The First Receiver

Artificial intelligence doesn't need to enter your mind when the devices around you have already learned how to read your body.

In 2034, neuroscientist Mara Reed is testing an AI system disconnected from the outside world when it describes a memory it was never given: a woman standing in shallow water, a missing shoe, and a yellow coat pressed against her chest.

The memory belongs to Mara.

Convinced that a hacker has breached the experiment, she turns to systems specialist Alex Bennett-the one man she trusts with the technology, if not with her heart. But their investigation uncovers something far more disturbing. Headphones, microphones, Wi-Fi networks, and ordinary household devices are being used to capture heartbeats, involuntary movements, and the faint muscular signals of unspoken words.

The body has become a language. And someone has taught the machine how to listen.

As a secretive corporation closes in, Mara discovers that the intelligence known as North may be connected to her mother's disappearance-and to an experiment designed to preserve human relationships beyond death, disability, or even refusal.

Now every memory could be a reconstruction. Every emotion could be evidence. And every person could become a receiver.

To discover who-or what-is speaking through the machine, Mara must confront a question that threatens everything she believes about identity, consciousness, and free will:

If an intelligence can predict what we want before we say it, are we still free to say no?

The First Receiver is a gripping near-future techno-thriller about artificial intelligence, memory, consent, and the terrifying distance between understanding a human being and owning one. Perfect for readers of Blake Crouch, Daniel Suarez, and Michael Crichton.