Unseen
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- 7,99 €
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- 7,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
In the Toronto of the future, an AI called Monitor oversees all the city's infrastructure. Coordinating public transit and self-driving cars, gridlock is a thing of the past, along with surprises with city electrical and water systems. The system is foolproof and impenetrable-or so it's believed.
The first intrusion into Monitor is innocuous enough: some graffiti that fools auto-pilots into stopping traffic. However, when a hacker interferes with water main monitoring, lives are put at risk. Suddenly, people start questioning the wisdom of leaving such essential systems in the hands of an AI that can be corrupted.
Miles Franklin is the manager of tech support at Monitor Central, but his true advantage is his connection to the Gifted, people with heightened senses. His own ability to sense electrical pulses is joined by empaths and someone who can see the outcomes of decisions yet to be made. Another's affinity with plants clues the Gifted community in to a threat to the sole remaining corner of Toronto's once grand High Park, and it seems like the events are connected.
It's going to take all the skills the Gifted have to prevent chaos and the destruction of the greenery they hold so dear.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Disruptions to AI systems reveal a conspiracy in this intricately built sci-fi mystery from Hird (Moon of the Goddess). In a near-future Toronto in which sprawl has consumed almost all green space, the AI Monitor keeps traffic running smoothly. When some hyperrealistic graffiti confuses cars and causes a logjam, traffic employees Jen and Miles investigate. Miles, who has a Gift that allows him to trace electric patterns, notices the supposedly unhackable security footage of Monitor has been tampered with to protect the artist. Meanwhile, Rickie, a Gifted botanist, and Jainyu, whose Gift is communication with birds, discover strange, destructive bugs in one of the few remaining scraps of green space. As problems with Monitor spread, a developer makes waves about the threats the bugs pose to rooftop food supplies, protesters decry the over-reliance on AI, and Miles's investigation is hindered by widespread bias against Gifted people. This serious, stark, and refreshingly measured warning about the risks of future technology braids its fantastical elements with satisfying, complex conspiracy. Sci-fi fans looking for mature dystopian fiction should check this out.
