The Mansion

A Novel

By: Ezekiel Boone

Narrated by: George Newbern

When a family moves into a remote high-tech mansion equipped with next-generation artificial intelligence that can control the house’s every function—a buried secret leads to terrifying and catastrophic consequences.

Nellie is programmed to be the perfect digital assistant. But something sinister lurks in her source code—and now she’s the perfect killer.

When Billy Stafford and his wife move into their house designed with every comfort in mind, he thinks it will be the perfect chance to work on their marriage and to restart his career. A brilliant computer engineer fallen on hard times, Billy’s been hired by his former business partner to test out Nellie: a cutting-edge artificial intelligence program hardwired into the house. All Billy has to do is fix a few bugs in the system, which sounds easy enough.

But as winter settles in and Billy and his wife are left alone in the woods, a dark reality begins to emerge. Nellie’s problems are much worse than a few technology glitches. Infused with the sinister history of the mansion and her own creator’s sins, she has, in fact, become a killing machine. And the only way to escape is to give her what she wants…

A gripping technothriller about AI gone rogue, The Mansion is “a thrilling story that combines modern technology with old fears” (Shelf Awareness).

Suspenseful building technothriller

Well narrated by Newbern and well writtten; an ending that left me feeling unresolved. Overall this book is an example of enjoying the journey more than the destination. Just didn’t fully comprehend the endings explanation of the ‘why’. Akin to the Shining and 2001; a space odyssey the residence and AI are key to the story.
This was my first E.Boone book. I recommend it for those that enjoy a suspenseful, sometimes eery and mysterious horror story with technology playing a significant role. G Newbern is always good

Okay

I was reading and stopped when I truly got the gist of the book, but I paid for it so I listened to it. Overall it was a good concept, but at points it was over the top. Emily was annoying and a person who never really took responsibility for anything. Then there’s Billy the same thing. Fact Billy shouldn’t have survived, what a jerk!

So much potential

We’ve been fans of Mr Boone’s work all the way back to the Hatching. Lots of suspense, just enough creepy, fun characters. The Mansion was so close, but fell short when it felt like the end was made in. We were on the edge of our seats thinking “this is about to be really good,” then ended feeling so-so. It had a ton of potential but too much time was spent building and not enough closing.

Kermit the Frog here

This story was not very good, but I felt compelled to finish it because… I’m really not sure. It could have been a LOT shorter, and especially could have done without a couple of scenes in particular. I wouldn’t call it horror, or thriller, or sci-fi, although I think it aims to be all three.

While the narration is not bad, there were several points that I swear to god he was doing a Kermit the Frog voice, and I couldn’t unhear it. And now you won’t either.

10 stars for the mansion

The best techno thriller I've heard since the Prey by Michael Crichton and Daemon and Freedom by the author Daniel Suarez