Suzanne Palmer, Daw Books

Sylvia Park, Magpie

Robots and whether they will one day deserve to be treated like people – or destroy humanity, or both – have interested writers for well over a century now.

In the real world, the robot threat appears to involve the uses of artificial intelligence in misinformation and more direct forms of warfare such as drone attacks. In the world of literature, however, many writers focus on individual robots. Maybe giving the AI a body and a face simply helps tell your story better to creatures with bodies and faces.

Fictional robots have a lot going for them. They can be funny, cool or sexy. They can be nerdy and a bit depressed. Some represent “the other”, a test of how humane we are. They can also help us think about concepts of ownership that may apply to our treatment of pets or farm animals. And they can be terrifying killing machines. Murderbot, created by Martha Wells, is a good example of a robot that ticks all those boxes.

This month, I have read two very different robot books. Both are thoughtful and well written, with richly realised internal worlds, but there the similarities end.

In Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer, an old robot comes out of a long period of self-isolation after enemies unknown steal one of its legs. A half-dog, half-robot creature offers to help find its leg, and they are joined by a human mechanic and an emancipated aerial drone. The author calls them a “motley crew”, and that is what they are.

In Luminous, the robots are all abused and your heart goes out to them, but they are, in some cases, dangerous

Our gang’s quest becomes about more than the missing leg. Weird stuff is going on, and the old robot worries that dangerous forces may threaten the world’s steps towards recovery after an apocalypse.

In Palmer’s future, the robots have worked out how to free themselves and are treated with respect, by and large. Our hero, the old robot, is a superhero, with state-of-the-art armour ready to activate. Pre-emancipation, its past was dark, but the tone of the book is cheerful, and could be enjoyed by younger readers. There is an intelligent, talking train, after all. It even says, on my early proof copy: “The dog lives.” There is an assured, comic tone that reminds me of Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle .

Silvia Park’s debut Luminous is not at all comic. Apparently, it began life as a story aimed at kids, but you probably wouldn’t give it to a child to read. In Park’s future, 20 years after the reunification of Korea, robots are ubiquitous, easy to mistake for humans and bought to replace dead children, or work as domestic or sex workers. They are “only” human imitations and are often treated very badly.

One of the human heroes, Jun, has a deadbeat police job in Robot Crimes. The crimes largely involve the theft of robots; how you treat your robot is mostly up to you. Jun’s sister Morgan works in robotics and is living with one of her creations, a butler-boyfriend called Stephen.

She is trying to create humanity in the robot by isolating him from outside influences, but switches him off when she doesn’t like his behaviour. Both Jun and Morgan have never recovered from the loss of a robot who was like a brother to them. Meanwhile, across the city, a young girl has discovered a strange creature in a scrapyard

There are flashes of brilliance in Park’s depiction of the robots. They are all abused and your heart goes out to them, but they are complicated and, in some cases, dangerous. Stephen is a particularly interesting character; I could have probably read a whole book about him. I look forward to whatever Park writes next.

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Emily also recommends…

TV

(2003-2009) Ronald D. Moore, Prime Video

The human-looking Cylons in the TV reboot of Battlestar Galactica are the most enjoyable robots ever created. Think of how much happens to them, and what they are capable of. You also don’t know which human characters are Cylons until nearly the end of the show. Start with the 2003 miniseries before plunging into the four-series arc.

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Emily H. Wilson is the author of the Sumerians series (Inanna, Gilgamesh and Ninshubar, all published by Titan) and she is currently working on her first sci-fi novel. She is a former editor of żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ and you can follow her on Instagram @emilyhwilson1

Claire North, Orbit

Claire North is a successful and prolific novelist, writing under three separate names, but this is their first shift into classic science fiction, i.e. a novel with spaceships in it. I loved the title of this book, Slow Gods, and I loved the cover art. All of which is to say that I went in with high hopes.

It begins: “My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.” A great start.

After that, I got a bit lost for about 60 pages. It is an epic space opera and there were so many timelines, cultures, names… Par for the course in a space opera, obviously, but I hadn’t yet bonded with the main character, a deep-space pilot with an exceptional flight record, but a poor history when it comes to not murdering people. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. I pushed on a bit. And then the hero, Maw, met a person called Gebre, and I was in.

I am going to leap ahead now: READ THIS BOOK. If you love sci-fi, it is for you. It is brilliant. If, like me, you are unsure at first, push on!

Since I do actually have space for a few more words here, I will elaborate on these assertions. It has been a while since I have read a piece of science fiction so purely delightful. That isn’t to say it is just fun; it also manages to be both moving and profound. Oh, and it is beautifully written.

North is superb at very detailed world-building and galaxy-wide plots, but also at character and feeling. Humour, too, and in the grand tradition of Iain M. Banks, there are some lovely artificial intelligences/drones here serving as comic foils.

Slow Gods also has excellent villains with bad attitudes and deadly kit, like city-killing 'blackships'

Maw is an exceptional protagonist. It is always good, as a reader, when you have no idea what your hero is capable of, but you suspect it is something pretty dramatic. After an incident in deep space on their first mission as a pilot, Maw keeps dying… and then coming back to life. This will happen, it turns out, as long as no one is looking at their dead body or mourning them. It is unlikely that Maw is still human, although they mostly look like they are.

So, back to that meeting with Gebre… Maw has agreed to pilot a ship to Adjumir, a planet that is soon to be destroyed by the collapse of LK-08091881, a binary star system.

A mysterious god-like maybe-machine called the Slow did actually warn everyone that the star system was about to collapse and that the resulting shock wave would travel out at the speed of light and “obliterate all life with an eighty-three light-year radius”. The problem is that the response to this warning across the afflicted zone has, at best, been patchy, and when Maw lands on Adjumir in its last days, there are still people there. Billions of them. All hoping that their number will be called in a lottery so they might escape.

And so Maw meets Gebre Nethyu Chatithimska Bajwahra. Gebre is currently “numberless”, but they aren’t focused on that. They just want to save vital artefacts so that future generations will be able to find out about the true history of Adjumir.

Gebre is a deeply appealing character and Maw falls hard for them. What might they do to protect Gebre? Or even to avenge them? Our scene is set.

I should mention there is also The Shine, excellent villains with bad attitudes and deadly kit, including near-invisible, city-killing “blackships” and super soldiers.

As mentioned: read this book!

Emily also recommends…


Iain M. Banks, Orbit

Slow Gods reminded me many times of Banks’s Culture novels, so this is the natural “also recommends” that arises from it. Normally, for readers new to the Culture, I recommend The Player of Games. But this is also a very friendly start to the series for the new reader, as well as actually being the first Culture book Banks wrote. It concerns a man named Horza who can shapeshift, becoming a perfect copy of anyone around him. Who would need to know more?

Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ and the author of the Sumerians trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The final novel in the series, Ninshubar, is out now. You can find her at , or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1