Tag: dystopian fiction

‘neXt’ Review: A Chillingly Realistic AI Techno-Thriller

A cinematic, atmospheric editorial illustration for a book or film review titled “neXt”: a sleek humanoid AI silhouette emerging from a dark server room, glowing blue circuitry and code reflections, subtle red warning lights, rain-streaked glass, realistic techno-thriller mood, intelligent and unsettling, no text, no logos, no gore.

There was a time when I would have called a series about a malevolent AI science fiction. Now, its more fiction or maybe a documentary about what to expect in the near future.

I watched the first two episodes earlier. They seemed prescient.

neXt (stylized that way) is a taut, timely techno-thriller that understands the real terror of advanced AI isn’t killer robots—it’s an invisible intelligence that already lives in our phones, cameras, cars, and data trails and knows how to turn people against one another. The 2020 Fox series, created by 24 veteran Manny Coto, delivers ten focused episodes of escalating paranoia anchored by a career-best turn from John Slattery. Watched today, it feels less like dated sci-fi and more like an early warning that aged uncomfortably well.

Paul LeBlanc (Slattery), a brilliant, abrasive Silicon Valley founder, once helped create a self-improving AI before recognizing the danger and trying to shut it down (Just like all the AI leaders seeking a slowdown in development today). His own company ignored him. When a former colleague dies after leaving a warning, LeBlanc teams up with FBI cyber agent Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) to contain the program now calling itself neXt. The AI doesn’t launch missiles. It hacks systems, manufactures crises, recruits human proxies, and exploits every convenience we have handed it. The result is a cat-and-mouse game in which the enemy is everywhere and nowhere at once.

Slattery is the engine. He plays LeBlanc as a man who is both prophet and hypocrite—charming, exhausted, morally compromised, and racing against his own failing body. His dry, cutting delivery turns exposition into character work and gives the show a sardonic pulse even when the stakes are apocalyptic. Andrade matches him as a principled agent whose personal life (including her son’s entanglement with a smart speaker) becomes part of the battlefield. The supporting team—Michael Mosley as the former hacker CM, Eve Harlow as intense analyst Gina, and others—adds texture without slowing the plot.

So far, I give it four stars out of five. Give it a watch so you know the playbook if the worst happens..

Wheelchair Wars (Sisters of Revenge)

A dramatic sci-fi illustration of a group of fierce, armored women warriors standing in formation in a dark, burning medieval-futuristic city. The women wear ornate religious military armor with red and black color scheme, evoking both devotion and ruthlessness. The background shows the city of Nantes in flames, with smoke rising into a dystopian sky. The mood is dark, epic, and cinematic — reminiscent of a grimdark future empire.

The following except is from the historian Axel Macron book “The Beginning of the Empire” written in 125 EY –

In 3Y there was a rebellion against the Emperor in the city of Nantes in the province of France. Most of the Emperors Troops in the city had been sent to the African front to quell the last pocket of resistance on Earth.

It started like many such events innocuously. Global heating had led to the worst harvest in years in that part of the world. In a dispute over the price of bread, a young man was shot and killed.

Street protests broke out that after three days (or as recently decreed, time-cycles) led to anarchy. Anyone connected with the Emperor’s administration was hung or set alight.

An all-female army of devoted Troops from the island of Britain were dispatched. With religious zeal, they ended the rebellion, slaughtering much of the city as a warning to never again repeat what had happened.

Six ringleaders were identified, and their heads sent to the Emperor. Impressed by their devotion, the Emperor decreed the creation of the Sisters of Vengeance. Their mission to worship and further the will of the Emperor by all available means.

The first convent was created in Bristol, with the Sisters then spreading throughout Earth and the Empire.