Artificial Artifacts by John Fennec ~ Readalong Review

A visionary debut collection of interconnected short stories explores the rise of artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, revealing their profound impacts on human existence.

This is not your typical sci-fi, but an intricate puzzle. Can you solve the mystery that is Peter Byrell?

From a small rural American town subjected to horrors brought by an elaborate deep-fake hoax, to Black Mirror-esque fables about technology dependency, age extension, and psychological invasions, Artificial Artifacts invites readers on a journey where the boundaries between human and machine blur, and the consequences of our creations become chillingly profound.

The stories include a number of fascinating speculative technological concepts, including a fitness watch that predicts your death, nanotech that can read your thoughts, AI avatars that mimic your personality and handle small talk for you on dating websites, immersive VR/AR domes where you can do yoga in the cosmos, and movies that adapt in real-time based on your mood and subconscious thoughts.

As enigmatic tech mogul Peter Byrell's fascinating story unfolds, so does the tapestry of our digital age, leaving us to ponder: in a world where truth is malleable and consciousness is encoded, what does it truly mean to be human?

I really enjoyed this book. Although it was a selection of short stories there was links between them which made it even more enjoyable as that built upon the mysterious Peter Byrell.

I loved the first part especially; The Orchestral Adaption of Gorilla Music. And the First Movement: Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In.

This left me wanting more - I would love this to be a full length book as although we do get to find out quite a lot and it was shared in reverse chronological order which was really interesting I just felt that I could have carried on reading!

Rolling Blue-Blackouts was also an interesting little story about Margaret and her online dating and obsession with being online. Unremarkable Man was a really good little story to finish the book with and I really enjoyed it.

The others in between are also enjoyable I just selected my favourites to highlight here! I thought it was a really well written selection of stories and I enjoyed the writing style.

You can grab a copy here #Aff (If you buy a copy through this link I get a teeny commission of the sale from Amazon)

Huge Thanks to Love Books Tours and John Fennec for my place on the readalong.