Edward Ashton

Three Days in April is Edward Ashton’s debut novel. It is his first foray into a world resembling the Stupid War novels. There are free artificial intelligences that want to be as silico-Americans. There are humans with nanotech implants, exoskeletons, and genetic modifications. National Security forces attack epidemic outbreaks with weaponized drones called crowbars. In one case, most of the population of Hagerstown is wiped out to prevent a pandemic. The plot follows a group of young adults with technological and genetic modifications that make them targets of corporate and government intrigue.
Three Days in April does not have the polished style of Ashton’s recent work, but it demonstrates his promise as a world-builder.… (mais)

The End of Ordinary is set five years after the Stupid War chronicled in Mal Goes to War (2024). The anti-tech, anti-gene-mod humanists lost, but most free AIs have been wiped out, and fewer people now have neural implants and powered exoskeletons. Genetic modification, on the other hand, is thriving. Hannah is a high school student whose class has only one unmodified human. The daughter of a genetic engineer, she has some custom Neanderthal DNA and other mods that make her an excellent long-distance runner. The father’s company may have him working on a project that will modify the genetics of large populations without their knowledge. Edward Ashton has given us a YA story that avoids most of the usual genre snares and provides an original take on the tech singularity.… (mais)