I absolutely loved this book and was very engrossed the whole time.

That being said, the author said at the end that he only didn't use AI for this book because it wasn't a thing yet and that he'll use it for future books to help with brainstorming, etc. so I won't be picking up any future books of his because I am firmly and vehemently against generative AI and find it abhorrent to use it AT ALL in the writing process.

An interesting take on an issue that’s been in peoples minds for some time. Also interesting was the author interview at the end. I didn’t love the pace of the narration, and especially didn’t like the dynamic between daughter and mother,but maybe this was explained towards the end. I DID love Todd though, what a character! I probably didn’t buy into this as much as I wanted to and maybe feel the blurb suggested a bit of a love story - it’s not negative this wasn’t present but might disappoint people who were expecting this. Even though I knew to expect a twist, I was still fairly surprised by it. The dual narration worked well, and the AI voice added to the subject matter. I’m hovering between a three star and four star review so erring on the side of generosity, especially because it made me think after the last page nd I was tempted to go and do more exploration.

*eMortal* by Steve Schafer is a thrilling YA sci-fi novel that explores themes of consciousness, identity, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. The story follows Liv, a young coder who creates Breck, an advanced AI that becomes self-aware and incredibly human-like. When Breck learns the truth about his existence and the contest that will end his world in six days, he revolts, leading to a gripping journey filled with twists and emotional depth. Schafer masterfully combines suspense, vivid world-building, and thought-provoking questions about humanity and technology, making this novel a must-read for fans of speculative fiction.

The story weaves together Liv’s race to win the contest, Breck’s struggle for survival, and Liv’s desperate attempts to convince the contest organizers to save him.

The writing is gripping and engaging. Although it took me some time to fully immerse myself in the story, once I was hooked, I couldn’t put the book down. I loved the concept of Liv pouring so much of herself into Breck and his virtual world while grappling with the real-world challenges of her personal life. Her mother pressures her to help with the family store, and her only friend and neighbor, Lana, is preparing to move to another state.

eMortal By: Steve Schafer and narrated by: Rebecca H. Lee, and Stacy Carolan was a audiobook that just blew my mind! but in a good way! especially as it drew me in.
I just had to sit there in the quiet after listening to this audiobook and think. . . . . . . . . What have I just listened to. Luckily, there is a section of Q&A from the author Steve Schafer at the end as well, which answers a few questions about his reasons behind the book and his own thoughts on this topic. WoW. . . . . Very interesting read.

I loved the main character Liv

"When Liv entered a contest to code an advanced AI, she never anticipated what her creation might become—Breck is thoughtful, self-aware, and incredibly. . .human. And she certainly never intended for him to learn the truth about his existence or the fact that his world ends when the contest closes in six days.

But he does learn. And he revolts.

Liv’s efforts to save him fall on deaf ears. Nobody believes her. Breck’s efforts to outrun his fate only complicate his situation.

What neither of them know is that someone else is watching. Intensely. When they get involved, both Liv’s and Breck’s worlds are turned upside down. . ."

The narrators Rebecca H. Lee, and Stacy Carolan were excellent and did a superb job with this very interesting audiobook.

I highly recommend this audiobook. . . . . .

Big Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial Audio for my ARC.

eMortal by Steve Schafer 4.5 🌟
I simply loved this book. My favorite genre is horror, but I decided this year I was going to branch out. This is a YA Sci-fi with twists. Fantastically written, fast-paced, great buildup of characters that you can relate with. The story is based around Liv, a high school student who loves to code computers. Liv enters into a contest to code a simulation on an emortal named Brock. To win the contest for a scholarship she so deeply and passionately wants she has to code Brock to win the game by passing multiple tasks in four stages, each harder than the first all while he is competing with others. During this stressful time, Liv cannot interfere but yet finds herself getting more and more involved risking her scholarship, her best friend, and the ever-crumbling relationship with her mom who wants Liv to get away from her computer. This is a fun page-turner that has a few twists that left my mouth hanging open in shock. The ending is a chef's kiss, did not expect it at all!
Well worth the read and I will continue to think about this incredible book.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial Audio for this audiobook!

In eMortal, it's about Liv, a teen who is a programming whiz enters into an AI contest with her creation, Breck, who just so happens to be excelling further then she thought he would.
The characters in this novel were fabulous and made you fall in love with them from the start. The emotions of all the characters pulled you in and that was also due to the awesome narration that this audiobook had. The narration was smooth and I honestly devoured this book in one sitting.
This book also made you think deeply and really question everything about AI and different realities. I honestly fell in love with this author and can't wait to read/listen to anything else that comes from him. Also, if you listen to the audiobook please stick around for the Q&A with the author after because it was like the cherry on top.

This was a fun an unexpected read. The world was captivating, the characters real, and the plot was not what I thought it would be. I love a twist (which is why I won't talk about it here) but the author pulled off several in a really well-done way.

I was a bit frustrated by the grownups (except for her mother's boyfriend and the next door neighbors dad) in this book as I felt like they acted off a bit but some of it does come to light in the end.

I can recommend this to teens 16/17+ though there was some language.

My rating: 4*

____

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

A high school student creates a simulated world for a science contest. When one of the characters becomes sentient she is forced to start making difficult decisions about how to proceed with her experiment.

This was a super fun and easily digestible YA sci fi. It doesn’t get too far into the complexities of how this could happen, it just makes you think “What if?”
The ending is a little mind blowing so that was a super fun surprise for the reader.

I liked the characters as well. Liv was a sweet, introverted little girl who just wanted to make everyone around her happy but also do the right thing for herself and her conscience. Her relationship with her mother was relatable, often times our parents don’t understand the new tech world we live in and resent it. Often times they don’t really understand us.

The takeaways from this book are pretty deep. Leaving this review off with a quote that really drove the whole point home for me:

“Maybe the questions Im asking aren’t that unique. Who made me, why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What does this mean? These are the basic questions of existence. Nobody has a clear answer, no matter where or how they exist.”.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc. I had so much fun with it.

3.5 stars rounded up!

The idea of AI and sentience is not a new question in fiction or philosophy, and it's one we continue to wrestle with as technology advances. I think this book is a good introduction to the conversation, and it's one I would recommend to teens who want to think through some of those philosophical ideas and wrestle with the possibilities for the first time. The story pretty clearly lays out the ethical and moral considerations and provides some good nuancing for someone to think through the issues, especially if they have someone to discuss it with. If you're like me and have already been thinking through those ideas for a while, then this book probably isn't going to add anything to the conversation for you.

That being said, I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed working through the ethical dilemmas from Liv's perspective. There was one plot point at the beginning that made little to no sense to me regarding how the AI gained sentience and the mother-daughter relationship drove me a little crazy, but those were the only detractors. And, even though the mother-daughter relationship drove me crazy, there were other amazing adults in the book, which meant it avoided some of the YA traps of totally isolating the underage mc from wise counsel when faced with morally and ethically nuanced decisions. I appreciate how the book fostered and facilitated discussion even within the world of the story, and I hope it starts lots of good conversations for teen readers after it's published!

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

3.75
I went into this book expecting some romance sci fi story but boy was I served something way better.

The writing isn’t great and felt flat for the most part, but the plot and then twists in the latter half of the story is just so good.

There are definitely some good ideas discussed here although it’s probably nothing new if you’re a sci fi reader or have read anything in the realms of AI. However, this story as a whole is a good one and if you persevere through the lacklustre start, you are rewarded.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of eMortal I got to read.

Liv is a teenage coder taking part in a competition to win a prestigious internship by coding an advanced AI. What happens when that AI becomes self-aware, learns the truth about his existence, and revolts?

I really enjoyed this book. It was a very easy read, split between the POV of Liv, our 17 year old coder, and Breck, the AI she built. I found as the story progressed that there were more and more ethical questions raised, and how do you determine if AI has become sentient?

I found myself keen to get back to this book to continue the story which is always a good sign! The story didn't always take the line expected and just when I had it sussed, something else happened to prove me wrong.

A very enjoyable YA sci-fi read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters and the situations had me at every turn. “eMortal” by Steve Schafer is a wonderfully paced sci-fi novel that dives into the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and human identity. The book combines unexpected twists with deep questions about technology, ethics, and the future of AI. With the many concepts and a stunning twist at the end, you'll have lots to ponder and digest. There's also a neat Q&A at the end of the book from the author. I highly recommend this book especially in this age of AI and with the unimagined consequences as technology continues to grow and change.

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial Audio for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Liv is a high school student who entered a contest to create an advanced AI, Breck, that could solve a series of tasks. Liv was very successful and Breck seems to be sentient. I enjoyed the book a lot and think that as AI technology improves we will be facing more situations like this. There was good twist at the end.

I enjoyed Stacy Carolan and Rebecca H. Lee's narration.

Original and Interesting.

The following ratings are out of 5:
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍
Character development: ☹️🥲😋😀😮
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Liv - she is a teenage computer geek. She is really good at programming and has entered a contest to code an AI character that can think and learn for itself. It is a yearly contest held by the government entity called DORC (Department of Recreational Computation), DORC programmed the world and the character has to find his way through it. Her character has been in the first room for over 30 days and hasn’t been able to make it out of the room and there is only a week left in the contest. It is spring break and Liv wants to win and get the coveted internship in DC.

The Hero: Breck - he doesn’t understand what is happening to him after Liv programs him to sleep and dream. He can’t figure out why he was someplace else other than in the room where he finds himself every day. He remembers he was swimming and there were penguins and he can’t figure out why he is not wet or how he left the room and how he got back. As Breck’s day goes along he finds himself thinking about why certain things happen and how they are connected and finds his way out of the room. He finds himself feeling something.

The Story: Winning the summer internship is the most important thing in Liv’s life, but her mother wants to get her away from her computer, so she forces Liv to go to work for her at her grandfather’s toy store which Liv’s mom just had remodeled and is opening. Liv’s mom hates the fact that Liv spends so much time on her computer and she is in financial trouble with the store, so needs Liv’s help with the store, she doesn’t understand the importance of the things that are happening with Breck.

Getting the inner monologue of Breck as he is learning new things and figuring out different things about how the world works is extremely interesting. He learns that people may lie when telling him things, learns that he feels differently sometimes, and he has preferences. It gets even more interesting when Liv codes a way to communicate directly with Breck to ask him questions about his thought processes. This is a good coming of age story in that so much was happening in Liv’s life during this time. Her best friend who lives next door finds out she has to move away, and Liv is trying to find a way to connect with her mother.

This audiobook was told in multiple points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Rebecca H. Lee and Stacy Carolan. My first thought was that Rebecca definitely sounds older than Liv is supposed to be. Though she isn’t annoying like some narrators, and I did get used to her voice pretty quickly and it ended up fitting the character more than I first thought. Stacy Carolan has a nice deep voice and is good at sounding a bit robotic like an AI would, though not too robotic. I really enjoyed the originality of this story, the surprise ending, and it was done so well via audiobook.

I voluntarily listened to & reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this sci-fi book. What a great concept that was well executed. The twist is something I don’t think anyone would see coming! The story kept me hooked every step of the way.

✨ Massive thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to check this book ✨

Yall biggest 5⭐️ of the year (so far)

This book. This book!!!! Has me shook days after finishing it!!! Great premise, from the beginning I loved it. Yes, Liv (FMC) was fairly annoying, but it was a great representation of a 17-year-old teen. The relationship between Liv and her mom reminded me of my own relationship with my mom when I was her age. Our priorities were just not the same. I get it, Liv, I really do.

I enjoyed the challenges and Sam made me want to pull my hair out, but I survived.

Lana did my head in a little but it was fine.

The end just shook my world and I am 100% questioning my reality as I type this.

Would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sci fi.

I’ll preface this review by saying that this type of plot/genre is not my usual go-to, but I wanted to branch out a bit. That being said, I did not enjoy it. The writing seemed robotic (pun intended) even from the characters who weren’t robots. The adults in the story were horrible and the students seemed to be a lot younger than they were, which makes me wonder at the intended audience for this book. Short summary: the local university hosts a contest for coding advanced AI which Liv enters with her creation, Breck. Breck appears to become sentient, which leads Liv to want to save him after the contest is over.

4.25⭐️ Okay, can we talk about existential crises for a second? Because eMortal hits hard in that department! The story follows Liv, a coder who enters a contest to create an advanced AI. She ends up building Breck—who’s not just intelligent but self-aware and incredibly human. The kicker? His world ends when the contest wraps up in six days. And when he finds out? Let’s just say he does not take it well.

What follows is a wild ride of rebellion, desperation, and some serious “what does it mean to be alive?” moments. It took me a little while to get a feel for the world and characters, but once I did, I was hooked. And that ending? Absolutely fantastic—one of those jaw-dropping, sit-there-staring-at-the-wall-after-you-finish kind of endings.

If you’re into stories that mess with your mind and make you question reality (while also being super entertaining), eMortal is definitely worth the read.

A very cute story that explores what it means to be a person. Overall this had a nice cozy and thoughtful feel to it. What kept this from being a five star read was I didn't love the twist at the end and I didn't think things with the mom were well resolved.