The A.I. Gene

The A.I. Series, Book 2

By: Vaughn Heppner

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

We don't know when it happened. But somewhere an alien species built a strong artificial intelligence. The A.I. became independent, powerful, and it started killing biological infestations - life - any life, all life. It has been killing life forms ever since as it grew into a vast armada of death.

Jon Hawkins and his team captured the A.I. destroyer invading the solar system. The genocidal assault should have been over, but it's not.

An alien A.I. strand from the cybership survived in the distant Kuiper Belt. The strand has been multiplying and taking over by turning people into robots in order to build another supership. The human race is in a grim war for survival against the most relentless, most ruthless enemy in the galaxy.

The A.I. Gene is a novel of military science fiction by best-selling author Vaughn Heppner and the second book in the A.I. series.

©2017 Vaughn Heppner (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Vaughn Heppner did it! Awesome book!

I've listen to the first 3 books of the series. I'll summarize them in one review:

All 3 books have a great narrator!

Book 1 starts with a nice story, but the story develops quite slowly. The overall story is not bad, but it lacks lots of information. As if it goes too slow.. Other than that - the author does a short enough descriptions of people, ships, etc, so you won't be bothered with useless information.

Book 2 is kicking asses! Story goes much faster, lots of more information, very interesting!

Book 3 story is very rich - even more interesting than book 2.

In short - very nice series. Recommended!

Great!

I enjoyed the first and second in this series, as I said before it follows some similarities to his other works but it's worth listening to!

Better than the first

I liked this book, as my title indicates, more than the first one. We see the aftermath of the first, the human reaction to it, the power struggle that would develop from the chasm created by the event. I had anticipated that this book should be more about humanity and less A.I. and it was, thankfully.

This novel is really a 4.5, and could have achieved a five had the author not abandoned a great scene in the making. Without giving any spoilers, Heppner reveals two new characters with a strong backstory and what could (and should) be a significant role in the series. For inexplicable reasons, an obvious scene never occurred. I was very much looking forward to the first meeting between these new characters and our protagonist, yet the author skips over it. I was fairly astounded that Heppner yada, yada, yadas, the encounter which would’ve had a ton of emotion and excitement and it would’ve been great to see what Hawkins thought of the new characters, and their adventures, etc. I’m not sure why you give them such an intricate backstory and then fully continue their journey.

just a space filler

very poorly written full of he said, she said, they said. seems like the author was obligated to write this and just got it off his desk

The Story So Far is good

this book was a good intro it's a bit short so don't think you're going to get a whole lot of longevity on it.

bullheaded not good stragety

I've read enough similar series to realize the writers who has no understanding of military stragety take the direct brute force approach to any conflict. An AI whose conquered thousand of civilizations would destroy any opponent who regularly uses such a stragety. A simple rotation of a ship along its axis would eliminate an opponent's ability to concentrate fire on one location.

not terrible

kinda predictable. I'll keep going to see how they are going to pull it off

Much better!

I had forgotten which series this was until I started listening to these. The character development has vastly increased my enjoyment of this series. The first book gave me a bit of a bad taste. This was far better.

Still not sure I like this book.

Would you consider the audio edition of The A.I. Gene to be better than the print version?

Yes, I probably wouldn't have gotten through the series so far if I just was reading it.

Would you recommend The A.I. Gene to your friends? Why or why not?

I probably would for teen readers. It's entertaining but honestly has some issues that I just can't get past as an adult.

Which scene was your favorite?

Probably when Hawkins took control of the Jupiter system

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not particularly.

Any additional comments?

I don't want to be offensive but there are just some things in this series I can't get over. I understand it's Science Fiction but I get irritated by the breaks in physics (especially orbital mechanics) and I get annoyed that they attribute their successes to god.

I'm also irked by the voiceover of the AI since it's stereotypical of 80s AI in Sci-Fi. Meanwhile, I have my Amazon Echo which sounds extremely human by comparison.

Not my favorite from this author

So far I have enjoyed the "Lost Ship" series better than this series. This series seems darker and without the light comic touches I found in the "Lost Ship" books. I find myself wondering why the main character keeps going, on an emotional basis. I will read the next book, hoping for improvement. But I need a break first.

You have to listen to it

A great book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Awsome

Great story. Really enjoyed the first and second book. Book 3 just about to start..

A strong sequel with issues

It felt a bit like making up for time not spent developing the story and characters in the first book so in comparison it's much slower. The huge spans of time and slightly unbelievable scale on which everything is happening is also much more apparent in this book than the last but I'm glad I spent I credit and the time to listen to it.

Shallow and rushed

The fist book in the series held great promise and the struggle against the AI was tangible. In this second book, everything is over in a flash. After a long build up the final AI battle is feeble and ultimately unfulfilling, lazy even.

Let's hope the third book isn't as rushed.