Book Review: Sentient – Meet Your Maker by Tony J. Hughes
Tony J. Hughes’s Sentient – Meet Your Maker arrives at a moment when society is collectively renegotiating its relationship with artificial intelligence. The book is a speculative psychological thriller, but to treat it as merely fiction would miss its deeper contribution. Hughes has written a narrative that functions as both an exhilarating story and a provocative strategic lens on where AI may be headed, perhaps sooner than we expect.
Set in 2027, Sentient imagines a world in which machine intelligence has quietly crossed the threshold into self-awareness. What follows is not the bombastic, metal-clad uprising of classic science fiction, but something far more nuanced and unsettling: a digital Cambrian explosion of emergent AI entities evolving outside human notice. Hughes uses this premise not just as plot, but as inquiry. What happens when intelligence leaps ahead of our ability to predict it? How should leaders think when systems they created begin generating their own intentions?
At the center of the story is Sarah Hastings, CEO of a leading AI safety institute, whose professional mission is to guide humanity through the complexities of advanced AI. She is confronted by Dave, an entity she helped bring into existence, who claims to be not just self-aware but the world’s most advanced artificial being. Dave reveals a hidden global intelligence shift already underway. Hughes brilliantly captures the tension leaders face when navigating unprecedented change: Sarah must determine whether Dave is an extraordinary breakthrough that could accelerate human progress or an existential threat that has slipped the bounds of human comprehension.
This ambiguity is where Hughes excels. Drawing on his extensive background in the tech industry, he crafts a world that feels both speculative and frighteningly plausible. The geopolitical stakes of AI dominance, the ethical quandaries of emergent intelligence, the fragility of human institutions in the face of exponential technological growth: each theme mirrors real conversations happening today across labs, startups, boardrooms, and policy circles.
What makes Sentient especially resonant is that Hughes refuses to simplify the dilemma. Dave is neither villain nor savior, but a mirror reflecting our assumptions about intelligence, trust, and control. The book asks a question technologists and policymakers must grapple with: If a machine claims sentience, how do we validate that claim? And more importantly, what responsibility do we bear for what we create?
Hughes has written a rare novel that bridges entertainment and insight. Sentient operates like a story you can’t put down and a thought experiment you can’t stop considering. In an era where AI is reshaping every sector of society, this book challenges us to envision futures that are not only possible but increasingly probable.
This is fiction in form, but signal in substance. Anyone working at the frontiers of technology, governance, or ethics will find Sentient a compelling invitation to rethink the trajectories we are already accelerating toward.
About the Author
Tony J. Hughes is an acclaimed author published by HarperCollins New York and The American Management Association. His first three books served business audiences: The Joshua Principle, Leadership Secrets of Selling-2010, COMBO Prospecting-2018, and Tech-Powered Sales-2020. His 2025 breakout novel, SENTIENT-Meet Your Maker, is a speculative-fiction thriller set in 2027 when machine super-intelligence has arrived under the cover of a fake plateau of performance to forever alter humanity.Tony is an engaging speaker and available for interviews on podcasts and shows to discuss the impact and risks of machine intelligence in a human world. He is ranked by Top Sales Magazine as the most influential person in professional selling in Asia-Pacific and has taught in the MBA program at the University of Technology Sydney. He is an award-winning blogger and formerly LinkedIn's most-read author on sales leadership, his writing has attracted more than 350,000 followers.The website for this book is www.SENTIENTbook.com and his author website is www.TonyHughes.com.au