Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.
I have worked my way through the larger works of AT, and now onto the stand alones. This one was fun, and really, I have to say if the robots gain sentience's I will be on their side against exploitation of their labour. So really spent all 400 pages of this book being like, I hope technology never gains self-awareness, but if they do....
I have worked my way through the larger works of AT, and now onto the stand alones. This one was fun, and really, I have to say if the robots gain sentience's I will be on their side against exploitation of their labour. So really spent all 400 pages of this book being like, I hope technology never gains self-awareness, but if they do....
This book reminded me of two other books I've read in the past few years. One was [[The Cyberiad]] by Stanisław Lem which also had robots for characters, but which was more of a collection of satiric fairy tale stories than a sustained narrative, the other was [[The Children of Men]] by P. D. James which shares an end-of-the-world viewpoint but has nothing like the absurd humor of this book. It seemed to me like quite a departure from the rest of this author's work with a distinct sociological edge. The reader starts to want this bizarre world to start to make sense. The narrator, a robot called "Uncharles" for most of the book experiences a malfunction in the early chapters, and after he leaves his familiar surroundings wanders through a broken world hoping to find something similar to his previous existence. I think there might be a lot of …
This book reminded me of two other books I've read in the past few years. One was [[The Cyberiad]] by Stanisław Lem which also had robots for characters, but which was more of a collection of satiric fairy tale stories than a sustained narrative, the other was [[The Children of Men]] by P. D. James which shares an end-of-the-world viewpoint but has nothing like the absurd humor of this book. It seemed to me like quite a departure from the rest of this author's work with a distinct sociological edge. The reader starts to want this bizarre world to start to make sense. The narrator, a robot called "Uncharles" for most of the book experiences a malfunction in the early chapters, and after he leaves his familiar surroundings wanders through a broken world hoping to find something similar to his previous existence. I think there might be a lot of P. G. Wodehouse in the characterization of Uncharles. Along the way he encounters a being known as "The Wonk" whose breezy, cavalier attitude toward everything conceals a serious quest for meaning. It is a slow-paced telling partly to remind us of the love of orderly routine most simple machines like these robots favor, to make their chores easier. There are close scrapes with danger and lots of misunderstandings as they look for a place with the answers, only to find that they were mirages. By the end, the two of them reach a kind of understanding in a nice, cozy way with a hint of how the rest of the awful world might be induced to stop falling into ruin. But by this point, the reader might be too skeptical to believe a happy outcome possible.
I did like the way the audiobook was narrated by the author, but it is a slow process of making it to the end. If you pick this up, set aside enough time to make it through or you'll be frustrated. I was pleased to hear writer/blogger Dr. Janelle Shane called out in the acknowledgements for contributions to the creation of this book, of whom I am a fan.
Reminiscent of Monk and Robot though broader and darker, we're along for a calm inquisitive road novel with an earnest robot butler some moment after the world as they and we know it ended. Satirically enjoys itself in upending formulaic scenes and takes us to some imaginative places, surprisingly light fun.
Reminiscent of Monk and Robot though broader and darker, we're along for a calm inquisitive road novel with an earnest robot butler some moment after the world as they and we know it ended. Satirically enjoys itself in upending formulaic scenes and takes us to some imaginative places, surprisingly light fun.
