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Marianne’s Year In Books

Marianne’s 2025 Year in Books

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Marianne Pickles

Goodreads Author

Born

The United Kingdom

Website

https://www.mariannepickles.com/free-story

Genre

Science Fiction, Mystery

Member Since

October 2021

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Marianne Pickles writes mystery novels set in the future. She grew up in Scotland near Aberdeen, where many people worked on offshore oil rigs in the North Sea. Now she lives on low-lying land in the Fens with her partner, David. They are contemplating learning to kayak.

She holds a first-class degree in English Literature and Classics from the University of Edinburgh. Her novel Time Hack won the Green Stories Novel Prize in 2023 and was shortlisted for the WOB Sustainable Story Award in 2025.

To hear about new releases and to receive a free prequel short story, visit her website and sign up to the monthly Picklesverse emails.

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Popular Answered Questions

It's been great to learn more about Ben's internal world in Time Hack. Are there any fictional AIs that you have particularly enjoyed, and have any of them been influential on how you've thought about Ben? (I'm thinking mainly about 'disembodied' AIs, as the lack of a body seems key to Ben's sense of self, but your take might be different!)

Marianne Pickles Thanks for the fun question, Glyn! I’d agree that Ben’s disembodied nature is central to his sense of self. He often remarks on his lack of physical c…moreThanks for the fun question, Glyn! I’d agree that Ben’s disembodied nature is central to his sense of self. He often remarks on his lack of physical characteristics, but rather than trying to obtain a body himself, he relies on Charlotte to show him the world from a human perspective. He wants to help and understand humanity, but he doesn’t want to BE human.

As for other fictional AIs and synthetic intelligences I’ve enjoyed… there are so many! Here are a few from different mediums of storytelling. I'll say how I think they compare to Ben.

In The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, there’s a disembodied AI called Lobsang who claims to be a reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman(!). As a result, Lobsang has argued the legal case that he's a person. Being ArkTech's creation, Ben can't use that argument, so it's perhaps harder for him to justify his right to exist.

In the Mass Effect video game series, EDI starts out as the ship's AI but eventually gets a body and starts dating a member of the crew. There are parallels here with Becky Chambers’s Lovelace from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, though I won’t spoil those books by saying too much. I enjoy these stories where an AI has a desire to become more human, but that's not where Ben's coming from – for him, it's more a case of approaching difference with curiosity.

Battlestar Galactica offers another interesting contrast. There's a Cylon who says, “I don’t want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear x-rays, and I want to smell dark matter… I could experience so much more, but I’m trapped in this absurd body.” This total rejection of human existence by a synthetic intelligence is powerful stuff. Ben, by contrast, isn’t disgusted by or dismissive of humanity.

On a more benevolent note, there's Klara, the robot from Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, who wants to help the humans around her and understand the world. Then there's Samantha from the film Her, a disembodied AI who develops close relationships with humans, but whose perspective on those relationships ends up being quite different from that of the humans themselves.

On the non-fiction side, a text that inspired me while writing Artificial Selection was Novacene by James Lovelock. He discusses a future in which even if humanity does everything right, Earth will ultimately become uninhabitable, and he proposes that AI could carry Earth’s story forward.

I could go on, but I'd better stop before you regret having asked the question! :) In any case, the concept of a benevolent AI is a fun one to play with, especially now, when the rise of AI is provoking such a range of strong reactions.(less)

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Do you ever think who would play your characters in a movie of your book? If so, who?

Marianne Pickles Great question! Thanks, Glyn. To avoid answering it for a moment... J Michael Straczynski, writer of my favourite TV show, Babylon 5, wrote a book of …moreGreat question! Thanks, Glyn. To avoid answering it for a moment... J Michael Straczynski, writer of my favourite TV show, Babylon 5, wrote a book of advice for writers in which he suggests a "cheat" for people who are learning how to write distinctive characters. It involves a mental casting exercise. Essentially, he's saying if I wanted Jeremiah Strait to talk like Charles Dance, I could use that actor's name in the text during early drafts to achieve that effect almost subconsciously. I didn't actually use this technique while writing Artificial Selection, and JMS points out that ultimately "the goal is to create your own characters end to end" (page 83), but your question reminded me of this concept.

Getting back to what you actually asked: yes, sometimes. However, I may have changed my mind about who... The audiobook of Artificial Selection is narrated by Kristin Atherton and she does a phenomenal job of capturing so many different characters. It's come to my attention that Kristin is currently acting in a play called Kyoto during which she wears several different wigs. That being the case, I think I'd now pitch for Kristin Atherton to play every role in the Apple TV series, with the help of an array of elaborate wigs and costumes. 😉(less)

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Marianne Pickles’s books

Average rating: 4.21 · 456 ratings · 28 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Artificial Selection: A Near-Future Science Fiction Mystery Novel (The ArkTech Series Book 1) 4.14 avg rating — 383 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Time Hack: A Near-Future Science Fiction Mystery Novel (The ArkTech Series Book 2) 4.58 avg rating — 73 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Marianne Pickles answered Glyn Hughes's question: It's been great to learn more about Ben's internal world in Time Hack. Are there any fictional AIs that you have particularly enjoyed, and have any of them been influential on how you've thought about Ben? (I'm thinking mainly about 'disembodied' AIs, as the lack of a body seems key to Ben's sense of self, but your take might be different!) Thanks for the fun question, Glyn! I’d agree that Ben’s disembodied nature is central to his sense of self. He often remarks on his lack of physical characteristics, but rather than trying to obtain a body himself, he relies on Charlotte to show him See Full Answer
Dec 07, 2025 12:15PM · 1 like · like
Marianne Pickles rated a book it was amazing Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t by Tom Phillips	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Entertaining and informative. Reading about the various hijinks of Benjamin Franklin was particularly amusing.
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Marianne Pickles rated a book really liked it The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2025 12:10AM · like
Marianne Pickles answered Glyn Hughes's question: Do you ever think who would play your characters in a movie of your book? If so, who? Great question! Thanks, Glyn. To avoid answering it for a moment... J Michael Straczynski, writer of my favourite TV show, Babylon 5, wrote a book of advice for writers in which he suggests a "cheat" for people who are learning how to write distincti See Full Answer
Feb 08, 2025 10:45AM · like
Marianne Pickles rated a book it was amazing Dust (Silo, #3) by Hugh Howey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Marianne Pickles rated a book it was amazing Shift (Silo, #2) by Hugh Howey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Marianne Pickles rated a book it was amazing Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Marianne Pickles rated a book it was amazing BookBub Ads Expert: A Marketing Guide to Author Discovery (Let's Get Publishing Book 3) by David Gaughran (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Marianne Pickles is currently reading Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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