Editorial reading guide / Published premises
Creation, purpose, and artificial intelligence
Explore a civilization shaped by an artificial intelligence alongside a bred enforcer questioning the purpose assigned to him.
Prepared for the Paul Haedo author website · Updated 13 November 2026 · Spoiler level: published premises only
Protection at the scale of a civilization
In The Designer, the artificial intelligence Father safeguards human embryos and prepares Takali for settlement. Generations later, Jonathan is a student librarian skeptical of the Church of Father. The premise places an act of preservation beside the institutions and beliefs that develop afterward. It invites questions about the distance between an origin and the explanations later built around it.
Link to this sectionProtection as an individual role
Spliced introduces Liam-332, who was bred to be an enforcer and believes he exists to protect others. A pursuit that ends in a suspect’s death brings links to terrorism and questions about his creation. Liam is described as a bred enforcer, not as an artificial intelligence. The connection between the books is the question of assigned purpose, not an assertion that their protagonists are the same kind of being.
Link to this sectionRead the pair as a comparison
Both are standalone novels. Begin with The Designer for artificial intelligence, religious institutions, and the inheritance of a founding story. Begin with Spliced for an individual caught in a widening crisis. Read their descriptions side by side, then consider how scale changes the meaning of protection: one person’s role and a civilization’s origin pose different problems.
Link to this sectionBooks in this reading guide
Questions to take into your reading
- Who defines a protector’s obligations?
- What makes an inherited account of purpose persuasive to the people living with it?
- Which conclusions come from the text, and which are your interpretation?
Go deeper into the manuscripts
Sources and scope
The comparisons above are editorial suggestions grounded in the author-approved descriptions for the linked books. They do not establish shared continuity, reveal endings, or represent independent reviews. The source listing links for each premise are available on its book page.
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