Certainty - by John Twelve Hawks (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Men's Health Most Anticipated Sci-Fi - BookBub Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Spring - The intense dystopian world-building of John Twelve Hawks (The Traveler) returns with a masterful journey through the near future of Artificial Intelligence, in which a wise, orphaned ten-year-old girl goes on the run with only her trusty "Interactive Toy" to guide her toward New York City, where a dark landscape, and perhaps a hidden hero, await her.

In a post-pandemic future where AI has infiltrated daily life, the line between what is real and what is digital has eroded to nothing. As Manhattan is overrun by wireheads who spend their days literally plugged into virtual reality, algorithms and robots have replaced everything from the criminal justice system to individual loved ones.

As long as she can remember, ten-year-old Kate has felt like someone was watching her. She has been orphaned since the pandemic, her foster parents find her eccentric and off-putting, and her legal guardian is nowhere to be seen. Now, an algorithm has predicted the very worst--​within thirty days, Kate will either be killed, or become a killer. When two police officers arrive at her home in Maine intending to implant her with a tracking device, Kate is urged by her trusted AI Interactive Toy (a talking stuffed seal named Zeno) to make an immediate escape. Confused and looking for answers, the girl sets a course for New York City and begins an Orwellian journey into the unknown.

Gripping, intricately plotted, and delightfully imaginative, Certainty is a profound and eerily prescient novel about the ever-blurring line between man and machine. Amid the murder investigation of a gifted AI robot-maker, a missing-person being tracked down in the darkest corners of virtual reality, and Kate's harrowing journey to New York, John Twelve Hawks's novel explores the spectacular humanity to be found in a world where humans are themselves endangered.

Review Quotes

Praise for John Twelve Hawks' Certainty

"The author of the Fourth Realm Trilogy has a knack for keeping narratives hopping--even at their knottiest. A lively character in thought and action, Kate is one of the more appealing pre-teens to appear in recent dystopian fiction. And Zeno is never shy about stealing scenes. Those who reject AI and those who embrace it will find much to enjoy here."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Readers who have been waiting for a new book by the reclusive author, who keeps his real identity a closely-guarded secret, will not be disappointed. This is a magnificent novel set in a world that is both recognizably our own but at the same time markedly different.... The book stands alongside the author's Fourth Realm trilogy as a brilliant examination of the way our future might play out."
--Booklist

"Detailed worldbuilding, intricate plotlines, and realistic characters combine to describe an all-too-easily imagined future and create a novel that is simultaneously engaging, thought-provoking, and terrifying. A reminder of the importance of humanity in the age of machines, the book will appeal to fans of George Orwell and Michael Crichton."
--Library Journal

About the Author

JOHN TWELVE HAWKS is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Traveler, the first book in a trilogy that includes The Dark River and The Golden City. The Fourth Realm Trilogy has been translated into 25 languages. Known as "JTH" by his readers, Hawks followed the trilogy with Spark, a stand-alone novel, and a nonfiction book, Against Authority: Freedom and the Rise of the Surveillance States. His readers have translated this e-book into multiple languages. For more than 20 years, JTH has lived a deliberately "anonymous life" to show his resistance to the continual government and corporate attack on privacy. He has discussed his life choices in a published essay, Writing as the Sky Rains Death. In addition, Hawks and the British DJ, John Digweed, created The Traveler Album, a musical collaboration that combined spoken passages of the novel with progressive house music. JTH worked as a war correspondent and turned to fiction to understand a fractured reality. Like several of his characters, he has lived in London, New York City, Paris and Berlin.