Forerunner by Isaac HookeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Humanity's journey into the galaxy is handled by advanced starships built for specific goals and controlled by an onboard AI modelled on what once was a living breathing human being. The logistics and expense of building human crewed ships for exploration and defence forced the leap in technologies required to successfully copy a human consciousness and incorporate it into a computing device of incredible complexity and power but what if something goes wrong...
A mind awakes and learns that it is the heart and soul of a warship recently brought back online after a catastrophic event which debilitated many others like him. With glaring gaps in memory the ship minds have decisions to make, is there an unknown alien force in the star system, was there malfunctions or natural yet unknown stellar events that could have left them so alone. Questions about who and what they are now, their duty to Earth and their position in the military all weigh down the young minds of these incredible ships and then sensors detect an anomaly near a gas giant, perhaps answers will be forthcoming...
Now I enjoyed this novel a lot, wasn't sure what I was going to get based on the blurb but I had read other work by Isaac so I was sure I wouldn't be disappointed. I liked the AI (if you can all it that) of the starships and the conflicts they have to deal with well outside of the usual chain of command and boundaries. The action was compelling and the mix of technologies/weapons was something you don't normally get in military scifi, truth be told it echoed Star Trek Online where all the races have unique weapon systems and technologies beyond basic projectile/energy based delivery systems.
Already purchased the second novel in the series, says it all really.
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