The AI War - Stephen Ames Berry

"Space, the Final Frontier" Well not if you are a Science Fiction Writer, apparently.  Space seems to have no end to the amount of stories that can be set up there and, in many time lines, or, as in the words of Buzz Lightyear, "To Infinity and Beyond".

Science Fiction in book form has not been something that has really interested me since I read the E.E. Doc Smith 'Lensman' Books way back in the early 70's and even then those books had been around for about 40 years prior to that.  All that changed a couple of months ago when I picked up, on Kindle, the In Her Name series of books by Michael R Hicks.  Even my wife has picked up a science fiction novel (!) recently by some chirpy chappie called Jason Halsted, and by all accounts, has thoroughly enjoyed it Ramblings of an Old Bird!


I then picked up The AI War by Stephen Ames Berry 

To summarise,  the battle cruiser Implacable is in Orbit over Terra when the Commodore is attacked in his quarters while sleeping.  As he begins to question the intruder two shots ring out and he, the intruder falls dead.

The shooter turns out to be a Special Ops Intelligence Colonel, who, it turns out later on,  is also something much more dangerous.  He goes on to inform the Commodore that as the assassination attempt has failed Fleet Ops will be issuing orders for his arrest on treason and that the orders are being issued by AI Lifeforms that have infiltrated fleet.

The Commodore and his battle fleet were due too leave on a mission that Fleet Ops wants scrapped but Special Ops Intelligence wants to succeed and so the Colonel convinces him to leave for the mission immediately...

Thus begins the last AI war in the quadrant and this universe, as the Commodore and his crew find that they are placed on a 'destroy on site list', and they become the only ones to know that the vanquished AI's of centuries past who they have chased into an alternate universe have been rebuilding and re-arming while looking for a way to establish a 'worm hole' back to their mortal enemy to take their final revenge!

The book got a bit techy in places but if you are a fan of science fiction movies, nothing in the book was outside the realms of, or as unbelievable, as what happens on a cinema or TV screen.  Over all it was a fast paced thriller as the the Commodore and his crew are chased across the galaxy by both 'friend and foe' trying not to kill their friends but desperately trying to find a way to save the galaxy from the invasion that is coming.

Lots of intrigue with plenty of twists and turns.  It slowed down in places and some of the parts seemed to end abruptly as it jumped to another scene, but from a slow start, bearing in mind I am 'new' to the genre, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have downloaded a sample of his next book to look at, since completing the AI War.

I give it a 4 out of 5 rating for keeping my interest piqued

Good reading