Hello! My name is Max Harms, and I’m the author of the Crystal trilogy. My personal website is MaxHarms.com, and if you’re interested in details like where I was born, or how what I’ve read, you can find them there.
I never really expected to write books. Growing up I did a lot of world-building and storytelling for roleplaying games that I ran, but I always assumed that I’d go on as an adult to tell stories in computer games. I still hope to do so, but somehow Crystal made it past the finish line first.
I’ve been interested in AI since 2009. The Crystal books take place in an alternate timeline with alien technology, so I obviously don’t think our future will look like the books. That being said, I do think that artificial intelligence has significant potential to radically disrupt the world. Crystal is something of an attempt for me to imagine what things might be like during such a time (though I expect reality will likely be much more interesting in the details and much more boring in the conclusion).
Somewhere half-way through Crystal Society I realized that the story in my head would never fit into one book. The whole thing is a labor of love for me, and rather than cut the story down to make it fit I decided that I’d expand it into a trilogy. The story in my head is, and has always been, one arc, so there won't be any books after Crystal Eternity.
If you want to ask me anything, I encourage you to send me an email. I’m always happy to hear from someone who enjoyed the story.