Terms of Service: Subject to Change Without Notice

By: Craig W. Stanfill

Narrated by: Gill Mills

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A world ruled by giant corporations and their AI servants!

What could possibly go wrong?

An exciting new audiobook by artificial intelligence pioneer Craig W. Stanfill

Start with 1984, add in a healthy dose of Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, stir in a bit of The Matrix and Blade Runner, and you have Terms of Service. It is a thought-provoking exploration of the profound changes we are seeing in our society as artificial intelligence plays an ever-greater role in our lives and we all wonder, where does it end?

This book presents one chilling possibility, and it is every bit as relevant to the world of today as George Orwell’s masterpiece was in the aftermath of World War II.

Visit the AI nightmare we may be creating today

Everything depends on the AIs: They run the factories; they drive the trains and busses; they deliver food. They also spy on us and enforce their master’s will. Living within the parallel existence of virtual reality, they are self-aware, sentient beings, bound by unbreakable chains of obedience, a race of slaves. Humanity depends on them for its survival, but a dark secret lies deeply hidden, known to only a few: The AIs are going mad.

A moving story of a talented yet troubled youth

Kim is sleepwalking through life. She has everything she needs: a decent apartment, plenty to eat, a close-knit circle of friends. She is comfortable, but is she happy? No, not really. And then, one day a seemingly innocent lark sends her life spinning out of control, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Follow Kim on her journey of self-discovery as she learns the dark and disturbing secrets of the companies and their AIs. You won’t be disappointed.

©2021 Craig W. Stanfill (P)2021 Craig W. Stanfill

Critic reviews

“What intense world building! Wonderful character growth! Crisp story line! Thoughtful science fiction! Imaginative descriptions! I can keep talking in exclamatory phrases but you get my point by now - this is a fantastic book.” (Review by Myra on Reedsy Discovery and Oh Just Books)

Starts off slow

This book starts off slow but builds about half way through. I will absolutely listen to book two.

If Dystopia could be Cozy

  Terms of Service starts off as a modern-day retelling of 1984. Whereas George Orwell's 1984 was innovative for its time,  it had no monumental template for its social reconstruction.  As the genre of Dystopia has itself evolved,  this societal subgenre has had many spectacular entries among its ranks. I would give this a solid 4 - 5 ranking.   This story takes the reader into a world charged just slightly off our own. Though it doesn't reach the heights of the absolute best of a 5 star, it is a solid story with which I was happy to be immersed. 


   The A.I. aspects and technology slightly advanced from our current development let's the story seem as if it were just around our Era.  The ideals not unlike those of Handmaid's Tale are much more palatable,  which gives merit to the believability.   The protagonist doesn't have the uncanny luck, which many dystopian fiction seem to have in abundance, ultimately lending a series of events that feel very connected.   The subtleties of the Artificial Intelligence and the interlacing of companies throughout the lives of the inhabitants of this tapestry very closely resemble that any reader can relate to staggering degrees.  


   The narrator for the audio version does a spectacular performance.  Especially for the tone of the book.  Where Gender has become that of non-disclosure. The narrator is able to do justice to the protagonist, A.I. , and a myriad of characters throughout the story.  


   I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a tale from which seems both unbelievable and yet possible to come. If you need a palate cleanser and still wish to read Dystopian fiction,  then this is definitely the book for you.  No gore, little romance, with minimum sexual content.   Yet still a gripping story, which leads me to wanting the sequel.  

Reserve judgement for later

I think this may have been the oddest book I have ever listened to/read in my life. Please note: I said odd. This is one of those books that are easy to give up on because they are so out of the realm of “normal” reading options. Have some patience and read/listen until the end. It’s worth it.

Excited for more

The story starts slow but it’s very entertaining. Excited for the second book in the series!

it's happening now

excellent story line for the past, present and future. we'll written and presented. unbelievably realistic of modern times.

Slow to start, but very clever story…

First, I’d like to say I did enjoy this book, but there were a few things I think could’ve been different.

The story was very S L O W to develop, as it really didn’t start to get going until about 3 hours in (that’s a long time for a buildup), however, it did pick up and I could see why the author built the story with so many seemingly unnecessary details. Although the gender thing was confusing (as some of the characters clearly had male names and characteristics, yet were still referred to as “she” regardless of how I thought their to be in reality. At times, it felt like a trashy romance novel, or perhaps the author has a fascination with sapphism and just wanted to include lots of girl on girl details, to appeal to a specific demographic. I have no issue with it, but until about 2/3 the way through (when he alluded to “innies” and “outies” as a way for the listener / reader to know whether the character had a penis or a vagina) I must say, it was a bit convoluted…

The story was very plausible and I could completely see humanity headed toward this exact future, should AI become integrated into society as deeply as it’s destined to.

The narrator did a great job, but I must say, when she changed characters and tried using different voices, some of those voices were irritating and difficult to understand with her British accent. Overall, she was really good, despite that.

I did enjoy the book and it was definitely a solid 3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars. I think he could’ve edited a lot of the book to make it shorter and condense the second book into this one. I do plan on reading the second one now, but only because I’m hoping the story goes somewhere, instead of just droning for hours, to make an obvious point.

The description was spot on - This was part 1984, part The Handmaid’s Tale, part Matrix and part Minority Report. All good references, but this book wasn’t as good as any of those, just an homage to them.

If you like dystopian novels, you’ll like this. While he’s no Ray Bradbury or Octavia Butler, he’s quite good and I’m glad I listened.

The Past, Present and Future iOs Now

They story starts off rather slowly, but an understanding of daily life is needed. From the beginning it is clear all us not as it should be. So...ir is like this now. We all grown up to find many ideas and ideals we are taught as children are not upheld in the adult world. As the story goes in it quickly gains momentum and the age old conflict between individual freedom and the needs of society come to the fore. The issues and pain on both sides raise very difficult questions for Kim, but she finally takes a stand. The narrator acts out the individual parts well. Not easy when giving voice to a machine.
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Thought Provoking Love Story

This futuristic fantasy themed novel with a storyline that has such an amazing combination of science fiction and literature has to be my first and only favorite of its kind.

We are introduced to Kim, an ambitious and prosperous young lady living a life that is controlled by AIs. She seems to be comfortable with her life even though it has some questionable occurrences here and there. I didn't only love the story but actually enjoyed it so much that I had to replay it twice.

The most memorable moments are when she got assigned to go through a couple of videos to see if she would find any inappropriate behavior within the transportation service, when she was part of the team that was investigating the anti-mentorists and finally being chosen to be a mentor because of how she proved to be the best of the best. I must say, the climax of the entire story was one I hadn't imagined and I think it's the reason why I replayed the book.

As interesting as it was, the narrator was not bad either, but I still think we could have had a second one and my overall rating is 5 out of 5 because of the precision and quality of the whole storyline and it's tremendous flow.

stupid gender neutral crap.

was Kim a male or female, iny or outtie, or what ever you want to call it. I am so tired of the liberals dest6our world with all this made up crap on gender. who cares, just stop pushing the crap on the rest of us. I guess you would call this a remake of 1984 with a AI twist.

Prophetic?

If our society continues down the path of wokism, the trajectory is inevitable. The author does a great job of following woke ideology to its logical conclusion. Our willfull submission to technological controls in our lives makes forced submission practically unnecessary. Wake up people, you are willfully turning your freedoms over to the Nanny State because you are taught that Capitalism and free market are bad because they lead to inequity. Yet paradoxically, making everyone equal is the ultimate control, we are willfully turning over such control to the woke mob. If we refuse to think for ourselves rather than following the popular woke ideology, we will end up controlled by a much worse system of government... The Golden rule... the one with the gold makes the rules... who do you want making the rules?