For your auditory delectation, EXADELIC
Don't worry, this is the last self-promotion post. (...until the paperback in February.)
Just a quick note to let you all know that my novel Exadelic is out in audiobook today on Amazon/Audible, libro.fm, and whatever other fine places sell literary sounds.
The book has a slew of “official” rave reviews from Big Names and Publications, which you can see here if you’re so inclined, but I thought it would be fun to itemize a few favorite Random Reader reviews:
“best new sci-fi I’ve read in ages: I found myself saying “holy shit this is good” quite a few times! Amazing” — @agileben
“I was expecting an airport paperback thriller about a rogue AI, but boy was I wrong. Journalist, travel writer, and software engineer Evans combines ideas from computing, the occult, and beyond to craft an unpredictable and intricately plotted story. Just when you think it's settling down into a stable trajectory, a fantastical new element is introduced and you vector off in a different direction. Somehow it all hangs together.” — JLMason
“Unbelievably ambitious, endlessly fascinating, intellectually demanding, this is science-fiction at its zenith. The writing is actually quite good, and, in adapting to the mores of place and time (there's time travel, of sorts), delightfully playful. There's also the scope, which starts impressive and then keeps widening and always surprising. A feat of imagination, surely.” — Pedro
“This is the 2020’s Snow Crash … In the style of Hitchcock and 1990s VR series Wild Palms, a regular person discovers that his whole life is not what it seemed … There are no moments that make engineers cringe. It's fiction grounded in real technology … I can’t recommend this book enough.” — @ronaldmannak
“I recently read and enjoyed the new batshit-in-the-best-way AGI thriller novel Exadelic and this equally bonkers history of Effective Altruism and AI doomerism, without knowing they were written by the same person. Just learning that makes me appreciate them that much more.” — @KevinBankston
“The scope of Exadelic is staggering (its own dialog claims to verge on theology), and the turns it takes from its start in a very plausible near-term dystopia will blow your mind.” — tjdickey
“Snow Crash for the 2020s … This book is not for everyone, but for those who are able to follow it, and can stomach some of the tougher themes, it's an extremely engaging read. It's dense, offers many surprises, and has a great sense of humor despite confronting some haunting realities (or potential ones). Strong recommend for hard scifi fans.” — Malcolm Ware
“This was one of the wildest and most exciting stories I’ve read in a long time. The ideas and execution were amazing. It was a combination of The Terminator meets The Matrix to the nth power.” — Ron
“I enjoyed this book from the moment I picked it up and I have liked it throughout. It really feels like you’re a leaf on the wind throughout the book and whenever you land you get thrown back into a bigger and bigger storm.” — zephyr
“Holy shit, what a ride. Expecting something exciting and entertaining, this one more than lived up to that! The jacket cover raving captures the sentiment pretty well without sharing too much. One of my fave reads of the year.” — Patrick
“This is a very weird book. It's a mash-up of Ready Player One, with Matrix, Outlander and Assassin's Creed. Seriously there's so much going on here! Dark magic, AI's, time travel, obscure pseudoscience, cults, witches, sex rituals, post-apocalypse worlds (just to name a few). There are a lot of technical programming terms and references which I didn't get most of the time. What kept me reading was wanting to know where the story would end up and yeah, it's totally bonkers. The short chapters and mini cliff-hangers me helped me stick with it, but it was a wild ride.” — noisydeadlines
“Whew. And yikes, and… did I say whew. Whew. […] If you want to be sorta kinda utterly terrified. This is the book for you. But, in all seriousness. It’s a really awesome out of this world thriller that had me turning pages at quite the rapid pace.” — Nevins Library
“Just finished Exadelic by @rezendi.com and holy smokes what a great ride of a book! Highly recommend.” — @douglarkin.bsky.social
“Wow this book does not stop twisting and turning, and it continually surprised me. It has thriller pacing so it never slows or stops, it's bursting with ideas and strangeness and yet amazingly it all holds together.” — Shaz
“Wild ride. Did finally finish. Pretty sure the author was taking some mind altering drugs.” — David
“Evans took a stack of existing technical principles and familiar theories and carefully laid out a cantilever extending over a precipice. The center of gravity moves until, at the limit, the reader is suspended over thin air and it definitely seems like magic.” — @valdelane.bsky.social
“A journey of postmodernist philosophy and AI-centric myths … culminating in an epic adventure that never loses focus on the most pressing existential questions. If you're a fan of LessWrong essays or are intrigued by Effective Accelerationism, this book is a must-read. Even if you're not, it might pique your curiosity.” — Maestro
“The synopsis doesn’t capture the sprawling story and themes of Exadelic— and honestly I don’t think writing an accurate one is possible. This is an incredible sci-fi book with twists and turns that completely change the direction of the story. I was unable to predict anything that happened next, and anytime I settled into the rhythm of a story there would be a sudden and startling change. Given all of that, I loved this book. It had me questioning what it meant to be human, what it meant to be part of a community (both large and small), the connections we make with other people and if and how they can survive across space and time. It was creative and fun but also dark and disturbing.” — Mimi
“My brain is still imploding after this read. Substantial as a tome, Exadelic's voice is nonetheless irresistible … science fiction on a new level, reaching soaring heights and unsearchable depths in science and philosophy at the same time. Evans deftly weaves together black magic and computer code, time travel and artificial intelligence, blind hubris and terrifying doubts and the tender, tragic, try of what it means to be human alongside existential nihilism painted with the blackest despair. I can't explain how he manages to pepper this complex, twisty tale of science's most difficult questions with Scientologists and archangels and even the Black Dahlia without crossing the line into either fantasy or pulp fiction, but he pulls it off. This book is one of a kind and not to be missed, though you may well regret it. Exadelic is a story that stays with you - whether you actually understand any of it or not.” — Cassondra
“The synopsis made me buy the book. The parts of the story that are not covered by the synopsis made me love it. When you read the back of a book and you read a lot, you kind of think where this is going. Rest assured i was thrown around like a rag doll while reading. Plot twist, ah now i see where this might go. Another plot twist, WTH? After oh so many plot twists i stopped guessing and let the roller coaster ride carry me along.” — Lotte
…and my personal favorite …
“Really enjoyed this but I can't give five stars to a book that loves cryptocurrency this much.” — Linnea