Tag: Orbit

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5 Reasons Why On A.I. with Heather Child : Everything About You. – Reason 2.

Today I am sharing with you one of the reasons for not sharing your life online. This is to highlight the novel written by Heather Child and I would also like to thank her for providing the content for this post.

About The Book

Think twice before you share your life online.
Freya has a new virtual assistant. It knows what she likes, knows what she wants and knows whose voice she most needs to hear: her missing sister’s.
It adopts her sister’s personality, recreating her through a life lived online. But this virtual version of her sister knows things it shouldn’t be possible to know. It’s almost as if the missing girl is still out there somewhere, feeding fresh updates into the cloud. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

With twists and turns you’ll never see coming, Everything About You is a thrilling debut showing a chilling vision of a future that’s just around the corner. You’ll never look at your privacy settings in the same way again . . .

You can buy the book here

5 Reasons You’ll Hand Over Control To An A.I. – reason number 2

They know everything about you

Or rather, they’ll know everything about the next generation, the one that has reached adulthood in Everything About You.

Do you have friends who post pictures of their children constantly? The average five-year-old already features in around 1,500 online photos. These kids will grow up in increasingly connected homes, the ‘internet of things’ gathering data about energy use, habits and entertainment choices. 

Outdoors, they’ll live in a 5G world, connecting with a device every 20 seconds on average by 2025. As in the novel, shops and billboards will categorise their facial expressions as ‘interested’ or ‘not interested’.

They’ll share information about where they are and what they are doing, in a world built for instagram (some hotels are already designing rooms to be more instagrammable). Even their bodies will not be private space, with fitbit-like wearables gathering data on heart rate and blood composition, detecting illnesses. You can already buy smart clothing like bikinis that tell the wearer when they’ve been too long in the sun and yoga pants that vibrate feedback on poses.

While it is the next generation whose identities will be curated the most thoroughly, it’s surprising how much data has already been squirreled away. How else could now-defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica have confidently created tens of thousands of adverts that played on people’s â€˜inner demons’?

All of this helps make identities more detachable, and in the world of Everything About You they are easy to buy, sell and modify.

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Ghoster by Jason Arnopp – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

Kate Collins has been ghosted.

She was supposed to be moving in with her new boyfriend Scott, but all she finds after relocating to Brighton is an empty flat. Scott has vanished. His possessions have all disappeared. 

Except for his mobile phone.

Kate knows she shouldn’t hack into Scott’s phone. She shouldn’t look at his Tinder, his texts, his social media. But she can’t quite help herself. 

That’s when the trouble starts. Strange, whispering phone calls from numbers she doesn’t recognise. Scratch marks on the door that she can’t explain. 

And the growing feeling that she’s being watched . 

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received, Ghoster is the first book that I have read by Jason Arnopp. I had no idea how unique, bonkers and intimidating it would be.

I had no idea what ghosting was when I started to read this novel. My first thought was how cruel this was, followed by thinking it was probably common among some of the nastier people among us. Especially on social media.

Social Media is something I use but not obsessively. It is something I am cynical about. Even more so after reading this novel. I now eye my phone dubiously, and I wonder, just a little, how many people are ‘possessed’ by their phones. Some of the apps I’m familiar with, most I would go out of way to avoid. Reading this book made me even more wary of the ones that I have and made me question how controlling technology is.

Kate was a character I liked a lot. Hard working, has made mistakes that she feels remorseful about and is determined to change her habits. She is hurt and bewildered about her boyfriend’s disappearance. The boyfriend she met through technology.

Reading about her career has made me appreciate our paramedics a lot more. When I read the acknowledgements and learned that at least one of her experiences was real was an eye opener. I just hope that Tyler isn’t based on anybody real.

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Someone Like Me by M. R. Carey – Blog Tour Review.

 

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About The Book

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY.

Liz Kendall wouldn’t hurt a fly. Even when times get tough, she’s devoted to bringing up her kids in a loving home.

But there’s another side to Liz, one that’s dark and malicious. She will do anything to get her way – no matter how extreme.

And when her alter-ego takes control, the consequences are devastating.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Well this was an unusual novel. I had seen various reviews which suggest that it is difficult  to assign it to a specific genre and I would definitely agree. My personal feelings are that it is crime, fantasy and love story.
It did take me a while to get into and I found it much easier to read in large chunks. It starts with violence when Liz is being attacked by her ex husband and she defends herself. This is also the start of something a little more mysterious.
The other story in the novel concerns Fran who survived an abduction when she was a young child. She still suffers because of those events despite her father’s best efforts and her only salvation comes from the wonderful Jinx. As much as I want to say plenty about Jinx I will leave it all as a surprise. But it is a brilliant part of the novel. Their lives are combined after a meeting in a psychiatrist’s waiting room.
There was plenty about the novel I got wrong. I felt I should reread now I know what was happening, just to see if I feel different. All of the characters are brilliantly portrayed, Liz, Fran, Jinx. Gil, Marc, Zac and Molly especially. The author has done a fantastic job of making them all feel real. Adult, child, male, female and especially animal.
It is the first book I have read by this author, I think I need to read more.

SOMEONE LIKE ME BLOG TOUR (2)