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Burn-In is a fantastic, compelling, and authoritative look into the future—a future that is equal parts amazing and terrifying. With
Burn-In, Peter Singer and August Cole establish themselves both as masters of the techno-thriller and as scientifically grounded futurists. Woven into their riveting, page-turning tale of a brilliant FBI agent’s future hunt for a diabolically clever, tech-savvy criminal are important lessons about the extremely difficult issues that lie ahead surrounding the use of AI, robotics, augmented reality, and ubiquitous surveillance. It is a terrific read!”
—General David Petraeus (USA, Ret.), former commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and coalition forces in Afghanistan and former director of the CIA
“Whether it’s a Jack Reacher novel or John Le Carré spy drama, my litmus test of how good a book is, is the time to read. I started Burn-In Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend and finished it Monday . . . If you, like me, enjoy fast-paced, well-researched, tech-adventure stories, you are going to devour Burn-In.”—Forbes
“Burn-In will do more for defense experts’ understanding of this brave new world with literature than a thousand nonfiction assessments would have.”—War on The Rocks
“For think-tankers and military and civilian officials, Burn-In offers a buffet of challenging questions and troubling future quandaries; for those who seek a good story, it has it all: robot sidekicks, bearded military veterans gone rogue, and a technological showdown of biblical proportions set in the nation’s capital.”—Military.com
“The book, like the other noteworthy novel the two collaborated on, Ghost Fleet, meets its purpose skillfully. It is both lively, entertaining, and well-written as well as thought-provoking . . . [It] should be essential reading for anyone who looks out at the landscape today and sees clouds looming over the horizon.”—CIMSEC
“[As] timely and compelling as it is entertaining, Burn-In raises important issues and will provoke the necessary conversations that must happen about humanity and the future we want as we embrace technology at an ever-accelerating pace.”—The Cipher Brief
“It’s a story of human-machine teaming, but like a buddy cop movie . . . It’s a glimpse into the future.”—Defense One
"It is Awesome. Highly recommend it."—Defense One
“That fascinating place where things have a real chance of becoming real . . . This book is very much like a nerd’s dream. It’s fantastic. I love the concept.”—State Secrets
“It’s a very interesting book . . . It’s a future shock novel like Greg Bear’s Slant, where things are happening faster and faster. But it’s also a military thriller. I compare it to Tom Clancy.”—Podside Picnic
“A visionary new form of storytelling—a rollercoaster ride of science fiction blended with science fact.”
—Damon Lindelof, writer/creator of Lost,Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Watchmen
“Burn-In is a white-knuckle adventure into our maximum-probability future. I found surprises on every page, with each startlingly real depiction of new technology and its human impact. This near-future was crafted by experts, and it shows.”
—Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times best-selling author of Robopocalypse
“Their seamless blend of detailed research and rapid-fire storytelling makes Singer and Cole the perfect tour guides for our world’s future conflicts.”
—Max Brooks, New York Times best-selling author of World War Z and Devolution
“I’ve never had such an enjoyable discomfort in reading a book before . . . because Burn-In is fiction, but for how long?”
—Foreign Policy
“Burn-In is a thought-provoking and philosophical summer blockbuster; it is Michael Bay meets Stephen Hawking, and it is fantastic.”
—Diplomatic Courier
“With their latest work, the authors energetically carry on the tradition of this genre’s giants, including Isaac Asimov (I, Robot) and Robert Heinlein (Starship Troopers), to name a few . . . Singer and Cole clearly understand how to make the unintelligible understandable, and in Burn-In they deliver the best of contemporary science fiction. Defense professionals, policy makers, and American citizens alike would do well to pick up a copy.”
—Strategic Studies Quarterly
“Captivating and oftentimes brilliant . . . something that Asimov would have immediately recognized and approved . . . the perfect blend of science fiction and human drama.”
—Steve Leonard, senior fellow, Modern War Institute at West Point
“It is hard for fiction to keep up with reality these days, but it can help us visualize the potential futures ahead of us in a meaningful way that nonfiction cannot. Burn-In brilliantly uses near-future technology to ponder pressing matters of tech, politics, and the human relationship with our increasingly intelligent machines. Read it and you’ll not only be entertained, but better able to understand the flood of AI headlines without fear or fantasy. Burn-In is the rare techno-thriller that takes tech seriously!”
—Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, author of Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins
“A compulsively readable story that also brilliantly explains how our near-future world will look and work. Singer and Cole have woven a gripping detective yarn about a hunt for the terrorists of tomorrow, using the best research from the brightest minds of today.”
—Peter Bergen, New York Times best-selling author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
“Timely, prescient, and meticulously researched, Burn-In tells a deeply humane and nuanced story about our changing relationship with AI and warns of dangers to our free society all too few have started to grapple with. This is the near-future thriller you’ve been looking for: a captivating story filled with moving characters as well as profound insights.”
—Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
“Wrapped in this propulsive thriller is a fascinating analysis of our possible near-future, where promises of a techno-utopia veer into surveillance-state nightmare. Cole and Singer brilliantly and terrifyingly imagine a realistic intersection of terrorism, technology, and ...