Artis Prime is the story of Ambassador Rigel, RIGA to her friends and associates. RIGA is an artificial intelligence who, for all intents and purposes, looks and acts like a petite human female. She is far from helpless, though. RIGA is the top operative, investigator and assassin for the Empirum. She has access to every tool, weapon and device known to the Empirum, and knows how to use them. Think of her as the ultimate James Bond with a super computer for a mind. RIGA is assigned to broker an alliance between the Empirum and the Terran Empire. Things go awry quickly when she, herself, is targeted for capture or assassination. Before the dust settles, she uncovers a plot by a third empire, to pit the Emperium against the Terrans, hoping to fill the void and rule over all three systems. This third empire is clever but somewhat led by Luddite philosophy. This book is extremely fun to read. The plot is interesting and quite unique, in that many of the main characters are AIs. Thinking that AIs are 'robots' is a mistake here. These characters move, react and associate with humans as one of them, not as an automaton. RIGA herself is indistinguishable from a human in every outward manner. Only her mind and internal features would give her away. Many of her interactions with the human characters in the book are quite amusing as they develop. I really enjoyed Artis Prime. The writing is exemplary. There are a couple of awkward sentences within, but it coukd just be the way I was interpreting them. The story flows quickly and smoothly without interruption. This is a good, stand-alone book, that entertains and will make you think about the future, if society continues to make computers more and more intelligent and capable of acting on their own initiative.