Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R.Weaver #BookReview #BlogTour

 

The year is 2050. In the teeth of a climate catastrophe, the world is left with a drastic solution: one global leader to steer it through the coming apocalypse.

The final two candidates are ex-US President Lockwood, and Solomon, the world’s first political artificial intelligence.

As whispers of a global conspiracy emerge, investigative journalist Marcus Tully find himself at the centre of it– when Solomon's creator turns up murdered.

Overnight, one investigation becomes two,and it’s not just the result of the election that’s at stake but the future of the species. Suddenly humanity must make an impossible choice – between salvation, or freedom.

It's my pleasure to be hosting the paperback blog tour for Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver today. Many thanks to Bantam Books for sending me a copy of the novel and to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour.

With much of the UK and Europe experiencing extremely high temperatures this week, including an unusual red weather warning being declared for parts of England and Wales, reading Artificial Wisdom felt more prescient than ever. However, as much as this scarily plausible thriller is a dystopic exploration of a climate catastrophe, it is also a damning examination of the potential longer term impacts of our current global sociopolitical issues. 

Marcus Tully is a principled investigative journalist with a tragic past. In a world hurtling towards an apocalypse of humanity's own making, he is part of a small team in London who are still trying to hold politicians to account. When he is shown devastating information from an unknown whistleblower, he knows the ramifications of publishing such a terrible story will inevitably result in huge public uproar, including likely riots. It quickly becomes clear that Tully believes he has a duty to post the truth, in spite of the consequences. However, his integrity is called into question and powerful opponents accuse him of spreading fake news, he has little choice but to visit the vast floating city, New Carthage, to try to uncover the facts surrounding the cataclysmic tabkhir; the deadly heatwave that killed millions of people in the Persian Gulf ten years ago – including Tully's wife and unborn child.

Meanwhile, the global populace faces a vote to decide one leader tasked with protecting the world before it's too late. When the list of candidates is reduced to two, the nomination of ex-US President Lockwood raises eyebrows considering the USA's descent into extremist politics over the preceding decades meant it had squandered its place as a world leader but it's his opponent who is the really shocking choice. Solomon is the head of state of the Floating States – and the world's first political artificial intelligence leader. 

Solomon was created by Martha Chandra, a brilliant scientist who is also the sister of Tully's colleague Livia. Like many of the elite, she now lives in New Carthage, one of the Floating States. The Floating States are vast geodesic domes built to keep out problems whether that be the hot weather and roiling seas or the poor, climate displaced refugees. The juxtaposition between the privileged, carefully managed systems in place on New Carthage compared to the rest of the world is a stark reminder of the situation we are already in where poorer countries are so badly affected by the impacts of climate change while more prosperous nations are still insulated from the worst of it. 

However, she is not as protected as she thought and after her shocking murder, it seems as though someone will stop at nothing to achieve what they want. With Lockwood forging ahead in the polls, despite evidence pointing at his corruption, Tully has to work out who he can trust. What follows is a complex and ironically chilling thriller where technological advancements are as impressive as they are invasive and danger may come from a source other than the devastative climate. 

Artificial Wisdom is not a subtle book; it makes its points boldly but that is not meant as a criticism – it is an exciting, unsettling and thought-provoking read packed with twists and turns. With its ominous conclusion, Thomas R. Weaver cleverly left me desperate for more and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Infinite Wisdom later this year.

Artificial Wisdom is published by Bantam Books, an imprint of Transworld. Purchasing links can be found here.

Follow the blog tour, details are below.

About the Author

Thomas R. Weaver writes stories about tomorrow to help make sense of today. A tech entrepreneur turned author, he holds a degree in Computer Science but never expected to actually use it in his career. After spending years exploring how technology could transform experiences in the places outside of the home and the office, he founded a tech startup in the restaurant hospitality space, which was later acquired by Just Eat Takeaway. Exiting in 2018–2019 left him with no more excuses not to pursue a long-held dream: writing fiction.

Despite vowing he had enough grey hair already and he’d never to run another startup, he continues to build a portfolio of interesting new ideas with his former cofounder, backed by a major Silicon Valley tech accelerator.

Outside of spending time with his family, he loves to cook, draw, paint and lose at online bullet chess. He loves a great movie or TV series, and collects more books than time allows to read.

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