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janiswong's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Beautiful, original, and witty. The sweetest sci-fi I've read. I personally loved the narrative voice and form, but can see how it might not be for everyone in it's structure and form. Stephenson captures the generation and change with great clarity, presenting it with humour and enveloped within a pacy story. I did get lost a bit in the middle, but found myself getting back into it. We are all indeed toasters with hearts set to five and what a privilege that must be.
thebeej21's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
orangecardboard's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
Remarkably diverting automaton comedy of behaviour and observation.
I took to Jared from the first page, sometimes a voice just does seize you, and this narrator caught my attention with his idiosyncratic way of talking.
Our narrator is a 'bot', a manmade automaton who has been created to serve as dentist to the population of Ypsilanti, Michigan. But as we see from the first, he's not quite what you expect a bot to be: "That makes me a Michigander. Ha!"
Jared is self-aware and imbued with a sense of humour ("making humans sad goes against my core programming... So I tell the human they can think of me as a microwave with feet!... A toaster with a heart!" But he also finds himself going to old movies and experiencing what can only be called... emotions.
His quest for understanding and self-fulfilment will take him across the country, possibly pursued by one who cannot allow him to exist, while he learns a lot about what being human can mean, and finding his place and purpose. Jared is an incredibly astute narrator, assessing human society with the sharpness of one outside it, his view of life or the 'zero sum game': "a situation in which each participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants" remarkably succinct and apt.
Jared also has a wicked sense of humour. I laughed throughout at his clever sayings and thoughts on his experiences (his views on classic films were priceless). He seemed both human and non-human, a mix probably quite tricky to pull off for a writer.
The bot gives us snippets of information into his world - where the moon has been destroyed, where a 'Great Crash' sent the millions of people in the air at the time hurtling to their deaths, where New Zealand appears to have disappeared. So readers can feel that the world has changed. But this story is about Jared, not a dystopian world of killer bots. Although it 'kinda' is...
Jared is very sympathetic, a bot with deep feelings and a sense for the dramatic as well as a flair for comedy. I won't be forgetting his voice or the story. And I suspect this could be a very popular read over a summer where some wit and engaging stories are much needed.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.
I took to Jared from the first page, sometimes a voice just does seize you, and this narrator caught my attention with his idiosyncratic way of talking.
Our narrator is a 'bot', a manmade automaton who has been created to serve as dentist to the population of Ypsilanti, Michigan. But as we see from the first, he's not quite what you expect a bot to be: "That makes me a Michigander. Ha!"
Jared is self-aware and imbued with a sense of humour ("making humans sad goes against my core programming... So I tell the human they can think of me as a microwave with feet!... A toaster with a heart!" But he also finds himself going to old movies and experiencing what can only be called... emotions.
His quest for understanding and self-fulfilment will take him across the country, possibly pursued by one who cannot allow him to exist, while he learns a lot about what being human can mean, and finding his place and purpose. Jared is an incredibly astute narrator, assessing human society with the sharpness of one outside it, his view of life or the 'zero sum game': "a situation in which each participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants" remarkably succinct and apt.
Jared also has a wicked sense of humour. I laughed throughout at his clever sayings and thoughts on his experiences (his views on classic films were priceless). He seemed both human and non-human, a mix probably quite tricky to pull off for a writer.
The bot gives us snippets of information into his world - where the moon has been destroyed, where a 'Great Crash' sent the millions of people in the air at the time hurtling to their deaths, where New Zealand appears to have disappeared. So readers can feel that the world has changed. But this story is about Jared, not a dystopian world of killer bots. Although it 'kinda' is...
Jared is very sympathetic, a bot with deep feelings and a sense for the dramatic as well as a flair for comedy. I won't be forgetting his voice or the story. And I suspect this could be a very popular read over a summer where some wit and engaging stories are much needed.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.
yasmine_w's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Charming premise but the writing style got really old around the 50% mark. If you’re looking for a better “what does it mean to be human” book, then I’d recommend “Humans” by Matt Haig over this one
pnicole421's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
dapplezee's review against another edition
5.0
Jared is a bot. He's also a dentist, because dentistry is most efficient when practiced with no empathy whatsoever! Ha!
Jared has a lot of thoughts. Humans are hard to understand, but he has plenty of time to think. Most likely while filling cavities and doing root canals.
Jared makes a point of taking his full lunch hour, out of the office, so that he's not available for walk-in appointments. Humans! He cannot!
One day Jared is enjoying his "nutritionally-balanced bag lunch" at the bridge when a number appears in his mind. It counts down, every day, by the number of patients' teeth he's seen that day.
Jared is having an existential crisis!
This is, of course, impossible.
“And as a bot I am specifically designed and programmed to be incapable of feelings. I can no more feel than a toaster! Ha!
“BTW that is a hilarious joke because the programming language I run on was in fact first developed many years ago for use in the domestic toaster.”
His office-neighbor, a human doctor, gives him a "Feelings Wheel" to consider and prescribes him a course of watching old movies.
Jared's quirky observations are one of the highlights of this book. It's all new to him, this absurd idea of feelings. Good and bad, it’s all glorious.
“The next morning a human cut in front of me in line at the coffee shop. I felt a vengeful urge to trip him, but restrained myself. This gave me a surge of regret that was far less enjoyable than my first encounter with it. But when the human’s ongoing hurry then made him anyway stumble and spill his coffee all over himself, I felt a deep and warm glow that remained with me all day!
“10/10 this was the best feeling I had ever experienced, and yet I could not locate it on my Feelings Wheel. It seemed to be a combination of ‘gratitude’, ‘mischief’, and ‘delight’. Dr Glundenstein later told me the word for this feeling was ‘ schadenfreude’.”
Jared is far more than a toaster. His journey into the human experience is sometimes joyous, sometimes heartbreaking, and 100% wonderful.
Jared has a lot of thoughts. Humans are hard to understand, but he has plenty of time to think. Most likely while filling cavities and doing root canals.
Jared makes a point of taking his full lunch hour, out of the office, so that he's not available for walk-in appointments. Humans! He cannot!
One day Jared is enjoying his "nutritionally-balanced bag lunch" at the bridge when a number appears in his mind. It counts down, every day, by the number of patients' teeth he's seen that day.
Jared is having an existential crisis!
This is, of course, impossible.
“And as a bot I am specifically designed and programmed to be incapable of feelings. I can no more feel than a toaster! Ha!
“BTW that is a hilarious joke because the programming language I run on was in fact first developed many years ago for use in the domestic toaster.”
His office-neighbor, a human doctor, gives him a "Feelings Wheel" to consider and prescribes him a course of watching old movies.
Jared's quirky observations are one of the highlights of this book. It's all new to him, this absurd idea of feelings. Good and bad, it’s all glorious.
“The next morning a human cut in front of me in line at the coffee shop. I felt a vengeful urge to trip him, but restrained myself. This gave me a surge of regret that was far less enjoyable than my first encounter with it. But when the human’s ongoing hurry then made him anyway stumble and spill his coffee all over himself, I felt a deep and warm glow that remained with me all day!
“10/10 this was the best feeling I had ever experienced, and yet I could not locate it on my Feelings Wheel. It seemed to be a combination of ‘gratitude’, ‘mischief’, and ‘delight’. Dr Glundenstein later told me the word for this feeling was ‘ schadenfreude’.”
Jared is far more than a toaster. His journey into the human experience is sometimes joyous, sometimes heartbreaking, and 100% wonderful.
dannavarro's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
dcohare's review
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5