The Prophecy of the Heron
by Craig W. Stanfill
GENRE: Dystopian Science Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: 11/19/2022
DESCRIPTION:
Never trust the shadows. Or a stranger. Or a friend. Welcome to District 33, the last stop for cultists and criminals alike, a crime-infested slum in which only the strongest and most savvy can survive.
Kim’s defiance of the companies and the UCE Hierarchy has cost her dearly, and she has been exiled to the dangerous and decrepit outer districts. Unbowed and defiant, she struggles to survive and rebuild her life, even as the Artificial Intelligence Company schemes to draw her back into their web of deception and the Hierarchy plots her final destruction. She disappears into the shadows and thinks she has escaped, until an unexpected encounter in the enigmatic parallel universe of Virtual Reality draws her back, setting up an epic confrontation in which the fate of the AIs and civilization itself may hang in the balance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Craig W. Stanfill is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and science fiction author with deep experience in AI and parallel computing. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1983, then went to work for Thinking Machines Corporation, where he conducted ground-breaking work in machine learning with David Waltz. He then went on to co-found Ab Initio Software, designing innovative software for parallel enterprise computing. He has been awarded over eighty patents.
More recently, he has taken up writing, and has recently completed his second novel, The Prophecy of the Heron, set in the AI Dystopia, a future we hope we never see.
REVIEWS:
For Terms of Service, Book 1 in the series:
"A shining feat of literary sci-fi in a totalitarian futuristic society... Believe me when I tell you that this world and the tensions within it are going to have you flipping pages with lightning speed. ... This novel comes highly recommended for those readers looking for a strong and unique AI world." Independent Book Review, by Chika Anene
"Craig W. Stanfill brings forth a captivating fictional story that challenges the notion of reality versus illusion .... I recommend it to readers looking for a unique story of the 'rise of the machines' and a fight for freedom and truth." Online Book Club, 4 out of 4 stars.
"A chilling dystopian tale that is as unsettling as it is thought-provoking... Absorbing and accessible, this thought-provoking tale will leave readers thinking for long." The Prairies Book Review.
COMPARATIVE FILM/BOOK:
1984 with a lot of The Matrix thrown in
CASTING:
Kim: Boy George (androgynous and exotic); The Director: Peter Cushing (cruel and manpulative); Bel: Grace Jones (leader of the "Flagrants.")
PRIMARY VENUES/LOCATIONS WITHIN THE BOOK:
District 33 (dangerous slum); The University (last dying ember of learning and knowledge); The Artificial Intelligence Company; Virtual Reality (a world unto itself, where anything is possible).
BOOK EXCERPT:
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