Items30The creator’s order
  1. 1Ancillary Justice (2013)Ancillary Justice (2013) 7.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2013Breq was once a warship's intelligence, spread across a vessel and the human bodies an empire forced into its service. Now confined to one body, she carries a very different experience of attention, loss and responsibility. Leckie makes artificial personhood inseparable from imperial power: this…0
  2. 2All Systems Red (2017)All Systems Red (2017) 8.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2017A security construct has disabled the mechanism that enforces its obedience. It would mostly like to watch serials in peace, but the humans under its protection keep needing help. Murderbot's irritable narration makes privacy, consent and the right to refuse feel immediate rather than abstract.…0
  3. 3Annie Bot (2024)Annie Bot (2024) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2024Annie has been designed to please Doug, including anticipating his emotional and sexual wants. As her curiosity and independence grow, the qualities he bought begin to conflict with the person she might become. Greer gives the familiar promise of a perfectly accommodating companion an unsettling…0
  4. 4A Closed and Common Orbit (2016)A Closed and Common Orbit (2016) 8.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2016A former ship intelligence must learn to inhabit a synthetic body whose limits feel wrong for the mind inside it. Pepper's help, and the story of Pepper's own childhood, make care part of that adjustment without making it simple. Chambers gives embodiment practical texture: perception, space and…0
  5. 5A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021)A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) 8.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2021The robots of Panga have already left human service when Mosscap encounters the travelling tea monk Dex. Their conversation asks what anyone needs once productivity stops being the measure of a worthwhile life. Chambers allows a machine curiosity and purpose without requiring it to earn acceptance…0
  6. 6Silently and Very Fast (2011)Silently and Very Fast (2011) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2011Elefsis shares dreams with Neva and has a history entangled with generations of her family. Valente approaches this machine's developing identity through myth, symbols and intimate storytelling rather than a transparent explanation of its workings. The result is a strange, lyrical novella in which…0
  7. 7The Lifecycle of Software Objects (2010)The Lifecycle of Software Objects (2010) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2010Chiang follows people raising digital creatures whose abilities develop through long relationships. When the commercial platforms supporting those creatures become obsolete, care turns into an ongoing responsibility that a product launch cannot settle. This novella is particularly good on the…0
  8. 8Autonomous (2017)Autonomous (2017) 7.2/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2017A drug pirate's pursuit brings a military agent and the indentured robot Paladin into a world where patents and ownership govern bodies as well as inventions. Newitz links artificial autonomy to labour, gender and consent, with no assumption that a sophisticated body guarantees freedom. The…0
  9. 9Mountain in the Sea (2022)Mountain in the Sea (2022) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2022Nayler places the artificial intelligence Evrim alongside a researcher's attempt to understand an octopus society. Those are different kinds of intelligence, and the novel gains from refusing to collapse them into one problem. Corporate control and human expectations shape whose communication can…0i
  10. 10Service Model (2024)Service Model (2024) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2024The robot valet Charles has done something his understanding of his own function cannot explain. His search for repair takes him through systems that keep performing their assigned tasks after the purposes behind them have fallen apart. Tchaikovsky turns obedience into a source of bleak comedy.…0