Avogadro Corp

The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears

By: William Hertling

Narrated by: Rob Granniss

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

David Ryan is the designer of ELOPe, an email language optimization program, that if successful, will make his career. But when the project is suddenly in danger of being canceled, David embeds a hidden directive in the software accidentally creating a runaway artificial intelligence.

David and his team are initially thrilled when the project is allocated extra servers and programmers. But excitement turns to fear as the team realizes that they are being manipulated by an A.I. who is redirecting corporate funds, reassigning personnel and arming itself in pursuit of its own agenda.

©2011, 2012 William Hertling (P)2012 William Hertling

Critic reviews

• Science Fiction DIY Book Festival, Winner, 2011-12
• Gold Winner, Science Fiction Book of the Year, 2011

"Avogadro Corp is a tremendous book that every single person needs to read. In the vein of Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom(TM), William's book shows that science fiction is becoming science fact. Avogadro Corp describes issues, in solid technical detail, that we are dealing with today that will impact us by 2015, if not sooner. Not enough people have read these books. It's a problem for them, but not for the [emergent] machines." (Brad Feld, managing directory Foundry Group, co-founder Techstars)

"Highly entertaining, gripping, thought inspiring book. Don't start without the time to finish - it won't let you go.” (Gifford Pinchot III, founder Bainbridge Graduate Institute, author The Intelligent Organization)

"An alarming and jaw-dropping tale about how something as innocuous as email can subvert an entire organization. I found myself reading with a sense of awe, and read it way too late into the night." (Gene Kim, author of Visible Ops)

Very relevant.

Gripping fiction about one of the million ways machines take over. Beware what seems like innocent use of AI.

Simple to climb into

The concept is quite subtle but effective. The story gets going quite soon and keeps a good place.

Breathtakingly realistic

This near future Sci-fi has you looking at what's going on in the real world and wondering how long before this book is Science fact rather than Science fiction. I'm currently on the 3rd book of the series and I can't stop listening. If you love Sci-fi you will love this book. You will not be regret your purchase.

Skynet lives

Would you try another book from William Hertling and/or Rob Granniss?

no; it was a slow vwersion

Would you ever listen to anything by William Hertling again?

maybe

Which scene was your favorite?

the final scene

Was Avogadro Corp worth the listening time?

the original terminator series was more exciting

Any additional comments?

no

Sounded good on paper

So the plot summary made this seem like something I would love. About 1/3 of the way in I was not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. The narration was ok, nothing spectacular but also not completely boring. The story also seemed to cut off at points and pick up at another point, with out a pause of acknowledgment of the scene changing. Made following very difficult for some parts. I felt like the story and reading needed a little more to be better. Probably won’t be getting any of the other stories in the series.

Loving it all over again!

It's rare that I read a book twice, or even listen to a book I've previously read. However, I did it with Avogadro Corp. and I'm loving it all over again! William Hertling's story keeps you turned in. I spend a great deal of time on the road and find audible books are comforting and relaxing....if the stories and characters are well developed, and the reader doesn't distract me from the book. Avogadro Corp. checks all the boxes.

Skip it. Too formulaic with flat characters.

ummm... okay.

It was not very well written, and I think this poor writing (specifically dealing with character development/behaviour) took too much away from what, otherwise, might have been an okay story. Maybe.

It is a lot like Daemon except, of course, much more lecturey and person-does-A and then person-does-B formulaic. The writing simply didn't flow, and there was little suspense.

This might be because the characters were not very distinct or "real" feeling, so... basically, we don't care what happens to whom or why... they all sound the same, so it is hard to tell if it was person one or person two who had something happen to them.

Was the techy component good?... well... it was better than the character development, but... again, it was written so stiltedly that it felt like I was reading a how-to manual. And I don't know that the tech was as "cutting edge" as it thinks it is. Sure, it's not "real" at the moment, but this author certainly isn't the first to use a self-actualizing AI as the premise of a story.

And the sub-title makes no sense at all. Oh well, live and learn. I won't be looking for any more books by this author.

The narration was okay. There is no sex or gore and the language is too dull to even have much in the way of swearing.

Not terrible, but lots of holes.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

There were too many holes in a lot of the technology and how the data centers existed. A floating datacenter? Seriously? The logistics of anything like that would be silly. I suspect it was to make them harder to deactivate, but it made it laughable.

Would you ever listen to anything by William Hertling again?

Sure - the concept of a social engineering AI was interesting, but the book didn't get into that as much.

Could you see Avogadro Corp being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Maybe a made-for-TV movie. There wasn't much suspense, and it was a bit formulaic. Nothing overly clever or technical that could confuse anybody.

Any additional comments?

It's not a bad book, but in this genre, there's a lot better.

Simple, OK Story. Boring, Flawed Narration

This story is simple and predicable but worth the time and was an acceptable read.

The narration was both flat and uninspiring.

However, just "forget about the poor narration" and the "overly simplistic, predictable story" and enjoy it for what it is; a simple, enjoyable, fictional AI story with a decent connection to actual real computer tech.

Definitely no Daniel Suarez, but a decent author!

I have seen many reviews comparing this book to "Daemon" and "Freedom". Hertling is no Suarez, nor would I want him to be! He has his own unique writing style that at times flows quite nicely yet he has a tendency to brush over critical parts. I will continue this series if nothing else, just to see this author develop.