Fait Attention, The Price of Opulent Living, Neal Asher

Fait Attention!

That's French for Pay Attention! I say it to myself when I get distracted. My inside voice is my college French professor. While I have had everything I need to eat better and pay attention to my health, I do not. Now, with my added "hardware" of an ostomy and PICC line, I have to track the comings and goings of my digestive system in a way that I did not have to pay attention to before. It's super tedious. However, there is an upside. Since I already have to do the tedious bit to stay hydrated, it makes tracking my macros, calories, and steps for better dieting and weight control an easy add-on. It's nerd fascination, for sure.

Another great example of paying attention is looking at a situation from a new perspective. We put in some new under-counter lights in our kitchen that changed the look of our counters and backsplash. Not in a good way. Before the new lights, we missed seeing all the splatters and stains living in the shadows. So, with the lights, there is extra scrubbing, which confirms a universal truism that constant maintenance is the cost of opulent living.

What I am reading this week.

Dark Intelligence | Neal Asher

I started a new series. Dark Intelligence is set in a future universe where AI rules humans. But they seem benign, or are they? There has been a first contact with a race devoid of human traits. They want to eat us as food. There is a war that has happened in the last 100 years. The details are described with many flashbacks to fill in the details. Most of the action occurs in a wild west border between the Alien realm and the AI territories. Currently, there is peace between the races. Our main character has woken up from being dead. A copy of his consciousness has been recovered and placed into an upgraded copy of his body. He died during the war in a friendly fire situation where a crazy AI pilot killed the crew of its ship and bombed the garrison on a planet. Our main character believes he was a soldier on that planet, but as the book progresses, he begins to question if his memories are correct. And could he be a pawn in someone else's game?

There is quite a bit of backstory to keep straight. Relationships are superficial: everyone wants to kill the Crazy AI but can't seem to agree to work together. The crazy AI has god-like powers to grant wishes. But like a genie, the wishers get more than they requested in their desire. Several characters are undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts and turning into a human from a crab or a human into a slug. All with an interest in stacking on someone close by.  They get so distracted they forget to ask questions before eating someone's face.

With questionable memories, homicidal comrades, and a powerful adversary who can pull the rug out from under your sense of reality, I think this will be a fun series.