Infinity Born by Douglas E. Richards

Infinity Born Reviews

• 
  Tulay

  Highly recommend this book.
  
  Fascinating read, what technology can do for the human race. Just think, especially if you're seventy something like me; did you ever thought when you picked up your first book to read, one day you were going to download and read anything you want on a device like kindle?
  You have to be patient, story starts eight years ago and jumps to eight years after. Keep a open mind, don't just look at it as another sci-fi story. Author did read and researched great deal, all listed at the end and take time to read them also.
• 
  Jamie Rich

  Infinity Born (Kindle Edition) by Douglas E. Richards
  
  Meh. Yes really. The book never really got me engaged nor suspended my disbelief. About one third of the way through, I almost quit. But I read the reviews and decided to give it another chance. Time wasted really.
  There is nothing new here to see. All the characters are one dimensional and pretty much cookie cutter. the plot is driven by the characters, but there are very few surprises along the way. And yea, the ending is as lame as the rest of the book. Moving on...
• 
  Sebastian Hetman

  1 Star. Halfway through I thought it was going to be 3 stars, since the premise was interesting enough to keep me going, but the plot just kept going downhill.
  
  A third of the book is just one long essay speculating on the future of humanity and the morals of emerging technologies.
  
  The rest was just a narrative that grows increasinly more boring, meaningless, and predictable the further the story gets. The characters all talk and act like highschoolers. A Russian superspy laughs and sneers like a cartoon villan, taunting the good guys at the moment of his triumph, just without the mustache twirling.
  
  I haven’t read any other works by the author and after this one I’ll probably never read anything else again.
• 
  Fabi

  Infinity Born is a techno-thriller, speculative fiction, sci-fi thriller, near-future thriller. So many names for one of my favorite genres. I prefer to call them techno-thrillers. Technology run amock, man against machine, etc. Not only are they fast paced and fun to read, they also give me so much to think about. New ideas and speculation on where our current technology is headed. I love these!
  
  I have to admit that my favorite part of the book is at the end when the author gives us a synopsis and guide to the research he conducted for this story. I see myself spending countless hours combing through those resources.
  
  The story itself is good. I listened to the Audible narration which was maybe just a little monotone. My biggest hangup was the one that I always snag on when a story tackles human immortality. What about overpopulation and overcrowding on Earth? This question wasn't directly addressed and kept taking me out of the story. One other hangup I had was with "reincarnating" certain persons years after their death. It would seem extremely awkward to me and again, wasn't addressed well if at all.
  
  Aside from that, it was good. We had a seemingly evil scientist, an over-pontificating villain and the innocents protected by a bad-ass secret agent. What's not to love? ;-)
• 
  11811 (Eleven)

  I liked the plot. DNF.
• 
  Maria Trying to write my book Park

  Humanity Reinvented
  
  First of all, my congratulations to the author, Douglas E. Richards, for writing a book that encompasses the breadth of knowledge of Quantum Physics, Artificial Intelligence and the most sophisticated Military Spyware I've ever read, in a way that a layperson can easily understand.
  
  That being said, what a book! There is no way I could begin to recapitulate this massively twisted, technologically brilliant and mind-blowing conceptually masterful plot.
  
  If your head doesn't hurt when you are done reading this book, you didn't understand what happened. Richard's concepts call into question everything that makes up humankind.
  
  The simple synopsis is boy meets girl who isn't who she seems. Boy finds out who she is. After that, all bets are off. This is a long book but COMPLETELY worth every hour it takes to read. ***** Stars.
  
  P. S. Read all of the appendix! That is a book in and of itself!
• 
  Bon Tom

  I learned something interesting reading this book. A kind of SF becoming reality in my little personal realm. It's completely possible to find the writing average at best from the technical standpoint, and yet consider the story and final product exceptional.
  
  Mr. Richards is the scholar and the writer, but I believe he's also gentleman enough he would agree that scholar epithet comes first in his case. There are some repetitions of phrases and colloquialisms I could have done without, or is it just that the editor had bad hair day or considered it necessary part of writer's personality and style.
  
  However, when I wonder first three hours into the book whether or not I'm reading the yearly SF almanac with a collection of unrelated SF stories or one wholesome book, to the extent I have to recheck the reviews, then I know something's wrong with the structure too.
  
  These meandering lines of plot all come to the same square several hundred miles down the road, but I could have used more hints of their interconnection. However, the story is so completely mind blowing and reassuringly grounded in factualities of current state of science that all the technicalities are forgiven.
  
  I'm not new to the whole transhumanist idea (some would say, even agenda) myself, to put it mildly. Still, this book manages to come out fresh, milking the same basic concepts some other authors played with, or better said, compiling them all into the same place in a manner that's extremely fun and pleasurable to read.
  
  In short, the book is so good I'll be reading all the other works of this author for sure.
• 
  Fred M

  Author Douglas Richards clearly likes to read scientific articles, extrapolate futuristic ideas from those articles and then write stories that combine those ideas with “thriller” aspects. But I guess that’s the very definition of a “techno-thriller”.
  
  For the “techno” portion of the story, the book description leads you to believe AI is the major technical thrust of the plot. AI is certainly a major plot point, but there are a number of other expansive future-tech ideas that are major components of the plot as well. Indeed, it felt like too many “big” ideas were stuffed into the story – causing the action to be paused while all these different ideas were explained to the reader.
  
  I found the “thriller” portion of the story to be disappointing. In basic terms, it’s the reclusive genius (and his companions) vs the evil bounty hunter (and his companions). Yes, this portion of the story is better and more nuanced than I just described. The problem, as I saw it, was that the “techno” ideas were so expansive and grandiose that the “thriller” aspects seemed small and wanting in comparison.
  
  Bottom line: A decent enough read, but the many big future-tech ideas made the whole story feel too far-fetched (while the thriller aspects seemed like they were incorporated mostly so the book could be called a “techno-thriller”).
• 
  Pep

  I liked it. It's in The Sweet Spot of my genre. But there was something methodical about it. I've read a lot of books by this author. And they all seem so similar. The plot was great. The characters were well-developed. the world was built wonderfully. So what was wrong? I don't know. There was just something missing. A spark. I've read worse, and I read better. And I'm still on the fence about how I feel about it. I have the audio version and I may listen to it and that may give me new prospective. If so, I will update. But for the time being I would much recommend Michael Grumley' "leap" series ( it's in my favorite shelves) hands down over this. It deals with some of the same subject matter although a bit different. And I can't recommend that book enough.
• 
  Ravi Malhotra

  Aaaarggghhh. The author has no spark of imagination whatsoever. How can he be claiming to write science fiction. He can't even write a good thriller. Everything is too stereotypical and cliched.
  
  Even teenage geek fanboys will tire of this after a while, but his fans seem to be at a much lower stage of evolution.
• 
  Doug Branscombe

  One of my favorite books that I've read this year. Fast paced thriller that takes a look at where research in Artificial Intelligence could lead us. Once we've determined that something CAN be done, the moral question of whether we SHOULD do it must be answered. These questions are covered from multiple perspectives.
• 
  Alex

  Really quite poor treatise on the populist memes of current research into AI, packaged as a 'thriller' that didn't thrill me in the slightest.
  
  Poor characterization, windy and unrealistic exposition uttered by bland, uninteresting people & badly described 'action' sequences - doesn't really pass muster as a competent near-future exploration IMHO.
  
  Worth it for the 99p I paid though.
• 
  Chris Bull

  Should have been better
  
  More an action story with a good deal of chat. There is a serious disconnect apropos ethics. Deeds are explained away with very little argument and a lot of agreement.
  It would have been a much better novel if ASI(Artificial super intelligence) would have won the day early on in book.
• 
  Paul DiBara

  A very provocative and fast paced story. What intrigued and captured my interest in particular was the discussion of sentient artificial (inappropriate word) intelligence. The author, Doug Richards, provides a thorough and convincing summary of the field and the various scenarios that might arise should this field be allowed to run its course.
  
  The novel is the delivery system, so to speak. But the larger purpose is to inform, instruct and provoke readers to think about the larger issues. Though the field of AI has proceeded in fits and starts there seems little doubt that eventually all the hypotheticals could very well become realities. The question posed by the novel is whether we, as individual, or collectively, as a civilization want to allow the possible futures to become eventual realities.
• 
  Kym Gamble

  Richards does it again
  
  Another thrill ride.. This time we go from a devastating act of terror by a mad scientist to something much different. A scientist has been hiding for 8 years and his daughter has been in hiding also. They haven't spoken in 8 years. The Russians know who she is and try to kidnap her. All that and more on this rollercoaster ride.
• 
  Patrick

  This was an interesting book from the perspective of what might a computer be like if it attained sentience. It is unlikely that one will anytime soon. But if it does, will it be friendly to us or not. What kind of failsafe would we have to have in place in case it was not. This is just one of the many topics this book explores on the way to being an action filled thriller.
  
• 
  James Davis

  I enjoyed this book. The characters were one-dimensional in my opinion, but the story gave you a lot to think about.
• 
  Dwayne Bathke

  Read this book!
  
  This may be our future. As a novel, it has everything you need to enjoy it. But more then that, if you want a glimpse of our future, read on. The references at the end of the novel, will keep you busy in researching the concepts presented and it allowed me to realise, how close we are to some the concepts being reality.
• 
  Sacha Valero

  This is a really fascinating story that grabs you. We start off with Issac Jacobs, a genius with no formal education who discovers a means of fuel less space travel. Instead of 'gifting' this discovery to mankind, he patents it and uses it to colonize the moon and mars while also mining the asteroid belt. He becomes a trillionaire and the hero of the world.
  
  Many tech companies have moved away from Silicon Valley to Turloc due to the expense and Issac Jacobs is one of them. Then on day part of the city is leveled with a kinetic weapon dropped from space. All of the evidence points to Jacobs and his home security system records him killing his wife and two sons before removing their heads with an ax. His only daughter who was staying with a friend is whisked away by federal authorities and placed in protective custody. She later goes missing and is finally declared dead, presumed killed by her father who is later declared dead from a car accident.
  
  Next we meet Trish. Trish is part of an intense experiment that will last for a year during which she will undergo all manner of tests under a perfect virtual reality for a payment of two million dollars paid out over the course of many years. The tests are designed to work through every facet of human psychology and how we react in any situation imaginable. Each time they go through, their short-term memory is wiped and they are subjected to the mental torture of a different test.
  
  The story then switches gear to the President of the US attending a top-secret test of a new ASI, Advanced Super Intelligence. The top-secret test is destroyed before it can start and Navy Lt. Cameron Carr is brought in. As America's top super spy the Secretary of Defense gives him unlimited authority to find out who did it.
  
  This takes us on a roller coaster ride involving the devious Russians (naturally), all manner of spy equipment and some fascinating technology.
  
  I'll stop here because any more would be a spoiler and I don't want to do that. Needless to say this book isn't perfect. I'll start with my biggest pet peeves. As best as I can fix, the story takes place about the year 2040 and we're still using cellular phones. In the year 2040? I mean they do have holographic projection, but cellular? The author also talks about big tech companies, but only brings up companies from present day. Why not invent a company just to mix it up? There are plenty of startup's to choose from.
  
  I'm going to vent a little here so take it or leave it.
  
  At the end of the book the author talks about the science and about speculation. Let's drive down the alley of speculation. The author is clearly a fan of Elon Musk and mentions him quite a bit. Clearly the author is speculating a great deal about Mr. Musk. Musk is a carnival barker and a rent-seeker. If not for the government subsidies (stealing from taxpayers and competitors to prop up his failing businesses) Musk would be bankrupt. At the rate Tesla hemorrhages cash, I can't envision him leading the company past 2018.
  
  (Apologies for the rant, but with all that's wrong in the US that needs fixing, I don't like my tax dollars going to prop up a company who builds toys for rich people, and I drive a car in the same price range as a Model S) .
• 
  Norm Davis

  Read on Aug 18, 21, 22, 23. 4.17/5 stars. Why so exact? The average of 5K ratings can't be wrong?
  
  Strongly recommended for any reader. If science interests you at all, that's a bonus. While science is integral in most
  Douglas E. Richards novels, they are all largely character driven so should as easily appeal to Jane Austen or Charles Dickens fans as Frederik Pohl fans.
  
  Amazon says I've bought 11 Douglas E. Richards ebooks AND 11 matching audiobooks. They will only show me 8 of them. That's weird. The kind of weird that annoys me. That aside, I read one of his books as a fluke no more significant than deciding to read the random book auto selected out of 15,000 books. Now, I recommend you go buy all his books. I have a few I have not read, but that will be remedied soon. He reminds me a lot of Asimov, Heinlein and even Dean Koontz. Mentioning him among those ought to alert you that I'm not likely going to miss any fiction he writes going forward.
  
  Isaac Jordan was a legend. He was Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk combined then squared... on speed and steroids. Good start, no?
  
  Let's back up and jump ahead at the same time. This is a story of an artificial general/super intelligence becoming sentient. "The Singularity" or super & autonomous (uncontrollable) artificial intelligence. Essentially Pre-Terminator alien intelligence that has escaped it's inescapable, isolated, disconnected, Faraday cage playpen. Ooops.
  
  You want to know what Dark Energy is? Why would a mindless meat puppet primate mammal want to know that? Humans! Cat pets who play with changing matter to energy in order to destroy cities. Glad you don't understand gravity enough to tinker with it.
  
  Sorry, just mimicking my idea of an ASI thinking about humans.
  
  Douglas E. Richards is one of the near future science fiction writers who is an actual renowned scientist and who takes the time to study the literature on the topics he explores in his novels. Well, better that most. If I ever take up writing again, I'll be sticking to fantasy. Science is progressing so fast by the time you publish it isn't fiction anymore.
  
  The prognostication in this case... "Infinity Born" Read the book?
  
  When it happens. It will happen. The question is, will it suck and we all die, or will things get better, or will things go normal, SNAFU.
  
  This novel examines these ideas in a thriller story. I'm a bit saddened that I've forgotten so many details in this novel but that just means I'll get to enjoy re-reading it since I can't remember how it ends.
  
  Thanks to
  Cory Gagne for the wonderful audiobook performance and again to our author
  Douglas E. Richards
  
  More about me
  here.
  
  View all my Goodreads reviews
  
• 
  Terry

  Richards AGAIN hits one outta the park!
  
  Simply put: I'm jealous. Envious? Both! This man has written books I've only been able to write in my mind, like short stories, every time I read of yet another technological innovation. Exponential growth in ... every ... human effort hasn't been unnoticed by this gal because of a steady diet of sci-fi since I was 13 years old. Always a dreamer, the "what if's" that followed closing one book after another have made me almost unsurprised when fiction became fact. Now, at age 60, I can only marvel at the minds that have done the so-called impossible. And can completely immerse myself in the near-future sci-fi tales like Douglas Richards creates. I've witnessed too much not to know how close his words are to being nonfiction.!
  
  The story was believable, fast-paced and enjoyable just as a thriller. For me, the appendix was as good as the story. I love it when a writer reveals his sources! Especially when they are all true. It's why I love all his books!
  
  Before my grandmother passed away she told me she felt very fortunate to have lived in the 20th century. She said experienced an amazing life: from being a child in the days before electricity had reached rural central Texas, when she'd made the family soap, rode in buckboard wagons drawn by horses to a young woman driving cars on paved roads, using machines to wash and dry clothes, and in middle age, to see men walk on the moon. Nane died of Alzheimer's. Her gifts to me were a love of reading, appreciation of the wonders of science and an awareness of how quickly the human condition can change. If eternity is a mere blink of God's eye, what would his laugh be?
  
  I believe we are finding out as we write, read and think!
  
  Thanks, Douglas E. Richards! It no longer amazes me too much that you, too, have heard the inhale of breath that precedes merriment and know the exhale will be a gasping, doubled over roar of a belly laugh!
  If we don't self-destruct first.
  
  TEN STARS! Well done, kudos!
• 
  5ngela

  At last, I really love the cover and tittle. Very science fiction. It really shows what the story is all about.
  
  I respect Mr. Richards for being able to make great story. I have no doubt about all his science fiction story. It is a must read for me. This is stand alone story. Not continuation from his Nick Hall series. The main character is Cameron Carr, Naval lieutenant and special ops, in USA. He was tasked with the job to solve who sabotaged US efforts to develop AGI program. The other characters are couple David Bram and Riley Ridgeway, Isaac Jordan, etc. To be honest I think all of them are interesting characters if not a little bit bland. I don't mean it's not interesting. It just your typical hero and genius characters. And I like the bad guys. I mean it was quite rare to have smart bad guys.
  
  The story is very interesting. It was about AI. I won't tell you the detail because the science was a little bit too heavy for me. Mr Richards craft the story expertly. Unfortunately I don't quite like the opening. Not bad but a little too hasty for my liking. And the ending doesn't help either. Unlike his previous science fiction stories, this one is quite straightforward and predictable. After you read certain part, you kind of know how it will end. All in all, it was a little too long for its own good. I don't know why but the narrative and several change point of view is quite not smooth. It is jumping but it was all explained at the end.
  
  Anyway, the themed was quite similar with Split Second. But I prefer Split Second much more than this one. It just that Mr Richard should tone his science a little bit and make the story unpredictable. Still it is great story and make you wanting for more. I really recommend this story for science fiction lovers.
  
  Rating : 4.5 of 5 stars
  
  
  www.sharing55tories.blogspot.com
• 
  Stephanie R.

  Reading this book felt like a lit review of all the cool things that are happening in technology today: artificial intelligence, computers that can design themselves, asteroid mining, bioprinting, simulations, and more. It was a breath of fresh air after all the utter crap I've read lately, even though there was so much stuff from real life in it I kind of wondered where the originality was. The characters are made of wet paper bags; they are all super geniuses and/or super good at tactical stuff. Oh, well one of the geniuses has a problem with hubris. We haven't seen that before /sarcasm. The plot itself was one of those stories where there are some seemingly unrelated anecdotes at the beginning, but then they turned out to be related after all. I have been reading so many books where that was NOT the case that I almost gave up on this book before I saw how they related. My other criticism is about the ending. I just can't believe that after the given events, it would still be a happy ending.<\spoiler> I felt that he had a certain ending in mind and then everyone in the last chapter had to go illogical and weird in order to force the story back to the outcome it had. But overall, this is the first book I've read in months where I didn't feel like I wasted my time! Hooray!
• 
  Erwin Van Den Broecke

  A little less than half a year ago, I read my first Douglas E. Richard's near future Sci-Fi novel, "Oracle", and I was hooked. I wasn't sure at the time, where this novel placed in the chronological order of his writing. As it turned out, it appears to be nearly one of his latest (published 2019). I have since read everything he has written, except the novels he lists as "Young Adult Fiction". So Infinity Born completes my list of Mr. Richards books (although I have not ruled out reading his young adults selection).
  Once again, Mr. Richards has blown me away with some of the very real revelations of the awesome level of technology we have already acquired and exceeded, since his insights in his earlier works have probably already become mundane in some respect. But not only are his typical technical inspirations plausible, he also provides the reader with a resource to explain and explore some of the mind blowing concepts that are on the cutting edge of becoming science fact.
  I find his work not only intriguing in the literate sense, but also very enlightening at the same time. His characters seem to come to life as you get to know them through the progression of the book and leaves you wanting to know what's next, page after page. He is a very clever and well informed author and I very much look forward to his next work of art.
• 
  Steve Johnson

  Brilliant scientist Isaac Jordan invents an AI supercomputer that grows and develops until it makes a great breakthrough and achieves consciousness. The supercomputer turns on Jordan and he has to destroy it. To do so, he has to use a space-based kinetic energy weapon and there is much collateral damage, many innocent victims. Jordan is captured on video killing and beheading his family. He injures himself and goes missing, later thought to be dead in a car crash. Only his daughter, Melissa, survives, not home at the time of Jordan's rampage. Melissa changes her name to Riley and tries to distance herself from the family tragedy. Bad guys find Riley and she's in danger, as they try to capitalize on her father's work. Super soldier Cameron Carr tries to save her, as well as all humanity, which is at risk if Jordan's work falls into the wrong hands. The plot is exciting yet predictable as the author sticks with a similar formula used in several of his other books. Danger arises from advanced technology gone wrong. A brilliant young female is in immediate danger and so is the whole world ultimately. A super soldier will be called on to save the day. The first two thirds are exciting with some unexpected twists. The final third drags as it turns into a long-winded philosophical discussion and explanation of the plot. Despite the flaws, you will root all the way for the heroes to succeed and for good to overcome evil.
• 
  Uma

  To believe that I used this book to get over my finals!
  Every single book by Richards I've read leave me feeling truly stupid and curious about so much going on in the world of technology. This one actually rings very close with a Netflix series that actually does allow people to transfer their consciousness among bodies (or sleeves)... But that series obviously doesn't delve into the theological aspects of this.
  Anyhow. Quick review. Billionaire scientist looks like he's become mad billionaire scientist. Fast forward to a government's efforts in AGI being sabotaged. Cut to another set of characters who have seemingly nothing in common. And then bring these characters together in a wild twist of events. Throw in some kicka*** shootout sequences too. Richards has mastered the art of reeling you in, and then piling on SO MUCH wonderful information that you're driven to finish a book in one night. It's both informative and scary.
  As for characters, Carr is the character that stood out for me the most in this book. He's just a regular spy who comes to terms with such advanced tech. And so easily at that.
  I would highly recommend the read to Sci fi lovers!
• 
  Bill Krieger

   
  
  Tech is the strength of this novel: strong AI, mind uploading, nano-tech, bio-printing, Fermi's paradox, etc. The science and tech is as deep and interesting as any fiction I've read. Add in a compelling plot and it's all very interesting and enjoyable; Infinity Born is a tasty 4+ bill-stars. The ending is a little weak and jump-the-shark-y, and that's all that prevents a coveted 5 bill-star rating here.
  
  QOTD
  

  
  "I came up with advances in optical computing, which I incorporated into a quantum computing system. By using photons and movable photonic gates, each gate not much larger than an atom, I achieved a hardware configuration that was fully dynamic,” he finished triumphantly.
  
  Carr blinked in confusion. “Meaning what?” he said, unable to grasp the deeper significance of this accomplishment.
  
  “Meaning that the hardware itself was reconfigurable,” replied Bram, beating Jordan to the answer. “Not only could the software evolve, but so could the hardware.”
  
  - Infinity Born
  

  
  The author includes many pages of tech references he used to write Infinity Born. Worthy!
  A good read! thanks... yow, bill
  
   
• 
  Mark Simmons

  Intriguing start of the book with the first mysterious episode, but then, the rest of the book seems to spiral into a whirl of somewhat disjointed facets. I'm guessing it would eventually tie together. but I just couldn't finish it.... There is so much verbiage describing the characters' personality quirks and idiosyncrasies - page after page of insights into their lives and why they do what they do that eventually you lose track of what it was that you were reading about. Much of the detail about the scenes is loaded with 'thought bubbles' about what the characters are thinking but not saying (?) to the extent that I got bored with the incidental and quaint commentary. I suppose that some of this is an attempt to engage the reader with the inner workings of the characters, but for me, it just ended up sounding like some kind of a gushing, quasi-romance novel. Way too much chatting and pseudo familiarity about the characters and not enough substance to keep the story interesting. There are some good explanations and provocative thoughts about AI - I just wish that the book was more about this aspect than all of the fru-fru chittering in the background.