Published By: Bantam
Pages: 416
Released On: 14/08/2025
Who would you trust with the future?
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.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I mean, is there a more anticipated book than this one?
This shouldn’t be a scary book. It’s not marked as a scary book. But it is frightening because it feels so real. Set 25 years in the future…it’s terrifying for many reasons I don’t want to spoil.
Like most creatives, I have a major issue with AI, but I’ve never considered it in a political sense. I suppose it would come in handy – like Locke in Jo Callaghan’s Blink of an Eye series – when processing large quantities of data and making complex decisions. But I’m still not sure I’d really trust that an AI would know how to put humanity’s best interests at heart when making critical decisions. Food for thought.
I was a little concerned before I started this because I don’t really do politics. I mean, I’m interested in it and I vote and whatnot, but it’s not something I understand and it stresses me out so I try not to have much to do with it on a daily basis, and so I was worried I’d find this too political and too technical to enjoy. But strangely enough, considering it was about an election, that was almost a background story, and it became more of a human story (even with the inclusion of AI as a major character).
I mean, it’s not a simple book to read. It’s very detailed, heavily involved, with a lot of characters. And so it would have been very easy to feel like too much, but Thomas has somehow managed to make it so seamless and light, without losing any of its passion.
It is full of twists and turns, some you have a inkling about, and others that completely surprise you, and they’re all marvellously woven in.
It’s like nothing else I’ve read before. It’s thrilling and frightening, but there’s also a lot of humanity and hope. A real first-class, five-star read.
Books By Your Bedside 