When a mysterious virus erupts across the planet, PHD student Sasha Jones finds her life thrown into chaos as it spreads through her hometown. Joining forces with their neighbors, Sasha and her conspiracy theorist brother Tony fight to navigate an increasingly hostile world of government lockdowns, media fearmongering, and roving vigilante groups.

Faced with an ill-timed romance, family conflicts, and the relentless stress and fear that pervades the country, the two families struggle to adapt as society begins to fray at the seams. And as the local vigilante group grows increasingly more extreme, Tony makes a disturbing discovery about the virus that could shake the world to its core...

As a riveting science fiction novel that reflects on meaningful questions, Project Automatica explores what happens when ordinary families are thrust into a global crisis, making it perfect for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction authors including A.G. Riddle and Andy Weir.

Editorial Review:

The BookViral Review:

A contemporary thriller that resonates with a haunting sombreness, Stanley's Project Automatica: Initiation Protocol combines the conventions of several different kinds of thrillers into one gripping story.

It's become the most familiar scare story of our time, the notion that one day a new plague will irrevocably change our lives. Yes, we are living through Covid but few of us doubt there might be worse to come and Stanley's thriller occupies that territory. A thriller that taps into high-tech genetic engineering conspiracies and is written with an appealing human dimension.

The chronology is fairly straightforward: alarmist breaking news, escalating global infection rates and the struggle to produce a vaccine but it's beyond this that Stanley introduces a clever twist with his chilling conspiracy thread.

As readers we know we are being manipulated, we know the real-world parallels to Stanley's story, but he is particularly skillful at telling the story through the lives of several key characters and the casual interactions of many others. His characters are well written and easy to envisage and through them, he reminds us that people do not "give" one another a virus; a virus is a life form evolved to seek out new hosts-as it must to survive, which in turn makes the conspiracy thread of his story feel alarmingly real.

Recommended for fans of A.G. Riddle and Andy Weir Project Automatica: Initiation Protocol proves a first-class read with the promise of more to come. It is highly recommended!