If AI wrote the next Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Richard Osman cosy murder —would you read it? Would you recommend it? Could you fall in love with it?​
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I've been thinking about these questions this week.
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On Monday my editor, Kathy, alerted me to some potentially exciting news...
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​Sam & Pam had featured me on their New Book Radar:

Cue immediate dopamine rush.
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I then listened to hear quite extraordinary insights from The Monkey State which ran over 16 minutes. They ranged from:
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​> "The Bird is never fully explained but it seems to represent a kind of escape, a way out of the confines of Tierra Libre."
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> "The novel underscores how controlling knowledge is one of the most effective tools of any authoritarian regime."
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> "Maude is a total badass!" < very true 🤣​
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I was all set to share this with my new friend—social media.

Only there's one major issue.
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It gives away almost the entire plot!
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Now I'll let you be your own judge but if you haven't finished the book I'd recommend turning off before the spoilers. On this link you can head to your listening app of choice. If you're a YouTube fan like me you can listen here.
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Quite how AI has achieved this level of quality I don't know.

It made a few mistakes but a human podcaster could do the same. Yet the threads it wove were pretty impressive. I'll certainly be stealing a few monkey nuts for copywriting.
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A next step is obviously for AI to write a novel from scratch. It's clearly possible. Would it still have the same magic?

I really don't know.

All the best from Oxford.

Until next Sunday,

– J. R. Roberts

P.S. Book orders have gone over 130 (80% paperback), Kindle Unlimited page reads over 1000 and 7 Amazon ratings have come in. Thank you again if you've contributed to this or offered kind words of support. It's been an enjoyable swing through the canopy so far. Next on my to do list is finishing off a course about 'getting reviews'. These are gold dust for debut authors but I'm learning there's an art to the process...