Red Queen: The Substrate Wars: 1

Absorbing thriller about the power of AI and artificial life. Grad students in a dystopian future California discover quantum gateways, but are pursued and surveilled by Homeland Security and Chinese spies before they have time to develop their power. Escape is the only alternative... "5 STARS. Good science fiction is usually about humanity rather than deep space or death rays. NEMO'S WORLD is well-written science fiction that harkens back to the golden age of Heinlein and Asimov." ~IndieReader, on NEMO'S WORLD: THE SUBSTRATE WARS 2JUSTIN SMITH is a grad student studying simulated biology. He recognizes the police state for what it has become, but also knows to keep his head down; STEVE DUONG is a child prodigy, self-educated in Vietnam, who has distinguished himself in mathematics and physics and is now researching advanced quantum computing. Steve makes a discovery that could change everything; SAMANTHA WEST is a daughter of privilege, but is self-assured and knows what she wants--and she brings Justin into the cause.

I grew up in the Midwest, child of a schizophrenic father and a hardworking single mother. I read everything I could in the school and town library, and discovered science fiction in second grade, starting with Tom Swift books and quickly moving to Heinlein juveniles and adult science fiction. When I was twelve, I discovered the collection of city telephone books in my local library. I pretended I was doing a paper and called Isaac Asimov; we spoke for a long time, and he sent me a postcard encouraging me to write. So thank you, Isaac, wherever you are, for being so kind and generous with your time. Robert Silverberg had no time for that kind of nonsense... I studied computer and cognitive science at MIT, and wrote programs modeling the behavior of simulated stock traders and the population dynamics of economic agents. Later I did supercomputer work at a think tank that developed parts of the early Internet (where the engineer who decided on '@' as the separator for email addresses worked down the hall.) Since then I have had several careers-real estate development, financial advising, and counselling. I retired from financial advising a few years ago and have done some work in energy conservation (ask me about two-stage evaporative coolers!) and relationship issues. My books on attachment theory have done well enough to try fiction again, and the Substrate Wars series is the result. Visit my web site at JebKinnison dot com for more: rail guns, Nazi scientists, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the 1980s AI bubble, and current research in relationships, attachment types, diet, and health. Visit the Substrate Wars website at SubstrateWars dot com for more on upcoming books, physics, and the politics of the future.