Up Against It
{4.5/5} “The feral was in danger. Executioners had registered its protoconscious activity. The feral was made up of life-support routines, though, and imbued with high levels of system permissions. It outran its executioners, ran traces and saw that routines lethal to its continued function were triggering all around — computational landmines, algorithmic hails of bullets. Another precious centisecond passed, while it marshaled resources and calculated what to do.”
Up Against It by Laura J. Mixon aka M. J. Locke, published in 2011
Phocaea is a group of asteroids. It’s tough to do a prank there, with cameras recording all the time for its reality show. But Geoff and his friends manage to program some bugs to assemble into skeletons and dance around a bit. When an accident, or possibly a suicide, results in a bunch of disassembler bugs being released Geoff’s brother Carl is killed.
It’s about dealing with a crisis, the mob, and a new AI. It’s about what happens when you’re very good at your job but you get fired anyway.
With its delightful characters and storyline, another book in this setting would be welcome.
This is the 1st book I’ve read by Mixon.