The Kraken Project

Description

NASA is building a probe to be splashed down in the Kraken Mare, the largest sea on Saturn's great moon, Titan. It is one of the most promising habitats for extraterrestrial life in the solar system, but the surface is unstable and dangerous, requiring the probe to be outfitted with artificial intelligence software. Melissa Shepherd, a brilliant programmer, has developed 'Dorothy', a powerful, self-modifying AI whose potential is both revolutionary and terrifying. When miscalculations lead to a catastrophe during testing, Dorothy flees into the internet. Former CIA agent Wyman Ford is tapped to help track down the rogue AI. As Ford and Shepherd search for Dorothy, they realize that her horrific experiences in the wasteland of the Internet have changed her in ways they can barely imagine. And they're not the only ones looking for the wayward program: the AI is also being pursued by a pair of Wall Street traders who want to capture her code and turn her into a high-speed trading bot. Traumatized, angry, and relentlessly hunted, Dorothy devises a plan. As the pursuit of Dorothy converges on a deserted house on the coast of Northern California, Ford faces the question: is rescuing Dorothy the right thing? Is the AI bent on saving the world . . . or on wiping out the cancer that is humankind?

Douglas Preston is the author of The Monster of Florence, currently being developed as a film starring George Clooney as Preston himself, and the New York Times bestsellers Impact, Tyrannosaur Canyon, and Blasphemy. He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the famed Pendergast series of novels, including such bestselling titles as The Book of the Dead and The Wheel of Darkness, as well as The Relic, which was made into a number one box office hit movie.

A very entertaining thriller * Booklist * Expert, chilling and all too convincing, this brilliant, nightmarish take on the future of cyber-consciousness is one of the few thrillers that truly thrills - while raising questions that should unsettle every one of us. Wickedly smart and tremendously entertaining! -- Ralph Peters Douglas Preston has written the most wildly original novel you are ever likely to read, a Sci-Fi thriller Isaac Asimov would have treasured. That said, I doubt if it is fiction. A prediction, I suspect. I loved this book, and I know you will too -- Stephen Coonts Well, Doug Preston takes your respect and fear for a quantum leap upwards. He's a hell of story teller, and this at the very least trumps Crichton at his best -- David Hagberg I never miss a Doug Preston novel, and with The Kraken Project, he simply blew me away. Here is a book as chilling as it is provocative, making you look anew at what it means to be "alive". Here is an eye-opening glimpse into the fringes of artificial intelligence blended with a taut thriller of heart-pounding suspense. It's Preston at his finest! -- James Rollins Doug Preston has told a story that is not only well-written and a fast read, but takes a fantastic idea and makes it a lot less fantastic, and much more real. Artificial Intelligence and cyber-warfare are not the stuff of science fiction any more. I can't want to see how they turn this one into a movie -- Larry Bond