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Well written and engaging. The theme of gene editing only showed the problems did not appreciate what purpose it served.
I thought it was essentially about the selfless love of a robot, Klara, who seemed to be the only wise and humane character who hoped forthe best but was treated as a machine.
I thought it was disappointing overall. I expected more based on author’s previous works. Very slow and a bit dull.
I found this really thought provoking and timely as, in a Matt Haig book I read recently, he described how we are bringing up children to excel rather than be happy. The inability to socialise and the gene editing (with associated risks) in this story pointed to a near future that takes this pursuit of excellence too far and it was novel to suggest AI might actually steer us back on course.
Agree with K Towey – the human characters are less humane than Klara is. She has self awareness of sorts. I must have missed the point about sunlight though and had to return the book- fill me in someone!
A great read. Written with infinite care and close observation of the modern world and believable predication of what may be about to happen in the not too distant future but with the wry comment that the same old human weaknesses will undermine any progress that could be made.
Although eloquent in style, I found this another deeply depressing narrative, as was ‘Never Let Me Go’. Using contrived, stilted conversation to attribute the better angels of our nature to a robot, is a dangerous, unattractive theme. Intelligent Design should uplift. “lifting” was meant to be a joke, perhaps
I enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down however was a little disappointed with ending. A lot of things such as uplifting and the cootings machine were referred to but never fully explained. I realise this was due to only seeing the world as Klara did but it did leave a lot of questions unanswered.
I enjoyed this book more than I expected, I did not think I would empathesise with a non-human perspective but I found it surprisingly touching. I liked the ending, as it felt like a natural progression.