Software — as soon as it was connected to a network — had to contend with a healthy dosage of people that abuse it. But when that software is your mind, the risk of abuse is astronomical.

All this was a precaution. Computer scientists, philosophers, futurists, writers of speculative fiction—they’d all written about the dangers of runaway superintelligence.

page 136

In the sequel to Nexus, Kade is spending much of his time dealing with small, isolated abuses of the software he helped create, but these small abuses are quickly ramping up into full-scale power struggles that Kade may not be able to stop.

Why is this on our bookshelf?

This is the second book in the series with Nexus before and Apex coming after. There is no way I wasn’t going to read this after having finished Nexus.

The first book was a fast-paced book about neurobiology and espionage and this book promised more, but with the added complexities of Kade’s decisions during the first book. I started this book nearly the moment I was done with Nexus.

Rating (4 stars)

Everything that was brilliant about Nexus continues in Crux although the balance of power continues to shift and swirl as more players come into the scene. Kade once again finds himself as an unlikely agent in a violently physical and mental battle for freedom and the very definition of humanity.