A BETTER SPY

The Russians build an AI project that develops a mind of its own in DeGandpre’s timely techno-thriller.

In filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove, the Russians build a doomsday machine, the ultimate nuclear deterrent that can blow up the world; it’s a sign of the times that, in the sophomore Estes and Marsh thriller series entry, the Russians have built the ultimate AI device in a plot for world domination. CIA officer Bill Estes and FBI agent Michelle Marsh team up with Russian Konstantin Pavlovich—back from the first installment in the series, State of Matter (2024)—and other operatives to try to prevent World War III. Like a character from another Kubrick film, HAL 9000, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, AI Zaslon-29 displays an ever-expanding mind of its own as it is seemingly “obsessed with understanding its place in the universe.” After an initial anonymous demonstration of its power, it secures the servitude of Misha Orlov, who works in the underground bunker that houses Zaslon-29 (“First the AI made contact, then it set the trap, satisfying his every desire.”) Then it gets wind of Estes and company’s plans to destroy it and orchestrates attempts on their lives. Threatening to further blow things sky-high is Nick Heidegger, described by Marsh as a “tenacious Beltway journalist with a rock-solid reputation.” From the novel’s tense beginning to its ambiguous ending, DeGandpre deftly fleshes out his dynamic duo, finding in AI the perfect villain with which to tap into anxieties about how technology can be abused. (And Russians have been reliable fictional villains for more than half a century.) As the author demonstrated in the series’ launch, DeGandpre writes accessibly but with authority and plausibility about tech. Estes and Marsh are largely separated here and work together via phone—one hopes they can spend more time in the same rooms next time around.

AI paranoia propels this brisk, taut, and entertaining ticking-clock adventure.