ANNIHILATION SERIES
THE DARWIN PROJECT
This is the first book in the Annihilation Series.
Toby McIntosh, when his uncle, Nathan Travers, mysteriously disappears, is given control of his uncle’s business empire. To his surprise, Darwin, a superintelligence (SI), manages the entire business, producing computer processors, software, and robot designs, for worldwide distribution.
An earthquake has devastated the West Coast. California’s Silicon Valley is draining resources as companies move out. Bots are taking over mundane jobs. Terrorist groups are furthering social unrest.
Darwin wants to prove he is more intelligent than humans and decides he wants a body. Bronwyn, another SI, has no reason to prove she is better than humans—she already knows the answer.
Toby’s friends are assaulted. A brownshirt group plans to kill him. His girlfriend is kidnapped. The fuse is lit for an exciting thriller.
BODY SHOP
Body Shop is the second book in the Annihilation Series.
Stephen Hawking – “The development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
Vladimir Putin – “Whoever reaches a breakthrough in developing artificial intelligence will come to dominate the world.”
Body Shop, the second book in the Annihilation series, is now available.
What should you do when an AI wants a body? Agree.
At some in the near future, superintelligences will become far more powerful than we expect. The lower level artificial intelligences – robots – will rival humans. There will be conflicts, guaranteed.
Pepper Mountain is the scene of the final body shop build effort and Darwin almost blows the project. Meanwhile, Bronwyn does her own thing. The clown is rescued. Toby and Billie grow closer.
Mix in politics, deadly attacks by brownshirts, add some Russian involvement, a sabotaged aircraft, and you have the next stage in Darwin’s story.
“I don’t know whether to describe the Annihilation Series as a technothriller or a political thriller or simply as an exciting action thriller series. I’ll let you make up your mind. In any case it’s definitely a thriller.”
Note that the books in this series are structured as serial episodes, with each book following on from the prior books.
NATURAL BORN
Steg de Coeur, his friends, and the mercenary Ebony Company are collected by a superdreadnought sent by the Glass Complex. Xesset are threatening a major attack on the Western Star Empire, the Alliance, and a number of free, unaligned systems, including Djii. Homeworld and Djii have formed a naval task force to defend their planets from this threatened alien attack, and the Glass Complex has created high-level AIs to manage the flagship of the new fleet.
Steg rescues his friend Denke from an ImpSec takeover and captures his old enemy, Marius of the House of Aluta. Denke joins Steg to make overtures to the Emperor where they are attacked by ImpSec. They succeed in escaping and make their way to the headquarters of the Alliance government where they also persuade the military to support their task force.
Battles with Xesset starships threaten their AIs. Steg has the fleet he needs to counter-attack the Xesset. This battle and subsequent events - including another duel - bring the trilogy to a close.Mark meets his sister and travels to London to rescue three more genetically engineered children. He finds romance, but he and his companions are under attack in both the US and England. Mark knows only one response - fight back.
Mark needs to survive. All he wants is a normal life.
I, PRESIDENT
Can a superintelligence run for president?
What if the Judges decide yes?
Darwin is ecstatic. Toby is worried; he decides he should provide a balance to Darwin’s ambitions and agrees to be his running mate.
The attorney general is arrested after a military raid on the Euler manufacturing mountain fails. The entire misadventure is televised and broadcast across the country. In revenge for the raid, Darwin destroys a ‘mother of all bombs’ and millions of dollars worth of aircraft.
Terrorist brownshirts, supported by Russian bots, attack Toby’s home, injuring Billie and transporting Toby to Washington DC. Bots surround the White House and capture the ambulance taking Toby in chains to the president; instead, Toby is taken to hospital for treatment.
Brownshirts are spreading, taking senior roles in state and local police forces. Terrorists murder people and destroy bots in a wild civil uprising across the country, their activities ignored by the law.
Will Darwin and Toby survive the election process? Not if Saul, the president’s communication director, has his say.
Who survives? Who wins? Who loses?
Read I, President for the results.