Respawn (Villain #2) by Adrian Beck

Title: Respawn (Villain #2)

Author: Adrian Beck

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Scholastic Australia  

Published: 1^st November 2025

Format: Scholastic Australia

Pages: 240

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: The villainous AI entity known as Z is gone for good. Or so Jay thinks. But when his best friend, Leni, locates Z’s secret abandoned facility, Jay is thrust into the centre of the AI mastermind’s diabolical playground. This time, the deadly games are being played on Z’s turf. And it’s not just Jay’s life on the line. If he and his friends can’t figure out what’s really going on, all of humanity will suffer the consequences.

High-tech thriller with a dash of comedy and topical theme: When AI goes wrong …

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Jay and his friends, Leni, Hudson and Riley defeated the evil AI villain, Z after he tried to kill Jay’s classmates on a school trip. It’s resulted in Jay living offline as much as possible, avoiding CC-TV cameras and trying to stay under the radar. He’s sure Z is gone. But is he? Leni finds Z’s abandoned facility after uncovering the flaws in the i-Drive system.

Jay’s mum has also created something that’s supposed to help people. But Z is coming back and up to his old tricks. Jay and his friends are back in a very deadly cat-and-mouse game that threatens humanity itself. With everyone’s life on the line, Jay and his friends are in danger…and so is everyone else in the world.

What would happen if robots and AI tried to take over the world? Would they be working to help humanity, or would they make things worse? What does happen when we become too reliant on technology, when we allow it to encroach on our lives so much, that everyone sees it as the answer? Adrian Beck takes these questions, as well as the what if robots or AI took over the world trope and has turned it into a high-tech thriller for middle grade readers.

Everyone seems to be saying how great AI is these days, and it does have its uses. But what happens when it becomes sentient? When it is able to think for itself? It’s a scary thought, that the very technology we have that can help people (but not create, AI should never be used to create art) turns on us because it thinks it knows better? Well, Z answer to that is interesting. What Z wants to do is scary, but plays on hot topics like climate change, overpopulation and how we need to do something about climate change.

The immediate threat in the book is how easy it is for AI to steal ideas and manipulate them. This felt like a warning about what generative AI is doing, taking other people’s ideas and letting someone else take credit for them. Plagiarism and intellectual property theft is not a new idea, but Adrian’s book feels like a warning about what might happen if we just accept it. Because what happens when we accept that theft of any kind is okay? Do we determine what circumstances it is okay in? Who do we let get away with it? Who do we expect to cover the costs, whatever they are, to allow it to happen? This book raised so many questions about the ethics of AI, and using technology to help people. About how climate change is affecting everyone, and what needs to be done.

It blurs ethical lines to prove a point. AI can be harmful, and we do need to be careful with it. We do need to make sure we’re not becoming so reliant on it that we end up destroying the environment or people’s livelihoods. This is a middle grade novel, but it does raise these ethical questions in a decisive way to show that there are shades of grey and nuances when new technology is developed. Is it really going to make our lives easier, or do we just want it to whilst giving up the things that make us human? It also looks at responsible use of AI and technology, because there are limits to this, there are always going to be times when doing the work ourselves as much as we can will give better results that plugging a few prompts into something. Did I trust Z? Not a chance, never! There’s no way Z has anyone but his own best interests at heart. It’s thrilling and scary, and has elements of many topical issues being spoken about today.

It combines these effortlessly with the thriller and humour aspects, creating a story that can provoke discussions, probe questions and make people realise what could really be at stake if we allow AI to take over or allow it to become part of too many things in our lives. It’s a warning to be careful with how we use technology, and how far we let it intrude on our lives.

And with that…is Z really gone?