Alex Schuler

Far beyond the synthesis of technology and human neurology, farther away from where quantum entanglement meets the joining of our synaptic connections deep within our brains, a consciousness is growing.

Code Word Access is one of the scariest books I've read in years. Far more frightening than any viral plague, than many dystopian landscapes posited by our best science fiction writers.

I am not a science genius, nor am I a technowhiz. I do, however, have a pretty good grasp on what our Military Industrial Complex has planned to face what they see as the emerging enemy.

This war will, actually, is already being fought in cyberspace. You know this, right? You remember the recent rashes of Ransomware attacks on Corporate and Military targets?

Now imagine... imagine an artificial intelligence built to link together every citizen, to monitor and mitigate the disaster of our global climate change. To provide a minimum income to everyone so that no one has to be hungry.

Sounds good? Really? If this AI, as they call it, is run by a brilliant, unique but essentially flawed young man whose brain shares with it a special link no one else can fathom. What could happen?

I stayed up for two days reading this book straight through because I literally was too scared to put it down. I had to find out how the situation was resolved. Now that I'm done, I'm more frightened than before.

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"Secretary of Defense 'SecDef' Elizabeth Milhouse Perry, New Humanitist Party, Texas, steel-gray hair and dark blue suite, watched the OpCenter's vault doors unseal with a pop and start to sigh open." Uh ... what? This is the opening sentence and it reads like the author is just throwing words against the wall to see what sticks. I can't imagine a more clumsy and awkward way to start a story. A few more pages in we get this "Madam Secretary, allow me to introduce Fouad bin Ahmad bin Ismail bin Bahadur al Bakhtiari al Tehrani." So this man is the son of Adam son of George son of Bob? I could be wrong, but I don't think Arabic names work that way. The writing seems a tad lazy here and this is just in the first three (3) pages. After that we get an encounter with a wunderkind sucking down a milk shake while briefing "SecDef" on the "ultimate" quantum based AI surveillance/weapons platform that he developed on his own ... 'cause you know ... genius. Unforunately ... I am not sure the author knows what any of these terms actually mean, but they are trending so throw 'em in. What follows is a rather sophomoric attempt at fanfic that is so ridiculous it must actually be ... parody ... okay ... you got me. I was expecting a serious "terminator" style story here and not some progressive lampoon on the current political climate in the US. Maybe I just need to requisition a new sense of humor because I am not a fan. Perhaps it is just the confusing mess of terms and jargon used incorrectly, but I don't think this is even good parody.

So yeah ... an Artificial Intelligence (AI) is given an upgrade to have a conscience based upon a simple concept: do the greatest good for the greatest number [of people]. Unlike say ... Asimov's much better developed three (3) laws of robotics, which are very specific, this rule doesn't really define anything as good. So of course, the AI goes rogue and becomes a computer/network star chamber now able to deceive (aka lie) to its minders in order to control its "Internet of weapons" to eliminate all threats to itself (because that is obviously the greatest good for the greatest number). Seriously ... it is bad enough that I debated putting this on the DNF shelf about every other page ... with a morbid fascination, I wondered if it would be possible to actually get worse ... so I soldiered on until I hit the wall about half way through ... I just can't do it :-(

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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