Frank Burns reviewed When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson
Review of 'When the Sparrow Falls' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was excellent.
The rapture of the nerds has arrived and the last remaining 'true' humans have overtaken a country on the Caspian Sea and banned Artificial Intelligence. This goes about as well as you would expect. The country quickly becomes a rotten state, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia or the DDR.
This book is a tragic tale of one of the secret policemen in this state. Not necessarily evil but certainly complicit. Into his slowly decaying world an AI is thrown, in a body that he thinks looks exactly like his dead wife.
The author does a nice job of conveying that most of these characters are compromised but makes you empathise with them and provides a decent redemptive arc for the main protagonists. I am only shying away from 5 stars as there is a literal Deus Ex Machina used (and to be fair, telegraphed as such) …
This was excellent.
The rapture of the nerds has arrived and the last remaining 'true' humans have overtaken a country on the Caspian Sea and banned Artificial Intelligence. This goes about as well as you would expect. The country quickly becomes a rotten state, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia or the DDR.
This book is a tragic tale of one of the secret policemen in this state. Not necessarily evil but certainly complicit. Into his slowly decaying world an AI is thrown, in a body that he thinks looks exactly like his dead wife.
The author does a nice job of conveying that most of these characters are compromised but makes you empathise with them and provides a decent redemptive arc for the main protagonists. I am only shying away from 5 stars as there is a literal Deus Ex Machina used (and to be fair, telegraphed as such) to smooth over a plot point, that I personally felt was unnecessary. I am not a fan of Deus Ex Machina.
Still this is a very good book. Recommended and I will look for the sequel.
