A Lovely Machine

by Amberle L. Husbands

This is the memoir of one individual piece of hardware; a story of his soul, and of the beautiful, domineering mercenary he loves. From author Amberle L. Husbands, "A Lovely Machine" is a short story that originally appeared on the Underground Voices website, and is now available in Kindle ebook edition.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2013

About the author

Amberle L. Husbands is a writer, artist, and sheetmetal mechanic. Her short stories have appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, and on websites including Underground Voices, the Cynic Online, and Residential Aliens.
In 2013, her short story "Among the Elephants" appeared in Shock Totem #7. Her short story "The Going Rate" -- set in the fictional Eads City -- appeared in The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes volume 1, and a second Eads City story has been chosen for inclusion in volume 3 of the series. Her first novel, See Eads City, is currently available for order through Amazon.com, as well as from Barnes & Noble.

Reviews

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely short story this was. Machines become suddenly self-aware, and humans naturally try to destroy them for it. This is a robot's memoir, love letter, and deathbed confession all at once. Beautifully written.

[R. Leib · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Category Rating System:
Concept: Star
Writing: Star
Structure: Star
Credibility: Star
Character: Star
-------------------------
Total: 5 Stars

Audience Suitability: All

"A Lovely Machine" is the story of an encounter between a human and a robot told from the robot's point of view. At times, the writing is reminiscent of the nearly poetic prose of J.G. Ballard. Do not expect the wide, sweeping strokes of the typical Science Fiction story. The focus of this short story is on the introspection of a mind struggling to comprehend what it is to be human, a task as challenging as it would be for a human to understand the thought processes of a self-aware machine. Although, maybe after reading "A Lovely Machine", you will.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautifully written short story that followed the thoughts of a robot as machines gain sentience after an unknown event. The robot asks what is humanity and struggles to make sense of its newfound life and thoughts. This is a very quick read with surprising depth, Husbands proves in a handful of pages that she is very talented and someone to watch.

[Kathy Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account reads like a soliloquy. However, for a person interested in the robot's musings, as a character, he has a strong voice. The author provides setting and atmosphere without a lot of over description. I also liked the way the robot declares to understand a certain feeling or sensation by associating it with an action. Humans feel pain when they tear or cut their flesh, so the robot declares that it has experienced pain when it damages some part of itself. The robot shares some opinions about intelligent-machines' value for human life and property that many a sci-fi movie wouldn't agree with. Yet, this narrowed point of view is interesting. A lone robot can selectively highlight the best behavior that was done or that would have been done by its kind. Actually, in this respect, the robot was quite human and not unlike the other humans who reminisce about the good old days.

[Ana · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I started reading this story I thought 'ooh this should be interesting; when we read books about robots going smart we never hear about their end of the story'. But then...

A robot with a death wish. A human character who we know nothing about, really, so feels pretty fake. No cohesion, plenty of incoherences, repetitions, nonsense all in all.

I guess I must have missed the point but well, but this little emo tale kind of felt like a waste of time..

[P.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Isn't a book, or any story, just a single perfectly completed thought, after all?" The badly damaged robot narrator has this thought partway through A Lovely Machine, and that about sums it up. Through the stream-of-consciousness waxing of a machine, Husbands explores what it really means to be human. A compelling short read.