You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sadbookmemes 's review for:
Machines Like Me
by Ian McEwan
It's so funny I react to every Ian McEwan book the same way (ive read Atonement and on Chelsea Beach and some short stories)! I start reading I'm like this is an interesting premise but I don't know if I'm vibing. I find the middle a slog and then I finish the literal last page and I'm like, wow actually this book is genius and I'm obessed with it! This book is no exception- my journey was the same, the last chapter was amazing this man knows how to end a book, low key bit obessed.
I like this dip into to sci fi, basically the idea is that Allen Turing doesn't die and contributes to the making of AI robots which people can purchase and do pretty much whatever with, Turing appears as a charcter in the story but for the most part we follow a pretty ordinary guy who purchases one of the robots. In this case the main character uses his robot to: cook, clean, win over the love of his life and manipulate the stock market. I wasn't sure what was going on with all of the different storylines on this but they are pulled together in a really satisfying way.
The logic and frustration of the robot Adam is really believable, I particularly liked the discussion of the poems that Adam writes and if they have value (this was written in 2019 so particularly interesting in relation to modern discussions of AI art). This book is at it's best when it is a relationship drama style read rather than the speculative scifi however like I said even those elements won me round in the end- was just at times alittle 'Hey look at all this research I did'- ish.
Sooo I guess I do like Ian McEwan.
Themes: creativity, justice, crime, intelligence, AI, history, choices.
Borrowed from library
I like this dip into to sci fi, basically the idea is that Allen Turing doesn't die and contributes to the making of AI robots which people can purchase and do pretty much whatever with, Turing appears as a charcter in the story but for the most part we follow a pretty ordinary guy who purchases one of the robots. In this case the main character uses his robot to: cook, clean, win over the love of his life and manipulate the stock market. I wasn't sure what was going on with all of the different storylines on this but they are pulled together in a really satisfying way.
The logic and frustration of the robot Adam is really believable, I particularly liked the discussion of the poems that Adam writes and if they have value (this was written in 2019 so particularly interesting in relation to modern discussions of AI art). This book is at it's best when it is a relationship drama style read rather than the speculative scifi however like I said even those elements won me round in the end- was just at times alittle 'Hey look at all this research I did'- ish.
Sooo I guess I do like Ian McEwan.
Themes: creativity, justice, crime, intelligence, AI, history, choices.
Borrowed from library
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence