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The silicon revolution left Dremmler behind but a good detective is never obsolete. London is quiet in 2039--thanks to the machines. People stay indoors, communicating through high-tech glasses and gorging on simulated reality while 3D printers and scuttling robots cater to their every whim. Mammoth corporations wage war for dominance in a world where human augmentation blurs the line between flesh and steel. And at the center of it all lurks The Imagination Machine: the hyper-advanced, omnipresent AI that drives our cars, flies our planes, cooks our food, and plans our lives. Servile, patient, tireless ... TIM has everything humanity requires. Everything except a soul. Through this silicon jungle prowls Carl Dremmler, police detective--one of the few professions better suited to meat than machine. His latest case: a grisly murder seemingly perpetrated by the victim's boyfriend. Dremmler's boss wants a quick end to the case, but the tech-wary detective can't help but believe the accused's bizarre story: that his robotic arm committed the heinous crime, not him. An advanced prosthetic, controlled by a chip in his skull. A chip controlled by TIM. Dremmler smells blood: the seeds of a conspiracy that could burn London to ash unless he exposes the truth. His investigation pits him against desperate criminals, scheming businesswomen, deadly automatons--and the nightmares of his own past. And when Dremmler finds himself questioning even TIM's inscrutable motives, he's forced to stare into the blank soul of the machine. Auxiliary is gripping, unpredictable, and bleakly atmospheric--ideal for fans of cyberpunk classics like the Blade Runner movies, Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and the Netflix original series Black Mirror.
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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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TIM stood for “The Imagination Machine.”It hadn't seemed like a game-changer when it had been quietly released by the Imagination Corporation twelve years previous, at least not to Dremmler. It was simply a logical next step, a “one stop shop”that brought together office applications, email, social media, an enhanced personal organiser that was, as the company's marketing eloquently put it, “like Alexa on steroids.”Video gaming, on-demand television, information searches, holiday bookings, shopping, dating, movies, music: TIM was a single interface for the entire online, AR/VR experience...
TIM had become ubiquitous; the go-to OS for almost everything. It flew the planes. It drove the cars. It answered your queries when you contacted customer services. It controlled the robotic surgeons that performed life-saving operations. It filed your tax returns. It delivered your food. It selected your music. It read your children bedtime stories.
And it ran the AltWorld. Whatever you wanted to see, or be, or do, or feel, or [expletive]. Real life had been made obsolete.
noir
noir
Auxiliary: London 2039
Auxiliary: London 2039
My thanks to Overview Media for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the novel) they provided.