Code Word Access


Fiction - Science Fiction
390 Pages
Reviewed on 07/21/2021
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite

Code Word Access by Alex Schuler and Rolf Yngve has that eerie what-if scenario about coding and artificial intelligence. The year is 2051. As a first-generation CRISPR child, Dr. Shawn Muller is a gifted computer scientist who is known in military circles as B17. He is the development group leader of a military project that built the core of the LAZ-237, a powerful AI designed to hunt down terrorists. As LAZ-237 or Lazy Jack becomes too powerful and draws the interest of politicians, Muller develops an ethics kernel for the AI to have a failsafe on every decision. It is a brilliant plan, but not without ramifications as it backfires when Lazy Jack points to Muller as a threat to national security. Muller becomes a fugitive, only to be captured by an underground organization that resists an AI-centered society.

It seems that any successful high-tech US military operation suffers drawbacks and inspires neurosis. Muller becomes a threat priority and the very target of an institution that he has chosen to serve. And the irony is that he finds refuge in a group of outcasts. The whole conflict ensues from a rare glitch in the judgment of Lazy Jack. The plot seems familiar when you think of novels and movies about technology going against their creators. But there is poignancy in Muller’s predicament, and Alex Schuler and Rolf Yngve’s exposition has genuine tension and mystery. It has to do with the hanging question of how far we are going to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence to advance human agendas. It becomes ingenious in a theme that has been addressed before, and it fares even better in terms of storyline and characterization. Thrilling, dramatic, and philosophical, you will find Code Word Access is a brilliant high-wire act.