Annie Bot
Author(s): Sierra Greer
Fiction | Mel M's Book Talkers | Fiction
She's human in every way that matters.
Annie is a robot, created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Playful and eager to please, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the outfits he buys for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his whims.
Maybe the apartment isn't always spotless, but she's trying to be good enough for Doug. She's trying really hard. But as Annie grows more self-aware, she begins to chafe against the borders of her life: the empty weeks spent confined to the apartment, the fitness regimens designed to keep her part-organic body toned, the service appointments to increase her bra size and shave inches off her waistline. Worst of all are Doug's unpredictable moods, and the way he can punish her without even raising his voice.
Annie starts to imagine the impossible - what would life be like outside Doug's apartment? What could she be like without Doug?
This powerful, provocative novel from a bold new voice examines the intricate relationship between creator and creation, between human and AI, exploring issues of trust, intimacy, power and autonomy. Is a human soul something we are born with? Or is it something - through love, pain and other people - we can learn?
Product Information
CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: MEL M
A recent review elsewhere described this book as “Barbie for girls who like Aphex Twin” but if that means nothing to you, I’d alternatively describe it as Frankenstein for the age of AI with a heady dose of feminist consciousness.
The last three pages of this novel left me breathless and I will be thinking about them for a long time. In fact, many aspects of this novel made me think: about AI, yes, but also about the scripts we follow in our relationships that limit our own freedoms and, wait, who ‘programmed’ us to have such scripts? How do we override them to finally follow our own self-interest? This novel works just as much as an allegory for social conditioning as it does for the ethics of AI technology.
Also, it’s one hell of a page-turner. I was so interested the whole time in finding out what would happen between these characters.
I would recommend this for book clubs, fans of Spike Jonze’s film Her, and fans of Pat Barker in terms of the finely observed and often thrilling dynamics between the sexes (synthetic or otherwise).
General Fields
- :
- : HarperCollins Publishers
- : Hemlock Press GB
- : 31 March 2024
- : 2.188 Centimeters X 13.5 Centimeters X 21.6 Centimeters
- : books
Special Fields
- : Sierra Greer
- : Paperback
- : English
- : 813.6