I really expected to love this one and ended up feeling a little indifferent. I did enjoy the setting - a future tech-dystopia version of Earth, set in the middle east. Robots in this world do seem to truly be artificially intelligent, though they aren't fully recognized as people with the same rights.

The characters, however, confused me. Bador is a monkey, which, I'm sorry, but I just don't like monkeys, even robotic ones. He also came off as a bit of an ass for most of the story. His human sister was just as frustrating though, and a hard character to read. I really only liked Moku, the storybot. I just never felt like I knew where any of the characters stood - like they were semi-unreliable characters. They weren't being honest with each other much of the time and it also felt like I couldn't tell their true motivations either. As a result, I just didn't care what happened to either of them. I think maybe there were just too many layers of intrigue for me to ever really feel like I had my footing.

Not for me, but YMMV! ( )

I think I found this book via a Kobo recommendation. Because of course, since I read Murderbot, I must be interested in anything featuring bots. Sigh.

And, well. I loved it! But it has nothing to do with Murderbot except, well, bots.

I have to say that some serious suspension of disbelief is required as regards the world building and plot, but that’s not what I’m interested in. The characters are wonderful. I love how they all grow and evolve, especially the narrator, Moku, a “storybot” who starts as a slightly befuddled but more or less objective observer but grows more and more emotionally involved with the family he met and became a part of.

One thing that I kept reflecting on throughout the book. While everyone in our world seems to be freaking out about AI taking over, I notice that a lot of fiction featuring bots, cyborgs and androids features the one issue that Silicon Valley moguls, commentators and basically everyone who is voicing an opinion in public about this subject is studiously avoiding: slavery. ( )

Having been impressed by the author's "The City Inside," the notion of a classic cyber-punk novel with South Asian characteristics was attractive to me. Unfortunately, this time around, I found Basu's execution left a little to be desired, mostly due to there being too many elements and relationships being introduced with most of them not being all that well developed. Though if I look over the commentary regarding some of Basu's other novels, he does seem to have a tendency towards "everything but the kitchen sink" plots. Oh well, better luck next time. My most positive thought is that there is a strong graphic novel struggling to get out of this book. ( )

Just couldn't get into this - something about the tone of the writing just fell flat for me. Put it down and wasn't tempted to pick it back up again.