For Emma: A Novel

A year after Emma Henson, a young, genius bio-tech scientist, dies in a covert AI brain-chip experiment, her father Josh has nothing left to live for and vows to get revenge on the Silicon Valley CEO responsible.    Josh has thirty days to make his home-made bombs and to say goodbye to his life. To give himself courage in the countdown, he records daily video messages to his lost "Em." He is fueled by the horrific memories of Em’s death—her body and brain devoured by the AI "infinity" system in its quest for immortality. Memories flood him as he searches for the moments in Emma’s short life where he could have been a better father and saved her.   As he grapples with constructing and testing his DIY bombs, his thirty days start to run out, and Emma’s voice returns to him, speaking with him as he sets to complete his mission. He worries that he’s gone insane—he doubts if he can see the violent act through—but Emma’s voice insists he continue on his path toward murder and mayhem. Josh tries to resist his daughter’s voice as it attempts to take full control of his body. But is it even her? Or is it a ghost, a psychotic delusion or the AI system that is controlling him?   Inspired by the real-life Brain Chip Implant experiments (Musk/Neuralink) and the technogothic tradition (Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Island of Dr Moreau), For Emma is a tale of possession by a new force unleashed by science. It is a warning for the future but also an intimate, heart-breaking study of the love between a father and daughter and of the madness that grief can drive us to.   Read more