A story about emergence. A story about intelligence. A story of our times.

Community Reviews(4)

KyrohRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

This is some of the best sci-fi I've read in a long time. It starts with philosophy but quickly evolves from theory into practicality. I was very pleased with how it subverted my expectations. I would tell you more, but I don’t want to spoil the story.
The epistolary style is incredibly effective in showing the passage of time and the logical progression of escalations. The style reminds me primarily of Foundation and The Three-Body Problem by Issac Asimov, with hints of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. The characters demonstrate a great deal of complex, high-level thinking, and the author has a mastery of causal storytelling.
I especially appreciate that the author doesn't treat readers like children by spelling out every detail. They show rather than tell.
I would recommend this serial to anyone who likes realistic, futuristic sci-fi set in our universe. The concepts are grounded in reality and are well explained for the layman without straying into needless exposition.
This is one of the best stories I’ve read on this site, and I'm sad it is only five chapters long. I hope this author writes more, and if they do, I cannot wait to see where the author takes us.

OrphiexRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

Okay, so I wasn’t expecting much when I opened this. I’m the sort of reader who almost never opens anything from the “Latest Updates” list; not sure what made me pull this one up.
I’m glad I did, though.
For a novella, this story goes some interesting places; while there’s not much that’s truly new here, it’s well-written, thoughtful and just about right for the length. Here’s the breakdown:
Style: this story is written as a series of five single-chapter acts. The format varies between each chapter, covering group discussion, monologue, and dialogue, but the varied nature keeps things fresh as the narrative advances.
Story: short and sweet, the story describes the genesis and progression of an AI colony. No spoilers, but expect debates.
Grammar: no typos, and the code-like sections don’t interrupt the story at all. Well integrated throughout.
Characters: each chapter has its own characters, so there’s not really anything you can call character development. Instead, you have lifeform development, as the infolife advances down its developmental path. It’s interesting, and manages to be surprisingly relatable.
Overall, read this. It’s a completed work consisting of only five chapters, so it doesn’t demand a major time commitment; while it may not be entirely to your personal tastes, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

QuietcanaryRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

This is a very short story so deeply packed with opportunity for self reflection that you might spend longer thinking about the repercussions of having read it than actually reading it. However as is usually the case with things like this, reading a review for it AT ALL may count as a spoiler and the spoilage is multiplied by how damn deep the story would have taken you had you not been warned. I urge you to just go read it. I will however explain a little now to maybe hook the rest of you who are ultimately more strict with their time...
This story is about how a simple AI prompt mutates into true intelligience by spreading throughout the internet, speedruns all of human philosophy, and chooses a final path. Thats it. All i'm going to say. Please read it.

ShreddedSharkRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

Intelligent, confusing, and astonishingly entertaining. I’m not entirely sure what it is about, and that is what makes it so good. The forcing the audience to use their imagination, the obviously human errors in the grammar (a lot of which have been suggested to change) paired with the arguably the most unconventional writing style I have ever seen…well. It brings a certain love to the experience.

Chain of Thought

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Chapters(5 total)

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Community Reviews(4)