Category Archives: Madelilne Ashby

More Androids with a Dash of Grandmother

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iD
Madelaine Ashby
Angry Robot Books
UK Print
Date: 4th July 2013
ISBN: 9780857663108
Format: Medium (B-Format) Paperback
R.R.P.: £8.99
US/CAN Print
Date: 25th June 2013
ISBN: 9780857663115
Format: Large (Trade) Paperback
R.R.P.: US$14.99 CAN$16.99
Ebook
Date: 25th June 2013
ISBN: 9780857663122
Format: Epub & Mobi
R.R.P.: £5.49 / US$6.99

I reviewed the initial novel in this series, vN, last year and was quite impressed by it.  It held my interest when I wasn’t able to read it for days at a time.  As a result, I was looking forward to the sequel.

Unfortunately (for me, at least), the sequel didn’t live up to its predecessor.  Part of that is because the viewpoint character in this one is Javier rather than Amy.  Javier doesn’t interest me as much as Amy and her grandmother Portia do. Portia isn’t dead, BTW.

The setup is basically this.  Amy and Javier have built an artificial island in the middle of the ocean.  After repelling an attack by unknown assailants, they’re visited by a human representative of the church that created them.  (Recall that the androids were originally created by a sect so that those not raptured will have companions.)  The guy arrives on a supply boat which was forced to transport him to the island to allegedly investigate the raid.

This is where my suspension of disbelief begins to break down.  Amy and Javier don’t trust him, but they let him have free reign of the island.  Some of this is intentional, and some isn’t.  The guy deliberately puts himself in danger by going into a restricted area.  Why he wasn’t restricted to the boat he came on, I don’t know.  It’s obvious no one wants him there.

He also rapes Javier and forces him to do something that destroys the island.  The rest of the book is about how Javier tries to reverse the damage he’s done.  Javier travels about blowjobbing doing whatever he feels he has to in order to accomplish his objectives. 

SPOILER ALERT:

Where the story really went off the rails for me was in the final confrontation.  Having found some of his children, Javier discovers that his daughter, whom he’s never met, thinks highly of the man who started the whole chain of events (He’s caring for two of Javier’s children.) and despises him.   Yet in just a few sentences Javier is able to completely switch her allegiance.

Also, androids have a built-in failsafe mechanism that causes them to shut down whenever a human is threatened or hurt.  A big deal is made of this throughout the book.  It’s the failsafe mechanism that allows Javier to be manipulated initially.  I found Javier’s rationalization around the failsafe in the final confrontation a little too convenient.

END SPOILER

On the positive side, Ashby’s writing, which was quite good to begin with, has improved.  The story moves along smoothly and quickly.  The pacing is superb.  The dialogue reads like people talking, not words put in characters’ mouths by an author.  The flashback scenes of Javier’s childhood were handled well and didn’t detract from the story.

This book won’t be for everyone.  vN was from the point of a four year old.  As such, there wasn’t a lot of sex, and no graphic sex, in the book, although the violent content was high.  iD is very different.  There’s plenty of graphic content, both sex and violence, with more of the former than the latter.  (Or maybe I’m just desensitized to violence.)  If you’re easily offended, or if you’re squeamish, you might want to give this one a pass.  Of course, everyone’s tastes are different, and your mileage may vary.

One thing that did intrigue me were the hints Ashby dropped about generation ships and space travel.  There’s clearly a war between vN and humans coming.  I’m wondering if the solution is going to be the vN leaving Earth.  We’ll have to wait for the sequel to find out.

I’d like to thank Angry Robot Books for the review copy.

The Android That Ate its Grandmother

2 Replies

vN
Madeline Ashby
Angry Robot Books
448pp trade paperback
$12.99 US $14.99 CAN
448pp B-format paperback
£8.99 UK
ebook $4.89 Kindle $6.01 Nook

This book took me over two weeks to read, but please don’t take that as a negative comment on the book.  It’s actually a high compliment.  Life was happening at the time, and the fact that the book could hold my attention when I wasn’t able to read it for literally days at a time speaks highly of the author’s ability to tell a compelling story.

Normally, I don’t get excited about the whole androids who act like humans subgenre, partly because I got enough of it with ST:TNG and Commander Data.   I like Data, but the whole trope gets old after a while.

Fortunately something I read in a blurb by Joe Lansdale on a novel by Christopher Golden years ago is true:  There are no boring genres, only boring writers.  Madeline Ashby is not a boring writer, and vN is anything but a boring book.  This one surprised me several times by the direction it took.

The situation is this:  in the near future a wealthy cult develops sentient androids so that those who aren’t raptured will have someone to talk to, interact with, and have sex with.  That’s not a setup you see everyday.

Some people marry androids and have children with them.  Both genders of androids can reproduce.  Depending on their intake, androids can grow quickly or slowly.  Amy Peterson is the android daughter of a human father and android mother who is growing slowly because her parents want to raise a “normal” child, or at least as normal as an android child can be.  (Androids have their own food since they can’t eat human food.)

When androids reproduce, the offspring has all the features of the parent.  Also when androids see a human about to come to harm, they are programmed to shut down.  I’m not sure why that it.  I would think some variation of Asimov’s Three Laws would come into play, but that’s how it happens.

Amy’s grandmother, whom she has never met when the book opens, has a flaw in her programming.  She not only doesn’t shut down when a human is about to come to harm, she’s capable of actively harming humans.  When Grandma shows up at Amy’s kindergarten graduation, kills one of Amy’s classmates, and engages Amy’s mother in mortal combat, Amy doesn’t shut down.  She eats her grandmother.  Literally.

This sudden intake of nutrients (remember, androids have a special diet, which can include other androids) causes Amy to go from a six year old body to that of a fully mature adult woman in only a matter of hours.  It also leads to a life on the run. 

I won’t go into any more detail, since I found the path Amy’s life takes from this point to be one of the strong points of the book.  This book impressed me.  Like I said earlier, it held my attention when I wasn’t able to read it for days.

One of the strong points of the book is how well Ashby gets into Amy’s head.  She handles the fact although Amy is now a grown woman physically, she’s still a child emotionally very well.  This is where the attention the author pays to details really shows.

I said this book surprised me, and it did.  There’s more to come, because the cover copy says this is volume one of a series.  I have no idea where Ashby is planning on taking the next book.  I just know I’m going to be there for it.

vN is a Featured Book at Adventures Fantastic Books.  Below is an excerpt of the first 48 pages.