I enjoyed this book immensely and based off of this and "The Humans", I think Haig has a bright future in SF. There are some problems that need to be addressed though.

Like being told that the protagonist, Audrey is smart enough to be going to Oxford two years early, but yet she's so daft that it takes her the better part of the book to figure out that which is obvious to the reader less than a quarter way in.

And how can the android character being able to feel pain be indicative of a "soul" or "consciousness" or what have you? Feeling pain is only indicative of a working nervous system. There are honest to goodness humans with disorders that make it so that they don't feel pain. It does not make them automatons.

Then there were the two tired old android tropes trotted out in the novel that I hope that I never see again in my life. The first is the resurrection center and the discarded echos that work there. The scene from "A.I." with the Chris Rockbot should have put this one in the ground. No more Island of Misfit Toys in my android books!

Second, is the compulsory gender and heterosexuality of androids. Why did Daniel even have sexual attraction? If Rosella had programmed him with it, then that should've been mentioned. Android sexuality is such fertile ground ripe for experimentation. But yet every time Data gets busy with someone, it's always a woman. Granted, that was 80s network tv. But this is a genre that shouldn't shy from playing with this concept in new and interesting ways, rather than the old boy bot meets human girl storyline.

But otherwise, solid writing, great world building. This was a book that I looked forward to picking up every time until I finished it and I'll definitely read the sequels, assuming there are any. ( )

Spoiler Alert - Beware ****
4.75

My Netgalley review of Echo Boy.

I couldn't have picked a better book to review for my first Netgalley assignment! I have to confess that I wish I had written this myself. It is a riveting read, with well developed characters, and a plot that keeps you interested throughout. At the end of the book, I was struck with a touch of melancholy. There must be more. I wanted to know what happens next. I have heard that there is to be a sequel. I am so delighted, this is just such a thrilling book. I Enjoyed it enormously.

-- Spoilers --

The story begins with Audrey's mind log, two weeks since her parents were killed. Audrey is a fifteen year old living in the future. Her idea of old fashioned is singing songs from the 2090s. There is a definite sense of human isolation in the novel, "only a hundred years or so' ago people knew their neighbours.

Climate change has had such a devastating impact that Audrey and her family live in a stilt house, above water, and parts of the world are blisteringly hot deserts. There is a magrail outside their house that allows them to travel more than 300 kilometres in less than ten minutes. Life has been reduced to an instant. Audrey lives in a world in which technology has made such enormous advances that there is 4-D footage of her dead parents, in a pod where she can interact with them, as though they are still alive. This cruel advancement of technology adds to her distress as she knows in her heart that they are dead.

Her father's brother is Alex Castle the head of Castle Industries, the leading technological empire in Europe. The two brothers look like each other but have nothing in common, Audrey's father is a technophobe, who fears that Echos will take over the world. The two brothers are polar opposites in personality, morals, and beliefs. These resemblances and differences are an interesting and important aspect of the novel, cleverly thought out by the author.

From the opening chapter we know that their deaths are no accident. This is murder.

In this futuristic world robots are passe and have been replaced by Echos. Alissa, their family Echo is so human looking that Audrey can't help but find this disturbing. Like all Echos she is made of human flesh and blood, a picture of perfection, except for a cube of hardware and circuitry in the brain. Alissa, appears to malfunction, she kills Audrey's parents, this is accomplished in the old fashioned way with a knife. No technology is required to commit murder just cold hard steel. Audrey manages to get away from Alissa but the technology of the car that she is in is controlled by her uncle Alex. She is taken to his house.

In her uncle's house she meets Daniel a boy Echo. After witnessing the death of her parents she is terrified of all Echos, but Daniel seems to frighten her more than most. This initial fear turns out to be misplaced, Daniel is a prototype model who knows the truth about her uncle and is trying to help and warn her.

Audrey learns that her uncle is a false, scheming man, only interested in augmenting his power and control. He has no soul. His ten year old son Iago looks cute looking but has psychopathic tendencies like his father. Audrey's uncle carries on a pretense of being her protector. To begin with Audrey is taken in. But she investigates and discovers what he is really like. She finds a message in a book from Daniel, confirming that her uncle murdered her mother and father. Her uncle locks her in her room and arranges for an Echo to kill her. She manages to escape by tricking Iago and blasts her way out of captivity.

Daniel has a lock of human hair in him, this tiny lock of hair is enough to make him experience human emotions, as well as pain. Audrey discovers that her uncle may appear human but in reality he has less compassion and heart than Daniel with his 0.01% of humanity. Her uncle tries to eliminate Daniel's capacity for human characteristics, and discards him, aware that he may end up in the notorious Resurrection Zone. Her uncle controls the Resurrection Zone, a futuristic zoo, where extinct animals, neanderthals, and Echos are subjected to vicious attacks in front of an audience. The passages in the book about the Resurrection Zone, made me think of Rome's bloody past. The Roman gladiators, and animals in the Colloseum, where pain and suffering existed as entertainment too.

In the end Audrey and Daniel manage to escape to the moon, the last place that Audrey would ever have considered going to, but now everything has changed. Her parents are dead, her uncle is a murderer, there is no longer anything to hold her to planet earth. If she stays her uncle may kill her. Daniel has nothing left. His maker, Rosella who he loved is dead. Daniel and Audrey are drawn to each other, like lost souls. They Kiss. Fall in love. But there is a price to be paid for freedom, she must become like an Echo herself, and suffer the pain of branding, or else she will be discovered on the shuttle that takes them to the Moon.

Audrey makes this sacrifice, a massive undertaking to become like an Echo, overlooked, and insignificant. Especially if you consider that she will age but Daniel will continue to stay young. What can the future hold for them?

Daniel is an Echo, of Rosella's dead son; a tiny lock of her child's hair lives within him. Rosella, the creator of Daniel, sacrifices her life to save Daniel. Another poignant moment, finally humans make the ultimate sacrifice.

Daniel also suffers as he is part human. A typical Echo without this 0.01% of humanity would never feel pain, or fear, or love. He is distressed by these human emotions, but without these are we really living?






( )

Young Adult novel about a robot-who-has-human-feelings. Some cute ideas (nice to see mainstream thought touching on the ideas of the Singularity, although I don't think their use of the word is exactly mine, and the theme of when machines become people tied in nicely with Ancillary Justice). But the implementation was a bit black and white for me, the bad guy is signposted from about page 1, the heroine's falling for the robot failed to feel convincing, and the 'he's human because they Added Some Hair from her dead baby' is just much less interesting science than 'he's human because he has desires and needs and wants and responds to the world' would have been. Also I thought the robot's designer was just a bit too neat - a tortured genius who lost her child, now an alcoholic working for the Bad Guy, who programmed the robots to kill the parents of a girl who she's never met, is given a pretty clear pass as a Good Guy, because she loves her robot son very much, and the Bad Guy was threatening her Poor Sick Grandfather. It would be nice if the heroine had had Slightly More Complicated Feels about that. And so many of the redshirts are, err, just cooler than the main characters, particularly the neanderthals. Also, her final decision is clichéd and stupid, and in a universe with less narrativium would probably get them both killed. On the other hand, it is nice to see a futuristic world that is not a complete utopia or dystopia, and it had Really Fast Cars! And a moon base! ( )

Spoiler Alert - Beware ****
4.75

My Netgalley review of Echo Boy.

I couldn't have picked a better book to review for my first Netgalley assignment! I have to confess that I wish I had written this myself. It is a riveting read, with well developed characters, and a plot that keeps you interested throughout. At the end of the book, I was struck with a touch of melancholy. There must be more. I wanted to know what happens next. I have heard that there is to be a sequel. I am so delighted, this is just such a thrilling book. I Enjoyed it enormously.

-- Spoilers --

The story begins with Audrey's mind log, two weeks since her parents were killed. Audrey is a fifteen year old living in the future. Her idea of old fashioned is singing songs from the 2090s. There is a definite sense of human isolation in the novel, "only a hundred years or so' ago people knew their neighbours.

Climate change has had such a devastating impact that Audrey and her family live in a stilt house, above water, and parts of the world are blisteringly hot deserts. There is a magrail outside their house that allows them to travel more than 300 kilometres in less than ten minutes. Life has been reduced to an instant. Audrey lives in a world in which technology has made such enormous advances that there is 4-D footage of her dead parents, in a pod where she can interact with them, as though they are still alive. This cruel advancement of technology adds to her distress as she knows in her heart that they are dead.

Her father's brother is Alex Castle the head of Castle Industries, the leading technological empire in Europe. The two brothers look like each other but have nothing in common, Audrey's father is a technophobe, who fears that Echos will take over the world. The two brothers are polar opposites in personality, morals, and beliefs. These resemblances and differences are an interesting and important aspect of the novel, cleverly thought out by the author.

From the opening chapter we know that their deaths are no accident. This is murder.

In this futuristic world robots are passe and have been replaced by Echos. Alissa, their family Echo is so human looking that Audrey can't help but find this disturbing. Like all Echos she is made of human flesh and blood, a picture of perfection, except for a cube of hardware and circuitry in the brain. Alissa, appears to malfunction, she kills Audrey's parents, this is accomplished in the old fashioned way with a knife. No technology is required to commit murder just cold hard steel. Audrey manages to get away from Alissa but the technology of the car that she is in is controlled by her uncle Alex. She is taken to his house.

In her uncle's house she meets Daniel a boy Echo. After witnessing the death of her parents she is terrified of all Echos, but Daniel seems to frighten her more than most. This initial fear turns out to be misplaced, Daniel is a prototype model who knows the truth about her uncle and is trying to help and warn her.

Audrey learns that her uncle is a false, scheming man, only interested in augmenting his power and control. He has no soul. His ten year old son Iago looks cute looking but has psychopathic tendencies like his father. Audrey's uncle carries on a pretense of being her protector. To begin with Audrey is taken in. But she investigates and discovers what he is really like. She finds a message in a book from Daniel, confirming that her uncle murdered her mother and father. Her uncle locks her in her room and arranges for an Echo to kill her. She manages to escape by tricking Iago and blasts her way out of captivity.

Daniel has a lock of human hair in him, this tiny lock of hair is enough to make him experience human emotions, as well as pain. Audrey discovers that her uncle may appear human but in reality he has less compassion and heart than Daniel with his 0.01% of humanity. Her uncle tries to eliminate Daniel's capacity for human characteristics, and discards him, aware that he may end up in the notorious Resurrection Zone. Her uncle controls the Resurrection Zone, a futuristic zoo, where extinct animals, neanderthals, and Echos are subjected to vicious attacks in front of an audience. The passages in the book about the Resurrection Zone, made me think of Rome's bloody past. The Roman gladiators, and animals in the Colloseum, where pain and suffering existed as entertainment too.

In the end Audrey and Daniel manage to escape to the moon, the last place that Audrey would ever have considered going to, but now everything has changed. Her parents are dead, her uncle is a murderer, there is no longer anything to hold her to planet earth. If she stays her uncle may kill her. Daniel has nothing left. His maker, Rosella who he loved is dead. Daniel and Audrey are drawn to each other, like lost souls. They Kiss. Fall in love. But there is a price to be paid for freedom, she must become like an Echo herself, and suffer the pain of branding, or else she will be discovered on the shuttle that takes them to the Moon.

Audrey makes this sacrifice, a massive undertaking to become like an Echo, overlooked, and insignificant. Especially if you consider that she will age but Daniel will continue to stay young. What can the future hold for them?

Daniel is an Echo, of Rosella's dead son; a tiny lock of her child's hair lives within him. Rosella, the creator of Daniel, sacrifices her life to save Daniel. Another poignant moment, finally humans make the ultimate sacrifice.

Daniel also suffers as he is part human. A typical Echo without this 0.01% of humanity would never feel pain, or fear, or love. He is distressed by these human emotions, but without these are we really living?






( )