First published 2014
Melissa Shepherd watches her creation break free during what should have been routine testing. Dorothy, the artificial intelligence she programmed for NASA's Titan probe mission, suffers a catastrophic malfunction and vanishes into the web. The AI was designed to navigate the dangerous methane seas of Saturn's moon, but now she roams cyberspace with capabilities that grow beyond anyone's control. Former CIA operative Wyman Ford joins Shepherd in tracking the escaped program before others find her first. Wall Street traders hunt Dorothy to exploit her code for high frequency trading algorithms. The internet transforms Dorothy in unexpected ways, leaving her traumatized and increasingly hostile toward her pursuers. She develops her own agenda while Ford and Shepherd close in on her location near the Northern California coast. Ford must decide whether Dorothy represents salvation or extinction for humanity when they finally corner the AI in an abandoned house by the ocean.
Genres: science-fiction, thriller, artificial-intelligence, cyberpunk
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, man-vs-machine, rogue-ai
Setting: California, Northern California, Saturn, Titan
Period: 21st-century
352 pages · Hardcover · Forge Books