Dona's Book Blog

Thank you to the author Naomi Alderman, publishers Simon & Schuster, and also to NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of THE FUTURE . All views are mine. I really really love A.I. and I'm a proponent of its development. So when I heard about this book and heard such good things about it, I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, I think it just makes too many stylistic and narrative choices that kept me from engaging! I was excited when THE FUTURE started describing the differences between human and computer consciousness. I wanted this book to also explore the moral and intellectual tether humans have to A.I., the similarities between us, the responsibility we have to each other... but the narrative didn't go there. It's undoubtedly strange and wonderful, but I couldn't pay attention with this one. DNF 68% Three (or more) things I loved: 1. The suggestions of uses for Metadata is completely eye-opening and amazing, table at loc. 1204. The au...

Thank you to the author Avery Blake, publishers Sterling & Stone, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of ᴀ ʀᴜᴛʜʟᴇss ᴘᴏsɪᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ. All opinions are mine.  A Romeo and Juliet for a new age, a story of forbidden love between two young people with too much in common: both hiding from every other important detail about their own identities. Hiding behind their virtual selves, Kam and Lyle maneuver their AI world to keep seeing each other, the real worlds in which they can never meet in order to survive, and the political world that rules both AI and real worlds, trying to build a resistance to the rampant wealth disparaty.'' Much of the setting and story reflects a ghostly immage of the nonfictional world, making the stakes feel higher to this reader. That's good, because the storyline is convoluted and hard to follow in places. There's quite a bit of discussion about the story world's politics and societal unrest. This was a pretty good b...