Human Software: A Life in IT - A Novel

WHEN CORPORATE WANTS YOU GONE, WHO DOES THE DIRTY WORK?

Beth Walters keeps Gerbach's failing logistics systems alive. When another global outage hits, Beth discovers that fixing the code won't be enough.

Then Christine Hegarty flies in from New York with a mandate, a deadline, and no patience for sentiment. She's done this before. She knows how it ends.

When a fatal data breach rocks the declining port town of Sandport, Beth's name is on the wrong piece of code. What follows is a fight for her job, her team, and her reputation against a company that has already decided who it's going to sacrifice.

For anyone who’s ever shipped flaky code, knowingly increased technical debt or sat through another pointless stand-up, HUMAN SOFTWARE is a sharp, wry and quietly unsettling novel about ambition, loyalty, community and what it costs to remain human at work.

"Freaked me out more than any Stephen King novel" JEREMY MARKEY — Rands Slack Book Reviewer

"Vivid world-building and well-rounded characters. I found myself completely hooked." RUSSELL MCLEAN — Emmy and BAFTA Award-Winning Producer

"A proper page turner, part thriller, part whodunnit and a fine dystopian parable" CHARLES HUMBLE — Tech Consultant & Journalist

Richard W. Bown is a writer and engineer originally from Kent and now based in Amsterdam. His debut novel, Human Software, is a sharp, wry and quietly unsettling story about the humans behind the systems - the gap between what gets planned and what actually gets built. His second novel is in progress and will be released late in 2026.