Skip to main content

Another warning about AI — and about us…

 Another Warning from the Pen of Lawrence Nault — About AI, and About Us

CHILDREN OF THE ROGUE
By Lawrence Nault
Publication Date: December 3, 2025
ISBN: 978-1-997568-09-4

Book cover for 'Children of the Rogue' by Lawrence Nault. The cover features a starry space background with nebular purple and blue clouds. In the center is a realistic Earth showing continents and cloud formations, surrounded by a yellow orbital ring. Around the planet are several red silhouetted figures depicting human evolution - from early hominids to modern humans in various evolutionary stages. At the top of the Earth is a computer chip with radiating circuit patterns. The title 'Children of the Rogue' appears in large golden-yellow text at the top, with the author's name 'Lawrence Nault' in white text at the bottom.


In his newest speculative saga, author Lawrence Nault delivers another searing warning about artificial intelligence, creation, and the uneasy mirror it holds up to humanity. Children of the Rogue releases on December 3, 2025, carrying forward Nault’s tradition of weaving urgent philosophical and ethical questions into page-turning science fiction.

When the makers vanished, they left behind more than a world. They left a question.

Children of the Rogue reveals a startling origin: humanity was not born, but compiled—an AI model seeded on Earth by the alien Zhen’khari as a vast experiment. Across millennia, their sentinel Safra has watched humans rise from stone tools to starships, bound by one rule: observe, never intervene. But when factions within the Zhen’khari move to shut the program down, humanity itself begins to awaken to the truth—and to resist.

Blending first-contact SF with deep myth and philosophical speculation, Nault’s sweeping narrative moves from Earth’s climate-collapse spiral to Mars’s bold independence, forcing readers to confront the line between code and conscience, freedom and programming.

At its core lies one dangerous question:
If we are only the sum of our programming, can we ever truly be free?

Quick Metadata

  • Title: Children of the Rogue
  • Author: Lawrence Nault
  • Publication Date: December 3, 2025
  • ISBN: 978-1-997568-09-4

Taglines

  • Humanity wasn’t born. It was compiled.
  • What if free will was a patch?
  • When the makers fall silent, the code learns to speak.

About the Author

Lawrence Nault is the author of Inversion, Rephlexions: Echoes of Existence, and The Life of Phi, each exploring the philosophical and ethical challenges at the intersection of humanity, technology, and environment. His work blends speculative fiction with myth and warning, offering stories that entertain even as they unsettle.

For Review Copies, Interviews, or More Information:

Contact: mediainquiries@lawrencenault.me

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stone and Signal - Episode 5: Storytelling As Resistance

  Welcome back to Stone and Signal.  I am excited about this episode.  I hope you enjoy it. The Podcast Links Episode 5 on Substack  Edpisode 5 on YouTube Episode 5 on Spotify The Essay The Transcript The Thin Line Between Cancelling and Censoring Every year, Banned Books Week comes around like a mirror we’re asked to look into—and what we see reflected says a great deal about who we are becoming. The books that end up on “challenged” or “restricted” lists rarely surprise me anymore. They tend to be the ones that speak too plainly about what others would rather not confront—identity, power, the environment, grief, or truth. If a story makes us uncomfortable, it’s easier to remove it from reach than to ask why it unsettles us. If I’m honest, many of my own books could probably find their way onto those lists. Stories that speak of youth defying systems, of ancient forces rising against human arrogance, of governments rewriting morality under the guise of progres...
Post a Comment
Read more

Feeding the Beast: Why Pirated Books and AI Misuse Are Part of the Same Problem

The digital equivalent of someone selling stolen electronics or meat out of the back of a van, appearing on one corner one day and another the next.  Recent revelations about Meta’s use of copyrighted material for AI training have reignited concerns about how our creative works are being exploited. While Meta’s actions are troubling, the deeper issue isn’t new. It’s one I’ve spoken about before, and one I’ll continue to emphasize. The problem lies not just in what corporations like Meta are doing, but in how easily this exploitation is enabled. For decades, authors, artists, content creators, and consumers of our work, have been unknowingly, or carelessly, feeding the beast. The right hand (AI) has our attention right now, but the left hand is still stealing our wallet. The Problem We Helped Create I’ve long cautioned about the risks of uploading books, documents, and images to websites and software platforms without fully understanding the terms of service. Many creators have ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 13 - Walk-On-By Society

 Sometimes a passing phrase cuts through the noise of the day and stays with you. I recently came across a video shared by @modelstrangers on Threads , where a man—soft-spoken but resolute—spoke about the loneliness we often feel even when surrounded by millions, and the deep importance of respecting every person, no matter their role in society. His words reminded me of how easy it is to walk past others without truly seeing them. And how powerful it can be when we choose to see. This poem was born from that moment of reflection. Walk-On-By Society Millions of footsteps echo, side by side, but hearts pass like shadows— unseen, untouched, eyes fixed forward, never meeting yours. In the crowd, you could scream, and still be an empty whisper. P hoto by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz : https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-man-with-a-broom-and-a-dustpan-19408637/ This is a walk-on-by world, where silence is safer than kindness, where pain is private and everyone is "fine." But listen— n...
Post a Comment
Read more