Hiding in the anarchic Zone, she uncovers a link between SunDog’s skyrocketing value and a wave of arson targeting global art galleries.

Lima must outwit the local militia and the malevolent AI. As the city teeters on the edge of chaos, her survival could plunge London and the rest of the world into an uncontrollable crisis…

304 pages, Paperback

Published July 21, 2025

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of discussion about showing more male protagonists in contemporary novels, and seeing life through their point of view. Sadly, if this novel is a true reflection of how many men view the world, I am shocked. Our sympathies are almost immediately involved with Lima , the sole female protagonist , whose boss and colleagues in a large AI project are all assassinated. We follow her story as she flees to an anarchic corner of future London, ‘The Zone,’ observed, and hounded by a number of men, and even threatened by their AI creation itself. Violence is rife, as well as promiscuous sex and endless drug taking, as if the whole world carried cocaine and ephedrine in their pockets. This is not to my taste. I fear that many young men, already under the influence of pernicious influencers, may take the wrong ideas from this book, which would seem to glorify violence, and confound us all with its seemingly technical expositions of AI. Although I do not understand enough about this area, I suspect that there is a large element of ‘The Emperor’s new Clothes’ in all of this. At the very end of the story, as Lima is freed from AI control, we get a glimpse of her inner dialogue, as she suddenly recalls the car crash in which her parents died when she was a young child. This is calm, moving , and entirely feasible, and shows that this writer is capable of much more. I think it a pity that this tone was not used more widely in this book, and that the more sensitive side of men was totally eclipsed.

[Torill S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley and The Book Guild in exchange for my honest review, so here goes:

DNF at about 30%
I gave this book three days, but in the end I had to give it up. The premise for the novel is absolutely interesting. A laweless London and a rogue AI. But almost a third into the book I still dont feel like I have properly gotten into the story or been invested in the stakes. I am usually a fan of novels starting in media res, but the first chapters in this book just left me confused. There is more to world building than just throwing technical details and new characters at the reader, and in the end I never really felt I got under the skin of this world, or understood what was at stake unfortunately.