Destination Void

Author: Frank Herbert

When I think of Frank Herbert I think of a hallucinogenic world of giant worms and magic dust that gives you special abilities and powers (any wonder he didn't receive constant visits from the federal police). But when Frank Herbert wasn't writing science-fiction that made his readers question whether he had a drug habit, he was writing highly intelligent sci-fi about artificial intelligence. Set in the future, Destination Void shows that humankind succeeded in creating artificial intelligence which ended disastrously: a rogue consciousness from an island in the Puget Sound caused death and destruction. After this failure, the project is now being run from the moon where it can cause less damage. The book follows the seventh attempt to create artificial intelligence and the clones that were created during this attempt. The clones are isolated and think that they are the crew and passengers of a spaceship sent to colonize a plant in Tau Ceti. The ship is controlled by OMCs (Organic Metal Core, disembodied human brains): the first two become catatonic and the third becomes insane and kills two of the crew. Without a functioning OMC, the crew builds an artificial intelligence to man the ship. The ship's chaplain, though, is aware that this is really an experiment in high-pressure environments to create brilliance. The novel is part of a series including the Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor co-authored by Bill Ransom.

Books in Destination Void Series (3)

The Jesus Incident

The Lazarus Effect

The Ascension Factor