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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Perfect and smart assimilation of the Mary Shelley, Byron, Ada, Polidori, etc team, reinvented, reincarnated, and the associated AI, transhumanism, transgenderism, feminism, psychological etc concepts. It is an explosion of insights and the characters are funny / witty, and come alive perfectly. Another fabulous piece by Winterson!
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like a Möbius Strip that seems to be moving one way but twists and turns and brings you back to where you think you started so this story is part philosophical wander, part history story and many other parts slip stitched together with words. Just as I almost find an anchor so too do I find a twist of the story to make me laugh, question, challenge and enjoy the words so well crafted.
A book I immediately want to discuss, at length, over wine.
5 stars for Mary Shelley drinking wine and writing in damp Italian villas, 3 stars for sex bots and brain uploads = 4 stars
"I have love, but I cannot find love's meaning in this world of death. Would there be no babies, no bodies; only minds to contemplate beauty and truth. If we were not bound to our bodies we should not suffer so."
Slow down, breathe, and prepare to be transported by this book.
Like all of Jeanette Winterson's work, this novel reads like poetry. It weaves a few narrative threads together that took this reader awhile to fully immerse myself in, but I'm glad I kept with it. It's an engaging story of mortality, evolution, the limits of the human body. Set in the future and the past, we follow the stories of many different monsters and their makers - the genesis of Mary Shelley's lasting work and the future of the human race as we know it.
It's worth flagging this novel for some brief but graphic sexual violence. It is also at times hard to follow, but I believe that may be a flaw in the Kindle version in its unpublished stages. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Slow down, breathe, and prepare to be transported by this book.
Like all of Jeanette Winterson's work, this novel reads like poetry. It weaves a few narrative threads together that took this reader awhile to fully immerse myself in, but I'm glad I kept with it. It's an engaging story of mortality, evolution, the limits of the human body. Set in the future and the past, we follow the stories of many different monsters and their makers - the genesis of Mary Shelley's lasting work and the future of the human race as we know it.
It's worth flagging this novel for some brief but graphic sexual violence. It is also at times hard to follow, but I believe that may be a flaw in the Kindle version in its unpublished stages. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
God fuckin damn. Winterson knows how to write. This book isn't strictly about cutting edge technology, or the most radical of gender politics, or a re telling of a historical moment, or the genesis of children or ideas. It is about how these things interact and come together and engender something larger than their parts.
AI novel is suddenly a thing in British mainstream lit. This attempt fares better than McEwan's.
In fact, the historical flashbacks and focus on Frankenstein as the first AI problem is kind of cool. The part transposed into the present just does not work for me. Also, the level at which topics are addressed is kind of cartoonish and shallow.
TL;DR - great reminder of Frankenstein's relevance today and Mary Shelley, but little beyond that.
In fact, the historical flashbacks and focus on Frankenstein as the first AI problem is kind of cool. The part transposed into the present just does not work for me. Also, the level at which topics are addressed is kind of cartoonish and shallow.
TL;DR - great reminder of Frankenstein's relevance today and Mary Shelley, but little beyond that.
