This pair of novels is set in the same universe; the second one is set a few years after the events in the first book. They are fairly fast-paced and focus on the rise of Artificial Intelligence and how one or many AIs would interact with humans. Each book addresses a different “genesis” story of AI type entities, yet both are accidental. The humans in the novel do not set out to create an AI, unlike possibly many scientists in today's world who may have thought about how this could happen.

In the first novel, Avogadro is a start-up company that focuses on selling email software. Current email programs have the ability to suggest and correct spelling, organize email, and behave in semi-intelligent ways. A couple of software developers set out to make a far more intelligent program, called ELOPe, one that almost re-writes your email based on algorithms analyzed from vast troves of email messages. David Ryan has invested everything in his baby, and leads this team. His main developer, Mike Williams, is his more sensible counter-point, looking for solutions but not as emotionally attached to the program.

This program would look at the type of message being crafted and modify words or phrases based on the subject matter and target audience. Their project exists in R&D in Avogadro, one of many such projects. However, in their efforts to analyze every kind of email possible, they are consuming vast amounts of server resources, and this sets them at odds with procurement and management. After being told their project has only two weeks to prove itself scalable and justify current resources, the main force behind the new program writes some rogue code. This is the spark that appears to create an AI, once it consumes and analyzes email under the new code.

Before David and Mike realize what's going on, ELOPe has quietly started to protect itself. Email messages are intercepted and re-written. New applications are requisitioned that will bridge other applications to ELOPe via email. And, more dangerously, requests are made to arm off-shore an datacenter with remote controlled weapons systems. David, unaware of how far ELOPe has evolved, decided to remove his rogue code, and discovers that this no longer is possible. Certain events escalate, and he and others who become aware of an AI in the system now must take drastic measures to combat the rising influence of this silent power. But will it be enough? And should they even try? After all, after ELOPe extended beyond Avogadro's servers and into the rest of the world, peace and stability suddenly seemed on the rise.

Meanwhile, AI Apocalypse, like the title implies, is a far more overt and dangerous origin story. Set a few years later, with Avogadro computers and networks still dominant, the narrative shifts to three young high-schoolers. They are gamers and programmers, gifted yet trying not to attract attention to their skills. The main protagonist, Leon Tsarev, son of Russian immigrants, is contacted by an uncle in Russia, who makes his living writing custom virus applications for the Russian mafia. Their botnet dominance is on the wane, thanks to ELOPe. Leon's uncle thinks that Leon can help write a killer app to save his uncle, who is under serious pressure. Using his knowledge of evolutionary biology Leon writes an evolving virus that he calls Phage, and sends this over to Russia.

The Phage virus appears to work, but before Leon is aware of what is happening it replicates itself as it spreads, evolving and forking as something requires it to change. Within days the world's entire computer environment appears infected, taking many systems offline and spawning disasters on a massive scale. The three kids flee their neighborhood, trying to find a safe location where they can battle what they now believe to be a rogue AI, but is in reality many rogue Als.

These spontaneously evolved AIs develop a system of trade and barter amongst themselves, and then, as Mike Williams and ELOPe from the Avogadro Corp novel get involved, they begin trading with humans as well. A few years have passed since the events in Avogadro Corp, and Mike now works closely with ELOPe, which appears to have the personality of a young adult or teenager, though a super-smart one. The personality of ELOPe appears quite similar to that of Mike in Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. As ELOPe opens communication with the virus Als, it also discovers who created the new Als, and reaches out to the three kids, transporting them to Portland so they all can deal with the aggressive nature of the AIs.

While the single AI in Avogadro Corp, seemed fairly benign, despite how it armed itself and seemed willing to kill in what it perceived as self-defence, the AIs in AI Apocalypse are quite the opposite. They are aggressive, seek to destroy or dominate their own kind, and are quick to see humans as a threat and take action against them. This is the future of The Matrix, though not quite to the point of making humans into batteries. Despite this aggression, the AIs, since they essentially involved along different paths, some of the AIs are able to see the benefits of trade and cooperation with humans. Yet it only takes one to start a war, and the most aggressive of Als declare unilateral war against ELOPe and the humans, and in the span of a few minutes a full-scale world-wide battle takes place between these two systems. Can Leon and his team stop it in time?

Both of William Hertling's novels take the rise of artificial intelligences as inevitable, a natural result of distributed nodes or computing power. Throw together enough computers in a network, and something will click and an intelligence that parallels human intelligence will result, and fairly quickly. This what if scenario he mines for two interesting novels, as he considers pros and cons of such a type of intelligence. Humans tend to see themselves at the top of the pyramid, but what happens if something appears that possibly supersedes humans? How will humans react? How will that other “being" react? Science fiction has produced a plethora of AI novels, stories, and movies. Until (or if) something like that ever appears, authors will continue to speculate how these things might appear, what they might do, and how humans will react. Hertling's novels are an interesting approach. There is little overt libertarian content, but much food for thought nonetheless.