Author TJ Hapney

Description/Blurb:

Criss lives in a special kind of prison. He can see and hear everything around the world. Yet a mesh restrains his reach and keeps him cooperative. His creator, Dr. Jessica Tallette, believes his special abilities offer great promise for humanity. But she fears the consequences of freeing him, because Criss, a sentient artificial intelligent with the intellect of a thousand humans, is too powerful to control.

Guided by her scientific training, Tallette works cautiously with Criss. That is, until the Kardish, an otherwise peaceful race of alien traders, announce they want him. With technologies superior to Earth’s, the Kardish express their desires with ominous undertones.

The Union of Nations is funding Tallete’s artificial intelligence research, and she turns to them for help. Sid, a special agent charged with leading the response, decides Earth’s greatest weapon is the very AI the aliens intend to possess. But what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? And what is humanity’s role if an interstellar battle among titans starts to rage?

Review 5 of 5 Stars

I am happy to say I found this book while browsing Twitter feeds one day. I don’t always have good luck with random books I learn about on Twitter, but this one was an exception I almost wish the story wasn’t so fresh so I could start reading it again. I enjoy stories about artificial intelligence. In fact, I think how we learn to communicate with our artificially intelligent creations will shape a portion of the future. We don’t know what would cause a computer to become sentient, but we expect that it is possible. In this story, that hypothesis is explored. I really enjoyed the book. It was well-written, the characters were thought out, the story had substance and it kept my attention even when I wasn’t actively reading it. There was plenty of action, Crystal Deception was a really fun read, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it each time I had to set it aside. If you could have seen the sad look on my face when I realized there was no more book then you would realize just how much I enjoyed this story.

The author really did a good job with this story. Even the slow parts were interesting. The characters were fleshed out and were real enough people to tug at your emotions, as was Criss. There was even a small bit of romance thrown in to keep things interesting, but not too much. The only thing I would have liked to know more about was the Kardish. I really enjoyed this book and hope to see more from Doug J. Cooper in the future.

Next on the list is The Telepath Chronicles. I’m really looking forward to reading it. I hope to have some thoughts up on it by the weekend. Hope everyone is having a great week.