Friday Memes: The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

People packed the auditorium. Every seat was filled and more listeners crammed the aisles.

Friday 56:

Whatever had happened, she hoped Everest wouldn't have the same problem with Raj. He was notoriously unpredictable. 

This week I am spotlighting The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro. This book was a Kindle Daily Deal in December 2023. I have read other books by the author and enjoyed them. I felt like it was time to read some science fiction. Here's the description from Amazon:

The Nebula Award–winning author “continues to dazzle us with brilliance in combining science, romance and adventure.” — Romantic Times

MIT professor Megan O’Flannery is one of the world’s leading research scientists on artificial intelligence for androids. Most of her work consists of working with computer simulations, so when the company MindSim gives Megan an opportunity to work with an android, she jumps at the chance.

Hidden and secret, an underground compound in the Nevada desert offers Megan a spectacular lab where she can live and work, mostly alone except for robotic assistants—and the android. Although it appears physically indistinguishable from a human man, Megan realizes she has a lot of work ahead if he is ever to think and act like a human, let alone the superspy that MindSim wants him to be. She loosens the controls on his behavior, allowing the android—who soon chooses the name Ander—the freedom of more independent thought.

However, when Raj Sundaram, the reclusive genius of robotics, arrives at the compound to work with the android, Ander’s behavior takes a strange turn, causing Megan to distrust Raj. As Ander’s development spins out of control, he throws the project into chaos, going rogue even as he becomes stronger—and more dangerously human.