Hello
my appearance on "the quill and the quantum"
I was honored to be a guest on Kathy Norris's podcast, Authors on the Air / The Quill & the Quantum, talking about artificial intelligence and artificial emotion.
now an audiobook narrated by dion graham
As reviewed in Audiofile Magazine:
"This second novel in the David Blum thriller series is narrated by Dion Graham with the perfect mixture of hope and menace."
THE BILLION DOLLAR SUGAR CUBE - ai meets Artificial emotion
Click on the link below for a 60 second promo clip
Click on the cover image to purchase on Amazon
Goodreads Reviews: "Mind-blowing" "Fast-paced and spine-chilling"
Kirkus Review: “… an engaging portrayal of artificial emotion—one that’s as provocative as it is terrifyingly plausible.”
From Libby Fischer Hellmann, Award-Winning Author of "Compulsively Readable Thrillers":
"What a ride! Charles Jacobs’ winning sophomore thriller, The Billion Dollar Sugar Cube, proves that Jacobs is here to stay. The story is eerily prescient and so plausible it’s probably already happening. His characters, both male and female, are both brave and vulnerable, and his writing is professional and assured. You will not be able to put this down – I wasn’t."
WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER BELOW . . .
In this sequel to The Pangaea Solution, David Blum once again battles the shadowy Global Futures Alliance and their plans for reshaping humanity. Partnering with fellow agent Tina Santini, the pair uncovers a diabolical new plot to integrate artificial intelligence with “The Sugar Cube,” a massive optical computer configured to experience artificial emotion. The GFA’s goal? Dissect the internal language of the brain and synthesize sounds that can drive people to extreme emotional states. As a colonel at the U.S. Army War College warns them, combining such signals with targeted social media could prove more profound to the future of global warfare than even nuclear weapons.
From London, Northern Virginia and Maryland, to Cuba and Honduras, the team pursues the scientists and operatives hell-bent on launching and winning the next world war. As the final seconds tick down, Blum must pit his mental strength against that of the Cube itself, knowing he might die in the process.
janet irvin's july author of the month
Jane Irvin, author of A Principle of Light, Carrion, Broken and other works, has chosen me as her July 2023 Author of the Month. Check it out, along with everything else on her website:
Author of the Month - From the Write Side (janetirvin.com)
Here is my review of Principle of Light:
Set during the political turmoil of Turkey in 2016, A Principle of Light tells the story of photojournalist Jeannie Maurillac and dissident poet Nilesen Yilmaz Solaganian fleeing the authorities after witnessing politically instigated bombing in Istanbul. Their struggle to escape and tell their stories—Jeannie through her photography and Nilesen through her poetry—takes them on a frenzied journey across Turkey, pursued by thieves and government thugs.
Irvin’s writing is a deft blending of gritty, concrete details and poetic metaphors as we follow the protagonists struggles for love and survival. Integrated into that are reflective passages of actual poetry (as told through the writing of Nilesen) and an overarching framework of the metaphorical properties of light itself—refraction, diffraction, light, and dark. One passage I particularly liked was when one of the characters comments that the conflict in Turkey has fractured the country into separate pieces the same way a prism splits white light into its constituent colors.
The end result is a journey that is both exhausting and rewarding.
the Pangaea solution
Available everywhere books are sold!
Amazon Barnes and Noble Smashwords
Or order it from your neighborhood bookstore!
Click on the book to the right to see the video trailer!
. . . Reviews are positive
" …plot hurtles along at an agreeably swift pace, never lagging, always delivering ...well-crafted and engaging bioweapon tale."— Kirkus Reviews
"This is an incredible debut novel that promises a great series. Interesting, entertaining, and simply amazing."
5 STARS Rabia Tranveer for Readers' Favorite
"An impressive thriller with potential for a sequel. A deft blending of action and science helmed by a believable everyday hero."
Union Square Review
" With The Pangaea Solution, Charles Jacobs delivers a fast-paced, joy ride of a novel, compelling on many levels."
William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author
"The thriller world has a new must-read author!"
Libby Fischer Hellmann, award-winning author of 15 novels
What would you do if you thought you knew how to save humanity from pending extinction? What if you had to kill someone to do it? What about a thousand people? A million? Six million? If your success hinged on it, would you be willing to enlist the help of an evil person who shared your goal, but none of your values?
A note from a nervous stranger sends former FBI agent turned wealth advisor David Blum on a journey to discover the truth behind his father’s recent death. All clues point to Otto Feldmann, a world-renowned professor of genetics at the University of Illinois and former acquaintance of his father’s.
Further digging leads Blum to Kay Westfield, a charming bank executive who years earlier witnessed a bizarre explosion on Feldmann’s experimental farm. As Blum and Westfield work together to unravel the labyrinth of funding behind the professor’s research center, a picture emerges of a monstrous plot by a shadowy international think tank to infect millions of people. But then, in a final showdown deep below the professor’s nightmare greenhouse, Blum discovers that the actual plan is infinitely more profound than anything he had imagined, forcing him to confront his own sense of morality.
All the while, Feldmann’s research assistant, a math prodigy with hidden ties to a violent, white-supremacist movement has been busy applying stochastic modeling to optimize the global distribution of the virus--permanently altering the human race and fulfilling the Pangaea Solution
From William Kent Krueger:
"With The Pangaea Solution, Charles Jacobs delivers a fast-paced, joy ride of a novel, compelling on many levels. Not only are readers treated to all the twists they expect in a riveting thriller, they’ll also find lots of food for thought along the way. For those who love to feast on conspiracy theory, The Pangaea Solution is guaranteed to satisfy even the heartiest of appetites. This is a fine debut novel from an author worth watching."
From Libby Fischer Hellmann:
"The thriller world has a new must-read writer! Charles Jacobs, debut author of The Pangaea Solution, delivers a smoothly written, suspense-filled story that will keep you turning pages well into the night. When David Blum, a former FBI agent turned financial analyst, comes home to Champaign, Illinois, after the death of his father, a note from an academic indicates his father did not die from a heart attack. Unable to find the note’s author, Blum keeps looking and discovers pieces of a plot that eventually lead to a terrifying climax. Quite the thriller ride, The Pangaea Solution is well worth your time. I loved it."
Check out more reviews at gooodreads.com:
