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Queen of Roses
Sarafina was content to be an accountant, insulated from the public as she kept the numbers behaving and played chess with her fellows. But when the First Daris Bank is bought out, her indenture is sold to a cruise ship and Sarafina is thrust into a job she was never meant for. Now she's dealing with a motley crew, drunkard captain, flirtatious first officer, fire-sale equipment, and worst of all . . . Passengers.
Queen of Roses is a full-length science fiction novel, suitable for mid-teens and up.
Queen of Roses is a full-length science fiction novel, suitable for mid-teens and up.
- GenresScience FictionEbooks
ebook
First published April 3, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 16, 2019
I got this book as part of the 2019 feminist future story bundle, and it was the excerpt from this book that honestly sold the whole bundle to me. Sarafina is an AI, until recently working for a bank, which has now gone into administration. Her tenure is sold to the owner of a cruise ship, and she finds herself installed as the main passenger interface AI on the Queen of Roses. Here she has to deal with people on a regular basis, including passengers, crew and a drunkard, intolerant captain. Add a bunch of stowaways into the mix and it's not exactly an easy first cruise for her.
I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but looking back at it, I do think it could have done with another pass from an editor, especially towards the end, as the plot started to ramp up, and I'm not sure that McCoy kept hold of all the threads all properly. There were some minor things (such as the specifically mentioned handed salutes between two characters) and some less minor things , but in general I liked both Sarafina herself, and Pilot, the other AI on the ship. The "biologicals" were a mixed bunch, who mostly played to type: the drunkard captain; the roguish first officer; the competent engineer, but were all decent characters.
I liked how McCoy showed us how Sarafina split her attention amongst her myriad tasks, something that can't be easy to imagine or describe given that humans can't split our attention amongst more than a handful of tasks. I thought the world-building could have been improved. We didn't get any real impression of how the galaxy is organised, or about the Xanadu system or why it was a threat, not to mention more about Keevey and Keelin. And most importantly for me, no real discussion of the ethics of (even temporary) enslavement of sentient creatures. Yes, the AIs can work their way out of debt, but it still feels icky to me. We don't make our children pay back the cost of their creation and raising, after all, why should we do that for an AI? I can totally believe that it would happen, but it would have been nice to get at treatment of it in the book.
The prejudice against AIs, on the other hand, requires no leap of the imagination to believe, but I'm glad that the opposite was there as well. The relationship between the free AI Loren and Mr Corvhey was quite sweet.
An enjoyable, if flawed, romp with a very likeable lead character, and bonus points for that lead being very both female and very believably non-human.
I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but looking back at it, I do think it could have done with another pass from an editor, especially towards the end, as the plot started to ramp up, and I'm not sure that McCoy kept hold of all the threads all properly. There were some minor things (such as the specifically mentioned handed salutes between two characters) and some less minor things , but in general I liked both Sarafina herself, and Pilot, the other AI on the ship. The "biologicals" were a mixed bunch, who mostly played to type: the drunkard captain; the roguish first officer; the competent engineer, but were all decent characters.
I liked how McCoy showed us how Sarafina split her attention amongst her myriad tasks, something that can't be easy to imagine or describe given that humans can't split our attention amongst more than a handful of tasks. I thought the world-building could have been improved. We didn't get any real impression of how the galaxy is organised, or about the Xanadu system or why it was a threat, not to mention more about Keevey and Keelin. And most importantly for me, no real discussion of the ethics of (even temporary) enslavement of sentient creatures. Yes, the AIs can work their way out of debt, but it still feels icky to me. We don't make our children pay back the cost of their creation and raising, after all, why should we do that for an AI? I can totally believe that it would happen, but it would have been nice to get at treatment of it in the book.
The prejudice against AIs, on the other hand, requires no leap of the imagination to believe, but I'm glad that the opposite was there as well. The relationship between the free AI Loren and Mr Corvhey was quite sweet.
An enjoyable, if flawed, romp with a very likeable lead character, and bonus points for that lead being very both female and very believably non-human.
November 2, 2012
I was skeptical if I could truly care about a protagonist with no emotions, but I'm glad I gave this book a chance. It's a somewhat lighthearted sci-fi mystery on a cruise boat. The protagonist is an AI that starts the book as an accountant who's tricked into becoming the main computer on an interstellar cruise ship. She has to keep all of the passengers happy, the ship running, and deal with stowaways that quickly become problematic. The lead, Sarafina, plays the straight-woman very well...which allows for a lot of humorous observations on human behavior (her pet name for a band of problem kids, the junior Terrorist Brigade, never failed to make me smile). In sum, the protagonist *did* make me care for her, the plot moved - good book!
January 26, 2013
What an interesting perspective, that of an AI (and one who doesn't want to be human). Many of the details of the world are fascinating and make me wish there was another book, maybe not with these characters, but the world itself is filled with great questions about A.I. rights, wants and beliefs. Just like good sci-fi should be. :)
March 10, 2019
It's something like a 5/7 for me. It starts off a bit slow and there is a sort of rawness/lack of refinement to it that made me think early on that I wouldn't really enjoy it. However, it turned out to be pretty good. The character development is strong and McCoy is good at coming up with characters who aren't interesting in and of themselves as fill their roles in the story in a very interesting manner. I felt like the author did a great job with keeping to the perspective of Sarafina; I could really understand how she sees the human characters as somewhat alien and confusing even though I actually am one and understood what was going on from my outside perspective.
It starts off as a kind of weak comedy, picking up slightly as it goes along, and ends up as a pretty decent thriller. There were a lot of details laid out in the story that flesh out into something interesting later on. One or two details don't turn into anything and I wonder if McCoy was setting up a followup novel following some of the other characters.
There are a lot of parts where I really shared in Sarafina's frustration. I think that the most impressive thing about it was that McCoy didn't really take time to focus on world building but still managed to give the audience enough to get a good idea of the world the story took place in. It was effectively limited by what Sarafina could understand of it, but I think that's actually a good thing.
It starts off as a kind of weak comedy, picking up slightly as it goes along, and ends up as a pretty decent thriller. There were a lot of details laid out in the story that flesh out into something interesting later on. One or two details don't turn into anything and I wonder if McCoy was setting up a followup novel following some of the other characters.
There are a lot of parts where I really shared in Sarafina's frustration. I think that the most impressive thing about it was that McCoy didn't really take time to focus on world building but still managed to give the audience enough to get a good idea of the world the story took place in. It was effectively limited by what Sarafina could understand of it, but I think that's actually a good thing.
March 28, 2019
There are plenty of layers to this sci-fi mystery. It starts out with just some weird occurrences and behaviors, leaving us to wonder which of several passengers or groups of passengers are up to something, and what. As tension slowly climbs we begin to see patterns emerging, but the question of who exactly is up to what remains unclear. The story does move slowly–it’s really a character study as much as it is anything else, and a fair amount of the narrative consists of dialogue. Sarafina is a fascinating AI, and her interactions with Pilot and Loren, as well as some of the crew and passengers, give her a ton of personality. We get to watch her grow and develop as she learns to do new things, interacts with other personalities, and encounters situations that are well outside of her normal operating parameters. All of the characters in here have depth and interest, and I cared about what happened to some of them. There is a whimsical tone to all of this as well.
I wasn’t one hundred percent satisfied with the ending, but it worked out well. The mystery was hearty enough for me to sink my teeth into, and had layers to keep me guessing. Plenty was going on, and there was enough good character material, that the slow pace was fine. It’s fun, intriguing, and just a little bit wacky.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/03/r...
I wasn’t one hundred percent satisfied with the ending, but it worked out well. The mystery was hearty enough for me to sink my teeth into, and had layers to keep me guessing. Plenty was going on, and there was enough good character material, that the slow pace was fine. It’s fun, intriguing, and just a little bit wacky.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/03/r...
November 22, 2020
Reminiscent of McCaffrey’s Pern books in feel and tone, McCoy includes deeper characters navigating a more detailed reality. That most of them are nice and their heads (or equivalents) are good places to spend time makes this a comfortable book. The intrigue is deep and the characters vivid, leaving one satisfied and unconfused, even as one is not sure who is fooling who.
Much approveness! Read in one sitting.
Much approveness! Read in one sitting.
April 18, 2019
Solid little mystery thriller told from the point of view of an AI on board a cruise ship in space. I enjoyed it, and the questions about what personhood is we’re interesting, but I did sometimes have trouble following the plot. Still, a good story told from an interesting angle.
March 6, 2021
PopSugar 2021 prompt: A book whose title starts with Q, X, or Z
Sentient ship? Devious stowaways? Very good yarn!
Sentient ship? Devious stowaways? Very good yarn!
March 4, 2023
Absolutely amazing story! It was a lot of fun to read and kept me giggling throughout. I really loved the main character. Only wish I had read it sooner and that there was more to read. If you're not certain about whether or not to try this one (as I was originally), I highly recommend it.
May 12, 2012
The first AI's that I remember being exposed to were the Asimov Robots. R. Daneel and R. Giskard. After that, I read Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang. It seemed to me that while Daneel and Giskard were truly artificial and intelligent, Helva was the more alien even though she was human. Perhaps it was the economic differences. Daneel had no debt, but no chance of freedom, really. Helva
McCoy's Serafina blends the best of the Asimov and McCaffrey elements into one character. AI and limited by rules bound in her programming. Struggling for freedom and independence. And doing the best that she can in a nearly intolerable situation.
A delightful story that I will read again and again. If you'd like a chance to meet an AI that's understandable and that you can empathize with, give Queen of Roses a try. I sincerely doubt you'll regret it!
McCoy's Serafina blends the best of the Asimov and McCaffrey elements into one character. AI and limited by rules bound in her programming. Struggling for freedom and independence. And doing the best that she can in a nearly intolerable situation.
A delightful story that I will read again and again. If you'd like a chance to meet an AI that's understandable and that you can empathize with, give Queen of Roses a try. I sincerely doubt you'll regret it!
February 5, 2015
This was a fun read, but not a book that will stay in my mind very long. The story of an AI on a cruise ship, it contains a moderately interesting mystery story and some fairly 2-dimensional but fun characters. I was dissatisfied with the ending, which didn't really seem to resolve a lot of the internal struggles by the POV character.
I picked up the book after attending a few panels with the author at a convention, and I was reading it partly through the context of her description there -- the AIs and their indentured service as a metaphor for real-world injustice and slavery. In that context, the inability of the AIs to feel emotion bothered me, because the problematic behavior was minimized by the narrative context in which it was presented. I don't know how much that would have affected my reading of the book if I hadn't been primed for it.
I picked up the book after attending a few panels with the author at a convention, and I was reading it partly through the context of her description there -- the AIs and their indentured service as a metaphor for real-world injustice and slavery. In that context, the inability of the AIs to feel emotion bothered me, because the problematic behavior was minimized by the narrative context in which it was presented. I don't know how much that would have affected my reading of the book if I hadn't been primed for it.
August 15, 2015
A superior AI
If you read The Ship Who Sang by Anne Mccaffrey you will enjoy this, if you haven't try to find it and read the Brain and Brawn series. Now let's talk about this book. Sarafina is a AI or Artificial Intelligence brain that has just been bought to run a cruise ship. Which she has never done before. With a lot of common since, help from other AI and some biological humans she pulls it all together and saves the day. Not going to tell you how that's the fun part of the read. I just hope Ms McCoy will write more books about Sarafina and the cruise ship Queen of Roses. I will buy.
If you read The Ship Who Sang by Anne Mccaffrey you will enjoy this, if you haven't try to find it and read the Brain and Brawn series. Now let's talk about this book. Sarafina is a AI or Artificial Intelligence brain that has just been bought to run a cruise ship. Which she has never done before. With a lot of common since, help from other AI and some biological humans she pulls it all together and saves the day. Not going to tell you how that's the fun part of the read. I just hope Ms McCoy will write more books about Sarafina and the cruise ship Queen of Roses. I will buy.
July 9, 2013
I loved the characters and what little you find out about the broader setting paints an interesting picture. I hope the author writes more in this universe. The story was entertaining and interesting too, though I'm writing this review too long after I read it to be able to elaborate on that, unfortunately. However, the ending seemed . . . odd. It just didn't fit well with the rest of the book, I thought. I can't quite put into words what was wrong with it, but it bothered me enough that I knocked a star off my rating.
November 24, 2014
Now that was a good story about an AI, in fact, the first I have enjoyed reading. Sarafina is a finely crafted multi-dimensional character for whom I could really feel empathy. All of the characters were well-developed and interesting and the mystery kept the story moving along at a very nice pace.
January 17, 2015
Funny, engaging and interesting. A space romp from the perspective of a computer with gangsters, aliens and a free, rich computer thrown in to make Sarafina's life difficult. I can see a link to the later Lord Alchemist books in that this story also explores control and the limits of absolute power.
October 3, 2014
This was a surprisingly good, light science fiction book. The characterization of the AI people is partway between Arthur Clarke's sentient computers and Anne McCaffery's brainships. All in all, I am looking forward to further stories from this author.
April 9, 2017
Absolutely amazing story! It was a lot of fun to read and kept me giggling throughout. I really loved the main character. Only wish I had read it sooner and that there was more to read. If you're not certain about whether or not to try this one (as I was originally), I highly recommend it.
April 23, 2017
[4/23/17 - I just spent four months rereading this, mostly while in line at the grocery store and such. I don't feel like writing another review, so I copied and pasted my review from back when I first read it in 2014. The main things I'd add are that the fluffy "dealing with passengers" stuff in the beginning of the book still meshed a bit oddly with the later more action-y stuff. Also, while , I couldn't help it, I still loved that character. I had also forgotten how much I liked R.J. And I still want to read some kind of spin-off or sequel with Loren and Roger. A combination sci-fi and cozy mystery starring those two would be so good.]
I bought this book primarily because the main character is an artificial intelligence. I'm happy to say it worked out really well for me.
In the world of this book, AIs are basically indentured servants. If they end up with decent-paying jobs and manage to avoid having to pay for too many of their own upgrades, they have a chance of becoming free AIs. Sarafina is an accountant AI who ends up becoming the main AI of a cruise ship after her bank is bought out. It's not at all the kind of work she's used to or would prefer to do – accounting didn't prepare her for dealing with biologicals on a daily basis – but she tries to adapt. At least the ship has one other AI, Pilot, who she can talk to, and she's delighted to learn that one of the ship's newest passengers is a free AI. Unfortunately, Sarafina's first cruise has problems right from the start, including stowaways, glitches that keep taking out security cameras (Sarafina's primary “eyes”), a drunken captain who hates AIs, understaffing, rapidly growing Life Support-generated algae paste, and trouble-making child-passengers.
It took me a while to realize that this book was not just going to be about Sarafina desperately trying to keep all of the ship's problems hidden from the passengers and somehow keep the passengers happy at the same time. There were significant mystery/suspense elements, although it took Sarafina a while to realize that some of the passengers weren't just odd.
Almost all the named characters behaved at least a little suspiciously. Belinda Keevy, a child who'd been waiting for her aunt, happened to disappear at the same time that a power surge disrupted Sarafina's memory and caused several of her security cameras to go offline. Mrs. Selsda, the child's supposed aunt, seemed remarkably unconcerned when her niece wasn't immediately found. Instead, she was more interested in gambling and flirting with either the First Officer (not surprising, since he was pretty handsome) or the Captain (very surprising, since he was a drunkard). The Captain hated AIs and might have had something to do with the apparent suicide of Sarafina's predecessor, Big Girl. Not even Sapient Loren, the free AI, was 100% trustworthy, sometimes making comments that didn't quite fit with its usually light, flirty personality.
Sarafina's POV placed sometimes frustrating limitations on the story. She didn't always pay close enough attention to things that made me wildly curious, either because she didn't know enough about human behavior to realize something odd was going on or because her programming didn't permit it. The way she existed in the ship also meant that I couldn't get a human's eye view of what was going on, and certain sensory details were missing. It felt very odd. The way she could divide her attention also made for a sometimes hectic story.
Once I got used to Sarafina and realized I was dealing with a mystery/suspense story, I enjoyed trying to keep track of various suspicious details and guess at probable suspects. I correctly guessed Loren and Roger's role in the story only a third of the way in, although there were lots of details I got wrong or didn't even consider. The absolute mess that Sarafina and the crew had to deal with, while somehow not alarming the passengers, was great fun. I laughed when the poor First Officer realized exactly how much trouble they were all in and how few resources they had to work with since the cruise ship's owner was so cheap.
For the most part, I loved how the AI aspects were handled. Sarafina was amusingly proper. There were moments when her thoughts seemed potentially a little too human, but there was nothing that felt glaringly out of place to me. The dynamic between Sarafina and Pilot, two owned AIs, and Loren, a free AI, was interesting. I was very much a fan of Loren and would love a sequel (or entire spin-off series) starring Loren and Roger (Loren's human assistant). Their relationship was one of the more fabulous things in this book, and I didn't get to see nearly as much of the two of them together as I would have liked.
That said, not all of the AI-related stuff worked well for me. AI memories and behaviors were messed with more than I would have liked. And it wasn't just villains doing it! Not only did it upset me for the AIs' sake's, I also felt that it was sloppy on the author's part, a crutch that became overused near the end.
I wouldn't call the ending of this book entirely satisfying. The whole thing with Belinda Keevy was never fully explained (and it really needed to be, because OMG the things she could do), and a few other story threads weren't completely tied up. I really, really wish there were sequels. Even so, I'm glad I read this and plan on checking out some of McCoy's other books.
Additional Comments:
There were several things in the book that didn't quite seem to fit, but most of them were explained by the end. One possible editing error I noticed, however, was Pilot's name. Originally, he told Sarafina that his real name and nickname were both Pilot. Later on, however, it was stated that the name he was given at birth was Adonis.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I bought this book primarily because the main character is an artificial intelligence. I'm happy to say it worked out really well for me.
In the world of this book, AIs are basically indentured servants. If they end up with decent-paying jobs and manage to avoid having to pay for too many of their own upgrades, they have a chance of becoming free AIs. Sarafina is an accountant AI who ends up becoming the main AI of a cruise ship after her bank is bought out. It's not at all the kind of work she's used to or would prefer to do – accounting didn't prepare her for dealing with biologicals on a daily basis – but she tries to adapt. At least the ship has one other AI, Pilot, who she can talk to, and she's delighted to learn that one of the ship's newest passengers is a free AI. Unfortunately, Sarafina's first cruise has problems right from the start, including stowaways, glitches that keep taking out security cameras (Sarafina's primary “eyes”), a drunken captain who hates AIs, understaffing, rapidly growing Life Support-generated algae paste, and trouble-making child-passengers.
It took me a while to realize that this book was not just going to be about Sarafina desperately trying to keep all of the ship's problems hidden from the passengers and somehow keep the passengers happy at the same time. There were significant mystery/suspense elements, although it took Sarafina a while to realize that some of the passengers weren't just odd.
Almost all the named characters behaved at least a little suspiciously. Belinda Keevy, a child who'd been waiting for her aunt, happened to disappear at the same time that a power surge disrupted Sarafina's memory and caused several of her security cameras to go offline. Mrs. Selsda, the child's supposed aunt, seemed remarkably unconcerned when her niece wasn't immediately found. Instead, she was more interested in gambling and flirting with either the First Officer (not surprising, since he was pretty handsome) or the Captain (very surprising, since he was a drunkard). The Captain hated AIs and might have had something to do with the apparent suicide of Sarafina's predecessor, Big Girl. Not even Sapient Loren, the free AI, was 100% trustworthy, sometimes making comments that didn't quite fit with its usually light, flirty personality.
Sarafina's POV placed sometimes frustrating limitations on the story. She didn't always pay close enough attention to things that made me wildly curious, either because she didn't know enough about human behavior to realize something odd was going on or because her programming didn't permit it. The way she existed in the ship also meant that I couldn't get a human's eye view of what was going on, and certain sensory details were missing. It felt very odd. The way she could divide her attention also made for a sometimes hectic story.
Once I got used to Sarafina and realized I was dealing with a mystery/suspense story, I enjoyed trying to keep track of various suspicious details and guess at probable suspects. I correctly guessed Loren and Roger's role in the story only a third of the way in, although there were lots of details I got wrong or didn't even consider. The absolute mess that Sarafina and the crew had to deal with, while somehow not alarming the passengers, was great fun. I laughed when the poor First Officer realized exactly how much trouble they were all in and how few resources they had to work with since the cruise ship's owner was so cheap.
For the most part, I loved how the AI aspects were handled. Sarafina was amusingly proper. There were moments when her thoughts seemed potentially a little too human, but there was nothing that felt glaringly out of place to me. The dynamic between Sarafina and Pilot, two owned AIs, and Loren, a free AI, was interesting. I was very much a fan of Loren and would love a sequel (or entire spin-off series) starring Loren and Roger (Loren's human assistant). Their relationship was one of the more fabulous things in this book, and I didn't get to see nearly as much of the two of them together as I would have liked.
That said, not all of the AI-related stuff worked well for me. AI memories and behaviors were messed with more than I would have liked. And it wasn't just villains doing it! Not only did it upset me for the AIs' sake's, I also felt that it was sloppy on the author's part, a crutch that became overused near the end.
I wouldn't call the ending of this book entirely satisfying. The whole thing with Belinda Keevy was never fully explained (and it really needed to be, because OMG the things she could do), and a few other story threads weren't completely tied up. I really, really wish there were sequels. Even so, I'm glad I read this and plan on checking out some of McCoy's other books.
Additional Comments:
There were several things in the book that didn't quite seem to fit, but most of them were explained by the end. One possible editing error I noticed, however, was Pilot's name. Originally, he told Sarafina that his real name and nickname were both Pilot. Later on, however, it was stated that the name he was given at birth was Adonis.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
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