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A review by flying_monkey
A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Anne Charnock won the Arthur C. Clarke award for her third novel, Dreams Before the Start of Time, which I didn't rate as highly as everyone else. However, this one, her second novel, is really very strong indeed, and stands up to comparisons with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, with which it shares thematic preoccupations with the future of humanity, and speciation via technology. However, where Never Let Me Go is about the creation of a second class of humanity to grow organs for the privileged, A Calculated Life concerns the splitting of humanity into three types of people: the un-augmented (but still genetically-tweaked) originals, the augmented 'bionics', and then the specially engineered (and it seems accelerated and vat-grown) 'simulants'.
Our protagonist, Jayna, is a simulant, engineered to be essentially a human computer able to see patterns in data and make connections that neither other humans or computers can make. Her character traits are somewhat autistic, and it's clear that this non-neurotypicity is the basis for the 'type', aided by the fact that she and all her fellow simulants have had no childhood or growing process from which they can learn to be 'normal' humans (whatever than means). Simulants are employed in government and (wealthy) businesses, with Jayna working in some kind of investment consultancy, making millions for other people, while living in barrack-like dorm accomodation with others of her kind.
As with many stories of this type, this novel is about Jayna's awakening, with her own analytical mind realising that, as so many of her fellows are 'recalled' to be 'reset' (i.e. have their memories wiped), something about herself also does not compute, and that her life might be more than calculated. However, also as with many stories of this type, even as her world begins to expand, you can see the tragedy coming, while wishing it would be otherwise. I found myself recalling Daniel Keyes' novel, Flowers for Algenon, at this point. Still, there is hope, and more than that I cannot saw without spoiling the enjoyment of those who haven't read it - which you really should.
Our protagonist, Jayna, is a simulant, engineered to be essentially a human computer able to see patterns in data and make connections that neither other humans or computers can make. Her character traits are somewhat autistic, and it's clear that this non-neurotypicity is the basis for the 'type', aided by the fact that she and all her fellow simulants have had no childhood or growing process from which they can learn to be 'normal' humans (whatever than means). Simulants are employed in government and (wealthy) businesses, with Jayna working in some kind of investment consultancy, making millions for other people, while living in barrack-like dorm accomodation with others of her kind.
As with many stories of this type, this novel is about Jayna's awakening, with her own analytical mind realising that, as so many of her fellows are 'recalled' to be 'reset' (i.e. have their memories wiped), something about herself also does not compute, and that her life might be more than calculated. However, also as with many stories of this type, even as her world begins to expand, you can see the tragedy coming, while wishing it would be otherwise. I found myself recalling Daniel Keyes' novel, Flowers for Algenon, at this point. Still, there is hope, and more than that I cannot saw without spoiling the enjoyment of those who haven't read it - which you really should.