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Android Karenina
Leo Tolstoy meets robots in this “creepy, thrilling, and highly enjoyable” sci-fi mashup of the classic Russian novel Anna Karenina (Library Journal). “ . . . lives up to its promise to make Tolstoy ‘awesomer.’”—The Onion AV Club It’s been called the greatest novel ever written. Now, Tolstoy’s timeless saga of love and betrayal is transported to an awesomer version of 19th-century Russia. It is a world humming with high-powered groznium where debutantes dance the 3D waltz in midair, mechanical wolves charge into battle alongside brave young soldiers, and robots—miraculous, beloved robots!—are the faithful companions of everyone who’s anyone. Restless to forge her own destiny in this fantastic modern life, the bold noblewoman Anna and her enigmatic Android Karenina abandon a loveless marriage to seize passion with the daring, handsome Count Vronsky. But when their scandalous affair gets mixed up with dangerous futuristic villainy, the ensuing chaos threatens to rip apart their lives, their families, and—just maybe—all of planet Earth.
548 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 8, 2010
147 people are currently reading
5624 people want to read
About the author
Ben H. Winters
66 books2,113 followersBen H. Winters is the author most recently of the novel The Quiet Boy (Mulholland/Little, Brown, 2021). He is also the author of the novel Golden State; the New York Times bestselling Underground Airlines; The Last Policeman and its two sequels; the horror novel Bedbugs; and several works for young readers. His first novel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, was also a Times bestseller. Ben has won the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. Dick award in science fiction, the Sidewise Award for alternate history, and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire.
Ben also writes for film and television. He is the creator and co-showrunner of Tracker, forthcoming on CBS. Previously he was a producer on the FX show Legion, and on the upcoming Apple TV+ drama Manhunt.
He has contributed short stories to many anthologies, as well as in magazines such as Lightspeed. He is the author of four “Audible Originals”– Stranger, Inside Jobs, Q&A, and Self Help — and several plays and musicals. His reviews appear frequently in the New York Times Book Review. Ben was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Maryland, educated in St. Louis, and then grew up a bunch more, in various ways, in places like Chicago, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Indianapolis, IN. These days he lives in LA with his wife, three kids, and one large dog.
Ben also writes for film and television. He is the creator and co-showrunner of Tracker, forthcoming on CBS. Previously he was a producer on the FX show Legion, and on the upcoming Apple TV+ drama Manhunt.
He has contributed short stories to many anthologies, as well as in magazines such as Lightspeed. He is the author of four “Audible Originals”– Stranger, Inside Jobs, Q&A, and Self Help — and several plays and musicals. His reviews appear frequently in the New York Times Book Review. Ben was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Maryland, educated in St. Louis, and then grew up a bunch more, in various ways, in places like Chicago, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Indianapolis, IN. These days he lives in LA with his wife, three kids, and one large dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews
October 3, 2018
3.5 stars !!
Anna Karenina is one of my desert island books. (5 stars plus) I love it to pieces and have read it four times (ages 13, 19, 26 and 34). Instead of re-reading it again I was pleased to have found a new interpretation of this book by Ben H. Winters.
This book was fascinating with its infusion of robots and horror. I felt that the author was able (mostly) to integrate the delicate human emotions with what was happening in this steampunk environment. At times it was laugh out loud silly and other times very menacing indeed but underneath it all Mr. Winters was able to maintain these characters' need for love and admiration despite the societal chaos that went on around them.
Would I recommend this book? Yes but only if you have read Anna Karenina at least twice as to me the original is one the most wondrous pieces of literary art.
Anna Karenina is one of my desert island books. (5 stars plus) I love it to pieces and have read it four times (ages 13, 19, 26 and 34). Instead of re-reading it again I was pleased to have found a new interpretation of this book by Ben H. Winters.
This book was fascinating with its infusion of robots and horror. I felt that the author was able (mostly) to integrate the delicate human emotions with what was happening in this steampunk environment. At times it was laugh out loud silly and other times very menacing indeed but underneath it all Mr. Winters was able to maintain these characters' need for love and admiration despite the societal chaos that went on around them.
Would I recommend this book? Yes but only if you have read Anna Karenina at least twice as to me the original is one the most wondrous pieces of literary art.
February 23, 2023
When I was in high school I had a literature teacher who, whenever she did not feel like teaching, and it was often that she felt like that, came into class pushing a squeaky video cart which makes every young student's heart beat faster with the prospect of watching movies instead of studying, and showed us the 1997 movie Anna Karenina, the one with Sophie Marceau as Anna. I don't know if it was her favorite movie or they didn't have other screen adaptation movies, but it was usually that movie which I must have watched three times in total. Imagine how bored I must have been in regular class that watching this rather tedious movie was one of the highlights of my school life. I later read the book at least twice for school and remember it fondly.
Fast forward a few years later at university, I sit in my Introduction to Linguistics course and the professor mentioning that the Czech word “robota” and the German word “Arbeiter” (worker) are etymologically related, opens the doors of a whole new realization to me.
Fast forward a few years, I am reading Adam Roberts' wonderful non-fiction work Science Fiction where he elaborates that “Robots were often invoked as ciphers for oppressed workers, sometimes in complex ways.” and nod knowingly.
Against this backdrop, Ben H. Winters choosing the trope of robots and the robot uprising for his and Tolstoy's mash-up Android Karenina makes greatest sense to me.
If you're unfamiliar with the concept of this parody series of mash-ups; classic novels are being taken (almost word by word) and peppered with fantastical elements like zombies or robots or Cthulhu inserted in especially emotional or intense moments of those classics and the resulting text is usually quite funny and quirky. Some other examples are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I am aware this isn't necessarily super original or the best of literature, they're parody novels but I like to read them for fun.
Functioning robots are all alike; every malfunctioning robot malfunctions in its own way.
Android Karenina, in which an alternate 19th Century Russia is enriched with robots as companions to humans, time travel and space travel is possible and the fights are against space monsters and mechanical koshei, also centers around the same scandalous love story of married Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (Anna) and the dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (Vronsky) gradually turn sour due to societal pressure on a married woman leaving her husband and even child. The original work features embedded social commentary between passionate and defamatory love scenes: lots of old rich men chatting about the state of Russia, about the liberal reforms of Emperor Alexander II, principally railroads, industry, decline of aristocracy, judicial reforms etc. In Android these reforms are replaced by a robot uprising that turns the aristocracy's life upside down and make for a hilarious reading. In this new universe every aristocrat is paired with a robot servant which reflects the essential characteristics of their master, which made an interesting and compelling universe and reminded me of Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials” universe where humans are paired with their soul animals. The servant robots perform all tasks and are bound by the Iron Laws of Robot Behavior, which are reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's and John Campbell's three laws of robotics. After the revolt, humans see themselves forced to create ultra-human cyborgs to fight back the robots.
My favorite part of Android Karenina is probably the presentation of Anna's lawful husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, who in the original work is a detached, unemotional, cold man. He was re-created as a villain with a metallic machine face, his robot side causing him to act and think logically and cold, while inside he is torn and fighting for his human side and his emotions, which was just sheer genius.
So, if you, like me, want to revisit an old classic, but perked up with a fresh take, you enjoy the robot trope and all it stands for in science fiction or you always wanted to read about Vronsky fighting space monsters, this will be your thing!
Fast forward a few years later at university, I sit in my Introduction to Linguistics course and the professor mentioning that the Czech word “robota” and the German word “Arbeiter” (worker) are etymologically related, opens the doors of a whole new realization to me.
Fast forward a few years, I am reading Adam Roberts' wonderful non-fiction work Science Fiction where he elaborates that “Robots were often invoked as ciphers for oppressed workers, sometimes in complex ways.” and nod knowingly.
Against this backdrop, Ben H. Winters choosing the trope of robots and the robot uprising for his and Tolstoy's mash-up Android Karenina makes greatest sense to me.
If you're unfamiliar with the concept of this parody series of mash-ups; classic novels are being taken (almost word by word) and peppered with fantastical elements like zombies or robots or Cthulhu inserted in especially emotional or intense moments of those classics and the resulting text is usually quite funny and quirky. Some other examples are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I am aware this isn't necessarily super original or the best of literature, they're parody novels but I like to read them for fun.
Functioning robots are all alike; every malfunctioning robot malfunctions in its own way.
Android Karenina, in which an alternate 19th Century Russia is enriched with robots as companions to humans, time travel and space travel is possible and the fights are against space monsters and mechanical koshei, also centers around the same scandalous love story of married Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (Anna) and the dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (Vronsky) gradually turn sour due to societal pressure on a married woman leaving her husband and even child. The original work features embedded social commentary between passionate and defamatory love scenes: lots of old rich men chatting about the state of Russia, about the liberal reforms of Emperor Alexander II, principally railroads, industry, decline of aristocracy, judicial reforms etc. In Android these reforms are replaced by a robot uprising that turns the aristocracy's life upside down and make for a hilarious reading. In this new universe every aristocrat is paired with a robot servant which reflects the essential characteristics of their master, which made an interesting and compelling universe and reminded me of Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials” universe where humans are paired with their soul animals. The servant robots perform all tasks and are bound by the Iron Laws of Robot Behavior, which are reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's and John Campbell's three laws of robotics. After the revolt, humans see themselves forced to create ultra-human cyborgs to fight back the robots.
My favorite part of Android Karenina is probably the presentation of Anna's lawful husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, who in the original work is a detached, unemotional, cold man. He was re-created as a villain with a metallic machine face, his robot side causing him to act and think logically and cold, while inside he is torn and fighting for his human side and his emotions, which was just sheer genius.
So, if you, like me, want to revisit an old classic, but perked up with a fresh take, you enjoy the robot trope and all it stands for in science fiction or you always wanted to read about Vronsky fighting space monsters, this will be your thing!
May 24, 2012
My first thought upon finishing Android Karenina was that, had Tolstoy been aware of robots, androids, moon resorts, and magnetic grav trains, this is the book he'd have written. To my mind, the concept of robotics, with its sense of coldness and hardness and immovable logic, fits in perfectly with the idea of post-Tsar Russia; where bureaucracy and the welfare of the nation takes precedence over the welfare of the individual; where the sense of almost perpetual winter brings to mind the frigidity of metal gears and iron exoskeletons; where hidden passions burn just as hotly as the groznium engines driving the mechanical contraptions in this book.
As much I enjoyed the first Quirk books, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, they were quite obviously literary mash-ups, which, while amusing, would be somewhat jarring to read when the new storyline was introduced into the old, resulting in the occasional illogical scene. Android Karenina, on the other hand, flowed, for the most part, smoothly between the old story and the new. If high school kids were given a choice between reading this version and the original, we might be a more literate society, or at least more literature-curious. I would hope that anyone who hasn't read the original version would, upon finishing this book, do so, potentially opening the door to the discovery of a whole new world of literary possibilities, as I would hope would happen with all of the Quirk Books.
Personally, I have never felt a connection to any of the Russian authors and reading this novel, despite its somewhat "secondhand" rendition of the original, just reinforced that sense of alienation I have towards them and their literary creations. I understand the underlying despair which fuels Anna's story, but I cannot empathize with her. The other sympathetic character, Konstantin Levin, has moments of jealously which turn him into a despicable person, which makes me wonder, Are all men so insecure? So I can't say I'll be reading the original Anna Karenina anytime soon, but I'm not ruling out the possibility of trying it again. I used to be a picky eater, but I've forced myself to try foods I never used to like, only to find that, indeed, they actually taste good. Perhaps the same will be true of Russian novels.
Android Karenina is quite a lengthy tome, certainly not a casual read, much as is the original. But I hope potential readers won't be put off by this fact, as it is quite entertaining and, in my opinion, the best work put out by Ben H. Winters and Quirk Books so far.
As much I enjoyed the first Quirk books, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, they were quite obviously literary mash-ups, which, while amusing, would be somewhat jarring to read when the new storyline was introduced into the old, resulting in the occasional illogical scene. Android Karenina, on the other hand, flowed, for the most part, smoothly between the old story and the new. If high school kids were given a choice between reading this version and the original, we might be a more literate society, or at least more literature-curious. I would hope that anyone who hasn't read the original version would, upon finishing this book, do so, potentially opening the door to the discovery of a whole new world of literary possibilities, as I would hope would happen with all of the Quirk Books.
Personally, I have never felt a connection to any of the Russian authors and reading this novel, despite its somewhat "secondhand" rendition of the original, just reinforced that sense of alienation I have towards them and their literary creations. I understand the underlying despair which fuels Anna's story, but I cannot empathize with her. The other sympathetic character, Konstantin Levin, has moments of jealously which turn him into a despicable person, which makes me wonder, Are all men so insecure? So I can't say I'll be reading the original Anna Karenina anytime soon, but I'm not ruling out the possibility of trying it again. I used to be a picky eater, but I've forced myself to try foods I never used to like, only to find that, indeed, they actually taste good. Perhaps the same will be true of Russian novels.
Android Karenina is quite a lengthy tome, certainly not a casual read, much as is the original. But I hope potential readers won't be put off by this fact, as it is quite entertaining and, in my opinion, the best work put out by Ben H. Winters and Quirk Books so far.
May 24, 2012
When I agreed to be part of the Android Karenina blogsplosion, I knew it was going to be an interesting experience. I've read the P&P inspired books -- and obviously am familiar with P&P -- so I got the in-jokes and the references, and could compare it to the original. With this, I haven't read Anna Karenina (and am generally not big on the Russians, save Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago), so I knew that I would have to approach this mash-up differently.
On the one hand, I wouldn't be biased comparing it to the original because I wouldn't know what was the original, and what was not (save the robots -- pretty sure that's all Tolstoy... ;p). At the same time, though, there was a potential to be greatly confusing, and for me to wonder if there was some significance to the addition of robots.
Basically, the latter is what happened. Even though the writing flowed smoothly for me and I couldn't really tell where Tolstoy left off and Winters began, I still found myself wondering what it was all about. Was the insertion of robots really necessary? Was this needed in literature, did it add something to the story? Basically, what's the point? I found I kept asking myself this. The thing is, I think there may have been a subtle reason. I remember reading once about Anna's dream of beaten iron (a famous scene from the original) and assume that this was Winters "in" for the story he created -- there's a groundwork for the horror in Anna's metaphor. And I think there were times when the cruelty exhibited toward the robots (as at Princess Tverskaya's house, when the Iron Laws are tested) did add a layer of humanity (albeit at its worst) that made the robot aspect a bit more believable and linked the desperation of their case with Anna's. They also seemed to act as mirrors of their masters, externalizing the internal, which was interesting. (<-- though I found myself wondering if this took away from the beauty and subtlety of the original; of course, not having read it, I have no idea. It was just one of the many "wonderings".)
The somewhat steampunkish element was interesting, too. I wouldn't call it straight steampunk (note to purists) but that mash-up aspect was there, and I liked it. Ball gowns and polished copper faceplates just work for me, I guess. (Also, the idea of a "float" was fabtastic. What is a float, you ask? A float is what happens when technology enables you to ramp up the excitement of a formal ball -- you simply puff jets of air on the "ballroom floor" to lift dancers off of the ground, creating new -- and even more difficult to master -- dance steps. Genius.)
But I still found myself questioning. I kept wondering what the point was, and how it fit into the big picture, and I kept feeling like I was missing something. I think, had I read the original, I may actually have enjoyed this more. I did enjoy it on a somewhat forgettable level, but I may have found it more compelling if I were familiar with the story, which is not the fault of Ben Winters. I think he did a good job from what I can tell, but I feel like I'm in a place where I just don't know what to do with it. I'm missing the in-jokes, so the humor seems like it's just detracting from the famously sad and serious story, which leaves me with a feeling of a weird tone and confusion. I think if you're reading it because you've read Anna K and are curious, it may work for you; if you're reading it in place of Anna K, it may not.
One last note: the illustrations did nothing for me. Sorry, illustrator...
On the one hand, I wouldn't be biased comparing it to the original because I wouldn't know what was the original, and what was not (save the robots -- pretty sure that's all Tolstoy... ;p). At the same time, though, there was a potential to be greatly confusing, and for me to wonder if there was some significance to the addition of robots.
Basically, the latter is what happened. Even though the writing flowed smoothly for me and I couldn't really tell where Tolstoy left off and Winters began, I still found myself wondering what it was all about. Was the insertion of robots really necessary? Was this needed in literature, did it add something to the story? Basically, what's the point? I found I kept asking myself this. The thing is, I think there may have been a subtle reason. I remember reading once about Anna's dream of beaten iron (a famous scene from the original) and assume that this was Winters "in" for the story he created -- there's a groundwork for the horror in Anna's metaphor. And I think there were times when the cruelty exhibited toward the robots (as at Princess Tverskaya's house, when the Iron Laws are tested) did add a layer of humanity (albeit at its worst) that made the robot aspect a bit more believable and linked the desperation of their case with Anna's. They also seemed to act as mirrors of their masters, externalizing the internal, which was interesting. (<-- though I found myself wondering if this took away from the beauty and subtlety of the original; of course, not having read it, I have no idea. It was just one of the many "wonderings".)
The somewhat steampunkish element was interesting, too. I wouldn't call it straight steampunk (note to purists) but that mash-up aspect was there, and I liked it. Ball gowns and polished copper faceplates just work for me, I guess. (Also, the idea of a "float" was fabtastic. What is a float, you ask? A float is what happens when technology enables you to ramp up the excitement of a formal ball -- you simply puff jets of air on the "ballroom floor" to lift dancers off of the ground, creating new -- and even more difficult to master -- dance steps. Genius.)
But I still found myself questioning. I kept wondering what the point was, and how it fit into the big picture, and I kept feeling like I was missing something. I think, had I read the original, I may actually have enjoyed this more. I did enjoy it on a somewhat forgettable level, but I may have found it more compelling if I were familiar with the story, which is not the fault of Ben Winters. I think he did a good job from what I can tell, but I feel like I'm in a place where I just don't know what to do with it. I'm missing the in-jokes, so the humor seems like it's just detracting from the famously sad and serious story, which leaves me with a feeling of a weird tone and confusion. I think if you're reading it because you've read Anna K and are curious, it may work for you; if you're reading it in place of Anna K, it may not.
One last note: the illustrations did nothing for me. Sorry, illustrator...
May 25, 2012
I came to this book - and this Mash up genre with an open mind. There are many great examples of Post Modern re-contextualisations of classic artworks; Shakespeare productions set in during the second world war, Wagner's ring cycle set against a backdrop of industrial socialist revolution, Derek Jarman's quirky anachronisms. These clever works re-frame and re-present classic stories within a contemporary context refreshing sometimes stale ideas for new audiences. I was hoping Android Karenina would do this for a Russian Great.
I was not a great fan of the original, with its tedious self-absorbed characters and their petty bourgeois morality. I couldn't wait for the revolution to come so they'd be lined up against the wall and put out of their long suffering miseries. and I've always suspected that was the point of Tolstoy's master work. Behold life before the revolution - watch the annoying twats carry on like spoilt children over a failed marriage.
Hey - it couldn't get any worse dressing them in Steam Punk vogue and adding a couple of robots....could it?
Android Karenina is puerile rubbish of the lowest sort, it's a crayon moustache graffiti-ed on the Mona Lisa. Was this meant to be funny? If so, I don't get the joke. This book is meant to be the best example of the mash-up genre. There are heaps of 4 and 5 star ratings from Goodreads reviewers. There's no accounting for taste. There are a lot of boguns out there. I need to avoid this genre like the clap if this book is representative.
The standard of prose is bad fan fiction without the camp humour of slash.
High emotional points in the original story are defaced by absurd encounters with aliens, wormholes and poltergeist pyrotechnics, with all the subtlety of Vaudeville drum and cymbal boom tish joke punctuation.
The Steam Punk themes are a hack role call of popular SF stories with robots, Asimov, Terminator etc, all dressed up in clockwork drag.
The central premise of a culture based around companion robots is NEVER explained, and this absence sticks out like a bad graft on Frankenstein's monster, as every other laboured line in this turgid tome explains every tedious detail of all the other relationships, barring the most important one in that society- the human machine bond. Even the illustrations are clumsy uninspired ugly renderings, with robots looking like they came out of the Futurama factory. At least Bender had a sense of humour.
At a whopping 541 pages, this is a single joked stretched so thin the plot leaks and makes a mess on the carpet.
One star - because if if gave this a Zero like it deserves, you'd think I'd forgotten to rate it.
I was not a great fan of the original, with its tedious self-absorbed characters and their petty bourgeois morality. I couldn't wait for the revolution to come so they'd be lined up against the wall and put out of their long suffering miseries. and I've always suspected that was the point of Tolstoy's master work. Behold life before the revolution - watch the annoying twats carry on like spoilt children over a failed marriage.
Hey - it couldn't get any worse dressing them in Steam Punk vogue and adding a couple of robots....could it?
Android Karenina is puerile rubbish of the lowest sort, it's a crayon moustache graffiti-ed on the Mona Lisa. Was this meant to be funny? If so, I don't get the joke. This book is meant to be the best example of the mash-up genre. There are heaps of 4 and 5 star ratings from Goodreads reviewers. There's no accounting for taste. There are a lot of boguns out there. I need to avoid this genre like the clap if this book is representative.
The standard of prose is bad fan fiction without the camp humour of slash.
High emotional points in the original story are defaced by absurd encounters with aliens, wormholes and poltergeist pyrotechnics, with all the subtlety of Vaudeville drum and cymbal boom tish joke punctuation.
The Steam Punk themes are a hack role call of popular SF stories with robots, Asimov, Terminator etc, all dressed up in clockwork drag.
The central premise of a culture based around companion robots is NEVER explained, and this absence sticks out like a bad graft on Frankenstein's monster, as every other laboured line in this turgid tome explains every tedious detail of all the other relationships, barring the most important one in that society- the human machine bond. Even the illustrations are clumsy uninspired ugly renderings, with robots looking like they came out of the Futurama factory. At least Bender had a sense of humour.
At a whopping 541 pages, this is a single joked stretched so thin the plot leaks and makes a mess on the carpet.
One star - because if if gave this a Zero like it deserves, you'd think I'd forgotten to rate it.
November 11, 2022
I can only imagine how incredibly boring this book must be without the robots and aliens
unfinished
September 7, 2021im not actually gonna finish this book but it's funny as hell honestly i wish i had the time to actually read this
May 24, 2012
I think of Android Karenina's ideal audience in terms of Venn diagrams: that mysterious place where "fans of Anna Karenina" and "science fiction readers who love reading about machinery and robots" overlaps. Many of Winters's variations on Tolstoy's themes are very clever -- particularly his Karenin -- and Quirk did well to choose AK for a steampunk mash-up. Still, I thought the book dragged a bit, particularly in the middle.
I should admit that I think Anna Karenina drags a bit in places, too. I do thank Winters profusely for adjusting Levin: he annoyed me far less in Android Karenina than in Tolstoy's book. It was novelty rather than characters that kept this AK moving for me but, over all, despite not being a big fan of robots or sci fi, I found this AK moderately entertaining.
(Quirk Books provided me with a review copy of the book.)
I should admit that I think Anna Karenina drags a bit in places, too. I do thank Winters profusely for adjusting Levin: he annoyed me far less in Android Karenina than in Tolstoy's book. It was novelty rather than characters that kept this AK moving for me but, over all, despite not being a big fan of robots or sci fi, I found this AK moderately entertaining.
(Quirk Books provided me with a review copy of the book.)
July 7, 2015
There were a few parts that were difficult to get through, but overall I feel that Ben H. Winters did an amazing job at transferring the spirit of Anna Karenina into Android Karenina. Though there were times that I felt something was ridiculous, I still greatly enjoyed it. The human emotion in this story was also captured beautifully and so accurately. There were many times that I understood exactly the mix of emotions that was described and could completely empathize with characters even if I didn't agree with them. That takes talent as an author (or authors in this case).
abandoned
June 28, 2024Dry.
Dry dry dry.
Dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry.
Gah.
I could not make headway into the original without being bored to distraction and the introduction here of Robots! does naught to hold my interest.
Undoubtedly I will try again at a later date, but that date and I are not looking forward to meeting each other.
Dry dry dry.
Dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry.
Gah.
I could not make headway into the original without being bored to distraction and the introduction here of Robots! does naught to hold my interest.
Undoubtedly I will try again at a later date, but that date and I are not looking forward to meeting each other.
December 5, 2025
Started and finished date – 29.11.25 to 03.12.25.
My rating – Three Stars.
This book okay and the book was an interesting mixed of historical fiction and science fiction. I think people who like leviathan by Scott Westerfeld or steamed by Katie MacAlister may like is book. The cover of the book was okay, but it could be better, and I think the colour palette at was used on the cover of book was fine. This book was an interesting of Anna Karenina and this book has made me pick in up Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The writing was okay, and the writing took some time to get used to also the ending of book was okay, but it could be better.
I think both the world building was interesting, but I want it to be flash out bit more. The romance was okay but bit dull and relationships between characters was fine. I think this book has a good steampunk to it and the humor in the book was okay. Some twists in the book just fine while the others twist kept me interested in the book. I found the paced in the book was well structured and steady paced. The characters were okay, but they bit flat and they needed to be flash out bit more.
My rating – Three Stars.
This book okay and the book was an interesting mixed of historical fiction and science fiction. I think people who like leviathan by Scott Westerfeld or steamed by Katie MacAlister may like is book. The cover of the book was okay, but it could be better, and I think the colour palette at was used on the cover of book was fine. This book was an interesting of Anna Karenina and this book has made me pick in up Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The writing was okay, and the writing took some time to get used to also the ending of book was okay, but it could be better.
I think both the world building was interesting, but I want it to be flash out bit more. The romance was okay but bit dull and relationships between characters was fine. I think this book has a good steampunk to it and the humor in the book was okay. Some twists in the book just fine while the others twist kept me interested in the book. I found the paced in the book was well structured and steady paced. The characters were okay, but they bit flat and they needed to be flash out bit more.
November 4, 2021
I think I'm gonna say 3.5 stars. It's been almost a decade since I read Anna Karenina, and I remembered I found it difficult. It still is, so thank fuck for short chapters, haha. I did enjoy the story more this time around though, and the addition of androids in a steampunky sci-fi setting definitely made it more action-packed. I was thinking of re-reading the original, but now I'm not so sure. If I do, and conclude that I like this better, I'll go back and up my rating.
April 1, 2017
I gotta confess.....
I don't get these "Mash-Up" books.
I really wanted to like this book, given that the source novel is a classic (and one of my favorites!!). But this book just left me cold.
5 stars for the source material, 3.5 stars for this hybrid.
I don't get these "Mash-Up" books.
I really wanted to like this book, given that the source novel is a classic (and one of my favorites!!). But this book just left me cold.
5 stars for the source material, 3.5 stars for this hybrid.
May 31, 2019
Android Karenina - Ben H. Winters | Uma divertida mistura de uma paródia de Tolstói e Aventura Steampunk com robôs assassinos, conspirações e invasões alienígenas! | NITROLEITURAS #resenha #steampunk
Aproveitando minha recente leitura do clássico Ana Karenina do Tolstói, e continuando em minha pesquisa para o meu cenário de horror steampunk transhumanista, InteSteam: A Cidade Estranha, encontrei esse divertido livro do Ben H. Winters, que segue a linha das obras de paródia mashup de gênero, como o romance Orgulho, Preconceito e Zumbis, Razão e Sensibilidade e Monstros do Mar (do próprio Ben H. Winters), the Late Gatsby (que mistura vampiros com The Great Gatsby do F. Scott Fitzgerald, entre outros.
Android Karenina - Ben H. Winters | 541 páginas, Quirk Classics, 2010 | Lido de 23.05.19 a 27.05.19 | NITROLEITURAS #steampunk #resenha
SINOPSE
O co-autor de Sense and Sensibility e Sea Monsters, Ben H. Winters está de volta com um novo colaborador, o lendário romancista russo Leon Tolstoy, e o resultado é o Android Karenina, uma edição aprimorada da clássica história de amor ambientada em um mundo distópico de robôs, ciborgues e viagens espaciais interestelares.
Como no romance original, nossa história segue dois relacionamentos: o trágico romance adúltero de Anna Karenina e o conde Alexei Vronsky, e o casamento muito mais promissor de Konstantin Levin e Kitty Shcherbatskaya.
Esses quatro, que anseiam por amor verdadeiro, vivem em um grupo de steampunk. inspirou o século XIX de mordomos mecânicos, cultos que adoravam extraterrestres e colônias terrestres na Lua e em vênus.
Só suas paixões seriam suficientes para consumi-las - mas quando uma cabala secreta de revolucionários científicos radicais lança um ataque ao estilo de vida high-tech da alta sociedade russa, nossos heróis devem lutar com toda a sua coragem, todos os seus gadgets e todo o poder de um novo modelo ciborgue elegante como nada que o mundo já viu.
"Repleto da mesma mistura de romance, drama e fantasia que fez os dois primeiros best-sellers do Quirk Classics New York Times, o Android Karenina traz esta célebre série para o excitante mundo da ficção científica.
RESENHA
Lendo esse livro logo depois do original é uma experiência muito estranha mas divertida. As vezes, a mistura de Ben H. Winters do texto original com um cenário steampunk bem avançado, com andróides, robôs, colônias solares, não funciona. Dá para notar claramente o momento de inserção do material novo no texto do Tolstói.
Porém, quando o autor se deixa levar pelo cenário e recria cenas dos personagens originais mais sedimentadas no contexto da narrativa, que envolve tanto uma invasão espacial quanto a ascensão de uma ditatura robótica na Rússia do século 19, o romance brilha.
Muitas mudanças nos personagens originais, especialmente na Anna Karenina e seu ex-marido, o conde Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin (que virou um vilão medonho e bem pulp, daqueles de torcer os bigodes) refletem mais a interpretação do Ben H. Winters e acabam por se descolarem de suas fontes originais, abraçando o gênero pulp do romance.
Gostei da leitura, a estrutura dramática do Tolstói dâ substância para a trama pulp porém, ao terminar, fiquei pensando se não teria sido mais interessante uma recriação completa, ou a criação de uma história mais original e diversa, que aproveitasse melhor o cenário steampunk da narrativa.
Fica a recomendação para fãs de literatura pulp e steampunk, ou de uma ficção científica mais romântica. Porém, caso você tenha lido o original do Tolstói, talvez achará muito estranho certas "adaptações" e simplificações dramáticas feitas pelo Ben H. Winters! :)
Aproveitando minha recente leitura do clássico Ana Karenina do Tolstói, e continuando em minha pesquisa para o meu cenário de horror steampunk transhumanista, InteSteam: A Cidade Estranha, encontrei esse divertido livro do Ben H. Winters, que segue a linha das obras de paródia mashup de gênero, como o romance Orgulho, Preconceito e Zumbis, Razão e Sensibilidade e Monstros do Mar (do próprio Ben H. Winters), the Late Gatsby (que mistura vampiros com The Great Gatsby do F. Scott Fitzgerald, entre outros.
Android Karenina - Ben H. Winters | 541 páginas, Quirk Classics, 2010 | Lido de 23.05.19 a 27.05.19 | NITROLEITURAS #steampunk #resenha
SINOPSE
O co-autor de Sense and Sensibility e Sea Monsters, Ben H. Winters está de volta com um novo colaborador, o lendário romancista russo Leon Tolstoy, e o resultado é o Android Karenina, uma edição aprimorada da clássica história de amor ambientada em um mundo distópico de robôs, ciborgues e viagens espaciais interestelares.
Como no romance original, nossa história segue dois relacionamentos: o trágico romance adúltero de Anna Karenina e o conde Alexei Vronsky, e o casamento muito mais promissor de Konstantin Levin e Kitty Shcherbatskaya.
Esses quatro, que anseiam por amor verdadeiro, vivem em um grupo de steampunk. inspirou o século XIX de mordomos mecânicos, cultos que adoravam extraterrestres e colônias terrestres na Lua e em vênus.
Só suas paixões seriam suficientes para consumi-las - mas quando uma cabala secreta de revolucionários científicos radicais lança um ataque ao estilo de vida high-tech da alta sociedade russa, nossos heróis devem lutar com toda a sua coragem, todos os seus gadgets e todo o poder de um novo modelo ciborgue elegante como nada que o mundo já viu.
"Repleto da mesma mistura de romance, drama e fantasia que fez os dois primeiros best-sellers do Quirk Classics New York Times, o Android Karenina traz esta célebre série para o excitante mundo da ficção científica.
RESENHA
Lendo esse livro logo depois do original é uma experiência muito estranha mas divertida. As vezes, a mistura de Ben H. Winters do texto original com um cenário steampunk bem avançado, com andróides, robôs, colônias solares, não funciona. Dá para notar claramente o momento de inserção do material novo no texto do Tolstói.
Porém, quando o autor se deixa levar pelo cenário e recria cenas dos personagens originais mais sedimentadas no contexto da narrativa, que envolve tanto uma invasão espacial quanto a ascensão de uma ditatura robótica na Rússia do século 19, o romance brilha.
Muitas mudanças nos personagens originais, especialmente na Anna Karenina e seu ex-marido, o conde Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin (que virou um vilão medonho e bem pulp, daqueles de torcer os bigodes) refletem mais a interpretação do Ben H. Winters e acabam por se descolarem de suas fontes originais, abraçando o gênero pulp do romance.
Gostei da leitura, a estrutura dramática do Tolstói dâ substância para a trama pulp porém, ao terminar, fiquei pensando se não teria sido mais interessante uma recriação completa, ou a criação de uma história mais original e diversa, que aproveitasse melhor o cenário steampunk da narrativa.
Fica a recomendação para fãs de literatura pulp e steampunk, ou de uma ficção científica mais romântica. Porém, caso você tenha lido o original do Tolstói, talvez achará muito estranho certas "adaptações" e simplificações dramáticas feitas pelo Ben H. Winters! :)
May 24, 2012
My taste in books runs to the ilk of Cold Mountain. I haven’t read one single vampire book. I never read the Harry Potter Books and I never could get into fantasy books—including the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings! I guess I’m just a snob! When I began reading Ben H. Winters’ mash-up of Android Karenina, my hopes were not high for a quick, light or funny read. Oddly enough, it was all three. Mash-ups are the latest thing in the literary world, mixing classics with new world monsters and demons. It’s not really all that new; the music world has been doing it for ages. Mad Magazine used to rewrite the comics as written by, If Al Capp wrote Brenda Starr.
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is the original high maintenance drama queen. She falls in love with a dashing soldier, deserts her husband and child for him and complains when he doesn’t dote on her every minute of the day. We all know that Russian novels tend to have a gazillion characters, so what does Winters do? He adds more!
The author introduces us to the Robots made of Groznium. There are Class I robots acting as toys, candles and self-extinguishing ashtrays. Class II robots perform the functions of domestics, train drivers and miners. Upon reaching their majority, the upper classes receive a Class III, a beloved-companion robot. That robot is part alter ego, part Jiminy Cricket, part personal valet/maid. They provide a memory bank and communication, as well as protect, groom, mimic, nudge and commiserate with their human counterparts. Eventually, we meet the humanoid Class IV robot, the ubiquitous “toy soldiers”.
Count Vronsky’s Class III is shaped like a wolf; Anna’s is sveltely shaped but still robotic. Anna’s husband, Alexei, has a robot that takes form as a partial face, a la Phantom of the Opera. It is quite clear from the beginning that the face will be not only urging but also dictating Karenin’s actions. Alexei is extremely important in the Higher Branches of the Ministry of Robotics. He controls all the robots and protects the populace from the UnConSkia terrorists, former state scientists who threaten Russian’s utopian way of life.
The true marvel of this mash-up is the way the author flips the events thoroughly and seamlessly from Czarist Russia to something more akin to 1984. The religious enthusiasts are now Xenotheologists who believe “They will come for us in three ways” and those ways are in the form of hellhounds to delight any fan of Star Wars sand creatures. Vronsky’s English stallion, Frou Frou, becomes an exterior, a sort of suit of armor, for the cull--a steeplechase in which the contestants must eliminate each other. Anna will still destroy herself, not under a train, but beneath the Grav, which runs on an electrical force across a magnetic field. Ben H.Winters, playwright, librettist and author of the immensely popular Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters connects all of Tolstoy’s dots in the cleverly bizarre world he has created and he transforms a Russian novel into a reasonably demented work of science fiction.
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is the original high maintenance drama queen. She falls in love with a dashing soldier, deserts her husband and child for him and complains when he doesn’t dote on her every minute of the day. We all know that Russian novels tend to have a gazillion characters, so what does Winters do? He adds more!
The author introduces us to the Robots made of Groznium. There are Class I robots acting as toys, candles and self-extinguishing ashtrays. Class II robots perform the functions of domestics, train drivers and miners. Upon reaching their majority, the upper classes receive a Class III, a beloved-companion robot. That robot is part alter ego, part Jiminy Cricket, part personal valet/maid. They provide a memory bank and communication, as well as protect, groom, mimic, nudge and commiserate with their human counterparts. Eventually, we meet the humanoid Class IV robot, the ubiquitous “toy soldiers”.
Count Vronsky’s Class III is shaped like a wolf; Anna’s is sveltely shaped but still robotic. Anna’s husband, Alexei, has a robot that takes form as a partial face, a la Phantom of the Opera. It is quite clear from the beginning that the face will be not only urging but also dictating Karenin’s actions. Alexei is extremely important in the Higher Branches of the Ministry of Robotics. He controls all the robots and protects the populace from the UnConSkia terrorists, former state scientists who threaten Russian’s utopian way of life.
The true marvel of this mash-up is the way the author flips the events thoroughly and seamlessly from Czarist Russia to something more akin to 1984. The religious enthusiasts are now Xenotheologists who believe “They will come for us in three ways” and those ways are in the form of hellhounds to delight any fan of Star Wars sand creatures. Vronsky’s English stallion, Frou Frou, becomes an exterior, a sort of suit of armor, for the cull--a steeplechase in which the contestants must eliminate each other. Anna will still destroy herself, not under a train, but beneath the Grav, which runs on an electrical force across a magnetic field. Ben H.Winters, playwright, librettist and author of the immensely popular Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters connects all of Tolstoy’s dots in the cleverly bizarre world he has created and he transforms a Russian novel into a reasonably demented work of science fiction.
May 24, 2012
I reserve 5-star ratings for books of extraordinary creativity, skill, craftsmanship, and lasting impact to the reader. Of course there's that personal enjoyment variable, too.
Android Karenina meets every criteria I've got. Quirk Classics has yet to miss the mark on creativity, and Ben Winters molds words I could read or listen to all day in this work. My first three criteria have been met with each of the three previous Quirk Classics released, and I expected nothing less.
I expected more humor than humanity from this, though. The humor was there, masterfully done, but the confusion and intensity of the human experience overwhelmed me. Somehow, works about machines say more of mankind than of machines. I'll read this again in the winter when I indulge in my annual "Russian winter" thing, and I'll add the original Anna Karenina as well.
Android Karenina meets every criteria I've got. Quirk Classics has yet to miss the mark on creativity, and Ben Winters molds words I could read or listen to all day in this work. My first three criteria have been met with each of the three previous Quirk Classics released, and I expected nothing less.
I expected more humor than humanity from this, though. The humor was there, masterfully done, but the confusion and intensity of the human experience overwhelmed me. Somehow, works about machines say more of mankind than of machines. I'll read this again in the winter when I indulge in my annual "Russian winter" thing, and I'll add the original Anna Karenina as well.
decided-not-to-read
May 24, 2012Anna Karenina (on which this is based) was the first "grown up" book I read (for lack of a better term). I think I was 8 or 10 or so. Yes, I was a strange child, and no, maybe I shouldn't have been allowed to read it. I remember thinking it was engrossing, but I can't say with any certainty how well I understood it.
But anyway, as a science fiction fan I have a high standard for books involving robots. (Actually I am fairly particular generally.) While I get the sense this is a better adaptation of the source material than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was, I kept thinking "I'd rather be reading the original."
But anyway, as a science fiction fan I have a high standard for books involving robots. (Actually I am fairly particular generally.) While I get the sense this is a better adaptation of the source material than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was, I kept thinking "I'd rather be reading the original."
May 24, 2012
See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com
August 18, 2017
I admit, I have a hard time reading classic literature. I have a hard time with the writing style, the pacing, the dialogue and the general ideas of the time period. I'm your stereotypical millennial and need something fast paced with some twists and turns to keep me interested. That is why I love the idea of the Quirk Classics! I'm assuming if you're reading this review then you know about the Quirk Classics, but in case you don't, the concept is to take a classic story and put it in more "fun" setting with updated writing while still respecting the original work. Some Quirk Classics you may have heard of are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters, Jane Slayer (love that play on words with Eyre and Vampire Slayer), Wuthering Bites, and the list goes on. Basically, they are the same general story but with a different setting in an effort to get younger generations to read them. In other words, they're perfect for me!
However, I did not like the story of Anna Karenina at all! After forcing myself to finish Android Karenina, and I mean actually forcing myself to do it, I did some research into the original story. I even watched the movie with Kiera Knightly (I know some people are going to cringe reading that). Judging from other reviews of this book, it seems like Ben Winters really respected the original story and was able to capture all the intricate and minute details about the human interaction that earned Leo Tolstoy the reputation of writing one of the greatest novels ever. But those were the very things that I disliked about the story.
The story of Anna Karenina takes place in Imperial Russia and is about a married woman who falls in love with a bachelor soldier. They have a heated affair and fall so deeply in love that they stop hiding their affair to Russian society. Eventually, Anna becomes manic, jealous and depressed as their affair continues and she is constrained by her marriage, expectations and norms of Russian society and the little freedoms available to Russian women of that time. Finally, with Anna's depression and outbursts increasing, her lover starts to fall out of love with her and eventually she kills herself. While that is Anna's story, there is a second main character named Levin, who apparently is largely based on Tolstoy himself, who is a landowner and farmer and is madly in love with another girl who initially refutes his marriage proposal.
Android Karenina is the same story, except with the introduction of robots, androids, and space travel. In this world, it is still Imperial Russia, but the discovery of this special metal has facilitated a scientific breakthrough where robots and androids are used for everything! And I mean everything, even down to the dice at a gambling hall, are robots. Aliens threaten to one day come to earth, there are political discussions over the topics of android-human relations, and battles between regular citizens and this underground movement called UnConScyia. I think the only other difference between this story and Anna Karenina is that Anna's husband in this story slowly starts to become evil and has master plans of domination.
The only thing that saved this story for me were the quirky elements! The introduction of aliens, robots, bombs, battles, and action were what I liked about this book. That is why this gets 2 stars and why I forced myself to finish it. Ben Winters's writing about going to the moon, huge battles between aliens and robots, and the general world he created were amazing. It is the story of Anna Karenina that I really disliked. I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but Tolstoy wrote Anna as if she had bipolar disorder. She had these incredible manic episodes. One minute, she was so happy and talking about how her life has never been better. And the next page she's threatening suicide, accusing her lover of not caring that she feels wretched, and thinking and acting erratically. Bipolar disorder is not something to make light of or make fun of in any way, as it is a real and debilitating mental disorder that affects so many people. But in following 500+ pages of her manic episodes, I could not sympathize with her. I sympathized with everyone but Anna! She got mad whenever her lover left the house, she threatened suicide if she didn't get her way, and she was overall pretty mean. Towards the end of the book, I didn't blame Vronsky at all for his repulsion towards her.
I'm glad I read this book and not Anna Karenina itself because at least the aliens were fun! I think that is why I'm so conflicted writing this review. On one hand, I loved Ben Winters's writing and ideas. On the other, I really disliked Tolstoy's Anna. I don't want to give a bad review to an author who did make fun contributions to the story, but overall I didn't enjoy this read.
However, I did not like the story of Anna Karenina at all! After forcing myself to finish Android Karenina, and I mean actually forcing myself to do it, I did some research into the original story. I even watched the movie with Kiera Knightly (I know some people are going to cringe reading that). Judging from other reviews of this book, it seems like Ben Winters really respected the original story and was able to capture all the intricate and minute details about the human interaction that earned Leo Tolstoy the reputation of writing one of the greatest novels ever. But those were the very things that I disliked about the story.
The story of Anna Karenina takes place in Imperial Russia and is about a married woman who falls in love with a bachelor soldier. They have a heated affair and fall so deeply in love that they stop hiding their affair to Russian society. Eventually, Anna becomes manic, jealous and depressed as their affair continues and she is constrained by her marriage, expectations and norms of Russian society and the little freedoms available to Russian women of that time. Finally, with Anna's depression and outbursts increasing, her lover starts to fall out of love with her and eventually she kills herself. While that is Anna's story, there is a second main character named Levin, who apparently is largely based on Tolstoy himself, who is a landowner and farmer and is madly in love with another girl who initially refutes his marriage proposal.
Android Karenina is the same story, except with the introduction of robots, androids, and space travel. In this world, it is still Imperial Russia, but the discovery of this special metal has facilitated a scientific breakthrough where robots and androids are used for everything! And I mean everything, even down to the dice at a gambling hall, are robots. Aliens threaten to one day come to earth, there are political discussions over the topics of android-human relations, and battles between regular citizens and this underground movement called UnConScyia. I think the only other difference between this story and Anna Karenina is that Anna's husband in this story slowly starts to become evil and has master plans of domination.
The only thing that saved this story for me were the quirky elements! The introduction of aliens, robots, bombs, battles, and action were what I liked about this book. That is why this gets 2 stars and why I forced myself to finish it. Ben Winters's writing about going to the moon, huge battles between aliens and robots, and the general world he created were amazing. It is the story of Anna Karenina that I really disliked. I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but Tolstoy wrote Anna as if she had bipolar disorder. She had these incredible manic episodes. One minute, she was so happy and talking about how her life has never been better. And the next page she's threatening suicide, accusing her lover of not caring that she feels wretched, and thinking and acting erratically. Bipolar disorder is not something to make light of or make fun of in any way, as it is a real and debilitating mental disorder that affects so many people. But in following 500+ pages of her manic episodes, I could not sympathize with her. I sympathized with everyone but Anna! She got mad whenever her lover left the house, she threatened suicide if she didn't get her way, and she was overall pretty mean. Towards the end of the book, I didn't blame Vronsky at all for his repulsion towards her.
I'm glad I read this book and not Anna Karenina itself because at least the aliens were fun! I think that is why I'm so conflicted writing this review. On one hand, I loved Ben Winters's writing and ideas. On the other, I really disliked Tolstoy's Anna. I don't want to give a bad review to an author who did make fun contributions to the story, but overall I didn't enjoy this read.
March 22, 2024
This, if it's not obvious, is a re-telling of the classic Russian novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Full disclosure, I hated the original novel. I really like classic Russian literature. Huge fan of War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, and even Dead Souls. But I grew to loathe the main character and all her bad decisions by the end of Anna Karenina.
This re-telling is more interesting. As in all classic Russian novels of the 19th century, the following features are check-off items:
1) Every character of interest is wealthy and has a title (some many Princes and Princesses) but no job but they seem to have scads of money
2) Every character is referred to by 4 difference names at various times and by various other characters. There is the first name, the last name, their patronymic/matronymic, and their nickname (because every other person is named Alexandre, Nicholai, or Natasha). So, a character can be referred to without explanation as Nicholai, Drotsky, Alexandrovich, or Natcha.
3) Every character makes really bad decisions.
4) There are endless balls, dinner parties, theatrical shows, and riding in sledges to fill up everyone's time.
This novel hits all of these in perfect combination. But, here's where the re-telling is very interesting. All the servants and peasants have been replaced with steampunk-style robots.
There's an entire classification system created by the author describing each robots function, and level of sophistication. The robots are fashioned in some inexplicable way from gears and powered by a metallic substance knowns as Groznium. If you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies you are familiar with this genre.
The weirdness does not end there. In addition, there are mysterious giant mechanical insects and worms and strange alien creatures with yellow beaks, a dozen eyes and four arms which attack with no warning. They are inserted into the story, viciously killing and destroying. But, once they are beaten off everyone goes back to what they were doing (a ball, a dinner party...etc) as if nothing serious occurred. Finally, it is also a dystopian tale not unlike 1984 or Logan's Run where a society lives in an insular bubble and is controlled by a totalitarian regime, forced to live tragic lives.
In general, the story has a few interesting messages. It is a cautionary tale of being too dependent on technology (they look upon their robotic friends as essential to their everyday lives). It also has another theme which might not have been intended, but is equally valid: People with nothing to do, no purpose in life, generally make bad decisions and make a mess of their lives because they are bored.
Thinking back to the original novel Anna Karenina, this is perhaps the message one should take. The main character made bad decisions, and everyone around her as well because they had nothing important to do. They really had no purpose other than to "live in society" and attend various social gatherings. Perhaps if Anna had a job or hobby she would have been happier.
The story drags a bit and the main characters make wildly erratic decisions based on quasi-believable motivations, so I cannot give this five stars. It's long (as the original novel is) so you need to be prepared for many long conversations about how people are feeling, and the ins-and-outs of how society operates. But it is nicely seasoned with blood thirsty aliens, mechanical inventions, and of course steampunk robots.
This re-telling is more interesting. As in all classic Russian novels of the 19th century, the following features are check-off items:
1) Every character of interest is wealthy and has a title (some many Princes and Princesses) but no job but they seem to have scads of money
2) Every character is referred to by 4 difference names at various times and by various other characters. There is the first name, the last name, their patronymic/matronymic, and their nickname (because every other person is named Alexandre, Nicholai, or Natasha). So, a character can be referred to without explanation as Nicholai, Drotsky, Alexandrovich, or Natcha.
3) Every character makes really bad decisions.
4) There are endless balls, dinner parties, theatrical shows, and riding in sledges to fill up everyone's time.
This novel hits all of these in perfect combination. But, here's where the re-telling is very interesting. All the servants and peasants have been replaced with steampunk-style robots.
There's an entire classification system created by the author describing each robots function, and level of sophistication. The robots are fashioned in some inexplicable way from gears and powered by a metallic substance knowns as Groznium. If you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies you are familiar with this genre.
The weirdness does not end there. In addition, there are mysterious giant mechanical insects and worms and strange alien creatures with yellow beaks, a dozen eyes and four arms which attack with no warning. They are inserted into the story, viciously killing and destroying. But, once they are beaten off everyone goes back to what they were doing (a ball, a dinner party...etc) as if nothing serious occurred. Finally, it is also a dystopian tale not unlike 1984 or Logan's Run where a society lives in an insular bubble and is controlled by a totalitarian regime, forced to live tragic lives.
In general, the story has a few interesting messages. It is a cautionary tale of being too dependent on technology (they look upon their robotic friends as essential to their everyday lives). It also has another theme which might not have been intended, but is equally valid: People with nothing to do, no purpose in life, generally make bad decisions and make a mess of their lives because they are bored.
Thinking back to the original novel Anna Karenina, this is perhaps the message one should take. The main character made bad decisions, and everyone around her as well because they had nothing important to do. They really had no purpose other than to "live in society" and attend various social gatherings. Perhaps if Anna had a job or hobby she would have been happier.
The story drags a bit and the main characters make wildly erratic decisions based on quasi-believable motivations, so I cannot give this five stars. It's long (as the original novel is) so you need to be prepared for many long conversations about how people are feeling, and the ins-and-outs of how society operates. But it is nicely seasoned with blood thirsty aliens, mechanical inventions, and of course steampunk robots.
July 12, 2023
That’s right, everyone. Mock me if you will but I read all 538 pages of this book and let me tell you, what a fever dream. I have read the OG and thought it was overall one of the more boring classics. Now as for this one being boring…maybe sometimes? But interspersed with some of the wildest shit I’ve ever read. Think Willem DeFoe in Spider-Man mixed with that ring from Kim Possible that takes over more of her body every time she lies. I can only assume I’ll be pondering this book for the duration of my lifetime.
April 19, 2023
Completely serviceable. How this maintains the “exalt the farmer” energy of the original while literally being about alien robots is pretty impressive, though.
May 24, 2012
I loved Anna Karenina, so add in robots and how could Android Karenina not be good? Leave it to Ben H. Winters to squander his opportunity to do something brilliant.
The sad truth is Android Karenina's robots are little more than props. They're introduced early on as the "beloved companions" of their human owners, and only seem to exist for the sake of boosting the self-esteem of these humans. When Stepan Arkadyich feels guilty about cheating on his wife, his robot companion consoles him by matching his mood and displaying "memories" of her on his display monitor. The robots rarely speak, and when they do, it's usually to echo a phrase said by their owner. We're told that they are confidants and sounding boards for ideas and great discussions, but we never see these discussions take place.
Some minor spoilers ahead.
The villain of the story, Alexei Karenin (Anna's cuckolded husband), has a robot of his own — his "Face". The inherent ridiculousness of this aside, the Face eventually takes over Karenin, and uses his position in the government to confiscate everyone's robots in the guise of having them adjusted. The reader, along with a few of the central characters, eventually learns that this is all an evil plot. While the characters are desperate to save their robots, whom they love like brothers or sisters, the reader could care less. Ben H. Winters has not developed the robots has characters, and as a result, this whole plot evokes about as much concern or sympathy as does a weekend of Blackberry or iPhone network outages.
Winters lets even more air out of the crisis of his plot as the people of Russia start to enjoy this new life without robots and electronic gadgets. So is the reader supposed to be rooting for the resistance movement that's trying to rescue the robots? Or for the villain Karenin?
And then it becomes clear what's happening here. Winters is attempting to make us learn something about ourselves and our own gadget-obsessed society. At this point, feel free to throw the book across the room and abandon any remaining hope that the story will redeem itself without the need to have a moral at the end.
The end of this book couldn't have come soon enough. I very nearly gave it two stars, wanting to shrug it off as OK, but the parts that make it almost likable are the parts that come more or less from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The addition of robots, mad scientists and aliens does nothing for the original story, and when judged on its own merits, Android Karenina is weak and hardly interesting.
The sad truth is Android Karenina's robots are little more than props. They're introduced early on as the "beloved companions" of their human owners, and only seem to exist for the sake of boosting the self-esteem of these humans. When Stepan Arkadyich feels guilty about cheating on his wife, his robot companion consoles him by matching his mood and displaying "memories" of her on his display monitor. The robots rarely speak, and when they do, it's usually to echo a phrase said by their owner. We're told that they are confidants and sounding boards for ideas and great discussions, but we never see these discussions take place.
Some minor spoilers ahead.
The villain of the story, Alexei Karenin (Anna's cuckolded husband), has a robot of his own — his "Face". The inherent ridiculousness of this aside, the Face eventually takes over Karenin, and uses his position in the government to confiscate everyone's robots in the guise of having them adjusted. The reader, along with a few of the central characters, eventually learns that this is all an evil plot. While the characters are desperate to save their robots, whom they love like brothers or sisters, the reader could care less. Ben H. Winters has not developed the robots has characters, and as a result, this whole plot evokes about as much concern or sympathy as does a weekend of Blackberry or iPhone network outages.
Winters lets even more air out of the crisis of his plot as the people of Russia start to enjoy this new life without robots and electronic gadgets. So is the reader supposed to be rooting for the resistance movement that's trying to rescue the robots? Or for the villain Karenin?
And then it becomes clear what's happening here. Winters is attempting to make us learn something about ourselves and our own gadget-obsessed society. At this point, feel free to throw the book across the room and abandon any remaining hope that the story will redeem itself without the need to have a moral at the end.
The end of this book couldn't have come soon enough. I very nearly gave it two stars, wanting to shrug it off as OK, but the parts that make it almost likable are the parts that come more or less from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The addition of robots, mad scientists and aliens does nothing for the original story, and when judged on its own merits, Android Karenina is weak and hardly interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2012
Disclaimer: I got this book free for review.
Ahhhhh....all the tragedy of the original Russian romance Leo Tolstoy delivered to us in Anna Karenina, plus all the robots, aliens, and political intrigue you've always wanted.
Mr.Winters, co-author with Jane Austen, of Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters, teamed up with Ol' Leo this time around to give Anna Arkadyevna a liberal sprinkling of Steampunk. I was over the moon when I heard Mr.Winters was part of Quirk Classic's newest project. I adored what he did with S&S, so in my mind he could do no wrong with Anna. I am pleased to say, Mr.Winters did not disappoint.
To be entirely honest and up front about this all, Quirk Classics sent me the book a few weeks ago for free. The only strings attached were that I read and blog about my feelings on the book as well as toss in a few links (which I'll get to in a moment) for my readers. I'm all about free books. Especially free books I might actually enjoy. And enjoy I did. Win-win, folks!
And since I'm in the midst of this outpouring of honesty, I'll also tell you I have never actually read the original Anna Karenina. Sorry. But as soon as I dug into Android Karenina, I called my mother and asked to borrow one of the many versions of the movie she owns on DVD. She brought me the BBC version filmed in 1977. If it follows the BBC's literary movie tradition, it was probably very accurate. I really think Tolstoy missed the mark with his original concept. There was always something missing. Sure, it has adultery, emotional melt downs, morphine, madness, and a healthy dose of political commentary, but what it was really missing was robots. Robots and aliens. Robots, aliens, and interplanetary travel. Mr.Winters has fixed that nearly fatal flaw.
I believe we can now set aside the worn out issue of Team Edward or Team Jacob and ask ourselves a new, more pressing question: Team Karenin or Team Vronsky?
(And for the record, Anna Karenina is now sitting in my to-read book pile in my room. I'll get to it eventually.)
Ahhhhh....all the tragedy of the original Russian romance Leo Tolstoy delivered to us in Anna Karenina, plus all the robots, aliens, and political intrigue you've always wanted.
Mr.Winters, co-author with Jane Austen, of Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters, teamed up with Ol' Leo this time around to give Anna Arkadyevna a liberal sprinkling of Steampunk. I was over the moon when I heard Mr.Winters was part of Quirk Classic's newest project. I adored what he did with S&S, so in my mind he could do no wrong with Anna. I am pleased to say, Mr.Winters did not disappoint.
To be entirely honest and up front about this all, Quirk Classics sent me the book a few weeks ago for free. The only strings attached were that I read and blog about my feelings on the book as well as toss in a few links (which I'll get to in a moment) for my readers. I'm all about free books. Especially free books I might actually enjoy. And enjoy I did. Win-win, folks!
And since I'm in the midst of this outpouring of honesty, I'll also tell you I have never actually read the original Anna Karenina. Sorry. But as soon as I dug into Android Karenina, I called my mother and asked to borrow one of the many versions of the movie she owns on DVD. She brought me the BBC version filmed in 1977. If it follows the BBC's literary movie tradition, it was probably very accurate. I really think Tolstoy missed the mark with his original concept. There was always something missing. Sure, it has adultery, emotional melt downs, morphine, madness, and a healthy dose of political commentary, but what it was really missing was robots. Robots and aliens. Robots, aliens, and interplanetary travel. Mr.Winters has fixed that nearly fatal flaw.
I believe we can now set aside the worn out issue of Team Edward or Team Jacob and ask ourselves a new, more pressing question: Team Karenin or Team Vronsky?
(And for the record, Anna Karenina is now sitting in my to-read book pile in my room. I'll get to it eventually.)
May 24, 2012
*Received this in a first read giveaway*
Wasn't able to start this til a two weeks ago I'm really surprised that it's been this long and I'm still reading it. I've not read the original novel, so came into this with no expectations.
The robot/android angle to this book adds the little bit of sci fi "oomph" that might broaden the reading audience. That being said, I can sometimes infer what may have happened in the original novel that the robots are doing in this one (revolutionaries booby trapping roads, a miner being buried alive vs. the robot, etc.) I've seen other reviews calling it a steampunk version of the novel, but not being an afficionado of steampunk, couldn't say if that's valid.
I'm enjoying the book, but it's too easy to put down, so it's taking a really long time to get through. Why is it so easy to put down? Well, the shorter chapters for one thing, but also some of the writing can be so dense that it's not the first book I reach for when I'm trying to relax after work.
It's an interesting mash up of two cultures, and so far as i've read, Winters is making it work. Ultimately,it's amusing, but not a keeper for me - I'll be handing this off to my daughter or one of her friends
Wasn't able to start this til a two weeks ago I'm really surprised that it's been this long and I'm still reading it. I've not read the original novel, so came into this with no expectations.
The robot/android angle to this book adds the little bit of sci fi "oomph" that might broaden the reading audience. That being said, I can sometimes infer what may have happened in the original novel that the robots are doing in this one (revolutionaries booby trapping roads, a miner being buried alive vs. the robot, etc.) I've seen other reviews calling it a steampunk version of the novel, but not being an afficionado of steampunk, couldn't say if that's valid.
I'm enjoying the book, but it's too easy to put down, so it's taking a really long time to get through. Why is it so easy to put down? Well, the shorter chapters for one thing, but also some of the writing can be so dense that it's not the first book I reach for when I'm trying to relax after work.
It's an interesting mash up of two cultures, and so far as i've read, Winters is making it work. Ultimately,it's amusing, but not a keeper for me - I'll be handing this off to my daughter or one of her friends
May 14, 2014
Apparently, having never read Anna Karenina nor had an enjoyment of steampunk, I shouldn't have gone for this novel.
This review is pretty much to post "never say never," because I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK. When I realized that this was not written with the outrageous humor of the PPZ and SSS "quirk classics," I thought it would be a disappointment. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved all of the moral ambiguity thrown in with more obvious examples of wrong and right. Anna's a floozy and "The Face" is evil, but what of the idea of assigning the menial jobs that the lower classes would have to robots? Were the Class 3s more human or machine, and was their keeping mechanics, husbandry, or slavery?
And what about the lizard beasts?!
This review is pretty much to post "never say never," because I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK. When I realized that this was not written with the outrageous humor of the PPZ and SSS "quirk classics," I thought it would be a disappointment. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved all of the moral ambiguity thrown in with more obvious examples of wrong and right. Anna's a floozy and "The Face" is evil, but what of the idea of assigning the menial jobs that the lower classes would have to robots? Were the Class 3s more human or machine, and was their keeping mechanics, husbandry, or slavery?
And what about the lizard beasts?!
July 9, 2017
About three years ago, I read Anna Karenina and I absolutely hated it. Not only was it incredibly dull, but I didn’t care for most of the characters. Reading it was a long, hard slog and I blame my reading group for letting me choose the book in the first place. So, when I saw Android Karenina, I had two thoughts. First, I had no problem with Quirk Press turning it into a horror story. Second, it has freaking robots! Anna Karenina can only be improved by the inclusion of robots...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
May 24, 2012
I received this book as a First-reads copy. At first I wasn't sure if it was something I would enjoy but I was interested to see how it would work as a novel. (I should say I have not read the original.) It turns out that I really enjoyed the book. The writing of the two authors blends together seamlessly. Tolstoy's work is ideal for blending in the "high" science fiction/steampunk genre. The character development is excellent, especially for the main players.
Overall a very enjoyable read.
Overall a very enjoyable read.
March 24, 2015
I have read anna karenina before, but I did not really remember all of the plot line so it has been fun reading this book and slowly remembering some things, but then there are androids! it's very much an alternate reality that is fun to discover. I must admit that by the end, I was sucked in and wondering how the book was going to end and resolve some of the outstanding plot points. So this is a good addition to the other novels that have added zombies and sea monsters to jane austen books.
March 2, 2018
I really enjoyed this book quite a while ago. I want to get it off my shelves for good now.
It might not be just because Anna Karenina is my absolute favourite novel by my favourite novelist ever. I am suspicious that that may be the reason behind my deep satisfaction with Ben Winters' prose, so that is why I only rated it 4 stars.
It might not be just because Anna Karenina is my absolute favourite novel by my favourite novelist ever. I am suspicious that that may be the reason behind my deep satisfaction with Ben Winters' prose, so that is why I only rated it 4 stars.
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