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Artificial Selection

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About this listen

From the WINNER of the Green Stories Prize

What do you get if you cross a glitching AI, a streetwise investigator, and a geneticist with a secret?

It’s the year 2101, and half of England is underwater. But society is recovering from the Melt—all thanks to ArkTech, the company that saved the world.

Charlotte Vance is smart, resourceful, and fiercely dedicated to her work. The ArkTech Territory is the only home she’s ever known, and she’ll do anything to keep it safe.

So when Ben, the company’s curious AI with a fondness for dad jokes, asks why a geneticist is stealing pages from library books, Charlotte is happy to help. After all, Ben isn’t just software—he’s her best friend.

But what begins as a routine investigation soon raises deeper questions about Charlotte’s world.

She’s pulled into the orbit of a criminal operation she thought she’d left behind—and what she uncovers forces her to confront an uncomfortable truth about the company she’s always trusted.

An AI, a PI, and a geneticist walk into a library… but the punchline could cost Charlotte everything.

Artificial Selection is fun, intriguing, and ultimately uplifting—the first in a series of smart mysteries for anyone curious enough to ask why.

©2024 Marianne Pickles (P)2024 Marianne Pickles Adventure Dystopian Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction
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Loved this book - intriguing world-building and wry humour made it a compulsive listen. The narrator was fantastic, clearly differentiating the characters and in particular rendering Ben both artificial and charismatic. I haven't read a lot of scifi but this reminded me a bit of The Expanse, which is my favourite scifi series. It also really appealed to the detective and historical fiction side of me, with some great literary allusions for the literature nerd. I'm already impatient for the next book in the series!

Intriguing plot, charismatic characters, great narration

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I was absolutely obsessed by this book, and can't wait for the sequel. The plot was suspensful, and I loved how the main characters' relationships deepened. I laughed out loud a lot, and also went away with a lot to think about - highly recommended.

Gripping and thought-provoking

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This really is a great detective sci-fi story! Set in a flooded future which unlike a lot of science fiction you could imagine actually becoming a reality, it sets up an intriguing plot around missing pages from books in a library and twists it in thoughtful and unpredictable ways - it kept me guessing all the way through. Written in a way that channels Terry Pratchett but has a voice all of its own, it should be of interest to anyone who, for example, gets a kick out of the philosophical problems raised by Data from Star Trek or who just enjoys trying to guess what’s going on in an Agatha Christie.
Charlotte Vance and Ben are an engaging and unusual detective-like pairing - and if you’re interested in where AI might end up before long, Ben and Ark-Tech will give you a vision of one possible future… a pessimistic or optimistic vision? You will have to decide for yourself because Pickles is too intelligent an author to make such things obvious and one of the great strengths of this book is that you never quite know if you’re reading about a utopia or a dystopia.
The audiobook is very ably read, bringing out both the depth and the humour of the characters.
Strong recommendation!

Artificial Selection: great read!

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This was an engrossing story, told with a quirky sense of humour, but delivering some emotional gut punches and addressing some issues that really resonate for us today. The setting is great - very different, yet very familiar. Also, I like how the detective story takes you to all sorts of unexpected places. I thought the narration really captured the tone of the story and the personality of the different characters, human and AI. Highly recommended!

An engrossing story, brilliantly performed

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Really enjoyed the story and the humour in this, and it left me looking forward to the next installment.

Narration and characterisation was excellent too.

Looking Forward To More

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