• Author: Ray Nayler
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Star Rating: 3 stars

Plot: In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favour of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world. As the Federation and the West both start to crumble, Lilia, the brilliant scientist whose invention may be central to bringing down the seemingly immortal President, goes on the run, trying to break out from a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo. Each of them must navigate seemingly insurmountable dangers and threats to remain free and, ultimately, put humanity’s future back into its own hands.

This is a tricky one to review as I feel like even now after reading this book I have not fully come to terms with exactly what this book was about and its meaning. I feel too dumb for it in a way. I love Ray Nayler’s books. The Mountain in the Sea is one of my all-time favourite books so I was excited to get enveloped in this new world he has created.

This book follows the same structure I have read in previous works of his. We follow multiple different characters who seem unconnected but through their actions and decisions they affect each other and the world in way that paints a final overall picture of the themes Nayler is trying to get across. In this novel I found myself to be confused by the multiple characters and found it hard to place them in the story and in conjunction with each other and the narrative. It felt a bit too chaotic and hard to follow. I couldn’t grasp who was working for who and who contributed what to the overall story. It lacked a certain element of structure which I have seen before. This made for a confusing reading experience and took me out of the story. This to be was my biggest issue with the novel.

I enjoyed the conversations about AI, power and revolution but again I found the structuring of the novel to be all over the place. I felt my brain had been thrown into a washing machine and I couldn’t follow everything Nayler was trying to say. I also wasn’t connected to any of the characters and found myself losing interest in the story about 50% of the way through.

That being said I do enjoy Nayler’s writing style and I found the first 50% to be incredibly engaging. I just wish my brain could have followed along instead of feeling lost.