This is an intriguing conclusion to the trilogy with quite a plot twist as Adam and the other Pioneers are challenged when their program and their very existences are threatened to be shut down by the government. Can they save themselves? Can they save the world?

I received this free from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
Wow!!! I did not see that coming. Twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end and even then you get a shock. I really enjoyed this book, the last in the series 'The Six", it ties up all the loose ends and has a satisfying ending. In fact the end made me tear up a little.

THE SILENCE by Mark Alpert is the final book in The Six trilogy.

The trilogy revolves around Adam and the pioneer program that’s intended to protect society from digital threats. In this action-packed conclusion, Adam finds his new powers difficult to control. The Silence along with surprising revelations adds a new dimension to the trilogy’s storyline.

Librarians will find this trilogy popular with science fiction fans and those that enjoy robotics and technology.

Published by Sourcebooks Fire on July 4, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

This is actually my mistake but I didn't realize this was a sequal. I'm sure its good, I just don't think I'd be interested in reading it.

Are you looking for an adventure story battling alien life forms? This title involves a team of young people who set out to save the world and need to defend their own choices.

THE SILENCE by Mark Alpert is the third book in his trilogy (beginning with The Six and continuing with The Siege) involving Adam Armstrong and other young people whose memories were uploaded into machines so as to overcome the physical deaths associated with their terminal illnesses. Next, those machines and their young inhabitants (called Pioneers) fight for the government against an evil Artificial Intelligence, called Sigma. As the third book opens, we learn that the newest Pioneer is really a re-constituted Jenny whose mind was injured by Sigma, but who hasn't died. Once again, there was some great applications of science (Alpert is a contributing editor at Scientific American, after all), but I struggled with feeling empathy for these humans-in-machines, particularly with their seemingly compulsive need to be always moving and acting without much reflection. If, like me, you enjoyed the first book in the trilogy plus are interested in physics and artificial intelligence, give THE SILENCE a try. Its story line will surprise you.

Links in live post:
http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-six-by-mark-alpert.html
http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-siege-by-mark-alpert.html

The Silence, while technically the finale of the series, is more like a companion novel, or like an after-the-end sort of storyline. The Pioneers, who were created to defeat Sigma, the self-aware AI that was about to destroy the world, had completed their primary mission in the previous book. Now, their future lies ahead of them, and the possibilities are many. But having defeated the best AI in the world, they are the best now, which makes them a threat according the the very government that allowed their creation. But more than that, there is another insidious threat looming in the very fabric of their software, a secret that was unleashed much like Adam’s surges in the previous novel.

As I mentioned, this novel sets a distinct tone compared to the previous two books. It was about protection and war, but now it is about survival. There are two distinct arcs in the book – the status of the Pioneers in a post-Sigma world and the Silence. The Army is threatening to consign them to a lessened life – an existence akin to making them powerless toys. But being such powerful transhuman AIs (or human-machine hybrids if you want to get technical), they reject this life being thrust on them and want to fight for their right to live and be treated as any other human life. For many in the government, they are just tools to be disposed off when the job is done, whereas for the Pioneers it is like they are murdering them. It evokes civil rights issues and the purpose of a human existence.

The other arc, the Silence is the major one of the book, but it crops up somewhere close to the end of the first half. And with Jenny’s resurrection revealed as a cliffhanger in the last book, her motives for helping Adam seem shady. He doesn’t know until late that she had manipulated him and posed as Amber, but by then they have opened a can of worms that they need to work together to get rid of. The very fabric of their world was being altered by Adam’s surges and the implications of that are revealed in this book. The whole manipulation of matter and physical laws had seemed a bit out there in the last book, but with that explosive reveal, it suddenly becomes logical. Might I add, that reveal blew my mind – I had come across the theory in passing before and did not give it much thought but the way the book applied it to this plot was amazing. I could almost believe it possible, and yet, I feel like maybe in the grand scheme of things, in the living of life, it doesn’t matter if it is true or not, like the conclusion of the book makes a point about.

While I have liked this series immensely and feel the science aspect of it is solid and makes for excellent world-building, I feel this book still lacks the emotional weight of the first two. Perhaps it was because the whole Model S-arc was abandoned quickly in favor of the Silence arc and then easily resolved in the epilogue, but this book felt a lot more tell than show when it came to Adam. There were superfluous explanations and descriptions in some parts, which interfered especially with fast paced scenes. But overall, it is a good conclusion to the series, and is a good work of speculative fiction.

When Adam joined the pioneer program he became part of a team, they were to protect the world from digital threats. Now Adam has more power and he's not sure how to use it , but his new girlfriend, and newest pioneer, Amber is helping him try to figure it out, only Adam's friends keep trying to warn him that her ideas are not in his best interest, only Adam won't listen. Adam feels more more alone and isolated.

This is a very exciting action packed and suspenseful book with many twists and turns, It asks many very real questions about very real science and beliefs going on today and will leave you thinking what if? If you are in any way interested in computers and the digital world you will love this series, it is not written over anyone's head but takes you on a wild ride through the digital world and spits you out on the other side asking questions even scholars are asking now.

Having not read the other books in this series, I am so glad the beginning gave you a great back story to the others that it really didn't matter that I hadn't. I enjoyed every second of this book.

Please note: This review may cover some things that happened in the first two books, so if you haven’t read them, you should probably wait to read my review! “The Silence” begins with the cliffhanger of Book 2, where we learned Amber was not what she seemed. Although Sigma was destroyed, we find new threats/dangers for the pioneers and humanity in the warped Jenny and The Silence. Although we learn the truth through Adam about Jenny, she covers it up in his mind and he becomes unaware as are the other pioneers. Humanity has learned of the pioneers when Sigma began attacking them and the pioneers saved them- however, they don’t realize this and see the pioneers as the threat.

The first half of the book is business as usual, where the pioneers are searching for their identity and trying to protect themselves from people who don’t understand. The second half of the book really throws us for a loop with a twist I did not see coming. This book really departs from the storyline of the first two books and becomes something entirely different. While the first two were focused on the battle/war with Sigma, this one brings up a whole different world with what I will only describe as a crazy twist so as to avoid spoilers. I absolutely did not see this one coming.

We get a lot of answers and this one really concludes the series quite well. We begin to understand some of the pioneers a little better (mainly Zia becomes a little clearer) and we learn about the surge Adam can create/why. I was pretty shocked by the turn of events in this book- and I like to be surprised. It felt like a very different book than the first two for this reason. This one definitely becomes sci-fi/fits a different category- The Silence is a completely different enemy than Sigma. I won’t say much more to avoid spoilers, but be prepared to be surprised!

I am not sure if you need to read the first two to enjoy this one (it recaps in the beginning), but you definitely will appreciate the characters more if you have read more about them. Shannon is barely involved in this book- and I really wish we had gotten more from her throughout the series. She seems like such an interesting person, but her character is pretty limited to her interactions with Adam. Regardless, this book threw me for a loop, and I really enjoyed it! It’s a unique story that adds a whole other dimension to the series we’ve been reading/loving so far, and it’s an interesting conclusion! I highly recommend it for sci-fi/battle/technology lovers.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I had a hard time connecting with the book, as it seemed to jump a bit too much and let the technology drive the story.

First of all I didn't realise this was the third book in a series when I read it. However, the introduction provides a solid backstory to what happened earlier in the series. The idea and main theme of the series is a good one, sick and dying teens have their memories frozen and stored to be later used in the Pioneer Program. Adam is the first of six teens to forfeit their bodies for a new, digital existence. So effectively these teens are used as weapons, of course, the technology goes rogue in the style of Terminator and the machines try to take over. This was a very solid teen read, but I would recommend starting book 1 so as to get in tune with the characters, who in many ways live a pretty horrible existence. The author pulls out all the stops and throws a fantastic range of technology at the reader. This would be a good read for 13-15 year olds who spent alot of time on their phones or computer, as it shows other, very believable ways, computers might be used for in the near future. It's a very good blend of science fiction and speculative fiction.