San Francisco, 2051.
Rising like neo-Shanghai over the Bay, a labyrinth of quantum accelerators, hologram dreams, and fiercely regulated androids. Forget powder, pills, or bud—kids get high slotting wafers of data under the ear, and they’ll pay fat ¢rypto for the best. At the hottest nightclub in the city … the Fang.
Baz Covane is a battle-scarred thief who sticks to small-time bots. Ria Rose is the underworld “fixer” with a big-time score that could easily get ’em both killed. ’Cuz the Fang’s psychotic kingpin Otto Rex has a vault with more security than a fusion reactor. And the glass inside is priceless— enough to set up Baz, Ria, and their crack team of cyber-misfits on the white sands of Tahiti forever.
But this crime doesn’t just carry infinite VR-Prison time—it’s Baz and Ria’s last shot at redemption. Forced to confess every last secret on their neurals, they’ll have to trust each other completely if they stand any chance of infiltrating Otto’s lair, raiding its spiraling rings of physical and virtual firewalls, to finally hack into his mind and crack his deepest layer of security, before the Blackhawks touch down with federal warrants—for Grand Theft AI.
JAMES COX grew up in Menlo Park, CA, and attended school at UC Berkeley then New York University (NYU). He is an award-winning filmmaker who has written and directed several motion pictures which have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, including Wonderland starring Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, and Josh Lucas, and the acclaimed short Atomic Tabasco.
Through his career, James has worked with multiple Academy Award and Golden Globe winners or nominees – among them, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin, Taron Egerton, Selma Blair, and Jared Leto. He has worked with some of the best filmmakers in the business including Ridley Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, Mike DeLuca, Donna Langley, and Michael Mann, with projects at legendary Hollywood studios including New Line, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and Disney.
Originally a cinematographer in New York and a lyricist on Atlantic Records, James is a multi- media visual artist with over half a billion views on YouTube, directing music videos for Rise Against’s “Give it All” and t.AT.u.’s “All About Us” which earned a platinum record and MTV Russia’s Music Video of the Year.
James’ debut novel, Grand Theft AI, released by Blackstone Publishing in July, is the first in a series, a book best described as The Matrix meets Blade Runner.
