Mark Miller’s science fiction novel, the first of his The Age of Micronet Technology series, introduces readers to a near-future world where brain enhancement technology threatens to reshape human civilization.
When brilliant South African physicist Dr. Juergen Taljaard develops a revolutionary “Micronet” implant that can enhance human cognition, his work attracts shadowy global figures seeking to control, destroy, or exploit it.
Fearing for his family’s safety, Taljaard hides his only working prototype in his infant daughter Diana’s brain. As Diana grows up, she must navigate a world openly hostile to Micronet technology, as powerful forces seek to capture the secrets she carries. Crisscrossing the globe from Brazil’s teeming favelas to Northern California’s affluent enclaves, the novel lays the foundation for an epic tug-of-war between those who view Micronet as the next step in human evolution, and those who see it as humanity’s destruction.
Miller’s sprawling opus invites readers into a labyrinthine rabbit hole of weighty themes around the perils and potential of AI, socioeconomic inequity, and what defines humanity. The novel is most compelling when focusing on the dark periphery of this world. Snapshots of human desperation, as when a “scrawny girl’s gob grinned wider with glee” upon finding a half-eaten can of tuna in the trash, offer vital reminders of how technological breakthroughs can ignore—or victimize—those already living on the edges.
Its compelling moments, however, often get lost among protracted explanations of treaties, intelligence operations, and genealogical tangents. Some readers will appreciate the sprawling canvas the author constructs; others might feel fatigued by the deluge of subplots and shifting locales. But while the text can be as dense as an intelligence briefing, underlying it is a fascinating question: What happens when technology pushes humanity’s evolution beyond its moral limitations?
Stuffed with big ideas, the novel staggers under the weight of its ambition, even while offering sobering questions of how greed and ambition might collide with the next leap in human evolution.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.