Artificial Truth: It was a real Bore

In the not-so-distant future, in the virtual city of Algeria, fantasies are made into reality and anything you’d want to happen can happen, including death being a survivable experience. It’s been six years since the creator of Algeria & tech genius; KC Kim died from cancer. KC’s consciousness & memories live on in the AI creation of Allen. Minju, KC’s widow and Minju’s new husband Junmo try to move on and live a normal life. Minju can’t shake off the fact that she’s being watched as she sees a stranger who’s a doppelganger of KC, she gets a shoe delivery that only KC would order, and someone booked a room in Tokyo that only she and KC booked an annual vacation to. What are KC’s plans beyond the grave with his AI creation? Is it simply to check on Minju, or is his intentions much darker?

 Great Concept but it took forever to keep my interest

The concept is a great and scary one where AI can now even interfere with death. It briefly made me think of a convention where my friend and author, Jake Adelstien was at, where AI allows you to talk to dead relatives. As a Catholic, that is inviting evil in its like playing with a Ouija board. Anyway, back to the review. The pacing dragged on and on and the story took forever to get interesting and there were a few times I wanted to yell Can we get to the point?!! Toward the last few chapters, the plot finally picks up and there’s a twist on how Minju’s husband really died and Junmo got himself into a pickle and it all connects. The ending, though far-fetched, at least was a happy one. But still, a small 12-chapter book where I began early last month, to then finish it last night, proved it was a no from me. Artificial Truth by J.M. Lee will be available on December 2^nd wherever you get your books.