The novel “The Godel Operation” by James L. Cambias was published for the first time in 2021. It’s the first book in The Billion Worlds series.
Daslakh notices that his human coworker Zee is having some problems that have caused a sharp drop in his work performance. He asks God for help, meaning the artificial superintelligence that runs Raba, their habitat. The result is that Zee is suddenly convinced that he must go in search of Kusti Sendoa, the great love he had lost years before for his own fault. Daslakh discovers that the story was implanted in Zee’s mind and is forced to accompany him.
Arriving in the Uranus system, Daslakh and Zee come across Adya, a woman in danger due to a couple of shady individuals. Zee manages to save her but he and Daslakh are projected into space, where they are rescued by a service spacecraft. When they discover that the spacecraft is piloted by a woman named Kusti Sendoa, Zee is delighted while Daslakh becomes very suspicious.
“The Godel Operation” is set in the tenth millennium in a solar system colonized by biological creatures, who are not only humans, and artificial intelligences. The billion worlds of the series’ name are actually a billion habitats of various types that are scattered throughout the solar system.
The novel is told mostly in the first person by Daslakh, an artificial intelligence that uses a robotic body to move. This is only the latest in a series of robotic bodies that Daslakh has used throughout its life. Some flashbacks go back in time millennia, to a war in which some artificial intelligences attempted to eliminate the biological ones.
Daslakh and Zee’s adventure in search of Kusti and the consequences of that search are told in a lighthearted tone while the flashbacks tend to be decidedly more dramatic. Daslakh struggles to understand Zee’s emotional reactions but has a sense of humor that makes many of his observations on human habits, especially those on mating rituals, very funny.
Daslakh’s suspicions about the fake love story between Zee and Kusti implanted in the man’s mind increase when he discovers an interest by both Kusti and Adya in a weapon that, according to legend, is supposed to disable any artificial intelligence. The search for a woman quickly turns into a sort of interplanetary treasure hunt. It’s made more complicated by the fact that Zee trusts Kusti blindly while Daslakh trusts no one and with good reason.
The plot is in my opinion well constructed with an interplanetary adventure that is used by James L. Cambias to show many facets of the civilization that biological and artificial intelligences have built. This includes elements of various types, from technological to social. The flashbacks offer some historical elements but they’re fragmented, so some readers may not appreciate them. However, they’re important to understand the long history of that future civilization and in particular of Daslakh.
The characters are seen from the point of view of Daslakh, who is not necessarily a reliable narrator. Zee seems like a fool but his mind was heavily manipulated, so it’s possible that his intellectual skills were partially compromised.
Revelations and twists in abundance offer a picture that gradually becomes clear of the situation, and this includes Daslakh’s secrets as well. Honestly, not all revelations are difficult to predict but this novel isn’t a detective story that becomes boring if the identity of the killer is discovered in advance. For this reason, I found the plot developments very enjoyable.
“The Godel Operation” is the first book in a series but the story is completely autonomous. If you like adventures between planets and especially space habitats with a blend of lighthearted tones and serious themes, I recommend reading it. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
