Novel Excerpt

A Short Passage from C Square

Lessons from Frankenstein

Cover art by Steve Gilewski/Property of bearly designed llc

C Square, a novel I wrote with Paul Barone in 2017, has won three best fiction/best book awards since December 2022. I have been reviewing the manuscript in preparation for the book to be re-issued.

Paul approached me with the idea of writing a novel using the themes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to address technological advances in the twenty-first century. He supplied knowledge of the direction AI and other tech are headed as well as plot points and thorough notes on revisions.

The novel has three components:

• Chapters Alpha through Omega present the story of geneticist Dr. Susannah Markovic, who discovers she is not who she thinks she is.
• Personal Log entries of Ben Nilsson, in reverse chronological order from July 5, 2101, to October 1, 2035, reflect the impact of tech changes on the average family, although we learn his is not an average family.
• Twelve chapters of the biography of Dr. Adam Nilo, a researcher who accidentally creates a sentient artificial intelligence named Arthur when he programs a machine designed to help the scientist perfect humankind.

Philosophical arguments and specific details are woven into the piece. As postmodern…