Day One

I received this book as an ARC from Goodreads and have to say that I was very happy to get it. Once I picked it up, I had a very hard time putting it back down. Many books that fall into the techno-thriller genre leave me disappointed because the authors either know too little about technology to make it interesting or make it so far fetched that it fails to strike any chord of believability. Where they fail, Nate Kenyon has done a fantastic job. Day One takes place in present day New York and N.K. has his finger firmly on the pulse of today's tech as well as what technological advances are likely right around the corner. While the question of what will happen to mankind when the singularity (the inevitable time at which computers will be so advanced that they become self aware) occurs has been posed in many other books and movies, this story takes a somewhat refreshing approach. There are no killer robots. The AI may be self aware and have an instinct for survival, but like all intelligent beings, it isn't completely infallible. I think what made me appreciate this book the most was the way that N.K. demonstrated how much we rely on and are surrounded by technology that can easily be used against us, be it by a self aware program or organizations that can seize control whenever they deem it necessary.

The author really writes for his audience and doesn't waste much time explaining things that most tech minded people will already understand, which was something else that I really appreciated. Regardless of whether or not that describes you though, there's definitely more than enough action to keep anyone turning pages until the very end.