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What if it were possible to upload years of knowledge into your mind in hours? To become an expert in multiple scientific fields, become an MD, or learn several languages - in a single day? The benefit to humanity would be immense. But so would the danger.... Rachel Howard is a brilliant neuroscientist trying to make this capability a reality. But when she crosses paths with Kevin Quinn, a Secret Service agent desperately trying to kill the president, she finds herself at the epicenter of an insidious plot.
When Nick Hall wakes up in a dumpster - bloodied, without a memory, and hearing voices in his head - he knows things are bad. But they're about to get far worse. Because he's being hunted by a team of relentless assassins. Soon Hall discovers that advanced electronics have been implanted in his brain, and he now has two astonishing abilities. He can surf the web using thoughts alone. And he can read minds. But who inserted the implants? And why? And why is someone so desperate to kill him?
EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources, and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure. But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting...and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed.
Kira Miller is a brilliant genetic engineer who discovers how to temporarily achieve savant-like capabilities in all areas of thought and creativity. But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania? David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions.
Smuggled to the Middle East as a child. Trained as one of the most elite insurgents of his generation. Forced to do things no one should, for a cause he couldn't believe in. But as his brothers were preparing to kill, he was looking for a way out. Now, on the eve of the deadliest coordinated attacks the world has ever seen, he'll finally get his chance. He will break free and hunt down those who made him a monster. He must draw on all his training to survive. He is Sleeper 13.
In 2061 a young scientist invents a time machine to fix a tragedy in his past. But his good intentions turn catastrophic when an early test reveals something unexpected: the end of the world. A desperate plan is formed: recruit three heroes, ordinary humans capable of extraordinary things, and change the future.
What if it were possible to upload years of knowledge into your mind in hours? To become an expert in multiple scientific fields, become an MD, or learn several languages - in a single day? The benefit to humanity would be immense. But so would the danger.... Rachel Howard is a brilliant neuroscientist trying to make this capability a reality. But when she crosses paths with Kevin Quinn, a Secret Service agent desperately trying to kill the president, she finds herself at the epicenter of an insidious plot.
When Nick Hall wakes up in a dumpster - bloodied, without a memory, and hearing voices in his head - he knows things are bad. But they're about to get far worse. Because he's being hunted by a team of relentless assassins. Soon Hall discovers that advanced electronics have been implanted in his brain, and he now has two astonishing abilities. He can surf the web using thoughts alone. And he can read minds. But who inserted the implants? And why? And why is someone so desperate to kill him?
EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources, and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure. But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting...and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed.
Kira Miller is a brilliant genetic engineer who discovers how to temporarily achieve savant-like capabilities in all areas of thought and creativity. But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania? David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions.
Smuggled to the Middle East as a child. Trained as one of the most elite insurgents of his generation. Forced to do things no one should, for a cause he couldn't believe in. But as his brothers were preparing to kill, he was looking for a way out. Now, on the eve of the deadliest coordinated attacks the world has ever seen, he'll finally get his chance. He will break free and hunt down those who made him a monster. He must draw on all his training to survive. He is Sleeper 13.
In 2061 a young scientist invents a time machine to fix a tragedy in his past. But his good intentions turn catastrophic when an early test reveals something unexpected: the end of the world. A desperate plan is formed: recruit three heroes, ordinary humans capable of extraordinary things, and change the future.
What if you found a way to send something back in time? But not weeks, days, or even minutes back. What if you could only send something back a fraction of a second? Would this be of any use? You wouldn't have nearly enough time to right a wrong, change an event, or win a lottery. Nathan Wexler is a brilliant physicist who thinks he's found a way to send matter a split second back into the past. But before he can even confirm his findings, he and his wife-to-be, Jenna Morrison, find themselves in a battle for their very lives.
Do you need my help? It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn. Raised and trained as part of a top-secret programme, he was sent to the worst places in the world to do things his government denied any knowledge of. Then he broke with the programme and disappeared. But now someone's on his tail. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.
Omar Haddad is a brutal jihadist in Syria who appears to be invulnerable and capable of supernatural feats. But is Haddad divine, as he claims? Is he a gifted magician? Or is he making use of a stunning scientific breakthrough? And what, exactly, is keeping him from unleashing the global apocalypse he’s so eager to bring about? Brennan Craft, a quirky quantum physics genius, has the answers, and the US military is desperate to capture him.
He dedicated most of his life to the Joint Intelligence Agency. Now, James Ryker wants to start afresh. However, he soon hears about the murder of a woman whose fingerprints match those of a former adversary who's been missing, presumed dead...an assassin known as the Red Cobra. But Ryker confirms a case of mistaken identity. Who is the dead woman? And where is the real Red Cobra?
Just outside Los Angeles, a prisoner hidden away for 70 years sits up, gets off the bed and disappears through a solid wall. In Australia, a magician impresses audiences by producing real elephants. Nobody realizes it's not an illusion. Across the world, individuals and organizations with supernatural power suddenly detect the presence of something even they can't understand. At the center of it all, Seb Varden, a 32-year old musician with a secret in his past, slits his wrists, is shot dead and run over on the freeway.
In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.
Marc Dane is an MI6 field agent at home behind a computer screen, one step away from the action. But when a brutal attack on his team leaves Marc as the only survivor - and with the shocking knowledge that there are traitors inside MI6 - he's forced into the front line. However, the evidence seems to point towards Marc as the perpetrator of the attack. Accused of betraying his country, he must race against time to clear his name.
Seven seconds. That's all it took for Web London to lose everything: his friends, his team, his reputation. Point man of the FBI's super-elite Hostage Rescue Team, Web roared into a blind alley towards a drug leader's lair, only to meet a high-tech, custom-designed ambush that killed everyone around him. Coping with the blame-filled words of anguished widows and the suspicions of colleagues, Web tries to put his life back together.
When Micajah Fenton discovers a crater in his front yard with a broken time glider in the bottom and a naked, virtual woman on his lawn, he delays his plans to kill himself. While helping repair the marooned time traveler's glider, Cager realizes it can return him to his past to correct a mistake that had haunted him his entire life. As payment for his help, the virtual creature living in the circuitry of the marooned glider, sends Cager back in time as his 10-year-old self.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilisation on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them or to fight against the invasion.
How do you keep the people you care about safe from enemies you can’t remember? Ten years ago, Nate Garrett awoke on a cold warehouse floor with no memory of his past and the only clues to his identity were a piece of paper with his name on it and a propensity toward magic. Now he’s a powerful sorcerer and a successful thief for hire, but it turns out that those who stole his memories aren’t done with him yet. When they cause a job to go bad, threatening a sixteen-year-old girl, Nate swears to protect her.
Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.
A breathtaking near-future thriller. From the New York Times best-selling author whose books have been downloaded over a million times.
When DARPA's billion-dollar program to create artificial superintelligence is sabotaged, US operative Cameron Carr is tasked with finding the culprit. He's been on high-stakes missions before, but this time the stakes are nothing less than the future of humanity. Because the race to evolve a superintelligent computer is on, and power players around the world will stop at nothing to get there first.
In the right hands, artificial superintelligence could lift humanity to towering heights. But in the wrong hands, this technology could represent the greatest threat humanity has ever seen....
Ripped from tomorrow's headlines, Infinity Born is a roller-coaster ride of a thriller that explores the deadly perils and mind-blowing possibilities that await the human race - including both extinction and immortality.
As our phones and computers become ever smarter, Infinity Born takes an unblinking look at a technological tipping point that is just around the corner. One that will have a profound impact on the future course of human history.
narrator ok gave up at chapter 28 i think this book is for 10 year olds.
Not flattened by superficial romance or too many god references this is the best book by Richards so far. Very believable tech, fair deal of philosophy and quite good amount of excitement for me.
What other book might you compare Infinity Born to and why?
The other books I would compare this to would be other books by this same author or possibly the Abraham Falls/David Archer book I AM SAL with some story differences but similar sci-fi concept.
Any additional comments?
This book is very fast paced and a great way to pick up some knowledge about artificial intelligence and super computers capable of learning. Since this is a subject I am not well versed in I won't pretend that I am. Because the author gives quite a long commentary at the end of the book and tells the reader what is real and not, it is very informative to those of us who are not as aware of what kind of technological advances have been made or are in the works.
If you've never heard anything else by this author I would suggest reading/listening to the Nick Hall series beginning with MIND'S EYE. That's the book that got me hooked on this author.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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19 of 19 people found this review helpful
Good title.
That's it. This book has nothing else going for it. Characters and story are completely boring and predictable. It seems as if the author chose a standardized plot and plugged in standardized characters to accomplish standardized actions. Did not finish the book.
The reader did not help.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
Perhaps the "New York Times Bestseller" refers to one time the author had a best seller, because I cannot fathom how this book, in any medium, could be a bestseller. It reads like one of my freshman compositions and the narration is sophomoric. If you ever wanted a catalog for every hackneyed metaphor and simile in the English language, you could find it here. Every character is "perfect" -- a woman who is the most beautiful "on the planet," a bad guy who has no "close second," a U.S. operative who is skilled beyond measure but is bested in his first encounter with a woman who runs a pet shelter and may not even have graduated from high school. Gah! I hate to give up on a book -- either audio or print -- but I about 2-3 hours into this one, and I really don't care what the plot is. I laugh in all the wrong places and spend a lot of time grimacing. This book is written like the first try by some high school author wanna be. Richards drops current names like rain -- which may or may not make the book obsolete in about 20 years -- and engages in long explanations that seem more like the author trying to show off than helpful information for the reader.
We're all familiar with book plots that have several characters. The exposition in these plots takes several seemingly disjointed events. But by the time Richards nears the end of his exposition, I just didn't care anymore. The scene descriptions are plodding and canned, and as I've said before, the characters are all the epitome of their particular niche. Some words are just jarring, like the character who pours himself and his girlfriend "goblets" of wine -- this is not a medieval novel.
Perhaps a good narrator could have at least made this horrible book mildly interesting, but Gagne reads as if it's his turn in a middle school reading class. His voice characterizations are barely indistinguishable, and his Russian accent is laughable.
I gave the book two stars because, had I the stomach to listen to it all the way through, the plot might have been okay. As it is I am angry that I wasted a credit on this book - something that I have never experienced before. But I was sucked in by the possibility of an interesting plot, the good reviews it astonishingly has, and the tag "New York Times Bestseller." Don't do. Don't be like me. Avoid this turkey at all costs.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
This author finds very interesting material for his work, but his style of writing is a bit too simple. The writing is what one might expect from an adolescent or someone who is not well-read, which this researcher is definitely not, he must be well read at least in science but perhaps not in literary prose: the type of writing that makes a story a pleasurable read. Some of the time, when the wonderful science-fiction was not first and foremost in the writing, reading it was like listening to nails scratching a black board.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
The story explores serious near future possibility and risks involved with artificial intelligence. it was interesting and kept moving. The technology appears well researched. The author introduced moral implications of the technology without trying to present the final answer. At times, the author's discussions belabored details. LT Carr was an unrealistic hero that the author suggests turned down promotions to stay a freelancer. HIs informality with the Secretary of Defense and other senior leaders is unrealistic in itself.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
struggled to finish. Then the final chapter seemed to be open ended and unsatisfying. missing?
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Poorly written, mediocre on science, and filled with unidimensional characters. What a disappointment! I am still trying to understand why this would list as a NYT best seller.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I believe the narrator failed to properly transition between actual narration and character voices. Effective use of pauses would have prevented blurring of lines. It seemed as though the author had difficulty wrapping up this novel. It felt as though it droned on at the end, however I was impressed by the conveyance of new technological concepts: ASI, vs. AGI, vs. AI and it appeared as though the author did do his homework. It was worth the use of a credit and I will be keeping the book, but I would suggest better narration. It is possible that the narrator may have puttered out at the end, along with the story.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This story was interesting intellectually, but characters were stereotypes and the mysteries telegraphed early on.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Sci-fi thriller, fun listen. Around chapter 61 the author sorta got caught up in a concept for a bit too long. That would be my only criticism. Overall the story was interesting & the characters were enjoyable. I really liked the author's closing comments discussing what was real & what wasn't real. I appreciated that he admitted that he had trouble with the concept he went on about in the chapter that sorta lost me. I will definitely give more of his books a read or listen.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful