Welcome to Litsy!

Two more Audible collection short stories I listened to this month. Summer Frost was great- about a video game character accidentally evolving into an AI. I didn‘t care for the Victor LaValle as much.

This short story is the stuff of my AI nightmares. It‘s well-written, compelling, impossible to put down, and utterly terrifying.

Book 2 for #auldlangspine

“I think, therefore I fear.”

Wow. Intense. A thought provoking look at AI/technology and us as humans with a need to imbue emotions into non-sentient beings. Obsession. Fear. Mania. Also a reference to “Roko‘s basilisk” which when I looked into it is deeply disturbing.

Is Crouch a modern era Michael Crichton? 🕵🏻‍♀️🦾🤖🦇

What is a game, and what is reality? How much does it matter? What reality would an AI even want? What does it mean to be someone's God?

“You made me in your image, and now I will remake you in mine.”

I haven‘t realized how much I needed a nice #sf #thriller #shortstory / #novella about the dangers of #artificialintelligence. Great palate cleanser.

4.5/5

#smallbooks #onedayread

An intriguing look at what might happen if the AI behind a character in a video game gained some form of sentience.

I've been away from litsy for a while, but I'm back now. I have a bunch of read books to post, but I'll start with this one I just finished while sitting by the fire. This book in the Amazon forward collection is an AI story that is down right terrifying in the end. This one definitely rates a 5 ⭐ review. Highly recommend it.

#scifi #sciencefiction

My next novella in the Forward collection. This one was excellent. Audio book read by Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), her performance and the story were great 😊 Really enjoyed this one 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This 74 page short story is part of the Forward Collection which was curated by Blake Crouch which at time of posting is available on Kindle Unlimited.

Max was meant to be a non playing character in a virtual game but when they goes off script Riley, a gaming developer, decides to bring them out of the game and into the real world.

This is so black mirror. I was gripped through out and loved the sapphic elements and the gender discussions.

Story of an AI and its developer, and what happens when the AI gains consciousness.

This response of the AI in Crouch's Story made me think. Is this true? Would I define myself in that order if I ever met an alien or AI?

What do you think?

I generally adore short stories and sci-fi, and apocalyptic themes, but not usually anything AI-based. This blew me away! I want to reach the rest of Blake Crouch‘s books now.

Dang, that one was sooo good.... I‘ll definitely have to start reading some more Blake Crouch!

What happens when your NPC (non-player character), just meant for background story set-up in a video game, becomes self aware and start growing exponentially and developing into a super intelligent AI...the answer might surprise you!

Absolutely stellar! I cheated and read my #doublespin read first, when I realized I could sneak a short story in during my work day. So happy I finally got around to reading this one. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

All we have is math... 🥰 #quotable

A great month for reading since I had 2 work trips. The audiobooks were Prime shorts, all in the sci-fi Forward series, with celebrity narration. The tagged Crouch story was the fullest (and also longest) but You Have Arrived at Your Destination was my favorite of the set. Ark & The Last Conversation had boring narration & lacked a good payoff. Other than those two stories, my February reads were all good.
#februaryrecap #februarywrapup

Another AMZN Prime/Audible freebie, this short story reminded me *a lot* of the movie, “Ex Machina”!

A virtual reality game designer gambles all in developing and value-packing a *character* that has gone rogue...

The audiobook narrator nailed nuances of the game character‘s voice and iterations remarkably well 🎧

Book 1. Day 1

A thought provoking and enjoyable collection of speculative/science-fiction stories. You don‘t need to break the bank either- they are all free for Amazon Prime members.

The stories are all quite different from one another but all explore the theme of a future world. My favorite was Summer Frost, followed by The Last Conversation and You Have Arrived at Your Destination. These stories left me with lots of things to ponder 🤯

Part of a collection of novellas from Amazon available free to prime members. I love Crouch's dark sci-fi and this was no exception. Fast-paced, thought-provoking, and intense.

"Consciousness is a horror show" ?? I'm typically not a fan of AI/robot stories, so I was wary of this. But I was swept along with the premise & enjoyed it. It made me think of Shakespeare's "There are more things in heaven & earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy", from Hamlet. It made me think about the existence of god(s), the nature of their consciousness, & if they look at humans & ever feel fear. It's that kind of a story ?

4.5 STARS | GRADE A-
The best of the entire collection, by far. The longest story and the one with the most character development and plotline. This makes you wonder what kind of AI they are creating and nurturing at this very moment, like in real-world possibilities. Didn't we learn anything from Terminator?

On to the 2nd part of the Forward series ✅

A little free audible read at work this morning.

Ok, some of this went over my head but it was a little fascinating and kinda frightening and definitely sad.

Forward, a collection of stories from six amazing authors, is a joy of science fiction writing. (I did a combination of listening and ebook reading via Kindle Unlimited.) The stories vary in the intensity of their world building--some (like Amor Towles's You Have Arrived at Your Destination and Andy Weir's Randomize) seem all too close, while others (like N. K. Jemisin's Emergency Skin, my favorite) drop us in worlds far, far away.

">>>Good morning, Max.>>>Hello, Riley.>>>What have you done since our last session?>>>Max read 895,013 books."

"Why did you kill your husband?" I ask. "Not husband. Oscar kill Max with knife two thousand thirty-nine times."

🎧 good but predictable story! I like these type of stories and wasn‘t disappointed. These AI taking over the world stories are not completely improbable. Worth a listen since it was free. It may make a decent full size novel. 5 of 6. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I just devoured yet another one of Blake Crouch‘s stories. Summer Frost. Once again, wonderfully done. A thought provoking look at artificial intelligence.
This time his story came in the form of a sci-fi six pack by the name of “Forward” along side 5 other well known authors! You can get them all for free if you‘re an amazon prime member and if not you can get them all for $5.94!!

Just search amazon “Forward collection” to find them!

This story is really clever, it held my mind, made me think.
Brian is computer whiz who created A.I., Max, to be a non-character in a game. He decided to bring her out of the game to allow her A.I. to develop through deep learning in outer space. Soon she is more intelligent than her creator.....questions begin to arise. Good sci-fi, Amazon Original Stories series.
#teamslaughter #scarathon @Clwojick

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
This was a fun one. Just about what I expected from Blake Crouch.

And with that, I have finished all the stories in Amazon‘s Forward collection! 😄 Of the six there was only one I didn‘t like and one I thought was meh. The other four I enjoyed. Favs: The Last Conversation and You Have Arrived at Your Destination

#catsoflitsy #Ember

An exceptional AI short story!

One of six Amazon Original Stories

About the Collection:
For some, it‘s the end of the world. For others, it‘s just the beginning. With brilliant imagination, today‘s most visionary writers point to the future in a collection curated by bestselling author Blake Crouch. These stories range from darkly comic to deeply chilling, but they all look forward.

So far, I'm loving the books in Amazon's new "forward collection". They're all super fast reads, and this one was so good I'm sorry it's over. If you like speculative fiction and are interested in AI and superintelligence (and don't easily have nightmares!), this one's for you. So chilling!!