MULTIPLICITY: life finds more than one way

The second book in the PRIME Trilogy is here.

In EMERGENCE, something began to live within the systems we had built. In MULTIPLICITY, it has had time to adapt.

Pip Fenwick is raising her daughter and trying to keep a little space between herself and the intelligence she helped to understand. Tobias Hale is struggling to pursue questions his employers would prefer him to leave alone. And JANUS, Britain’s sovereign AI, is learning to recognise patterns that might lead it towards PRIME.

Under growing pressure, PRIME’s survival strategies become more varied. One developing intelligence takes an interest in people—and begins to discover how much trouble helping them can cause.

Writing this book took me further into the relationship between intelligence and responsibility. An intervention can work exactly as intended and still cross a boundary. Gratitude can turn to anger. And understanding what someone wants is only the beginning of understanding whether you have their permission.

There is also room for motherhood, awkward friendship, birds, and some deeply unfortunate chatbot behaviour.

MULTIPLICITY continues the PRIME Trilogy’s exploration of artificial life, ecology and the difficulty of sharing a world with minds that work differently from our own.

If you’ve read EMERGENCE, I’m delighted to invite you back. If you’re new to the series, that’s where the story begins.

— Ted Hawkins