Eight self-drive cars set on a collision course. Who lives, who dies? You decide.
When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course.
The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife – and parents of two – who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?
Source | Format | Pages | Publisher | Genre | Publication Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Netgalley | eARC | 400 | Ebury Publishing | Thriller | May 30th, 2019 |
Boy, does this book make one question their morals?! John Marrs is bang on the money with relevant trend in the current focus on AI in this wondrous age of technology! AI is something that no longer seems utopic or unachievable. In The Passengers, Marrs has taken AI and cars- the natural next step- making human life ever/even more so comfortable… now, we can drive to work and do our make up in the cars without worrying the cops will fine us. Now, we can drive to anywhere at all without ever getting lost again. Now, we can sit in a car and read a newspaper, play a video game or speak on the mobile phone. Market for hands-free sets went down, down, down with the government bill that put fully autonomous cars on the roads! Welcome to the future!
On one of the days, 8 people, Passengers, get in their new swanky, super duper uber awesome cars to go about their busy lives. It is on one of those days, these 8 AI equipped cars, get hacked. Funnily enough… Human error in everything we do is the biggest risk and we have come to think that with technology, the human error does not exist anymore. How bloody wrong we are. I don’t trust technology to be more perfect in anything than what a human does. Anyway…
Government is clever, too! They push through the bill, altering everyone’s lives but they also know that the devil is in the detail. As accidents happen, a group is set up – of officials and random civilians to judge whether accidents involving AI equipped cars are the fault of the car or the victims. Clever, I tell yous!
So – Cars, hacked, 8 poor souls on their way to the death. The countdown is on! We have the 2 hour and something wracking up our blood pressure as we come nearer to the end of the innocent souls. But, how innocent are they really? And should their innocence or guilt really allow anyone to decide who should live or die? And can you really know enough about someone in this short space of time to decide whether they are worthy of continuing their life as part of society?
I love how this book explores the advancement of technology- making the plot of this book, this very book, ahead of the game on the fiction market whilst at the same time showing the potential everything that can go wrong! Government and diverse cast of characters thrown into the mix and we got ourselves a right cabbage-soup! But that is not all… because- wait for it- the power of the tweet and the hashtag is also thrown into pot as the whole world witnesses the events live and are prompted to have their say! Can you imagine? And bloody hell does it get nasty!
Marrs has yet again taken something unique and innovative and turned it into a proper page-turner. As a bonus, if you’re familiar with his earlier works, the concept from The One is also referenced which I truly enjoyed!
*happy dance* I knew you were going to love this one too π I couldnβt have said it better than you did.. fantabulous (yes itβs a word, my word π) review!
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Hahaha, brilliant… I really like the references to The One! I was like- yaaaas! and I really don’t get how Marrs is just pulling this awesomeness off! π
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I haven’t read his books. But I really want to read this. Fabulous review
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Thank you! Marrs is really popular with thriller readers so I hope you enjoy his book(s) when you get around to it π
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Fantastic review!
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Thank you! π
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So I have a question , if they AI detects accident about to happen , can’t they detect who is going to die ? And how do the people give votes ? I have so many questions . I need to read this
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*taps nose! Exactly! All these questions will be answered in the book and I am so glad these questions popped into your head – you’re thinking in the right direction ! π
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I love driving too much to let the car drive itself!!! I still haven’t read this one, but I just HAD to buy it. I love how Marrs creates a world and immerses the reader in. Just like you and this fab review!
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Aw, thank you, always! π
Heh, yes, I autonomous cars are not something that I much look forward to… I never trust any software to be perfect because there is at the end of the day a human behind it all somewhere… there can always be a glitch!
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The blurb alone was enough to make me say ‘damn, this sounds good’!
Great review, Liz. Really like the sound of this one.
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Brilliant π I hope you enjoy it.. I did find the start a bit slow but that’s mainly because we get to know the characters so it makes sense that this happens, you know π I’m just being weird π
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I’m used to reading Stephen King. If a book quickens its pace before the 25% mark I don’t class it as slow π
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hahahaha, bloody fair point! π
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Ooh, very interesting! One of my friends is super into AI, and we once got into talking about the nitty-gritty of self-driving cars and what problems this would pose upon society, such as in the case of car accidents: is it the fault of the cars or the human beings? This is supposedly an actual problem that self-driving cars pose, so it’s really cool that this book explored that. π Excellent review! This book sounds rather fun and intense!
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woopβ¦ gosh, when it comes to AI I just really don’t know what to think other than the knowledge that nothing is ever 100% safe… It’s an interesting topic but I know very little about AI to have that argument… cautious, however, doe sure!
Thank you! π β€
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Thank you! π Glad you enjoyed the review π
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I loved this one too!
Made me question my driving skills too, not only my morals π π
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Oh, dear lord, NO! Ha ha. This book would destroy me. I would be skim reading the entire book trying to get past all the nervous parts! π± Boy Swallows Universe had a few of those scenes and they wound me up good and tight. π This does sound exciting, but too exciting for me. Thanks for sharing your review, the book sounds top notch. πβ¨
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Cabbage-soupπ great review!
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π Thanks!
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I’ve heard such good things about this, I’m really intrigued by the premise! Awesome review!
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Thank you! π I hope you read this one – it sure raises a lot of moral questions among all the edge of the seat type stuff π
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