lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2018-07-09 09:19 pm
lightreads) wrote2018-07-09 09:19 pm
Entry tags:
Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
Sea of Rust
3/5. There are two kinds of people in the world: ones who are totally going to get what I'm about to say, and ones who . . . won't.
So this is a book about robot society after the extermination of the human race, and I read it because it sounded really soothing. You know, no people in it.
Turns out I was half-wrong – it does have people in it, as the narrator and most of the characters are extremely human-ish. Which – here I go again – is still my problem with robot books. Write me weird robots! Write me robots who are people but who are not humans! These robots are made in the image of humans, in some cases with the emotions of humans, and though the practicalities of their existence – parts wearing down, charging, etc – have some peculiarities, the drives are purely recognizable and purely familiar. And thus not that interesting.
This was kind of soothing, though.
3/5. There are two kinds of people in the world: ones who are totally going to get what I'm about to say, and ones who . . . won't.
So this is a book about robot society after the extermination of the human race, and I read it because it sounded really soothing. You know, no people in it.
Turns out I was half-wrong – it does have people in it, as the narrator and most of the characters are extremely human-ish. Which – here I go again – is still my problem with robot books. Write me weird robots! Write me robots who are people but who are not humans! These robots are made in the image of humans, in some cases with the emotions of humans, and though the practicalities of their existence – parts wearing down, charging, etc – have some peculiarities, the drives are purely recognizable and purely familiar. And thus not that interesting.
This was kind of soothing, though.
no subject
I was on a panel with Glenn Grant about robots and he'd written a story called "Burning Days" (in the collection of the same name) in which robots who want to be human are thought to need therapy for Pinocchio Syndrome, but I haven't read it and suspect it is probably not available in any useful way.
no subject
I bounced off the Chambers for unrelated reasons (my god, the twee) but yes, also that.
I think I'm just going to continue to whine and complain my way through the entire robot craze, however long it lasts.
no subject
heh. seems reasonable! and Autonomous made enough noise in the field that I wouldn't be surprised to see it influencing things or generally being a signal of a shift.