This is the first publication by Mark Hennessy. The Cendovian was published in 2020 and is the first book in his Cendovian Chronicles series. This is the 6th book I completed reading in 2023.

I received an ARC of this book through https://www.netgalley.com with the expectation of delivering a fair and honest review. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of minor violence, I categorize this novel as PG.

Victor, Marisa, and Connor are attending their first day of classes at Stanford. Unknown to them, their professor, Richard Nelson, is plotting to draw them into his plans to save humanity. Nelson, with neuroscientist colleague Pari, is secretly working to build a digital copy of a human brain and personality. A project that will enable humans to virtually live forever.

I enjoyed the 11 hours I spent reading this 383-page science fiction novel. The AI aspects of the story and the moral questions were interesting. A plot didn’t emerge until well past halfway through the novel, and then it was weak. The chosen cover art is eye catching. I give this novel a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

This book presents an interesting twist on the nature of reality.. Can we manipulate our reality? Can we create reality? What are the consequences if we choose to do so? What becomes reality? Very nice way to spend the weekend. A nice divergence from “here” with this read.

I found The Cendovian less than satisfying. The tension level was low for much of the book, and author Mark Hennessy did little to encourage me to continue reading. His attempts to hook the novel's plot into real events in world history worked well, and his attempts to force a discourse of philosophical issues related to AI also saved the novel. But overall not enough here for me to recommend.

This is the story of a group of student programmers at Stanford who want to build a world that people would wish to live in. A very absorbing story and great Sci Fi.

Hennessy has written a fun and very interesting book. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the plot. The book was well written and keeps the reader engaged throughout. I would definitely recommend reading the book.

How far can AI and/or downloaded humans go. In this partial thriller, and partial scifi novel, questions of what is a human are very skillfully discussed. Wealthy computer scientist, who has lost his wife several years ago, wants to be able to download brains and continue humanity in digital (Cendovian) form. His Stanford CS students all vie for his approval, which is sometimes hard in coming. Along with several love stories, this book kept me glued from the arrival at Stanford of these students, through their journey to help the Professorm and their realization that other forces might want to control the technology. It makes one wonder if we are just code in running in some higher order intelligence's computers, as Elon Musk and others think. Very worthwhile read.

The premise behind this book is totally unique. It definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be when I started reading. With that said I absolutely loved this book. The author does a very good job of character building and keeping the reader engaged. The story moves along at a good pace and you will get to the point where you don’t want to stop reading.

Now to our story, the protagonists in the story think they are writing code of a video game, but are they. Spoiler Alert: they are writing code to allow people to live forever in their own designed world. Will this occur? Will people try to stop them. You’ll just have to read this book to find out.

I can’t wait for book 2 to be published so I can read more about Cendovia and what occurs inside.

If you love fantasy and sci-fi then this book is for you.

I am not a gamer so I almost put the book down at first but I’m glad I powered through. The Cendovian turned out to be a well written book full of suspense, intrigue, imagination and yes, gaming. Looking forward to to book two.

Science fiction remains a hit-or-miss for me as a reader. The concept of The Cendovian was intriguing, but the vocabulary turned me away from the story. However, this is a book I’m willing to push to the sci-fi lovers in my life as it does tell an interesting story of trying to change the world when the world you know takes something precious away.

I truly enjoyed this book and can see this, realistically, happening at anytime. The author writes this well and makes you excited to code while being drawn into the story line. I felt for the characters and could wait to find out what happened next.

I really enjoyed this story although about half way through realised that this was only the first book and so a number of the questions it was already raising in my moind were not going to be answered before the end of this chapter.

At this point there are a number of dangling threads of plot and too much that doesn't yet make sense, so I'm going to have to look out for the next book or books to truly satisfy my curiosity as to what is going to happen to the various characters and to fill in some of the blanks of what's happened so far.

Yes the story has a lot of tech involvement and talk but ultimately what makes this truly interesting is the development of the relationship between the characters and I want to discover where that's going.

Very well written, the story flowed and kept me reading far too late at night as I wanted to keep discovering more.

This is a good book with some unique ideas. If you enjoy gaming, AI, or programming, I especially recommend this book for you. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Having an earnest desire to become a sci-fi nerd, the synopsis pulled me in. The Cendovian is not hard sci-fi, making it a perfect read for someone like myself. The underlying theme resonated with me since I view technology as my assistant rather than my adversary.

The Cendovian was impossible to put down. Everything about The Cendovian was intellectually complex, yet easy to consume. Mark brilliantly reversed the stereotypes commonly defining developers and programmers. He makes them the heroes! I LOVE THIS!

Highly recommended for hard and soft sci-fi fans!

This novel follows Professor Richard Nelson in his quest to create immortality via coding and neuroscience technology. The first half of the book focuses mostly on the lives of 3 of Richard’s programming students. The second half suddenly becomes a matter of life and death, weaving into the plot a fictional account of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 in 2014.

I loved pondering the ethical questions raised about virtual worlds and virtual lives. It was a bit slow in places, with aspects of background story that felt unnecessary although I note this is book 1 in a series so perhaps this information will become more relevant later. Some of the dialogue was a bit forced. All up though, I enjoyed the book and would like to read the sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Loved the book.

It was evident the author had a personal understanding of deep code. I got a good chuckle from Victor struggling to surface from a coding session when interrupted. I, too, was sometimes fearful of losing the stack I had built in my head when interrupted or stopping for the night which instead sometimes led to long hours in the zone.

I enjoyed the many places in the story telling when you had to stop and ask if maybe this was all in vspace as opposed to meat space. It is always a brain twister to consider there is only vspace and we all live in someone's simulation.

As in any good story, there are a number of twists. Tina's Isaac crash threw me a curve.

"g"ods are dangerous. It is going to be interesting to see how Cendovia will allow freedom which is necessarily messy. Earlier books in the genre have explored what happens when people become immortal, omnipotent and begin jockeying for power and primacy. It appears Hennessy fully intends to confront these issues. Maybe in book 2?

I am looking forward to seeing if a competing vspace may be revealed possibly related to Yashira being compromised and looking for way out.

In Hennessy's comments at the end of the book, he expresses "my hope is that you will classify it as a compelling story told beautifully". Mission accomplished. I am on a hair trigger for the release of the second book in the series.