“What’s coming, exactly or broadly, is impossible to say. But what we steer toward is another matter entirely. For this we need maps, even if speculative ones, and this is the role that the best science fiction has always fulfilled.... this novel helps clarify, like an old-fashioned paper map spread across the table, where we are heading... Whatever your outlook―optimistic, more tempered than that, or filled with existential dread―it's a resource you'll want in your hands.”
―Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, Manas AI, and Inflection AI and author of Superagency

“[Archipelago of Light] builds to a nail-biter climax, and the author’s refusal to tie up loose threads builds anticipation for the possibility of future installments. A political cyber-thriller whose ideas are as exciting as the action.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Archipelago of Light blends a visionary thought experiment with nuanced characters and persuasive attention to the practical details of renewing Enlightenment ideals in the face of entrenched, violent power.”
—BookLife, Publishers Weekly

“Political entrepreneur and systems strategist Mehlhorn ponders a fictional but plausible present and near future in his debut novel, a seriously cerebral sci-fi thriller…. thought-provoking, cinematic…. a novel that is well worth the challenge of absorbing to gain more understanding of the political, technical, and social issues humanity is currently facing.”
—The US Review of Books

“An argument about civilization, power, and the stories human beings use to justify both…. Even when the book is thinking hard about AI, networks, authoritarianism, and the collapse of shared reality, it is usually trying to keep those abstractions tethered to damaged bodies and frightened minds…. Readers who want science fiction to do more than entertain, who want it to argue, diagnose, and unsettle, will find a lot here. Mehlhorn has written a novel of systems and souls.”
—The San Francisco Book Review

“Some novels want to tell a story; Archipelago of Light wants to diagnose a civilization…. a serious, provocative book with genuine imaginative force…. For readers drawn to speculative fiction that wrestles openly with power, truth, and democratic fragility, Mehlhorn has written a novel willing to think big and take risks.”
—Los Angeles Book Review

“Archipelago of Light is not content to stage the future in one national register. It keeps asking how power mutates across borders, systems, and mythologies, and that broad field of vision suits the material…. Readers who like speculative fiction that thinks dangerously, and argues with the present rather than merely decorating it will find a great deal to engage with here.”
—Manhattan Book Review

“A gripping speculative thriller that blends such genres as hard sci-fi, high-flying corporate espionage, and radical underdog resistance. This beautifully designed book is a pleasure to read, marking Dmitri Mehlhorn as an author for those who want to make sense of the state of the world through the prism of quality science fiction.”
—IndieReader

“In Archipelago of Light, Dmitri Lincoln Mehlhorn is reimagining a future already arriving. There's an urgency in this…. a new form of novel." 
—NotAnotherBookReview