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jeriendhalSummary: Some hundred and fifty odd years after humanity breathed its last, their mechanized helpers are still going strong, carrying out the last of their late masters' orders and creating a stratified society of nobles/administrators that have effectively enslaved the remaining 90% of the population.
Unfortunately, that leaves Freya, a barely free humanoid sexbot with an active sex drive and no "pink replicators" to practice her profession on, with few options to support herself. At least until she runs afoul of a noble and her minions, and finds herself drawn into a conspiracy to bring their human masters back from the dead.
Review: I'm at considerable odds about this novel, which Stross wrote as an homage to the last really enjoyable Heinlein novel Friday. The idea of a universe with human's robots still going long after humanity is gone is intriguing, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
autopope's execution is problematical. Because while Freya (naturally) has very human reactions, being designed for empathy and pleasure, the degree that she and all the other robots act human strays well into the realm of Ridiculously Human Robots. It's justified in story by the fact that the only way to copy human sentience was to copy human brainwave patterns and raise prototype models through a simulated childhood (portrayed as horribly abusive to reinforce subservience to the point that they don't even think about finding loopholes in the advanced version of the Three Laws of Robotics their society uses). So most robots, while possible super strong, superfast and capable of surviving in environments that would kill a human dead, don't really think faster than humans, and they still have to eat (take on feedstock for self-repair systems), sleep (self-repair) and they can even get drunk on diesel fuel. About the time Freya is working undercover as a noble on a first class passenger liner, playing solitaire with physical cards to pass the time (and the ship's AI asking her help to form a bridge club) my sense of disbelief was being seriously strained.
I will give Stross points for carrying out his vision, once he's set out the ground rules, with consistency. While there's plenty of hopping between planets, it's rarely comfortable and most of the time it's "shit" in Freya's unflinching opinion, even when you don't have to worry about little things like carrying a breathable atmosphere along. Also, the novel doesn't stick to conventional lines, the revived humans remaining stubbornly off-stage, though we are given a peek at a revived biosphere that supports new mammalian life. In a conventional novel Freya probably would have met a handsome male human around Act Four or so and spend the rest of the novel reconciling her feelings of automatic programmed attraction while they pulled each other's fannies out of various fires. Instead the ending is the logical conclusion of the setup, with Freya outmaneuvering (barely) her murderous sisters to an coda which is ambiguous at best, but at least ends her getting away with her hide intact and a measure of love.
Recommended.
Unfortunately, that leaves Freya, a barely free humanoid sexbot with an active sex drive and no "pink replicators" to practice her profession on, with few options to support herself. At least until she runs afoul of a noble and her minions, and finds herself drawn into a conspiracy to bring their human masters back from the dead.
Review: I'm at considerable odds about this novel, which Stross wrote as an homage to the last really enjoyable Heinlein novel Friday. The idea of a universe with human's robots still going long after humanity is gone is intriguing, but
autopope's execution is problematical. Because while Freya (naturally) has very human reactions, being designed for empathy and pleasure, the degree that she and all the other robots act human strays well into the realm of Ridiculously Human Robots. It's justified in story by the fact that the only way to copy human sentience was to copy human brainwave patterns and raise prototype models through a simulated childhood (portrayed as horribly abusive to reinforce subservience to the point that they don't even think about finding loopholes in the advanced version of the Three Laws of Robotics their society uses). So most robots, while possible super strong, superfast and capable of surviving in environments that would kill a human dead, don't really think faster than humans, and they still have to eat (take on feedstock for self-repair systems), sleep (self-repair) and they can even get drunk on diesel fuel. About the time Freya is working undercover as a noble on a first class passenger liner, playing solitaire with physical cards to pass the time (and the ship's AI asking her help to form a bridge club) my sense of disbelief was being seriously strained.I will give Stross points for carrying out his vision, once he's set out the ground rules, with consistency. While there's plenty of hopping between planets, it's rarely comfortable and most of the time it's "shit" in Freya's unflinching opinion, even when you don't have to worry about little things like carrying a breathable atmosphere along. Also, the novel doesn't stick to conventional lines, the revived humans remaining stubbornly off-stage, though we are given a peek at a revived biosphere that supports new mammalian life. In a conventional novel Freya probably would have met a handsome male human around Act Four or so and spend the rest of the novel reconciling her feelings of automatic programmed attraction while they pulled each other's fannies out of various fires. Instead the ending is the logical conclusion of the setup, with Freya outmaneuvering (barely) her murderous sisters to an coda which is ambiguous at best, but at least ends her getting away with her hide intact and a measure of love.
Recommended.
