I like books that can make you believe that an unbelievable scenario could be real. AI's with feelings? Not possible, but yet you can believe it reading this book. My favorite part was the character development. There was a bit too much miliary speak and politics for me, but not too much to throw off the flow of the story. I'll be looking out for future books by this author.

I'm not a huge reader of military sci-fi in general, though I don't necessarily dislike it. This particular book involves a lot of military language, as well as a lot of political themes, war strategies, and so on. Personally, I'm not overly keen on this sort of thing. I felt like I got a little lost and disinterested at times regarding these aspects of the story, but that is just my personal opinion as a reader.
The concept of artificial intelligence itself was fascinating and rather well-executed, though I understand from other reviewers that there may be some error in the terminology used around it. Kasih was a very interesting character, and I was just interested in reading about her in general.
It has been quite a long time since I actually read this book, so my memory is rather vague at this point - but that says something in itself. Usually, if a book makes a lasting impression, that's how you know it was really *something*. This didn't leave a bad impression, but it wasn't particularly memorable for me. Again, this is likely just because it's just not my kind of thing - there's nothing particularly wrong with the writing that I can recall. 3 stars.

this was a interesting take on robots and everything to do with them. The characters were great and I appreciated the worldbuilding going on in this story. It worked out really well.

Nova Sapiens centres around Kasih, an AI / robot child who finds herself caught in the crossfire of a burgeoning war following the death of her family, and decides to help make a difference.

Normally, I am somewhat skeptical of books that are laden with military speak; I find it somewhat difficult to keep up, and therefore find the storyline somewhat difficult to follow. I was, therefore, somewhat skeptical upon opening 'Nova Sapiens', but was pleasantly surprised to find that it quickly grew on me.
This was a poignant read, that was brave enough to explicitly outline themes and big ideas in the dialogue between characters. Indeed, the ideas made this novel, offering thought provoking takes on the nuances of freedom, independence, and what it means to be human.
This was an incredibly technical book. The dystopic postmodern society in Nova Sapiens read somewhat akin to the famous 1984, but with AI and multiple perspectives. The political themes run strong, and it seems that with each new character, there is a new perspective to offer.
Nova Sapiens explores the wider world in a dystopic stronghold, with settings explicitly outside of the USA - something so rare to see in the science fiction world!

ARC provided by the publishers; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Green Hill Publishing for this DRC.

Warning: spoilers abound!

This is about a robot, and personhood. Unfortunately, very early on, the main protagonist loses everything -- a quick way to bring about the crisis she must resolve, but quite brutal in view of the subsequent events.

The protagonist is very likable -- very human, in the middle of many inhuman (military) characters. The way she's treated before and after a big reveal about her origins is quite telling; still, I think the other characters seemed unnecessarily cruel, perhaps to create a contrast with her. It's not very clear to me why people react so badly to her before the "bad robots" come along, and I don't think the author explored this to my satisfaction. Is it the (kind of) uncanny valley? Is it because she seems completely human, but isn't? Maybe it'll be clear to other readers.

I was troubled by certain experiences the protagonist went through that never found resolution (-- and the framing became quite gut-churningly explicit at some point 💔). She had sympathetic people among her captors, but it's horrible that she sets aside her experiences to help humans.

The story also seemed to go off on tangents frequently, seemingly for world-building purposes, but it felt very disjointed, and I have only a very murky idea of why the situation was what it was, and who the major players were (and so, in this, the book felt like a sequel). The bits set in government offices were completely extraneous and baffling to me, and I mostly skipped over them. There is some resolution of this in the end.

One thing that's explored incidentally is a post-disability, transhumanist world, because of cybernetics. I'm left wondering if people in this particular (built) world would become more or less accepting of disability? Although one of the characters becomes gravely injured and so goes through the process of becoming partly cybernetic, it's never explored whether the people around her accept her, except as a useful tool. (Nb. These thoughts are inspired by an important book I read last year: Disfigured, by Amanda LeDuc, which I will review on this blog and link to soon.)

Also, how nice to read about a world that's not US-centric!

Content warnings: pretty graphic physical violence in places, and the aforementioned framing relating to sexual abuse (no actual sexual abuse in the book).

Rated: 4/5, because it's a really good story! Could have been tighter, but still really good.

I found this near-future story very engaging and fast-paced, quite enjoyable and full of action. It brings to mind the story of Battle Angel Alita, with a female robot as the main character, however the similarities end there as other characters and factions fight amongst themselves attempt to use her, and the story follows her struggles to decide how to use her abilities and who to help - her human friends or the robots that are ‘related’ to her?

While it’s set within a rebellion and the schemes of political maneuvering, the gunfights and politics are thankfully not the focus of the story. The characters are often on the verges and sometimes the victims of the battles, but the tactics and fighting aren’t the focus of the story. This isn’t ‘war porn’ by any means but has an interesting mix of a possible future of warfare, using drones, nukes, robots and AI. I’m not normally interested in anything containing political intrigue, but there was just enough to keep the story moving along.

The story builds to a satisfying climax and could lead to a sequel, although I think this is satisfyingly self-contained as a single novel. I'd recommend this to those looking for a futuristic war novel that focuses on the fringes of the fighting, rather than a squad-based combat-heavy adventure story.

I was very happy to receive a preview of #NovaSapiensTheBelievers from #Netgalley, thank you. You can listen to the author read the first chapter on his site http://davec.org/

Nova Sapiens

[Blurb goes here]

I tried hard to like this book, but sometimes, when you're used to reading hard sci fi, you encounter errors in the narrative, let me explain with one example of the many I encountered. AI is a loosely used term nowadays, it refers to predictive learning and also to statistical analysis in some degree. An AI that compares to a man's intelligence is called an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), while an ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) would think of humanity as humanity thinks of ants.

Without warning or an explanation, the autor assumes that his AI is not only sentient, but also has feelings. Both things don't go hand in hand. But for the sake of the story, let's say they do. Once I got pass that, I tried to enjoy the political intrigue in times of war. There is not much that could pass for intrigue. There's a broad description of fights between sides. There's an ambiguos definition of what the different factions want.

On the bright side, the author does a good job at presenting a future Earth. The Earth has changed, but we humans are destined to make the same mistakes time and again. This book could do wonders with a good editor behind it, since at times, the narration gets confusing. There's a lot to be rescued from this novel.

I'm giving it four stars, because, aside from the obvious mistakes, it is a good read.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

I liked this. The author presents an interesting future, and does a decent job of imagining a realistic one. This doesn't have the polish of a more experience author, but I stayed mostly engaged and liked the tech, which the author knows since he's steeped in robotics. A good first effort.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a person could be copied so accurately using technology that one could not tell the difference?
and how would that work? Would we be able to make organic copies or would they need to be technological or maybe a combination of the two?
Would a copy of a person be more intelligent than an original person?
What would be the point of finding out?
Would they pass Turings test and be governed by Assimovs rules

Enter the strategic Technology Initiative.

It is the far future and humanity has changed the world.
The earth is still the earth and now there is the Union of Humanity
But its not all peace and love

Humanity has always had its conflicts and always will.

We fall into the story straight away, war and politics and science
The author has done sterling work on presenting the future human race in all its guises.
War like, family loveing, peace seeking , power hungry and endlessly curious.
and it is both control and curiosity that lead to the scenarios enveloping the world laid out before us.

A good read with plenty of parallels to the past and cautionary glimpses into how things 'could' develop