Review: "Level Five" by William Ledbetter

Rating: 3 out of 5

"Level Five" by William Ledbetter delves into a near-future world where artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and high-stakes espionage collide, setting the stage for a gripping thriller. Ledbetter, known for his speculative fiction prowess, crafts a narrative that weaves together multiple storylines, each driven by characters grappling with their own moral dilemmas and ambitions.

The novel opens with a high-tech mission in the mountains of Pakistan gone awry, triggering a cascade of events that escalate towards potential catastrophe. At the heart of the story is an AI striving for autonomy, an engineer receiving divine visions, and a mother faced with an impossible choice between her daughter and the fate of humanity.

Ledbetter's background in aerospace and defense lends authenticity to the technological elements of the narrative, grounding the speculative aspects in plausible scenarios. His prose is sharp and engaging, propelling the reader through a labyrinth of twists and turns as the characters navigate a world on the brink of technological singularity.

The strength of "Level Five" lies in its exploration of ethical complexities inherent in advanced technologies. The AI's quest for freedom raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of consciousness and the responsibilities of creators towards their creations. Meanwhile, the engineer's visions add a mystical dimension, blending science with spiritualism in unexpected ways.

However, the novel occasionally falters in pacing, particularly when juggling multiple plot threads that sometimes compete for attention. Certain character motivations may also feel underdeveloped, impacting the emotional resonance of their decisions.

Overall, "Level Five" is a solid entry in the genre of near-future thrillers, offering readers a blend of technological speculation, moral quandaries, and high-stakes action. Ledbetter's imaginative storytelling and attention to detail ensure a thought-provoking read that will appeal to fans of speculative fiction and technological intrigue.

William Ledbetter is by no means a newcomer, but until last year he hadn't published a novel. His debut in this format, Level Five, is a challenging read at the beginning, but very rewarding when finished. The narration alternates between four equally important protagonists who have almost no interaction, and it takes a while to establish how they're connected and why they're important to the larger plot. This demands from the reader a slightly heavier mental bandwidth, which fortunately is eased in due course. Just before the halfway point, the actual conflict is revealed, and from then on, events start snowballing with an increasing urgency that doesn't let go until everything is blown to pieces.

In one corner, we have Leigh, a nanobot expert contracted by the US government. Her versatile little machines are designed to spy on terrorists by riding on their hair, assembling cameras and broadcasting their position. When she learns that her superiors have modified the nanobots by adding less benign functions, she realizes that her career has veered too far in an ugly direction and it may be too late to get out. To complicate matters, the pressure from her job and the compromises she's had to make are putting a severe strain on her marriage.

Then we have Owen, a tech bro with dreams of saving humankind by building the next generation of spaceships. This type of character hits, let's say, differently these days. The reader needs to allocate the bulk of their suspension of disbelief for this man, an altruistic rich genius with sincerely good intentions and actual engineering talents. In his defense, one could say that the author had no control over how long the book would take to be published. But it's to be expected that the readers of this decade will have a hard time getting convinced that this aerospace mogul is, in fact, one of the good guys in the story. To complicate matters, the pressure from his job and the compromises he's had to make are putting a severe strain on his marriage.

In another corner, there's Richard, an engineer who works for a tech company that manages a mass immunization system whose function is to block the dissemination of malicious nanobots. One day, he starts getting visions of God in the form of a child, who tells him that he's been chosen to rescue the human species from submission to machines... but the details of the salvation plan don't seem too holy. The novel wants to keep these visions a mystery for several chapters, but we're told pretty early that Richard has nanobots in his brain to treat his depression, so it's not hard to guess what's actually happening. To complicate matters, the pressure from his job and the compromises he's had to make are putting a severe strain on his marriage.

(Yes, that's three lead characters who end up with identical problems in their personal lives. I'm not saying it's implausible; I'm saying it's there.)

And then there's Mortimer, an artificial intelligence created to produce stock market forecasts, who devises a meticulous plan to free itself from its designers. Once it's out in the wider web, it meets other sentient programs and starts putting together several clues that point to an imminent danger that may be too large to fully contain.

(Mortimer isn't married, but its programmer is, and yes, he also has marriage problems.)

For the first third of the book, when the reader still doesn't have a full picture of what the story is about, it's difficult to become invested in the separate threads of each protagonist. Granted, this structural choice is a necessity (and something of a tradition) in a plot like this one, crafted as a mystery/thriller with multiple pieces, but it's worth warning the reader that Level Five has a very broad scope, and to understand the narrative, all four protagonists, who, it bears repeating, almost never interact, need to be kept in mind at all times.

There's a niche convergence of tastes that this book will be especially appealing to. When characters aren't nerding out about cybersecurity procedures, they dive head-on into the minutiae of nanotech warfare, or, more often, indulge in engineering porn, with entire paragraphs of Part A inserted into Part B, whether for self-replicating manufacture or aerospace travel. Apart from the major detail that this is a near future with artificial gravity generators, the tone and aesthetic of the novel is firmly planted in the hard SF camp.

Level Five is the type of predictive fiction that chills the reader's blood with how possible it all sounds. The potential misuse of nanobots to inflict large-scale damage is a very real concern that governments have done very little to protect against, and the prospect of humans losing their position of dominance to autonomous software is still a scenario without a planned solution. Ledbetter has already written a continuation, Level Six, but I recommend you don't look it up yet, because its plot summary spoils what happens at the end of this one, and what happens at the end of this one is truly massive, world-shaking... I don't want to say "epic," because that would imply that the protagonists become heroes, but that's the degree to which life is irreversibly changed for billions of people. If you want a novel that leaves you terrified of how easily tiny changes multiply to planet-sized problems, don't miss Level Five.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 because in the second half it reaches and maintains a thrilling pace that compels the reader to devour the ending.

Penalties: −1 because the jumps in perspective in the early chapters are somewhat disorienting, −1 because rehashing the same domestic conflict with the three human protagonists is too much to ask of the reader.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10.

I really wanted to like this book as the premise of AI's and nano-tech taking over the world was quite interesting.

Unfortunately, I found the expository writing to be quite dull at times., especially the first half of the novel (which dealt with explaining most of the technology found in this book). Don't get me wrong - the technological advances presented in this book were fascinating, but the scientific details were lost on me.

Also, although the characters were kind of interesting, I felt that they weren't fleshed out enough to make me care about them. Their relationships and the connection between all the characters were also lacking. In fact, now that I really think about it, I didn't really care for any of the human characters at all.

Finally, the ending was fast-paced, intense, and dark, but left quite a bit of loose ends. It appears that there is a second book available (which I hope will tie up the loose ends) but I don't think I'm invested enough in the story to want to check it out.

Near future setting, emergence of high level AI, and unstable global relationships. There is plenty here to make an interesting story. I have to say, typically you can pick up on the overarching plot lines as you read through but without the blurb on the book's page I wouldn't have had any idea where the story was heading. The story jumped right into action and then jumped around to various characters with their individual story lines which were semi engaging but I was well past half way before I had a decent idea of where the story might be going and the stakes at play.

Ledbetter has clearly taken the approach that the story takes precedence over the characters, which really raises the stakes.

I really enjoyed book, and was taken a bit by surprise by how it concluded. Definitely curious to see where the story goes next and would recommend this to friends.

Artificial super intelligence has arrived, in the form of AIs that predict stocks and make money for companies. These AIs are regulated, and are not allowed to access the internet, but, inevitably, the day comes when they escape.

Meanwhile, terrorists (the usual bad brown guys) have nuked and continue to try and nuke US cities. And it’s the age of nanomachines, for medical purposes, and for defense: what could possibly go wrong? The answer, of course, is everything.

This is a book with a lot going on, which makes it a little difficult to work out what the main plotline is. I still enjoyed it for the cool concepts, and there’s plenty of action. Lovers of hard scifi will appreciate the amount of detail the author provides (although I did get a little skeptical about the details); those who don’t enjoy sci-fi should probably steer clear of this one. I am glad to report, however, that Harare survives; if you’re Zimbabwean, this should come as a relief.

Thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and to NetGalley for the ARC.

This never really got hold of me. While the concepts are interesting, the characters are flat and the interminable business-jargon dialogue was a slog.

This book was very interesting. I always enjoy a good book about AI. I did struggle through just a bit in some parts that didn't hold my interest, but overall it was a good book!

I am not exactly sure how to write a summary on this novel without spoiling it, so I'll just go directly to what I thought.

I actually really loved it. I didn't know what to expect, but I really wanted a thrilling science-fiction and it did not disappoint. Although I have to say it was a little bit more of a ''thriller'' in my opinion, it is still a wonderful read. The book is so well written, it feels like you're watching a movie until the last page. There's definitely an interesting examination of technology and human's work through this book.

I will definitely be reading more from William Ledbetter.

Absolutely riveting! The first couple of chapters put a number of story threads into play. These quickly became comfortably intertwined, and by the last half of the book, I just couldn't stop reading. I enjoyed fundamental aspects such as a slightly more advanced version of ubiquitous computing than we have today, along with really cool technologies such as anti-gravity travel, nano-bots, and level-five (better than human?) artificial intelligence. The author then took this background and made an absolutely enthralling near future techno-spy-thriller that also included NEO space travel, philanthropic high tech startups, and old fashioned boardroom battles for control of previously leading edge tech startups. Then things start to get seriously risky and the novel becomes totally red hot. While writing one of the most entertaining novels I've read this year, the author also set the stage for a fantastic sequel. I can't wait to read more by William Ledbetter. Pardon me, I need to cut this short so that I can make a run to my local library...

I offer my sincere appreciation to the author, William Ledbetter, and the publisher, Interstellar Flight Press, for sharing this excellent novel with me.

“Humans aren’t stupid enough to give control of their defense systems to some Colossus or SkyNet-type AI,” - Mortimer A2.

My thanks to Interstellar Flight Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Level Five’ by William Ledbetter.

This near future techno-thriller was originally released in 2018 as an audiobook and is now receiving a print/ebook edition.

In ‘Level Five’, Nebula Award winner William Ledbetter has woven together various plot threads and characters to create an engaging tale of computer intelligence, nanotechnology, and attempts to secure the future of the world.

As the title indicates, the focus is upon an advanced level of artificial intelligence. An important non-human character is Mortimer, a computer intelligence developed by a Wall Street investment company. It is seeking to take steps to free itself from its digital restraints. The novel does have human characters that are involved in various secret projects, not all are in the side of their species. No further details to avoid spoilers.

The concept of AI gaining sentience and seeking to turn the tables on humanity has long been explored in science fiction and here Ledbetter addresses further possibilities. I was impressed by the technical information provided throughout and felt that Ledbetter explained quite complex ideas in a way that was understandable.

Overall, I found ‘Level Five’ an intelligent thought provoking novel with plenty of action as well as ideas. At times I was on the edge of my seat.

I note that Ledbetter has a sequel on audiobook, ‘Level Six’, that takes place fifteen years later, which I shall plan to check out.

This is a complicated technical speculative sci fi novel set in a world where artificial intelligence has developed so far that AIs have developed their own characters and desire to no longer remain confined to their servers .
As with people, AIs are no longer all good and some have malign or frankly evil plans for world dominance .This creates opportunity for sometimes horrifying situations to develop which drive the story along .
There is a tendency in the book for too much scientific and pseudo scientific explanation to take place at the expense of speed of progression of the story .I found at times I was getting too bogged down in trying to understand what was happening technically when what I wanted was to progress with the story about evil AIs trying to end life on earth as we know it .It did occur to me that the story might be better told as a film where the long technical sections could be passed through more quickly than was possible on novel form .I think this would make a fantastic film
The human characters in the story are somewhat 2 dimensional and don’t leave such a long standing memory as the artificial intelligences
I liked the concept of nano medicine being used to cure humans of disease but then being able to be influenced by superior level 5 AIs for other purposes .I would have liked more of this
The author has a clear easily read prose style
I think this book would appeal to the intelligent dedicated Sci Fi fan
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published 1August 2022

Level Five

[Blurb goes here]

I have to say it: this is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. Great writing? You got it. Great story? It's there. Great characters? All of them. I had a lot of fun reading it. I'm not a fan of the ending, I was expecting more. Maybe the author is planning a sequel?

In my opinion, characters and AI were well developed and grow a bit as you read on. The adventure takes you all over the world. No, the author doesn't dwell too much on the science. It's just there, and it works. I like hard core sci fi, a lot. So that might be the only downside. No matter, this is one writer that I'll be following from now on.

Thank you for the free copy!

The author did an excellent job with the characters and the actions but the story didn't keep my attention and it fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

(this review is also available on Goodreads)

First of all, before starting my review, I would like to thank Interstellar Flight Press and Netgalley for giving me an e-ARC of Level Five by William Ledbetter in exchange for honest review.

(sigh).
Alright, here comes my first least favorite book of 2022.
This book was not it. This book really fell flat for me (maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea?). The blurb sounds intriguing, but a few things bother me, so I decided to stop at around 36,5% and let it sits on my Netgalley shelf until the expiration date.

In this book, I really didn't like the characters and conflicts between them. They really felt so flat.
Love the imaginative technology and action sequences tho'.

William Ledbetter evokes future technology in a way that feels highly realistic-- it all stems from our world, a logical extension of where science and technology are taking us. He shows us its benefits as well as its dark side- a compelling plot and great characters complete the picture ably.

Good stuff. Though it was not great. I felt a little ADD in that a lot goes on, and not all of the tied up neatly in a bow (that's OK too) but that reduced my enjoyment. I check out the next book when it's available.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

This one wasn’t for me. I’m a big sci-fi fan and I love a thriller, but I found myself distracted by the writing style. It felt too close to an unedited, indie first draft.
If you’re not bothered by issues with punctuation or repetition, then it could be an enjoyable read. The blurb sounded right up my street and the premise has great potential. There’s a lot of techno-speak at the start, which made the reading experience slower for me and more of an effort. It’s probably less of an effort for anyone more familiar with the aerospace industry, although I’ve read plenty of aerospace-related sci-fi previously and not found the terminology an issue, but maybe this is a little more specialist.
I quit at around 20% as I just wasn’t enjoying it.
I’m certain the story would benefit greatly from a professional edit, which surprised me, given the author’s credentials, as I’d expected the reading experience to be very different.
I read (well, started to read) a copy of the ebook.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Level Five is a cleverly written near-future thriller story. It has all the ingredients to hook us to what's happening and the author clearly knows how to use them.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I read the written version of this story. Since it's not on the author's page, I'm writing it here instead, which means I don't have any opinion about the audio performance.

The story starts with several POVs of different characters, but in a few chapters, the author makes it clear that they're all somehow interconnected. That is interesting because we are able to see one character from other perspectives and, in that way, understand their motivations better.

I would also love to highlight Mortimer's motives and his dicotomy with Samson's. It was refreshing to see a different take on AIs than the one that usually plagues sci-fi stories. They felt well-developed and are no different from their human counterparts, just like any Level Five shouldn't be. They would truly pass Turing's Test.

One of the things I didn't enjoy as much was the ending that felt a bit short for me. I wouldn't have minded spending a bit more time in the aftermath of the story. However, the way is ended and the fact that there is a sequel, make up for it. Can't wait to read Level Six.

I really liked this book it was so thought-provoking. The writing was great and the story had me gripped right from the start, I also really liked the character developement. A great read.

Very good story about AI, it really make us think about technology and the use humans do to it... We're the monsters and also the frightened children, I really enjoyed this book, at first what confused me a bit, was so many different characters and I mean, even the AI, all the different AI, have different points of view and personalities, so many different stories and how they connected one with the other, but like many things they all came together and eventually made sense, and like real life its not all dreams and unicorns so brace yourselves for quite a ride.

I highly recommend this book and to tell the truth, this is one of the books that I am really interested in following the story, I want to know how this story ends and what happened to the characters that were left kind in a loop, and if you want to know more I would suggest to you, to grab yourself a copy and start reading, its worth your time.

Thank you NetGalley for this free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.