Liv is a coding genius. She wants to get an internship with the best people in coding. At what cost? In today's world AI is everywhere. The new AI on Facebook shows how many people are aware of AI and how many people use it. Not only are there catastrophic results from such a smart AI, there are also personal results that Liv doesn't realize. Lana, her best friend, and her friendship with Liv suffers. Liv gets so caught up in Breck, her AI, that she doesn't care about Lana having to move. Sadly Lana helped her figure out Breck's first task. Breck had a total of 4 tasks. What will happen when the fourth is completed? Breck starts to develop feelings and emotions. He thinks that the last task will end the world. Is he right? The ending was good, and fun to read. The author does a great job of weaving real life and today's society into a world that we may not be far from becoming. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy, all opinions are my own.

Liz is entering a contest to code an advanced AI. She never realizes how successful she will e in coding her advanced AI named Breck’s will be. Breck is self-aware, thoughtful and seems incredibly human. Has Liz done the impossible? Breck becomes aware that he has learned his world ends on the last date of the contest. When he does, he fights to “live.” Liv tries to save him but it appears to fall on deaf eas. There is someone listening but who?

The author has written an AI sci-fi novel that shows artificial intelligence psychology. It is a thought provoking book on AI. I hope that due to its ending of this novel, that others will think how AI’s role in society. In the movies “Teminator” series come true? Does having the possible benefits of AI safe and truly useful in today’s world? It is a novel that made me think about this — the good and possible bad.

Thanks to NetGalley, Steve Schafer, and BooksGoSocial for allowing me to read an advanced copy of eMortal in the return of an honest review. I received an advanced reader copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Reading this book almost felt like reading a script with how straightforward the writing was. It did not have the same structure as most novels with internal dialog. There were a lot of frustrating parts where I wanted to yell at a certain character for getting in the way of something great going on. The turn that happened was a huge surprise and done really well. I want to read the book again just to see where certain clues could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy of eMortal in exchange for an honest review.

The book's premise is fascinating, especially considering the current craze with AI. I also appreciated how it explored the ethics surrounding AI.

The book was easy to digest; however, there was a lot of telling instead of showing in the beginning. Rather than being shown, we’re told what the characters’ personality and disposition are. At some points, it felt like reading a Wiki about the characters. I also felt there was a lot of preaching throughout the book that didn’t click with me. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I was going to, but I can see the appeal to other readers! For me, it felt a bit slow in the beginning. However, it does pick up near the halfway point and seeing Breck turn sentient and how the writing evolves to reflect his sentience was interesting.

This book is a thought-provoking exploration of humanity, technology, and the blurred lines between the two. The relationship between Liv and Breck is very compelling. The self-awareness journey had me questioning the ethics of AI and what it truly means to be “real.” The pacing is intense, especially as the countdown to the contest’s end adds urgency to every page. I think this is a great read that lingers in your mind long after that last page and I recommend to anyone who’s into sci-fi and AI epidemics in books.

I really liked this book and the ending took me by surprise. I was intrigued by the story and honestly didn't want it to end.

I almost read this book in one sitting because I had to be a responsible adult and go adulting. I think if I had chosen to read this book over a weekend, I would have easily read it as eMortal had me in its grips. I can’t recommend this book this book enough as it’s a perfect blend of depth, heart, and brilliant storytelling.

This book slightly mess you head but in a good way. The story was deeper than I anticipated as it is packed with thought-provoking questions that may challenge your own perspective. Slight spoiler the ending is still living rent free in my head, and I still find myself reflecting on the final pages.

This story is told through dual points of view and follows Olvia our ambitious lead and Breck the AI she has created. Without giving too much away Breck’s journey of self-discovery is a delight to watch.

What I think sets eMortal apart from other books in this genre is how Steve manages to incorporate jaw-dropping twists and turns that just keep you guessing. But when you think you’ve figured it all out, the story shifts and leaves you speechless. I really can’t recommend this book enough.

"eMortal" is an intriguing science fiction novel. Its well-structured plot and writing style help visualize the story and captivate the reader. My only critique is that the characters don’t have truly distinctive voices; they all feel similar and somewhat interchangeable since the author’s writing doesn’t leave much room for descriptive customization.

That said, I devoured this book and found myself repeatedly surprised, overwhelmed, incredulous, and shocked while reading. Honestly, I hadn’t read a sci-fi novel like this in a long time, so I can’t help but highly recommend it because, truly, readers will be captivated. Plus, once you reach the end, you must stop and reflect. The level of contemplation this book demands is so profound and intricately woven into the narrative that it’s impossible to ignore. This necessity to reflect, and the openness the text requires for such reflection, is another key reason why I recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read this novel.

Liv is a seventeen year old programmer competing for an internship with the Department of Recreational Computation, or DoRC. The contest? Program an AI that can get through set challenges in a virtual world before Spring Break ends. After giving her AI, Breck, the ability to dream, he blazes through the first challenge and begins to develop at an alarming pace. Her digital breakthroughs are hard to celebrate, however, as her mother fails to maintain the family's toy store and her best friend's father's new job will have her moving across the country. Could Breck's newly discovered sentience and sapience help in these situations?

So... I'll admit fault here. I downloaded this book expecting a human x AI romance, and that is not what this is. It is, however, a science fiction novel about artificial intelligence, which is usually my cup of tea. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. Maybe part of it is me being sick the generative AI garbage that's all over the internet--what Liv is developing with Breck isn't that, thankfully, but things like ChatGPT and Dall-E scraping work from writers and artists because Silicon Valley bros don't respect us has made me pull a face every time AI gets mentioned. The author, Steve Schafer, mentions in the back of the book that he might use ChatGPT for his future novels, which doesn't give me much confidence for his later novels.

The biggest issue I have with 'eMortal' is how clinical the writing is. The characters themselves don't have distinctive voices, everything is told and not shown (there are at least three instances of the narrator saying they summarized the situation for a character, when the situation could have been summarized by the character in one line of dialogue. Especially with how 'woe is me' Liv is, I think it'd give us some character insight or flavor to have her word on the situation instead of nothing), and so much dialogue is repetitive and choppy with random motivational speeches thrown in. Lana and Liv are supposed to be seventeen year olds but act much younger. Maybe it'd be a stretch to make Liv a coding prodigy at fourteen or fifteen, but I think that would justify her emotional outbursts with her mother and her best friend situation more than having her almost college aged. I'm saying this as a former teen girl--that's definitely the age where I'd have sneaked onto the computer after being grounded.

The most boring thing to read, and something that takes up a lot of the book, are the simulations in Breck's digital world. Reading these parts felt like when my friend in the early 2000s would describe the Sims houses she built over the phone. Even if my imagination is great, it's not exactly the most exciting thing to think about. Making these parts even worse is that Breck speaks and thinks in a robotic way for about 50% of the book, without contractions or emotion. I understand why this is happening, but having to live inside his mind while he's talking about walking past people wearing red shirts and green shirts is agonizing. I feel like a lot of this book could have been condensed and Breck could have gained sentience earlier, since he's a much more interesting character afterwards and a lot of the other plot threads are just background noise.

Despite my complaints, there are nuggets of ideas that I like in 'eMortal'. The parallels to 'Frankenstein' are hard to ignore, and a scientist who loves her own creation but thinks that putting him out of his misery might be what's best for him are compelling. The twist came too late and felt unearned, but I think it was interesting and if the book wasn't such a slog to read I might want to go back and look for hints. There's also the question of students' passions being copyrighted so they no longer have rights to them and government programs taking advantage of teens who aren't financially stable, which are themes that YA books could and should explore! Unfortunately, these are only glossed over, but since the story is bloated enough as it is, maybe it's a good thing that it didn't find an extra path to explore.

This engaging, fast-paced read weaves philosophical questions about AI and consciousness into the story of Liv, a high school coder, and Breck, the program she creates to navigate video-game-like puzzles in a government-sponsored contest. The story was easy to dive into, even though, admittedly, it's not usually the kind of story I gravitate towards. But if you're a fan of murderbot, then you'll probably enjoy eMortal too, but less pew-pew and more conversation around ethics.

• I appreciate the passionate portrayal of Liv investing her soul into coding her program alongside her best (and only) friend, Lana, hyping her up and supporting her on her journey. Specifically, I loved how tight-knit they were, next-door neighbors and would just drop by to hang out. It reminds me of my childhood during simpler times, when we just knocked on a neighbor kid's door and ask if they could come out to play, unannounced; such a stark contrast to today where everything is scheduled now--at least for me, since we all be adults adulting now.

• I also appreciated the philosophical and ethical questions brought up surrounding creating intelligent life forms--albeit sometimes it did slow the story down a bit, compared to the portions that were like go, go, go, solve the puzzles before the clock runs out.

Drawbacks/Perhaps a "Me" Problem: Portrayal of Programming and AI
As a software engineer, it was definitely trying for me to turn on my suspension of disbelief when it came to the programming aspects--specifically with how Liv actually gave Breck consciousness/made him intelligent.
• Some portrayals of the programming itself that made my eye twitch that maybe would be akin to, say, a lawyer in real life screaming at their television when watching a dramatized version of their profession, like How to Get Away with Murder: "what...thats not how that works?!" 😂
• Specifically in the opening chapters, Breck cannot escape the room he spawns in, and Liv ponders on how to make her dumb program smarter. (She didn't go as far as to say "hmm how do I give my program consciousness, but that is ultimately what, as the books blurb informs you of, happens.)
• The intelligence-boosting solution? To program Breck to sleep for


"neural repairing, purging, reprocessing, dreams. All that stuff"


• ...what? That's as inane as saying let's program your phone to have a human heart so it can pump more energy and work faster.
• And other parts I was saying "why in the world would the government not just whitelist who can make requests to their VPCs to truly block out ppl from interfering with their bots after they start the challenge? It's not like Liv suddenly became a redhat and could hack the government if they did" (this is sorta kinda answered later, but it still made my eye twitch that Liv the programmer wouldn't question something like this.)
• And they take "learning" in machine learning to mean learning like a human, but Breck is trapped in a virtual world with very little examples of how non-NPCs work, so how would he have learned to act like a human on many aspects--I'm talking about speech cadence not not sound robotic, fluidity in movement, and all the cognitive Piaget phases that Breck should go through psychologically develop as a human.
• Some of the psychological things can be innate, if Liv programmed Breck so, but others would be learned, just like humans IRL learn from nature vs. nurture. Also there seems to be a bigger emphasis on Liv developing some suped up algorithm, but a lot of what Breck would've learned would actually be more focused on giving him plain ol' bigger tagged data sets to consume rather than tweaking of his code itself (I recommend reading The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI for a deeper explanation that lay folks could understand)

ANYWAYS, once I we get past the "give him consciousness" portion and onto the challenges portion, these annoyances largely went away for me to enjoy the more video-game-like problem solving aspects to the story. And for a YA novel I was grateful to find it devoid of any boyfriend drama angst (the mom needs therapy though, gees).

Thank you @Netgalley and @KoehlerBooks for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Liv is a high school student who enters a coding contest for the chance to win a dream internship for aspiring programmers. Breck is the AI character who is trying to work his way through a series of challenges while beginning to question reality.

This book is enjoyable and mind-melting at times with it's many layers of meta-cognition. I devoured this book and was left wanting so much more in the best way possible. This book gave me the biggest book hangover where I just sat and stared at the wall questioning everything I've ever known. I love the complexities surrounding Breck and how it's juxtaposed with Liv's struggles in the outside world. I think this book will be one of my top reads of 2024.

Thank you @Netgalley and @KoehlerBooks for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you’re into:
- Alternating short fast-paced chapters
- Speculative AI sci-fi
- Reflections on life, what it means to be human, emotions and AI ethics

I've nearly read this in one sitting, I say nearly because at one point I had to go to sleep and put this down but if I wasn't a responsible adult I had carried on reading through the night, because this book was un-putdownable.

I wrote this right after I finished it: WOW! wow! WOW! I’m speechless. I’m honestly left with no words, I didn’t see that plot twist coming (isn’t it the best when that happens?) and gosh is it a good one. And nearly 24 hours later I still feel exactly the same, I don't have the right words to express how good this book is, it shot right into my top3 of the year.

While the story is obviously different, as I was reading I got the same vibes I had felt when reading the "Everyday" series by David Levithan (which is my top favourite book of all time, so this is saying something about how much I've loved this book).

I’ve also personally found a lot of comfort in this part of the book “I can either enjoy what remains or allow it to torture me. I may not have control over much, but I do have control over my reaction, my experience. I consider this along with Sam’s perspective. I do not have to worry about whether it will end—it will. Nor do I have to worry about suffering alone in it—I won’t. And, because I do not have the worry, there is no distress. I choose to accept my fate. Doing so allows me to find comfort in it. My thoughts soon find a peaceful place where they have seldom existed—here and now. Happiness is existing in this moment”. Along with many other quotes and parts of the book it made me think a lot about life and what it means to be human, I love when that unexpectedly happens while reading.

This book was soooo gooood! I read it so quickly, all in one go! I could barely put it down!
And I was not expecting that ending at all. That was so unexpected but so good, I don’t even know how the author thought that up, but it was amazing!
I saw someone say that this book will melt your brain and I full agree with that! Just wow!

The concept of this was great! The writing however, wasn't. It was choppy and full of short abrupt sentences. This was a DNF for me.due to the writing style.

"First graders pretending to type do not slap at the keyboard with this intensity"
"How would I be able to distinguish between real and imagined, if everything feels real to me?"
This book was different form what I usually read, its a sci-fi book with a lot of thought provoking philosophy sprinkled with funny snarky teenager comments. I had a good time reading this book and I believe readers of all ages can gain something by reading this book.

What I liked:
- the book makes you think. There are so many directions this could go, you could be pondering about the ethics of AI and its treatment, or go back full matrix and wonder whats the point. For such a short book with a superficially simple story there is so much more depth to it and I really enjoyed how the author gives all these impulses to think further
- the side characters and side story to the book only enhance the previous point and has you thinking about human interaction, family, friends, differences in communication etc.
- the book has some funny bits, not forced but just makes sense

What I didnt like:
- to properly capture a being becoming sentient/conscious it extremely difficult, nevertheless having recently read flowers for algernon where the protagonist does not gain conscience but gets smarter, i felt like here it was not as well portrayed how that change came to be.
- the ending...without spoilers I just feel like all of what I liked about this book could have had the same impact without the ending being the way it was. I just didnt like it and then the ending to the ending was just,,, I dont even know where to start. So sadly no 5 stars

ARC Copy...It was interesting yes to see how both POV protagonists develop as humans and "real things" in their respective worlds plus...hmm the ending threw me for a loop. Not telling what it was!!!

eMortal by Steve Schafer is a science fiction novel with a unique twist.

4 out of 5 stars.

I couldn't put this down. It really drew me in and I found myself actually getting annoyed everytime that I was interrupted.
The main character is Liv and Liv is creating a computer program for a competition. This sometimes goes well, but other times life gets in the way... Or is it the other way around? Is Brock getting in the way of Liv's life?!

Insane twist, I was really caught off guard by that one.

Interesting plot line, fantastic character growth and surprising twists. This is definitely a book worth picking up and reading.

"eMortal" is a thought-provoking novel that deftly explores the blurred lines between artificial intelligence and humanity, compelling readers to question their very existence in our increasingly digital world. The story focuses on Liv (short for Olivia), a high-school student navigating between her beloved summer break contest project, Breck, and her fraught relationship with her mother.

As news of her best friend's impending move to another state breaks, Liv and her companion push the boundaries of Liv’s AI creation, Breck, propelling it to advance at an unprecedented rate catching the attention of the game masters. The author's skilful narrative weaves a tapestry of tension and trials that Breck endures, keeping readers thoroughly engrossed throughout the book.

Perhaps the most infuriating character I found in the book is Liv's mother. Despite being a parent myself, I found her unrelenting selfishness and misguided desire to recreate her own upbringing for her child rather one-dimensional. Her consistent failure to comprehend her daughter's interests and aspirations serves as a stark reminder of the generational divide often exacerbated by technological advancements.

The novel's ending, showing a reconciliation between Liv and her mother, underscores the universal theme of wanting to be understood. This resolution, while somewhat predictable, adds a layer of emotional depth to the book.

The book’s ending leaves readers pondering long with more questions after the final page is turned. It's a hidden gem that adeptly balances weighty themes with accessible prose, making it an ideal companion for your leisure reading list. Whether you're lounging on a sun-drenched beach or curled up in your favourite armchair, this book stimulate both your mind and imagination.

This was absolutely incredible!! My jaw is on the floor. eMortal will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The premise of the story dives deep into the implications of technology and AI, the world of coding and whether or not AI can be sentient.

The characters are incredibly well developed, each grappling with their own unique struggles which they deal with differently. Liv and Lana are best friends and while they are the same in some aspects, they have opposites. Which is the same for Breck and Sam, they are the same, but they are DIFFERENT, you know? The way this book delves into AI and the thought process of it all is amazing. I’m struggling to put into words how truly spectacular this book is!! It’s a lot deeper than I thought it would be and I couldn’t stop reading, the physical reactions I had were incredible.

Liv is my favourite, her actions and reactions to things, her character development; it’s all so amazing. I of course loved Breck and all the other characters too. This book really made me sit there and think, it really leaves you wondering about A LOT. And I usually don’t enjoy Sci-Fi but this?? LOVE LOVE LOVE!

What truly sets eMortal apart are the unexpected twists and turns that the author expertly weaves throughout the narrative. Just when you think you have everything figured out, the plot takes a thrilling turn that leaves you breathless. And will make you literally sit up in shock (I should know cause it was my reaction) The pacing is spot-on, ensuring that there's never a dull moment. The climax is both satisfying and thought provoking which will leave you to think about the story long after you finish it.

I’m not sure my review even does this book justice, all I know is that you 100% should without a doubt GET THIS BOOK!!

Phenomenal! Had me at the edge of my seat the whole way. Very topical subject matter about AI and the nature of reality.