Wow! What a mind trip! This tale opens several years after the ending of Book 2 but there’s plenty of things in this story that refer to earlier books in the series so it wouldn’t make a stand alone book. Mally and Silver are both nearly 16 and they have grown up in a very different world than their mother Kate (who is a self-imposed technosaur). For the first half of the book, we’re really just getting to know the tech of the day and catching up with the characters we’ve fallen in love with along the way.

Keke is still my favorite character. She’s got a bigger role in this novel than she had in Book 2 (yay!). Marko, her friend with benefits/non-exclusive significant other, has run off to an ashram in India and Keke is a little heartsick over it, not knowing if he will ever return. Meanwhile, Seth (Kate’s twin brother) has stuck around to help raise the kids and he still has this torch burning for Keke. By the end of this book, I think he might be a great fit for her even if she’s still pining for Marko. Kate herself is trying to be a good mom but two rebellious kids in a world filled with tech that Kate doesn’t fully understand makes things difficult. Zack has been doing hard time at SkyRest for all those pesky murders in Book 2.

Silver is way into full immersion. She loves her RPG games but also the circle of friends she has there. She’s good at it too so she wants to get a weave implanted so she can go even further in her favorite immersive game. Alas, that’s not allowed until she’s 18 or perhaps at 16 with her mom’s permission. She’s too impatient and that leads to trouble. Then there’s Mally who has fallen in love hard with Vega, a sentient robot. The two have been in a relationship for several months after meeting online and then later in real life.

I really liked catching up with Zack. His past 12 years are covered in a series of short flashbacks to show how his trial went, basic incarceration, how he ended up at SkyRest, and all that goes on there. There’s this odd character, Bernard, who terrorizes (or perhaps looks out for) Zack. Her character arc grows unexpectedly in the last quarter of the novel and I wouldn’t mind learning more about her.

OK, so robots are everywhere and doing everything for humans in this near future South Africa. Some robots are strictly service bots with no AI and then there’s a whole range of AI in the more complex bots. Some bots have rights and some don’t. Like sexually harassing a lingerie bot is illegal but is only referred to as interference and doesn’t carry the same weight as such an act against a human. There’s those that are fighting for equal rights for the bots and there’s those that don’t want any rights for the bots.

Then a few bots loose their crap and people die. Runawayrunawayrunaway! The second half of the book is more interesting to me because so much happens, there’s so much action, but also these really good questions of how many rights man-made AI should have and are they really a danger, or rather, more dangerous than the average human. Lots of great, intense scenes here!

The ending gives us a big mindscrew. Yep. Oh my! I loved it because it means our heroes have to take a big leap. But I also hated it a tiny bit because the ending isn’t definitive and I don’t know if there’s another book in the series. The tale could end here… but then there would be some lingering questions concerning Marko and Vega and a few others. All together, I quite enjoyed the ride. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Roshina Ratnam continues to give a great performance. While there were fewer opportunities to perform various African accents, Ratnam still had distinct voices for all the characters and her male voices were believable. I especially enjoyed her emotionally charged scenes, like that big one between Silver and Kate near the end. She also had great slightly robotic voices for the AIs. I liked her angry, jealous, protective voice for Bernard. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by JT Lawrence. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. ( )