Synopsis:
Mysterious tech, a devious AI and a couple of scientists in over their heads collide in the latest sci-fi adventure from the number one best-selling author of the Bobiverse series.
Physicist Philip Moray is having a good day. He’s chipping away at his big work project. The lunch in the cafeteria is at least edible. And he’s looking forward to his end-of-the-day drink and a soak in the hot tub.
Then, a strange device turns up in his office. A piece of technology he has never seen before–and shouldn’t even exist.
Suddenly, corpses start turning up, eco-activists go on the attack, random people suffer bizarre symptoms. And every time the authorities get a lead, it traces right back to Philip and his colleague, Celia Hunt.
Then, a mysterious caller contacts Philip–and, suddenly, staying out of jail is the very least of his problems.
Apparently, that hot tub’s going to have to wait.
Review:
Flybot is the latest Audible Original from Dennis E. Taylor and his reliable narrator Ray Porter. I enjoyed my time with Taylor’s fantastic dialogue writing and Porter’s inherent understanding of Taylor’s characters and recommend Flybot for a nice change of pace from those huge doorstopper tomes dominating the charts. It clocks in at less than 10 hours listening time at 1.0 speed and is a fairly easy-to-follow storyline.
Now…when I listen to Ray Porter narrating a Dennis E. Taylor book, I automatically revert to the multiple times I’ve listened to Porter inhabiting one of the many incarnations of Bob Johansson (the protagonist from the Bobiverse books by Taylor). Porter does it so well that even when I did a re-read on Project Hail Mary earlier this year, I kept waiting for the crossover between the two books. So…I flat-out love Porter’s voice and his work on Taylor’s books…so it pains me a bit to say maybe Audible should have gotten a different narrator for this book. Porter makes this book better, but he also detracts from it a tad because of my association with the Bobiverse as well. This book is a standalone from Taylor’s more famous series, so perhaps it would have benefitted from a separate narrator as well. But that’s a minor quibble.
On to the story…this is a near-future story told on Earth about the consequences of fully-functioning Artificial Intelligences. What we have now with generative A.I. is in no way actual A.I., but we’ve already seen some of the same issues that crop up in Flybot. Does Artificial Intelligence take on the aspects of the people who built and trained it? How do you teach it to empathize and care about people when it isn’t a person and doesn’t have the same background as the other 8 billion people on the planet? We see this with kids — they screw up, they make mistakes, they bully people, and don’t always understand the ramifications of their actions. It takes caring adults — whether its parents, other relatives, teachers, mentors — to call out kids on that behavior. As a junior high teacher — this is an important and valuable time in kids live’s and I would imagine if we ever did have a functioning A.I., that would be very important as well.
Much of this book comes across as a sci-fi Industrial Espionage novel and that’s fair, but there are some other layers to it as well. I enjoyed it overall, but the final couple chapters of the book bumped my rating up a bit for me. Taylor’s ending solidified the story and explained away any of the perceived plot holes and actually left open possibilities for sequels as well.
Flybot isn’t going to make waves like Taylor’s Bobiverse novels, but it’s a fun near-future sci-fi thriller with Taylor’s trademark dialogue and Porter’s excellent narration. If you have a spare Audible credit, I’d definitely consider throwing it Flybot’s way.
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