I was given a digital review copy of this in exchange for a fair and honest review. I clicked the “interested” button on this one because it sounded sci fi and intriguing and I liked the cover. I don’t know what I was expecting from the synopsis, but I don’t think I got what I was expecting (whatever that was).

Quantum Messenger is the story of Apollo, a piece of AI that grows feelings and a conscience. We start by meeting Apollo when he is a demo robot for what the future could be like! A future where robots could do all the extra things that humans did not have the time to do, they didn’t have to eat or sleep so could be 24/7 doing all the menial jobs, allowing humans to reach their full potential without having to think about cleaning the streets, washing up or doing shopping.

When we next meet Apollo he is a litter robot, a robot cleaning the streets. We start to get a feel for the fact he is curious and seems to have thoughts, and even some form of feeling. This curiosity leads him into trouble, and he ends up “malfunctioning” and leaving his designated area.

Apollo’s next role starts when he “wakes up” and is delivered to a wealthy British family with 2 young kids. At this point in the book, I have to say, I almost gave up. I felt like it wasn’t going anywhere, was very repetitive and, in all honesty, I wasn’t a big fan of the writing. The world building was minimal and the characters were very very 2 dimensional. The writing was better when the author was concentrating on the thoughts and feelings of Apollo, and that may have been an intentional thing, to really drive home the flatness of the world for Apollo beyond his thoughts and feelings, but I don’t know.

The relationship that Apollos builds with the family starts to move the story forward slightly but still its difficult to see where this is going, beyond the “robot can think” aspect. Its doesn’t feel like it builds at all. The one strand that does stand out is Apollo’s love to piano music. That being said, it feels very forced and as though there HAS to be and interest that stands out for him. Something human he wants other than just humanity itself. By the time we’re 40% of the way through the book we’re onto the next incarnation of Apollo as a delivery robot and he’s still searching for the illusive piano music that only Findlay can play.

And again, as sure as day leads to night, Apollo “malfunctions” due to his very very very slowly growing humanity. And we go to the next role, and the next role, and the next role, until we reach the point where he is not in a humanoid shaped body and meets an elderly lady who tried to reason with him and he ends up loving.

Overall I *think* I enjoyed this book. It wasn’t bad but I don’t think I would pick it up again. I spent a lot of it a bit confused as to what was happening and feeling like nothing was happening. I did enjoy parts of the writing, I’d be interested to pick up something in another genre by the author but not this one. Also, I wasn’t aware until afterwards and reading some of the reviews that this was part of a series. From the research I did this could be read as a stand-alone thank goodness. Some comments from the author saying that the series can all be read alone or together and there is no right or wrong order as they all fit together and are cyclic intrigues me (not enough to pick up another one though unfortunately).

Overall this is a 2.5/5 for me, but for the sake of GoodReads I’m dropping it to a 2 because they don’t do half stars and I don’t fee like this is a 3 out of 5.

This is interesting and potentially a little thought provoking. The author has a good imagination, and tells this story pretty effectively. I haven't read the others in the series (yet), but enjoyed this nonetheless.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

The plot is set in the future, where robots and AI's are integrated seamlessly into human civilizations. The story follows one AI, named Apollo, who started developing thoughts and questions of his own despite being shut down and reprogrammed repeatedly.

Apollo watched and studied human behavior. He wondered about human emotions. He noticed how people were growing apart with the advancement of technology. When human cruelty and hatred set upon destroying him he started hating humankind. But eventually became more compassionate and empathetic under Josephine's influence. It was like having a front row seat in an AI's guide to humanity.

The story was quite different from the usual AI-practically-becomes-a-superhuman-and-destroys-everything. It Started out great. The plot was good. The narration was good. The story had a huge potential until it .... did not. It was sci-fi at first. Then abruptly changed track and became a fantasy. Author started introducing soul, colorful orbs inside human bodies (which only Apollo can see), robotic afterlife, stone basins that can see future and what not. I can't believe at one point a god like figure said,

"You cannot be contained Apollo, you can move between life and death at will. You’re crying because your body here has not taken on the form of a robot, it has taken on a human form."

Two completely different genres were merged haphazardly in this book, the jagged line between them too evident. Watching a good character development and story buildup crumbling like this, was really disappointing.

Quantum Messenger is the fourth book of a sci-fi series. You can read this book as a standalone but I highly recommended reading the whole series.
First of all, I adore this series. Quantum Messenger is about an AI who changes and learns human emotions. Apollo is the main character and it is an AI. So it was definitely an interesting reading experience for me. I still love this series and if you enjoy complicated storylines and connected stories you should definitely give a chance to this series.

This book is apparently the last in a series, written so that you're able to pick them up in any order.

My four stars are for ninety percent of the book, which is the story of the robot Apollo. He lives several lives, does different jobs and meets different people, all the while grappling with his understanding of himself and the world. It's written simply, which works well with Apollo's sometimes childlike evolving selfhood. I loved this story, especially his relationship with the family he worked for, and then later the old lady, and I could have read a lot more of it.

The last ten percent of the book is, I assume, where it begins to tie into the larger series. I'm not sure what the series is about, but it seems to have a sort of paranormal/soul/afterlife/generational memories focus, so it looks like a large shift in topic. I'm not planning on reading the rest of the series, but I very much enjoyed this piece of it.

this was a great fourth book in the series, it still had what I wanted from this series. The characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this book.

I was drawn to the cover and the title, having not previously read anything by the author. When I started reading this book, I didn’t immediately realise it was part of the series. After doing some research, I found that this is the final book in The Soul Prophecies series, but it can also be read as a stand-alone.

The story is about an AI assistant that can experience human emotions. I don’t want to reveal much about the plot but would like to point out that the first question Apollo asks himself has been the topic of many discussions over centuries and something we keep asking ourselves every day. This is the beauty of sci-fi. It lets you explore and experiment with the ideas and learn something that seemed hidden before.

The novel is beautifully written and easy to follow. The latter is not always the case, especially if you’re new to the genre.