THE HOSPITAL AT THE END OF THE WORLD is as much a warning to the world as it is a medical/mystery novel. Justin C. Key implies (or sometimes says boldly and unequivocally) that Artificial Intelligence presents a potential danger to humanity that we ignore at our own very real peril. Though the book deals specifically with the effects of a future AI on our medical systems and beliefs, we can see all too clearly the frightening effects that the technology poses for all of us.

The protagonist of this fascinating novel is Pok Morning. The tightly knit structure of the plot, the emergence of several themes, and the importance of many characters are all related to Pok and his journey to and through the medical school he originally had tried to bypass; the untimely death of his father; the hidden mysteries of his birth and childhood; and the dangers of his life choices and ambitions.

"THE HOSPITAL AT THE END OF THE WORLD is as much a warning to the world as it is a medical/mystery novel.... It all makes for an absorbing, fascinating and suspenseful piece of literature that points to a long, successful career for Justin C. Key."

Pok is a brilliant young man who is sure that he will be admitted into one of the 12 most prestigious medical schools in America. However, his applications to each of them are rejected. He wonders how this could have happened. Something in this medical world is terribly amiss, unfair and corrupt. He soon finds answers to his question, and he barely escapes their dire consequences. His father, Phelando, is revered in the medical community. Like his son, Phelando is brilliant. He is also kind, thoughtful, communicative and quite capable of convincing his patients that he cares deeply about them.

But that personal approach is precisely the opposite of how the new medical world operates. AI and its dominant entity, the Shepherd Organization, insist that only AI hospitals and personnel should be treating patients and medical problems. So they say that Phelando and his methods are weak and passe, and should be eliminated immediately.

The man in charge of Shepherd, Odysseus Shepherd, is a villain of the first order. Toward the beginning of the novel, he tries to kill Pok because he is convinced that Pok is turning to Phelando's side and is therefore a threat to everything AI --- everything that Odysseus is fighting for. In addition, Pok is certain that Odysseus is responsible for his father’s sudden death. He’s right, of course.

So after escaping his home city of New York and Odysseus' attempted murders, the now-renegade Pok makes his way to New Orleans and the one hospital in the US that is free of the ever-expanding influence of the AI world and Odysseus' murderous intentions. Pok gains admittance to the medical school there; the hospital is called Hippocrates ("First do no harm"). The novel deals with his many struggles as he tries to learn the ways and methods of this hold-out hospital while fighting for his rights and his life.

The many threads of the plot directly or indirectly run through, from, to and around Pok and his goals: to become a doctor at Hippocrates; to discover and uncover the secrets that his father kept from him regarding his birth and upbringing; to rid himself and the world of the many threats to human survival posed by Odysseus and his followers and sycophants; and to restore once and for all the rights of doctors to trust their intuitions and develop personal, caring relationships with their patients.

Meanwhile, Odysseus has done and will continue to do everything in his power to eliminate and/or destroy anyone or anything that stands as a perceived threat to his goal of global domination, as well as AI's ultimate mission to overcome all the traditional aspects of the world order.

The plot is complex, filled with many individuals who demonstrate virtually every conceivable character flaw (weakness, impatience, greed, selfishness), as well as beautiful human strengths (sympathy, empathy, intuition, morality). The latter are all the positive characteristics that AI lacks --- by definition. And Pok himself is as far from perfection as any of us. It all makes for an absorbing, fascinating and suspenseful piece of literature that points to a long, successful career for Justin C. Key.