84 ratings | 7 reviews | avg rating:4.40

John Ruf’s Followers (1)

John’s Bookshelves

to-read (3)
currently-reading (66)
read (82)
did-not-finish (0)
christian (7)
enlightenment (38)
fiction (17)
reason (9)

John’s Friends (14)

Celia

810 books | 108 friends

Rachel Murphy leimkuehler

38 books | 178 friends

Preston Faudere

78 books | 4 friends

Jozef Schutzman

2 books | 141 friends

Greg Meyers

292 books | 84 friends

Jenny

42 books | 121 friends

Matthew Howard

72 books | 17 friends

Ron Bowen

113 books | 55 friends

More friends…

John Ruf

Goodreads Author

Website

https://john-paul-ruf.github.io/novel-engine/

Genre

Science Fiction, Fantasy

Member Since

February 2017

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/johnpaulruf

edit data

John Ruf is a VP of Information Technology, software engineer, and author of 10+ novels spanning literary science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy. He built Novel Engine — an open-source multi-agent AI writing pipeline — and used it to produce most of his entire catalog, then had two independent AIs evaluate the output on an "AI slop → established author" scale. The scores came back 7.0–9.4 out of 10.

His work explores systems under pressure — institutions hiding the truth, practitioners paying the cost, archives holding what the living forgot, and the quiet people nobody watches who turn out to be the ones that matter. His debut catalog includes The Last Compiler, The Lien, Cleartext, Project Sephirot, The Recursive Archivist, Day ...more

Combine Editions
John Ruf’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 20 ratings · 2 reviews · 15 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Lien it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Distilled Kabbalah liked it 3.00 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Keeper's Frequency it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Project Sephirot: The Operator's Manual it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enlightenment Western Style 2.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cleartext it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Secular Magic: The Discipline of the Mind really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After the Break: An Oral History 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Roman Garrison 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Empty Orbit 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by John Ruf…

John is Currently Reading

John is currently reading

The Lien

by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM

John is currently reading

The Keeper's Frequency

by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM

John is currently reading

Cleartext

by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 26, 2026 05:23AM

rss
John’s Recent Updates

John is now following Jon Stonecash's reviews
Apr 07, 2026 06:51AM · like
John liked Jon Stonecash's review of The Lien: "This is a quirky book that I loved. It has its flaws. If you are looking for a hard-science-fiction story, this book is not for you. The physics are weak, almost non-existant. But there is a strong engineering approach to reality. This can be distrac" Read more of this review »
Apr 07, 2026 06:51AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Lien by John Ruf. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Lien by John Ruf <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John has read Project Sephirot: The Operator's Manual by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Project Sephirot by John Ruf. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Project Sephirot by John Ruf <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John is currently reading The Lien by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Lien by John Ruf. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Lien by John Ruf <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John has read Secular Magic: The Discipline of the Mind by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM · like
John has read Enlightenment Western Style by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM · like
John is currently reading The Keeper's Frequency by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:24AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Keeper's Frequency by John Ruf. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Keeper's Frequency by John Ruf <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John is currently reading Cleartext by John Ruf (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 05:23AM · like
John rated a book really liked it Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts by Donald Michael Kraig	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 04:55AM · like
John rated a book liked it The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, #1) by Michael Scott (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 26, 2026 04:54AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Alchemyst by Michael Scott <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">