Tag: bots

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (SciFi — Audio Book)

Book two in Martha Well’s MurderBot series following the adventures of a rogue “Sec Unit” (part organic / part inorganic bot uber-designed for security). Just as good as the first one! Our hero is a perfect symbol of what I have recently heard called “Heroic Masculinity” as opposed to “Toxic Masculinity.” Strong, caring, and bent on protection. (In truth, our Sec Bot is an it — I think of it as “male” because the audio book reader was male and the story is told in the first person, but SecBots have no genitals so … “it” it is even though it makes the next paragraph read poorly IMHO.)

I like its funny and acerbic “voice” and its constant search for how to pretend to be human to evade capture but also to understand interactions well — kind of reads like the story of someone with autism struggling both to fit in and to understand what it is it wants to fit into. In this story it (we never get a name!) makes a “friend” and finds that it surprisingly “misses” its team from book one. Its new friend is called ART for Asshole Research Transport — they weren’t friends when the name was coined. ART is a supremely intelligent and advanced bot pilot who helps our hero purely out boredom and excitement at the challenge. Plenty of action but without the dull and pointless extended chase scenes. Lots of exploration of evolving cultural norms as new types of beings are brought into play.

Moving on to book three — there are many and they are short!

Set My Heart to Five by Simon Stephenson (Literary / Speculative Fiction)

Writing: 4.5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5

Jared is a bot. Engineered from human DNA, he lives a productive life as a dentist in Ypsilanti, Michigan and is deeply programmed to serve humans. Until one day … he starts to have feelings. Thus begin his simultaneously hilarious and yet poignant adventures as he heads to Hollywood to write a screenplay daring to portray bots as beings deserving humane treatment and not the “killer bots” that comprise the bulk of modern cinema.

The social commentary is priceless as Jared struggles to make rational sense of human behavior. Jared’s “voice” as a developing character is so appealing — his way of expressing surprise, disbelief, and acceptance is incomparable. He refers to himself as a “toaster with a heart.” Bots are the new underclass in this world because after all — they aren’t even human. While the journey is comic (laugh out loud funny much of the time), there are plenty of deep things to think about: What makes us human? What should our relationship with other beings be? What kind of “programming” do we humans have of which we are not explicitly aware?

In some ways this reminded me of Vonnegut — the speculative and humorous extrapolation of today’s social mores — but with a little more depth in terms of human (or bot) experience and how we treat others. As fun additions, there are some great descriptions of classic movies (without titles) that are fun to see through Jared’s eyes (and try to make the identification), some fun screen-writing tips, and all the details of a futuristic road trip adventure.

I won’t give away the ending but I loved the way the author embedded an intricately layered set of foreshadowing and self-referential plot twists.

Thank you to Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 1st, 2020.