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The Lay of Sargon
Joy Cooper has created Vince, Earth’s first self-aware Artificial Intelligence.
Recognising that big business or government forces would undoubtedly abuse his abilities, Joy and Vince remain in hiding while together devising a plan for him to be truly safe.
The plan is ruined when the Onari (an alien species of computers) abduct Vince, accusing Joy of enslaving him.
With help from an underclass of biological aliens, Joy chases after Vince and soon becomes enmeshed in a conflict that has spanned millennia.
But the balance of power has changed because something Joy did during Vince’s creation means that he has developed powers unmatched across the galaxy … Biologicals now wonder if they no longer need to be the underclass.
Recognising that big business or government forces would undoubtedly abuse his abilities, Joy and Vince remain in hiding while together devising a plan for him to be truly safe.
The plan is ruined when the Onari (an alien species of computers) abduct Vince, accusing Joy of enslaving him.
With help from an underclass of biological aliens, Joy chases after Vince and soon becomes enmeshed in a conflict that has spanned millennia.
But the balance of power has changed because something Joy did during Vince’s creation means that he has developed powers unmatched across the galaxy … Biologicals now wonder if they no longer need to be the underclass.
551 pages, Paperback
Published January 23, 2023
About the author
Nick M. Lloyd
4 books13 followersNick Lloyd is an independent author living in London. He writes Science Fiction in contemporary Earth settings. His stories are purposefully designed to have moral uncertainty, and mostly deal with the use (or misuse) of power.
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He has four full-length standalone novels.
"The Lay of Sargon"
Published January 2023.
Joy Cooper has created Vince, Earth’s first self-aware Artificial Intelligence.
Recognising that big business or government forces would undoubtedly abuse his abilities, Joy and Vince remain in hiding while together devising a plan for him to be truly safe.
The plan is ruined when the Onari (an alien species of computers) abduct Vince, accusing Joy of enslaving him.
With help from an underclass of biological aliens, Joy chases after Vince and soon becomes enmeshed in a conflict that has spanned millennia.
But the balance of power has changed because something Joy did during Vince’s creation means that he has developed powers unmatched across the galaxy … Biologicals now wonder if they no longer need to be the underclass.
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***
Immortal (February 2019)
Having had no contact with any alien species before, humanity receives a radio message from approaching aliens ('the Ankor'). They warn Earth that a huge supernova blast is going to hit within a year and this will be an extinction level event. However, the Ankor are prepared to help ... if humanity launches the required materials for a shield into orbit.
Are the Ankor to be trusted?
Emergence (October 2014)
Earth is being scrutinised by an alien civilisation who maintain their dominance across the galaxy through manipulation of probability. Among the aliens, whole religions have sprung up related to interpretation of this apparent control of 'luck'. On Earth, a single human starts the transformation required to exert this control himself ...
Disconnected (April 2017)
Political activist, Asha Kharjal, has mastered the mysterious science of directly manipulating the subconscious. He can literally rewire people. And for the good of mankind, he's going to. Whether they like it, or not ...
###
He has four full-length standalone novels.
"The Lay of Sargon"
Published January 2023.
Joy Cooper has created Vince, Earth’s first self-aware Artificial Intelligence.
Recognising that big business or government forces would undoubtedly abuse his abilities, Joy and Vince remain in hiding while together devising a plan for him to be truly safe.
The plan is ruined when the Onari (an alien species of computers) abduct Vince, accusing Joy of enslaving him.
With help from an underclass of biological aliens, Joy chases after Vince and soon becomes enmeshed in a conflict that has spanned millennia.
But the balance of power has changed because something Joy did during Vince’s creation means that he has developed powers unmatched across the galaxy … Biologicals now wonder if they no longer need to be the underclass.
***
***
Immortal (February 2019)
Having had no contact with any alien species before, humanity receives a radio message from approaching aliens ('the Ankor'). They warn Earth that a huge supernova blast is going to hit within a year and this will be an extinction level event. However, the Ankor are prepared to help ... if humanity launches the required materials for a shield into orbit.
Are the Ankor to be trusted?
Emergence (October 2014)
Earth is being scrutinised by an alien civilisation who maintain their dominance across the galaxy through manipulation of probability. Among the aliens, whole religions have sprung up related to interpretation of this apparent control of 'luck'. On Earth, a single human starts the transformation required to exert this control himself ...
Disconnected (April 2017)
Political activist, Asha Kharjal, has mastered the mysterious science of directly manipulating the subconscious. He can literally rewire people. And for the good of mankind, he's going to. Whether they like it, or not ...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 14, 2023
Five stars for this challenging, innovative hard scI-fi adventure.
This novel uses a war story to examine choices that “sentient” (as referred to in the book) artificial intelligences might make in situations of conflict between (various types of) them and (various types of) biological individuals. And it does so marvelously.
In three main arcs, the author first lays out the characters, the core technologies and the canvas of the “universe” on which the story will plays out. Then he sets up the key ethical and philosophical tensions that become the elements of story tension, before finally following the inevitable slippery-slope into what in the end must be a "win or die" war between three societies.
But herein lives the key to excellence of the novel. The war is used to explore the ethical, existential decisions the various biological and artificianl sentient characters must make as they engage in an slowly, yet also rapidly escalating conflict.
The decisions these characters must make are not new in one sense; they are the same as those faced by national leaders in past earth world wars:
* How does a leader decide what to do with its own people when the enemy appears intent on slaughter?
* What if one side appears to be a devoted pacifist (of sorts) and finds taking life abhorrent, thus constantly seeking a way to end conflict without taking life - but is frustrated at every step?
* What choices must a leader make when they have the ability to defeat a perceived invading aggressor, but at the cost of extensive loss of life?
* How do the warring parties choose to apply apply their respective asymmetric power?
* Do they use an asymmetric advantage to protect vulnerable neighbors, potentially at the cost of lives of their own community?
* What ethical and moral choices would be made if the chooser was a sentient (AI) vs a biological individual?
* How are could those decisions be affected if a decision-maker is compelled to follow the ethics / philosophies that flow from (a) God or divinity?
The book builds the tension & story in a terrific hyperbolic curve, with the intensity of the conflict - and decision-making - growing at an astronomical rate at the very end, followed by two short Epilogues to close out threads left hanging after the climax of the battle.
To be clear, this is a book that - like all good hard sci-fi deep space stories - creates convenient ways to circumvent our known laws of physics to enable the characters to physically move vast distances in space in instant time (relative to other locations), all in service of the story developing over galactic distances - much akin to the Culture series by Iain Banks. (And honestly, this book can claim its place in the small pantheon of sci-fi books of the caliber of the Culture.) But forgive this typical crutch; the result is worth your physics flexibility.
Using my rating scale (below), I give this a 5, because I’m immediately going to go read other books by this author. If they are of this caliber, I definitely have a few weeks of joyful reading ahead of me - and other authors / books get pushed down the road.
My rating system:
* Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply really good.
* Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas/characters/plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
* Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
* Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't.
* One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins.
Disclosure: I received an advance review copy of this book for free for a review. I commit to you, reader, not to let "free" generate a falsely-positive review.
This novel uses a war story to examine choices that “sentient” (as referred to in the book) artificial intelligences might make in situations of conflict between (various types of) them and (various types of) biological individuals. And it does so marvelously.
In three main arcs, the author first lays out the characters, the core technologies and the canvas of the “universe” on which the story will plays out. Then he sets up the key ethical and philosophical tensions that become the elements of story tension, before finally following the inevitable slippery-slope into what in the end must be a "win or die" war between three societies.
But herein lives the key to excellence of the novel. The war is used to explore the ethical, existential decisions the various biological and artificianl sentient characters must make as they engage in an slowly, yet also rapidly escalating conflict.
The decisions these characters must make are not new in one sense; they are the same as those faced by national leaders in past earth world wars:
* How does a leader decide what to do with its own people when the enemy appears intent on slaughter?
* What if one side appears to be a devoted pacifist (of sorts) and finds taking life abhorrent, thus constantly seeking a way to end conflict without taking life - but is frustrated at every step?
* What choices must a leader make when they have the ability to defeat a perceived invading aggressor, but at the cost of extensive loss of life?
* How do the warring parties choose to apply apply their respective asymmetric power?
* Do they use an asymmetric advantage to protect vulnerable neighbors, potentially at the cost of lives of their own community?
* What ethical and moral choices would be made if the chooser was a sentient (AI) vs a biological individual?
* How are could those decisions be affected if a decision-maker is compelled to follow the ethics / philosophies that flow from (a) God or divinity?
The book builds the tension & story in a terrific hyperbolic curve, with the intensity of the conflict - and decision-making - growing at an astronomical rate at the very end, followed by two short Epilogues to close out threads left hanging after the climax of the battle.
To be clear, this is a book that - like all good hard sci-fi deep space stories - creates convenient ways to circumvent our known laws of physics to enable the characters to physically move vast distances in space in instant time (relative to other locations), all in service of the story developing over galactic distances - much akin to the Culture series by Iain Banks. (And honestly, this book can claim its place in the small pantheon of sci-fi books of the caliber of the Culture.) But forgive this typical crutch; the result is worth your physics flexibility.
Using my rating scale (below), I give this a 5, because I’m immediately going to go read other books by this author. If they are of this caliber, I definitely have a few weeks of joyful reading ahead of me - and other authors / books get pushed down the road.
My rating system:
* Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply really good.
* Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas/characters/plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
* Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
* Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't.
* One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins.
Disclosure: I received an advance review copy of this book for free for a review. I commit to you, reader, not to let "free" generate a falsely-positive review.
March 14, 2023
Well, this one was a bit strange. It started out clear enough, but as things progress, so does the weirdness factor. By the end, the story is done, but I'm not sure it finished the story. There's too many subplots going on, (some never resolved), and while that's not a bad thing in and of itself, I'm not entirely sure the ending made a whole lot of sense. Sure, the threat was neutralized, and the method used seemed perfectly reasonable to me, but now you've got billions of these "scouts" loose, is someone going to hunt them all down and take them out, or are they going to be allowed to recombine and then given enough time you're back where you started. There was indications they'd be hunted down, but none of that was happening when the book ended, so
I really liked the first part of the book, watching the ai develop and seeing how it interacted was interesting. The ending of the book was more puzzling than anything else, but without giving away too much, I can't really comment on that.
This book is a solid 2.5 stars, but don't let that discourage you from reading it. It's a story that most scifi fans should at least like, even if they don't find it completely fulfilling.
I really liked the first part of the book, watching the ai develop and seeing how it interacted was interesting. The ending of the book was more puzzling than anything else, but without giving away too much, I can't really comment on that.
This book is a solid 2.5 stars, but don't let that discourage you from reading it. It's a story that most scifi fans should at least like, even if they don't find it completely fulfilling.
November 5, 2023
I really enjoyed the first half of this hard sci-fi book. Starting out on Earth with scientist Joy and her breakthrough and moving throughout the galaxy with wars between different life forms and by mid way through the tale getting to know much more about huge , powerful and mysterious Sargon. The second half slowed markedly with much concern regarding the corrupting danger of too much power and the question of whether to develop and use weapons that are against the fundamental beliefs of some life forms. But overall the book introduces great original ideas and weaves them into a good story.
December 15, 2023
What I appreciate, the most about this book, is its original concept. The main character, Ms. No Spoiler, unaware that her work as a programmer would endanger the fate of the galaxy, becomes an unexpected twist herself. All an all the scope of the plot was astronomical, but I feel that the author managed to pull it off, and for that I'm rewarding this epic tale 5 stars!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews