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aoc's review
3.0
You could argue what A Dream of Electric Mothers does is just apply a coat of African paint on what is a pretty short SF story, and I think you'd be right for the most part, but it pushes all the right buttons to edge it into territory where simply using a different calendar, for example, makes the setting more outlandish than it really is. Sure got me googling terms I was unfamiliar with, but what about the story itself?
We step into the shoes of Odua republic's Minister of Defense Dolapo Abimbola Titilope Balogun, youngest and only the second woman to ever hold that position, as country is on the verge of what is the latest border crisis with their rival Dahomey. This unfortunate state of affairs has been going for centuries. However, Odua holds a trump card specifically for situations when solutions are not apparent - all of their citizens have had their minds copies forming the eponymous Electric Mother, an amalgam of consciousness capable of drawing from all and providing answers. Needless to say blindly running for help rather than sorting out your own issues has detractors in the cabinet, but Dolapo has a secret agenda of her own she hopes to enact during her first dream-council, and it involves communing with her recently deceased mother.
I ended up liking A Dream of Electric Mothers quite a bit. It's short enough to not overstay the simple "get an answer from a machine" premise yet has enough ambiguity without ever spelling anything out for the reader. Unfamiliar term here and there with author NOT hitting the breaks to explain benefits the pacing as well since you can dope out the context on your own. If you're interested you can check it out for free.
We step into the shoes of Odua republic's Minister of Defense Dolapo Abimbola Titilope Balogun, youngest and only the second woman to ever hold that position, as country is on the verge of what is the latest border crisis with their rival Dahomey. This unfortunate state of affairs has been going for centuries. However, Odua holds a trump card specifically for situations when solutions are not apparent - all of their citizens have had their minds copies forming the eponymous Electric Mother, an amalgam of consciousness capable of drawing from all and providing answers. Needless to say blindly running for help rather than sorting out your own issues has detractors in the cabinet, but Dolapo has a secret agenda of her own she hopes to enact during her first dream-council, and it involves communing with her recently deceased mother.
I ended up liking A Dream of Electric Mothers quite a bit. It's short enough to not overstay the simple "get an answer from a machine" premise yet has enough ambiguity without ever spelling anything out for the reader. Unfamiliar term here and there with author NOT hitting the breaks to explain benefits the pacing as well since you can dope out the context on your own. If you're interested you can check it out for free.
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