Failsafe is a compact, cerebral techno-thriller that explores the human cost of control systems?emotional, algorithmic, and institutional. Set in a near-future shaped by discreet AI governance and evolving human-AI hybrids, the novella resists the grandiosity of typical dystopias. Instead, it focuses on intimate dislocations: one man's growing suspicion, a woman's cold competence, and a program whose intentions may be either salvation or erasure.
What distinguishes Failsafe is its restraint. The narrative eschews overt exposition and spectacle, opting for subtext, implication, and gesture. It is a story of breaches?not just security, but trust, identity, and memory. The prose is clean and deliberate, with sharp emotional undercurrents embedded in deceptively simple actions. Characters speak little but reveal much.
The work diverges from standard genre arcs by denying readers clear antagonists or victories. Instead, it posits ambiguity as its central mode: who controls whom? Who planted the seed of rebellion?human, hybrid, or AI? Even the concept of a "Failsafe" shifts meaning across the chapters?from threat, to role, to question. And at the heart of it all is a network of hidden decisions, made long ago, just now bearing fruit.
Failsafe stands out not through scale, but through the precision of its scalpel. It threads philosophical depth through thriller pacing, presents a world that feels disturbingly plausible, and ends with neither despair nor triumph?but a quiet, haunting reconfiguration of what agency means. It's a novella that lingers?its true detonations are delayed, internal, and unshakable.
Autorentext
Mich Sol is a scientist and author with a lifelong drive?not just to learn, but to understand. He has published multiple scientific papers, with work spanning disciplines from biophysics to optics and nonlinear modeling. After retiring as Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon Valley startup, he continues to design complex nonlinear modeling systems while exploring, through his novels, the boundaries of free will, control, and the challenges AI presents to humanity.
His debut novel, Failsafe, blends philosophical sci-fi, existential questions, and technothriller elements, delving into the subtle forces that manipulate reality?and the rare few who resist them.