Genre: Sci-Fi
Reviewer: Sherry
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About The Book
AI lacks consciousness, until it borrows self-awareness from a human host.
Dustin “Dusty” Gordon is a man without a world. The son of a rocket scientist mother, and the commander of the first mission to Mars, he possesses the talents of neither. Instead, he likes to tinker—around the home, in the garage, in high school shop class.
Born on Mars, he returned to Earth with his parents, only to struggle under Earth’s oppressive gravity, and the weight of his famous parents’ expectations. After graduation he returns to Mars but finds fitting in with the blue-collar guilds difficult.
Unrest is afoot. The guilds chafe at COO Randall Skinner’s plans to force the laborers to upgrade their brain implants and train their own AI-controlled replacements.
Sent to repair a faulty train switch, Dusty’s exoskeleton suit shorts out, exposing him to the icy cold of Mars miles from help. Retrieved severely hypothermic and hypoxic, Dusty is saved by the very neurosurgeon who upgrades the brain implants. Using a higher concentration of nanite electrodes, he replaces Dusty’s brain function lost in the accident.
The solar system’s first cybernetic mind must now navigate the guilds, who accuse him of collaboration with the COO, and Randall Skinner himself, who perceives Dusty as his greatest obstacle to his own control and wealth.
The Review
“The guilds were determined to hold on to their personally lucrative contracts.”—Wetware
Well, this one was an interesting mix of “Babylon 5”, “The Expanse”, and “Colossus: The Forbin Project.” Author Brian H. Roberts has built a contemporary world, albeit an off-world one, packed full of corporate greed, union driven territorialism, science gone rogue, and likely conspiracy. What’s that saying about conspiracies—just because you think there’s one doesn’t mean there’s not. And in “Wetware”, there is a conspiracy, a potentially universe altering one at that.
The main character, Dusty Gordon, lives and works on Mars. He’s a company man trying to do his job and to stay alive while doing it because on Mars, that’s not so easy. As a worker in the Mechanics Guild, he’d be content to just be a mechanic and not the son of two renowned parents. His mom’s a famous rocket scientist. His dad’s the commander of the first historic mission to Mars. But none of that complicated, public service stuff is very appealing to him, not until the day it suddenly is.
He suffers a horrible accident while repairing machinery on the surface of Mars. The accident compromises his exoskeleton suit resulting in anoxia and hypothermia not to mention severe skeletal trauma. Clinically dead, his neurosurgeon places an implant into his brain that essentially makes him a cyborg, an AI controlled one. Only, was it an unapproved implant or was it approved?
What happens next involves not only his lover, their friends, their guild coworkers but also everyone on Mars and quite possibly back on Earth. It soon becomes clear to Dusty that his AI implant is an intrusive, seemingly omniscient being without a conscious. Except, the AI implant has a different perspective and purpose than Dusty and he’s keen to make it happen.
However, inevitably, Dusty and the AI implant bond, learning to trust one another. It’s a good thing too, since Dusty’s doctor has far-reaching and morally questionable plans that are singularly financially motivated, governmental corruption at all levels, and massive corporate greed.
What’s fascinating about Roberts’ story is who is changed the most. Is it Dusty or is it the AI?
Four stars.
The Reviewer
Sherry Perkins has worked as a licensed practical nurse for more than thirty-five years and has experience in psychiatric/addictions nursing, nursing-care coordination, and risk management. She earned a BS in health sciences from Campbell University and has spoken at public health functions on topics such as addiction prevention and treatment, prevention of teenage opioid deaths, and connecting patients who are resistant to treatment with appropriate services.
A mother of four, Perkins lives with extended family on the Delmarva Peninsula, where she enjoys collecting shells and sea glass; reading and writing mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy; doing organic gardening; and following the Dave Matthews Band around the East Coast
