Machina — Fran Wilde

With Earth becoming increasingly uninhabitable, humanity looks to space for salvation. In the arid California desert, two companies compete to send their robots to colonize Mars. DevLok Corporation pits their military contractor logic against Watchover’s fast-and-loose startup methods in a mad dash to see who can build the better AI. DevLok and Watchover may be bitter rivals, but scientists and staff from both mingle at the Moonshot Bar to let off steam. But, as personal tensions build and business practices get shady, there’s more than scientific discovery at stake. With a solid helping of industrial espionage, perilous workplace romance, compromised ethics, and abuses of power––as well as a robotic Swiss-Army dog––messy personal histories and cutting-edge technology collide in the midst of the most important race in human history. One company will send their AI to Mars . . . if they don’t destroy each other first.