N-hancedTM
The critically acclaimed novel by Jonathan Stars
What the book is about
The year is 2035 and Charlie Noble invents N-hanced, an app for nano computers in the human brain. It promises to bring hope and prosperity to the downtrodden by making users instant experts on any subject (how to find food in the desert; how to cheaply make ocean water safe for drinking; how to play the piano without years of practice). It will also free Charlie from his personal demons.
While still in the testing phase, some of his volunteers commit suicide under mysterious circumstances. Before Charlie can find out whether the problem is his software, corporate espionage or something more frightening, the board terminates his project.
Accused of negligent homicide, Charlie flees government agents who threaten his life. In desperation he turns to his estranged friend, Jeff, who has abandoned all things high tech and is against everything Charlie stands for. Jeff is Charlie's last hope to help save him from disgrace and a life in prison--and to put N-hanced back on track to changing the world.
What readers say:
Adrenaline-charged and hard to put down. Science fiction, mystery, action/adventure, and courtroom drama. Stars makes it all work exceptionally well.
——Lansing State Journal
This is an absolutely amazing story! I enjoyed reading it immensely. The book is a really brilliant achievement—fully imagined, thoroughly plotted, peopled with strong, interesting and believable characters. It has a clear dramatic arc... and it engages the reader’s emotions: we become deeply invested in the outcome of the story and the welfare of the characters we are meant to care about.
You really know how to keep readers on edge. It's been hard to stop reading this since chapter one. Very exciting! I hope there is a second book because I really enjoyed this one!
Jonathan Stars has managed to tell a compelling story that contains elements of science fiction, mystery, and courtroom drama. Stars understands the inner workings of human emotions, so his characters come to life. Combine this with his descriptions of the near future, and you have a first rate story. I was hooked from the first page!
Not being particularly savvy about deep technology, I dove into this book expecting to be overwhelmed. Before long I got sucked in. By the time I was halfway through, I could hardly put it down. The courtroom sequences and interludes raced along, and the author's descriptions of scenes were vivid. It was a great read!
Read the Preface and the first chapter
Read two abandoned first chapters
Listen to the songs from the book
The world the characters live in
Speaking in 2011, inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, held up his cell phone and said, "In 20 years, the technology in this cell phone will be available in a package the size of a blood cell." But a 'cell phone' is also a camera, a recorder, an MP3 player, and filled with apps. It's a 64 GB networked computer!
So let's extrapolate 20 years. If you swallowed a teaspoonful of those tiny computers, they would network together into a super computer 100 million times more powerful than Watson, the IBM computer that won on Jeopardy!
Ray also predicts a technological singularity in 2045, where changes will be coming at us so fast that people who are not "enhanced" will not be able to keep up. And that's where the title of the book, N-hanced, comes from.
The story takes place in a world where virtual reality is already well established. Genetic engineering has made disease and aging things of the past, and there are even answers to the population problem. Those nano-sized computers take care of everyone, eliminating the medical industry. Most computer interfaces consist of speech and gesture. Even the virtual keyboard has all but disappeared. Welcome—to the future!