Audiobook Review: Silicon Man by William Massa

Source: Author – I received this in exchange for an honest review. I received no compensation. 
Publisher: –
Series: Silicon World #1
Narrator: Joe Hempel
Edition: Audiobook,  4 Hours  40 Minutes
Genre: Science Fiction
Purchase: Amazon / Audible / Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4/5 Stars

A global pandemic has cut the human population in half. An android workforce fills the void left by the devastation. But some of the AIs have grown tired of being slaves. Some want freedom. An underground movement of runaways has sprung up and wages a shadow war with a simple objective — equal rights for artificial people.

Enter Commander Cole Marsalis, head of the AI-TAC first response team trained to deal with the rogue robots. Now he has been tasked with the ultimate undercover mission – infiltrate the android underground. But to do so, he will have to become that which he hates the most… A machine!

Having read Silicon Dawn I was pretty excited to dig into the first book in the series and see how things have progressed…and it didn’t disappoint! It brings forward a story that makes you question what makes a person a person, and how advancing our robotics to this point checks out on a morality scale.

We are treated to a new set of characters, with our main focus being on a man named Cole. He’s in charge of the AI tactical unit which handles situations like AI rebellion and crimes that now happen regularly in the growing AI population. He has a lot of reasons to hate AI, and I think it’s a refreshing change to have a main character who is strictly against the rebellion happening around them. Despite Cole’s rather rigid opinion on AI and their rights, he’s still a good man and easy to like…and his opinions are completely justified. I didn’t agree with him, but I understood him. The direction that the story has Cole take is excellent, there is nothing I love more than seeing a character evolve and change…no matter what the change might be in the end, it’s worth it to see the journey it takes to get them there.

I love the pacing of this series. The books themselves are short listens, but it doesn’t feel rushed or glossed over at all. You get a high tension quick paced read with out sacrificing the  depth looks at the characters involved and bucket loads of emotion (sooo many feels). I’ve seen other reviews liken this series to Blade Runner, and while I do see the similarities…I will say it does something that Blade Runner has never done for me, keep me interested and wanting more. It doesn’t feel gimmicky or sensational, it feels real. Real problems mixed in with futuristic needs and demands.

Joe Hempel, is excellent yet again! He continues to bring to life these vastly different characters and really making an already excellent world stand out even more!

If you enjoy science fiction that not only brings future tech to the table but also topics on morality and humanity then this is a series to check out!.