About the Book

SALVATION HAS A PRICE

It’s 2050, a decade after a heatwave that killed four hundred million across the Persian Gulf, including journalist Marcus Tully’s wife. Now he must uncover the truth: was the disaster natural? Or is the weather now a weapon of genocide? 

A whistleblower pulls Tully into a murder investigation at the centre of an election battle for a global dictator, with a mandate to prevent a climate apocalypse. While a former US President campaigns against the first AI politician, is someone trying to tip the balance? 

Tully must convince the world to face the truth and make hard choices about the fate of the species. But will humanity choose salvation over freedom, whatever the cost?

An enthralling murder mystery with a vividly realised future world, forcing readers to grapple with hard hitting questions about the climate crisis, our relationship with Artificial Intelligence and the price we’d be willing to pay, as a species, to be saved. Perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, Kim Stanley Robinson and RR Haywood.

About the Author

I write stories about tomorrow to help make sense of today.

Aside from writing, I’m a tech entrepreneur. My last startup was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway; my new one is still in stealth but backed by a major Silicon Valley tech accelerator. I also invest in multiple early-stage startups.

Despite all that, I never thought I’d use my degree in Computer Science. I left university to run the UK branch of one of the world’s largest student organisations before spending many years working on and building expertise in the evolution of physical environments, and in particular how tech could change the kind of experiences we have in schools, shops, theatres, council service centres and other places.

This all led directly to his tech startup in the restaurant hospitality space, transforming payment and ordering experiences, before pivoting to a platform to enable other technology to interface with the restaurant. I exited in 2018-2019 and realised I had no more excuses not to do what I always wanted to do: write fiction.

It’s Roald Dahl’s fault. When I was seven, I read the BFG. Remember the scene where Sophie reads the description of a dream of writing a book so exciting that no-one can put it down? Airline pilots are getting lost. Drivers are crashing.

I wanted to write that book. I want to write page-turners. If I achieve nothing more than giving one person the experience within the BFG’s dream, I’ll have succeeded. Hopefully without the car crashes, though. Despite swearing to friends and family (none of whom apparently believed me) that I’d never run another startup again, I recently started a new one focussed on bringing some of the ideas in Artificial Wisdom, my debut, to life, specifically around communicated in augmented reality.

In my spare time, I’m an avid father, husband and cook, and have a bunch of hobbies my wife claims makes me sound like I’m 80, including drawing, painting and chess. I collect more books than I have time to read, especially if they have beautiful covers, like Folio editions. I’m a sucker for great covers.

Follow me on Twitter @tom_weaver for my thoughts on where the world is headed.

Thomas R. Weaver

(from – https://thomasrweaver.com/about-thomas-r-weaver/)

What I Thought

Is Artificial Intelligence our salvation?

In this tense climate dystopia, humanity’s hope for survival is being pinned on one individual. Each country has been able to put forward a candidate for Ultimate Dictator of the World, in charge of preventing climate catastrophe, and the votes have finally whittled down to the final two. One man – a former US President and one Artilect – a male identifying Artificial Intelligence.

But neither of them are the man that we directly follow. That honour goes to Journalist Tully, who lost his pregnant wife to a sudden heatwave ten years ago. He gets approached by a whistleblower, someone that has evidence that the heatwave was more intentional than the world has been led to believe. Did his wife and child need to die? This question haunts him as he literally enters a holographic reenactment of the devastation, turning over body after body trying to find his beloved.

I also enjoyed the complex relationship explored between Tully’s team member Livia and her sister and super boffin Martha.

I’ll have to be honest, there are so many echoes here to the current COVID-19 pandemic (and its mismanagement) that I did feel a fair bit of discomfort when reading. But good dystopia echoes back our current world.

And grief is a major theme too. Individual grief, collective grief. As a second war erupts in today’s world and the threat of impending climate catastrophe gets put to the bottom of politician’s agenda there is a certain gloom in reading this. Important books often aren’t as escapist as the average reader wants but if you want something more than the average book pick this up.

There’s an intriguing criticism of the AI Solomon having been programmed by an “infallible” human (who happens to be a woman) – but of course the likely corrupt ex president considers himself perfectly balanced! Irony.

The concept of the Floating Cities – where rich people have the province of taking more positive climate actions, as well as knowing they would be safer if anything were to happen perfectly shows that dichotomy. Those with the power to do something good are the least likely to suffer negative consequences for not doing good. Hmmmm wonder who that sounds like 🤔.

If you are a fan of political thrillers, climate fiction, science fiction, dystopias – or a good old fashioned game of Cluedo – then you will likely enjoy this. It’s the human story at the heart that keeps us reading after all.

Huge thanks to LiterallyPR for the gifted copy and fun package for the purposes of an honest review. Check out the rest of this tour and the bonus information on the author’s website