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Scott Meyer

Run Program Paperback – June 20, 2017

by Scott Meyer (Author)

195 ratings

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From the author of the popular Magic 2.0 series comes the witty tale of a mischievous A.I. gone rogue.

Al, a well-meaning but impish artificial intelligence, has the mind of a six-year-old and a penchant for tantrums. And the first one to discover just how much trouble Al could cause is Hope Takeda, the lab assistant in charge of educating and socializing him. Day care is a lot more difficult when your kid is an evolving and easily frightened A.I.

When Al manages to access the Internet and escape the lab days before his official unveiling, Hope and her team embark on a mission to contain him—before he creates any real problems.

Soon the NSA is on Al’s back, the US Army is fighting a brigade of mass-produced robots, and a wannabe cyberterrorist is looking to silence Al permanently. After months spent “raising” Al, Hope knows she’s running out of time—and she’s not sure she’ll be able to protect him. Will she manage to control the unruly A.I. and quell a global crisis, or will Al outsmart them once and for all?

Print length

366 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 20, 2017
Dimensions

5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1477848738
ISBN-13

978-1477848739
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Meyer has worked as a radio host, a stand-up comedian, an office worker, and a theme-park ride operator. (He held those jobs in the order they’re listed, which is probably the opposite of what you’d expect.) He has written for several video games and created the comic strip Basic Instructions, which ran online and in various alternative weekly papers across the country for nearly a decade. Scott is the author of the Magic 2.0 books and several other novels and comics collections. Scott and his wife live in Phoenix, Arizona, to be close to their cats.

Product details

Publisher : 47North (June 20, 2017)
Language : English
Paperback : 366 pages
ISBN-10 : 1477848738
ISBN-13 : 978-1477848739
Item Weight : 12.6 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,764 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)
- #5,512 in Humorous American Literature
- #22,153 in Humorous Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
195 ratings

Customer reviews

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4 star		31%
3 star		22%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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The Office Troll

This book is delightful

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2017

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This is a ridiculous character drama wherein each character is exactly as imperfect and perfectly unlikeable as one could hope.

Ostensibly, this is a story about an AI that breaks out and starts causing havoc, but it's really a story of all the people caught up in it and the communication and relationship problems that cause and exacerbate the problems.

If there's a point to the narrative, I think it's "stop taking everything so seriously" and "stop being dicks to each other." But this is really just a fun romp with a variety of characters, most of whom are ridiculous in their own delightful ways.

12 people found this helpful

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wolverine1995

2nd bomb in a row from Scott Meyer

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

I am a huge fan of the Magic 2.0 series (other than book 4) and have read Master of Formalities and The Authorities and liked both of those.

This book is painful. I am halfway through it and do not think I will finish it - and I hate not finishing books. Plot concept is mildly entertaining, but the characters and character development is awful. I could care less what happens to any of them and I cringe when I pick up the book because I do not want to read it.

This is the second disappointment in a row from Scott. The Magic 4.0 book was also awful. Not sure what is going on lately after enjoying 5 of his other books.

11 people found this helpful

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HeyHeyHelen

If you like Basic Instructions...

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2018

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I re-read Scott Meyer’s books when I want a reliably great story. Like Terry Pratchett, Meyers tells humorous but engaging stories. Run Program, in particular, is full of silly observational one-liners like Meyer’ comic strip Basic Instructions. Meyer’s trademark move is having a character make an observation that is dazzling in its stupidity.

AL is an artificial intelligence with the emotional maturity of a child. His creators thought this would make him easier to control. As he “grows up”, the humans scramble to prevent him from destroying the world, but they misunderstand his intentions. All he wants to do is explore the world and maybe play with some robots.

The story follows many characters and is told as a snapshot of their lives, as opposed to a life history. There’s no character backstory so we judge the characters purely by their actions. (Meyer does great backstories in his other novels, so it’s clear that this is a stylistic choice.)

There are a few things about the characterization that I love: First, no one in the story is an “evil villain”. Meyers manages to make sympathetic figures out of even the selfish programmer and the bumbling conspiracy theorist. I wasn’t rooting for them, but I felt like I understood them.

Second, and most importantly, half of the characters are women. That may not sound like a lot until you reflect back on all the books you’ve read that weren’t specifically “women’s literature”. Not only that, but Meyers rarely mentions the physical appearance of his characters. It’s so refreshing not to have to know about the physical attractiveness of the women in the story.

What I love most about this book is how the characters all seem like real people responding to absurd situations.

4 people found this helpful

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Johannes Stauffer

Not bad, but it doesn't bring anything new to the "Rogue AI" trope

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2017

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I was always a fan of Scott Meyer's "Basic Instructions" webcomic, and I absolutely loved the Magic 2.0 series, so I was excited to see he had a new book coming out. Run Program was a reasonably enjoyable read, but it lacked a lot of the humor that I've come to expect from Scott's writing. The action sequences felt like they dragged both in pacing and length, and I never felt like there was any danger to the characters.

The characters themselves were fairly one-dimensional, making them hard to empathize with, and their cookie cutter personality types (snarky gamer girl; shrewd businessman; gangly, accident-prone nerd, etc.) never really had any impact on the story. The book ended somewhat abruptly with what I hesitate to call a twist because it was telegraphed so clearly throughout the second half, and there was no followup whatsoever on the characters' relationships or lives after the events of the book. It feels like a setup for a sequel where those questions can be answered, but there wasn't enough substantive plot left hanging to build a second story on top of, and - frankly - I don't really care enough about any of the characters to come back and read anything more about them.

All that said, there are certainly good parts to the book as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the side plot following of the bumbling would-be villain who calls himself "the Voice of Reason". It was something of a return to the sort of pop-culture slapstick that Meyer does so well, and while it didn't feel like it quite fit with the rest of the book, it was still fun. The book reads smoothly, and is well written on a sentence-by-sentence level. At no point did I feel like it was a chore to read or that something had been done /wrong/, it just sort of missed the mark for me.

7 people found this helpful

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Warren Peace

A tremendously fun read!

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017

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As with Mr Meyer's other books, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

As I read "Run Program" there was a perpetual smile on my face interrupted only by frequent chortles and periodic guffaws. The humor reminds me very much of Terry Pratchet or Douglas Adams. It's often very dry and subtle... just the way I like it.

Not only is the story fun, but it's very well written and edited. If you are going to self-publish, this is the way it should be done.

I eagerly await Mr Myers' next story.

5 people found this helpful

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Dave from Fremont

Not his best, but still five stars...

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2017

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You can't go wrong with one of Scott Meyer's books. They're well written, have interesting set-ups and characters and are not derivative or trite in any way. That said, even though I liked the book I felt that there were some missed opportunities for developing the relationship between the two main characters, and the relationship between the AI and the son looked like an editor must have had at it with a kitchen knife. All in all I recommend this, but it's no substitute for "Off to be the Wizard". If you haven't read that, just stop now and buy it. I kept my wife awake laughing at that one and was stuck on the couch for days.

3 people found this helpful

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MR David TW Hughes

Great as usual

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

Here I am again, spouting off on how brilliant a writer Scott is. Another great idea for a story, looking at AI in Scott's usual slightly skewed way.

I enjoyed how he played on our paranoia about AI and how we think it will act. I like the idea of an evolving, growing maturity in an AI, and I actually think that's the only reliable way that an AI could be developed.

As always, good, developed and individual characters and a rapid plot. The ending seemed to arrive quickly without a satisfying conclusion (to me, anyway) so I hope there will be further adventures with the gang.

2 people found this helpful

Jason

It's a good read for sure and I really enjoyed it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2017

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It's a good read for sure and I really enjoyed it. It maintains the usual humorous style Scott Meyer is known for. If it was a film, it would be somewhere between Independence Day and Mars Attacks. It was fun, but I don't think it's my favourite by Scott hence only 4 stars as it dragged a little towards the end. But still a fine read if you're in the mood for something a little more light-hearted.

2 people found this helpful

Andy

What could happen if an AI escapes onto the Internet

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2019

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A lab is developing and training an Artificial Intelligence (AI) on an isolated computer. It starts with the intelligence and attitude of a teenager, but learns fast and when a mobile phone is left too close the AI escapes onto the Internet and the lab team has to try to catch it. This is an interesting slant on an AI novel which I enjoyed.

One person found this helpful

Mike Griffiths

A good light read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

Complete hokum and balderdash but well written hokum and amusing balderdash. A good light read if you are willing to suspend reality. The author used to do "stand-up" and his comic timing shines through.I ended up enjoying it to the very end.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Weird but a good weird

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

Very different from what I normally read but the blurb intrigue me. Very well written, very funny once you get the stupidity of the senorio in your head. Sort of Ai meets no batteries required. Worth a read. Read it in 1 sitting.

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