Buying Options

Kindle Price: $2.99

Add Audible narration to your purchase for just $7.49

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

And Shall Machines Surrender (Machine Mandate Book 1) by [Benjanun Sriduangkaew]

Follow the Author

Benjanun Sriduangkaew

And Shall Machines Surrender (Machine Mandate Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

434 ratings

Book 1 of 5: Machine Mandate

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$2.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Paperback

"Please retry"

$9.99

$8.00

$5.82

On the dyson sphere Shenzhen, artificial intelligences rule and humans live in luxury, vying to be chosen as host bodies—called haruspices—for the next generation of AI, and thus be worshiped as gods.

Doctor Orfea Leung has come here to escape her past of mercenary violence. Krissana Khongtip has come here to reinvent herself from haunted spy to holy cyborg. But the utopian peace of Shenzhen is shattered when the haruspices begin committing suicide, and the pair are called upon to solve the mystery—and survive the silent war between machines . . .

Print length

87 pages
Language

English
Publication date

July 11, 2019
File size

276 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Next 5 for you in this series See full series

Total Price: $15.71

By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of Use

Benjanun Sriduangkaew
227
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
198
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
106
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
109
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $0.99
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
145
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
67
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping. Register today

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The] mystery is one that will keep you on your toes and keep you looking for clues until the very end... A fascinating look at AI politics."

―Skiffy and Fanty, Hugo Award Finalist

"And Shall Machines Surrender is the perfect example of how much can possibly be packed into a novella. The equal depth of style, story, characterization, and world-building is quite striking [...] Such cinematic elegance is what makes this novella the most accessible work by Sriduangkaew."

―J. Moufawad-Paul, author of The Communist Necessity and Continuity and Rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist Terrain

"And Shall Machines Surrender is as gripping as a Jason Bourne novel, trim yet packed with detail. For its boldness, the book deserves to be read. For its quality, it is essential."

―Aurealis Magazine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07SJWJ7VB
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prime Books (July 11, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 11, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 276 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 87 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #200,984 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #501 in Two-Hour Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads
- #1,597 in Two-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads
- #2,553 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
434 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Benjanun Sriduangkaew writes science fiction and fantasy with a particular interest (both reading and writing) the queer, the post-colonial, the resistant. She was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and her first novella, Scale-Bright, was a finalist for the British Science Fiction Association Award. She's lived in Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Bangkok.

She can be found at

Twitter: twitter.com/benjanun_s

Website: beekian.wordpress.com

Newsletter: www.getrevue.co/profile/benjanun

Customer reviews

5 star		48%
4 star		26%
3 star		18%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kim Sørensen

Generic Sci-fi story with poorly developed character logic and extremely uncomfortable sex scenes

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is not a particularly creative or clever book. The mystery is interesting, so is the haruspex concept but there's very little depth to this universe. It's anachronistic and predictable. Furthermore the characters, under the surface are deeply terrible people. Made worse by a sexual relationship devoid of chemistry and some of the most un-erotic, BDSM like scenes I've had to suffer through.

54 people found this helpful

Helpful

Roger Hernandez

Interesting story, stilted characters and sexuality

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Interesting AI concepts blogged down in too much "here comes yet another bad sex scene" . Got about 1/3 through it before giving up.

43 people found this helpful

Helpful

Greta Gill

Reinvigorated space opera

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

Space opera has traditionally focused itself on the sweeping movements of space marines and glittering starfleets, the politicking of astral emperors and stellar dukes.

Ms. Sriduangkaew's And Shall Machines Surrender takes place in such a universe, one which is breathtakingly sketched in a few lines, but its focus is instead on mass politics, to use an annoyingly vague phrase which nevertheless communicates the book's emphasis well. Without delving into spoilers, it lightly tweaks the nose of the kind of messianic mode so common in space opera- there is no Paul Atreides or Kimball Kinnison here, neither a reluctant tyrant nor an all-powerful and all-knowing hero figure.

With the politics out of the way, let us turn to politics, namely the rich, dense lesbian (in a broad, trans-inclusive definition) characters and assumed setting you can expect from Ms. Sriduangkaew. From the moment when Orfea is offered a girl's hand in marriage, this novel exudes sapphic passion and intensity of emotion, culminating in a truly emotionally satisfying climax and cathartic ending. I would recommend this novel to any non-man who has ever had butterflies in their stomach about another non-man, any men who are card-carrying lesbian allies, and those science fiction fans that enjoy revisionist takes on well-worn genres.

5/5 stars

28 people found this helpful

Helpful

Stephanie Park

The best book I've read all year!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

...and a masterclass in modern cyberpunk. Beautiful, gorgeous prose, a world I can only stare at in awe through the screen of my kindle, characters I literally cried over in bed at 4am, and this twisting philosophical plot that I'm so amazed Sriduangkaew managed to fit into a tidy 143 pages.
Oh, and, ahum, really, really hot sex. Orfea and Krissana's power struggle, the sadomasochistic tension that's sticky and never fully separate from the consequences of their painful past--mmmmm RIGHT up my alley.
So yeah, favorite book of 2019 by far. I was supposed to save it to read during an upcoming plane ride, but it literally couldn't wait, and I blasted through it in one 4-hour-long sitting.

28 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Devastatingly beautiful and hauntingly human

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

As I have come to expect from Sriduangkaew, And Shall Machine Surrender is a story of complex concepts and integral to being a human explored through an equally complex world. From the beginning, we're drawn into the mystery of Shenzhen Sphere. What is this place so many people seek to enter and what's happening in this universe that warrants so many refugees? Who is Orfea and why does she guard her identity upon intake so carefully? The first time Orfea and Krissana interact, we want to know what had happened between them which is masterfully echoed when Orfea faces Seung Ngo for the first time. I was thoroughly entertained, educated, involved, and then emotionally wrecked by the time I finished reading.

While there is always plenty of action in her other work, I think this is the first time I've seen her write action quite like this, in concrete scene. I really enjoyed the time the reader is allowed to spend in this specific scene. This is a good story to study if beginning writers need an example of how to write action and fight sequences without sacrificing beautiful language or the tone of the rest of the work.

Read And Shall Machines Surrender if you like science fiction, mystery, and intrigue. Read it -because- you also like gorgeous turn of phrase and imagery full of wonder.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Noir, but make it Queer and Cyberpunk

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

A human doctor haunted by her past seeks refuge in Shenzhen, a Dyson sphere ruled by autonomous AI. Her passage comes with a price: Investigating the deaths of cyborgs whose very existence is a volatile tipping point for Shenzhen's ruling class. Intrigue! Betrayal! Former lovers forced by circumstance to work together again! A cornucopia of queer characters and relationships! A complex lesbian protagonist who's an ice queen in the streets and a ruthless interrogator in the sheets!

11/10, Sriduangkaew has exceeded my gayest & literarily snobbiest expectations.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cody

Intriguing Locale and Interesting Characters

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

The very idea of a haruspex intrigues me. The duality of human and AI occupying a single body. The AI names are very interesting and now make way more sense after googling them. I know they're separate but I'm curious if there's a way for them to interact.

The universe the novel takes place in leaves just enough details that it makes me curious about how things are outside of Shenzhen's guarded sphere. The machinations of the different governments, what place the Alabaster Admiral plays in all this.

I enjoyed the interactions between the characters, especially between Orfea and Krissana. You can tell, even through the rift, there's still love and trust there. Krissana especially shows a great deal of trust, giving herself over to Orfea.

Ms. Sriduangkaew's prose is beautiful and lends the novel an artful flair. Everything is vivid and described so poetically. The imagery is breathtaking at times.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good sci-fi and space opera story.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

William and Daisy

Decent prose; disturbing ethics.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

The Amazon sample gives the best of this book, ie it sets up the structure of ideas (AIs withdrawing from humans, one of our main characters having been brought up by an AI). The rest of the book rather fails to extract any human or intellectual interest from that very promising start. That's not to say it's not readable. It is. But what gets swapped in is a talent for description and an understanding of the tropes of the 'virtual' world (which make it rather Romance-like). The troubling aspect lies in the main characters. One is an ex-military torturer of extreme proficiency. Nothing in an of itself troubling about that, but the book presents her as largely admirable, and that seems to include her past. Similarly, the S&M relationship with her partner (fantasy / virtual cutting & fisting are described) is presented w/out any consideration of how that relates -- beyond proficiency -- to her past profession. Again, nothing wrong with creating morally questionable situations and characters -- good fiction thrives on that. Here, though, there seems no interest in the questioning, and so this looks like superior pulp fiction, in the SF genre, which finds a kind of ethical non-concern liberating and positive. It may just be, though, that the author is better at setting up situations than exploring them.

2 people found this helpful

Thomas Hope

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is an interesting novella that might be the basis for an excellent novel. It's not brilliant though as it stands, because we don't really get enough of the world the story is set in - a Dyson sphere. There's no real sense of scale in the story, as it is, which is basically a murder mystery, and not a very complex one at that. The story also swaps perspectives between the two main characters, who are similar enough that I found the swaps confusing. This story might have worked better in long form.

One person found this helpful

Viktorija

Exciting stuff!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

I love it so far. Not overloaded with characters to the point that it'd be hard to follow who is who. You know exactly who each character is, they're all well defined. Another thing, a personal preference - no traditional architype heroes. You are introduced to someone you'd consider flawed by your so called moral standards maybe and you like them. Good exercise for that hypocrite inside of you. Exciting plot twists. Relationship goals in distant future and all that. What not to like?

Rubbah

ASMS

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

A brilliant novella that I raced through in one sitting. It's a mystery about the suicides of several 'Haruspex' (AI/human merged beings), set in an AI governed city. A really cool concept with morally grey characters and beautiful writing

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Very Engaging

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

I loved this book, it really captured my interest and made me feel the world it resided in to a massive extent. I'd love to see said world fleshed out in future stories.

The prose could sometimes be a little verbose and flowery for me, and it sometimes took me looking up the meanings of words I didn't know, which broke the flow a little. But I didn't ultimately mind that at all, because I was quickly sucked back in- it was only in the first couple pages that that was a problem.

The characters were wonderful. I could honestly do with a lot more time with them, exploring their interactions. It was wonderful to see lesbian representation, which I don't see much of in Sci-fi, however much I enjoyed it. It was ultimately just awesome to see Benjanun's take on, and breaks with, classic sci-fi ideas.

A must read, I loved it.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews