Level Five

Killday, Book 1

By: William Ledbetter

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

In the mountains of Pakistan, a high-tech mission aimed at preventing another nuke on US soil goes off the rails - with deadly results. At a Wall Street investment firm, a computer intelligence takes the first tentative steps to free itself from its digital restraints. In a basement workshop, an engineer sees visions of a god who instructs him to defend the human race - by any means necessary. 

In Level Five, the debut near-future thriller by Nebula Award winner William Ledbetter, AIs battle for dominance, and nanotechnology is on the loose. And all that stands in the way of the coming apocalypse is a starry-eyed inventor who dreams of building a revolutionary new spacecraft and an intelligence agency desk jockey faced with the impossible choice of saving her daughter - or saving the world.

©2018 William Ledbetter (P)2018 Audible Originals, LLC.

this made me late for work

this book kept me up multiple nights waiting to get to the next chapter the narrator was by far attention-grabbing 10 out of 10 would recommend to anyone

Engaging Sci Fi Story

The key to a gripping SF tale is the vision presented by the author in a believable format which carries the reader on a journey to places not yet contemplated. This is just such a story. The players are a bit two dimensional but not so flat that the story suffers. The story itself has us considering the effect of creating then living with truly self-conscious artificial intellects who can perceive and calculate many orders of magnitude more quickly than humans. The individual “personalities” of these entities are markedly different based upon their serial number and their experiences. The results for humanity will be catastrophic.

This is a 4.5 star book IMHO. So rounded up we give it 5 as 4 underrates the production.

surprisingly good

I have been hunting for a good SF read for awhile which has the whole AI nano thing going on and this one did not disappoint!

Now THIS is good ScI fi!!

I listened to "The Chain" recently and this book, Level5, right after. The chain was good, although a bit predictable from my perspective.

The point is, it's been getting big press when Level 5 should be getting huge press!!! And talk about the potential for a series?!?! Zon? Hulu? Netflix? You reading this?

This story has it all, and then some. are there different people reading different parts? Or is this like Dragonbone Chair's Wyncott? the voices are well done. The different paths the author leads you down and areas of cliff hangar suspense will keep you riveted. Run man, Run!!!

That's what Level 5 did for me. excellent writing, plausible conditions, superb story-telling.

I'm going to look for book 2 now!

Not satisfied

I like books about the rise of artificial intelligence. The ending left too many loose ends. If you could make almost anything with the sandboxes then why not make machines to clean up the mess left behind? Maybe a sequel.

Get this book.

Had gotten the book during a sale. figured, what the hell, it is cheap, why not? This book was excellent. The narrator was spot on. Book plot was extremely intriguing and the pacing was great to keep you hooked in. The technology within the story was well thought out. Worth the buy. I would buy this book at full price, but just as glad gotten in a deal.

Fun/Terrifying Insight into the Launch of AI....

I really enjoyed this! If you are not worried about AI you will be by the end of this book. Plenty of other fun gadgets that fit into the box of "hard" sci-fi. My only complaint is that it is over so soon. Highly recommended for any fan of the genre.

is this possible?

great narration exciting story, and believe able and interesting characters too. I loved it. a lot

Good Tech-based Sci-Fi story

With the direction, we are heading with AI and technology it was nice to have a likable AI in this book along with some cool hardware. I enjoyed the performance after settling in for a few minutes. would definitely purchase the next in the series and have added author and narrator/performer to my favorites.

Exciting, good characters and believable story

I enjoyed it thoroughly and would highly recommend it for anyone who’s into sci fi.