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Bête
A man is about to kill a cow. He discusses life and death and his right to kill with the compliant animal. He begins to suspect he may be about to commit murder. But kills anyway...
It began when the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in a bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights. But what is an animal that can talk? Where does its intelligence end at its machine intelligence begin? And where might its soul reside?
As we place more and more pressure on the natural world and become more and more divorced Adam Roberts' new novel posits a world where nature can talk back, and can question us and our beliefs.
Roberts is an award winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement.
It began when the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in a bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights. But what is an animal that can talk? Where does its intelligence end at its machine intelligence begin? And where might its soul reside?
As we place more and more pressure on the natural world and become more and more divorced Adam Roberts' new novel posits a world where nature can talk back, and can question us and our beliefs.
Roberts is an award winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement.
312 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2014
13 people are currently reading
1036 people want to read
About the author
Adam Roberts
258 books559 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
December 8, 2016
First of all, and as I noted in a previous iteration of this review, this book is a strong contender for my favourite of the year. Second of all, it's criminally underrated, and like a lot of Adam Roberts's recent books the blurb doesn't really do it justice. So at the risk of making too much of an off-the-wall comparison: if you liked The Girl with All the Gifts, I think you might like this.
The reason I say that is less about the fact that both books spend a fair amount of time wandering around near-enough-post-apocalyptic middle England, and more about the fact that they both have a flavour of cynicism and irrevocable change that I think is fascinating. Both books - although Bete more than TGwAtG - have an undercurrent to them that is by turns desperate, vicious, funny, and extremely bleak. They're also both pretty high-concept - although again, I think Roberts did it better, which is to say that I think his concept is more interesting, and also that he takes it further, and also that his exploration is far more wallowable-in along the way.
I think you might also find some parallels, although maybe not the ones you're expecting, in their respective endings. Interested to know what other people make of that.
On the other hand, if you're looking for characters to love and cheer for, for all their flaws, then you'll find it difficult to find an entry point here. And again, if Carey wrote a young-adult-friendly novel with one eye on the film adaptation, then this is very much a different beast. For a start, Graham Penhaligon is no Helen Justineau, and certainly no Melanie. Honestly I think that's for the better. For another thing, the further you get through it, the weirder (and more constant) the cultural references are. There's a reason for all of them - and I like it far better in execution than in theory, so please for goodness's sake let that put you off - but you couldn't possibly film it.
Either way, I am very sad that Bete seems to have flown under a lot of people's radars, when it's a very good book, with an appeal wider than it has got, and not nearly as broad as it deserves.
Question: Do you think Adam Roberts is a vegetarian?
Answer: Not a chance. But that's not what this book is about, in the first place. I don't want to ruin it for you, but I really think you should get a copy.
-------------
"Dear Adam Roberts," I wrote, "please write something as intriguing as Jack Glass, preferably with as beautiful a cover."
Dear Adam Roberts. I would also like three weeks in New Zealand, and a pony.
The reason I say that is less about the fact that both books spend a fair amount of time wandering around near-enough-post-apocalyptic middle England, and more about the fact that they both have a flavour of cynicism and irrevocable change that I think is fascinating. Both books - although Bete more than TGwAtG - have an undercurrent to them that is by turns desperate, vicious, funny, and extremely bleak. They're also both pretty high-concept - although again, I think Roberts did it better, which is to say that I think his concept is more interesting, and also that he takes it further, and also that his exploration is far more wallowable-in along the way.
I think you might also find some parallels, although maybe not the ones you're expecting, in their respective endings. Interested to know what other people make of that.
On the other hand, if you're looking for characters to love and cheer for, for all their flaws, then you'll find it difficult to find an entry point here. And again, if Carey wrote a young-adult-friendly novel with one eye on the film adaptation, then this is very much a different beast. For a start, Graham Penhaligon is no Helen Justineau, and certainly no Melanie. Honestly I think that's for the better. For another thing, the further you get through it, the weirder (and more constant) the cultural references are. There's a reason for all of them - and I like it far better in execution than in theory, so please for goodness's sake let that put you off - but you couldn't possibly film it.
Either way, I am very sad that Bete seems to have flown under a lot of people's radars, when it's a very good book, with an appeal wider than it has got, and not nearly as broad as it deserves.
Question: Do you think Adam Roberts is a vegetarian?
Answer: Not a chance. But that's not what this book is about, in the first place. I don't want to ruin it for you, but I really think you should get a copy.
-------------
"Dear Adam Roberts," I wrote, "please write something as intriguing as Jack Glass, preferably with as beautiful a cover."
Dear Adam Roberts. I would also like three weeks in New Zealand, and a pony.
August 29, 2017
Adam Roberts is a science fiction diva, and Bete is one of his greatest conceptual arias yet. This is a fantastic novel, built around a thoughtfully explored idea - what if all the animals we slaughter, our pets, even the wild beasts of the forest gained enough intelligence to talk, to reason, to work together against us?
Roberts has written many books, most of them based on fascinating concepts, but sometimes the story around the concept is flawed, such as in his novels On and Polystom. Bete suffers from no such flaws.
Bete begins with a cattle farmer, Graham Penhaglion, arguing with a cow he is about to slaughter, an animal that enrages him when it has the temerity to quote Morrissey. Environmental activists have implanted a chip into the beast (and tens of thousands of others) that has given it both intelligence, and wireless access to the internet. Cows, cats, dogs, birds, deer, foxes, even rats have been upgraded in this way, elevating them to reason and sparking fierce debates about animal rights and farming in general.
Graham refuses to believe that these talking beasts, these 'canny cows' or bêtes as they are now known, are truly aware, preferring to see them as nothing more than talking computers, toasters with voices. He has no compunction in killing them, but the law sees differently, and his actions in his cowshed carry consequences that will follow him throughout the rest of his life.
Graham loses both his farm and his marriage and becomes an embittered, impoverished itinerant butcher, roaming the English countryside and killing animals for the fewer and fewer people in society who still want to eat real meat. We follow Graham on his journey, seeing the new world of intelligent animals through his (often angry) eyes.
England isn't what it once was. Shortages of fuel and the economic disruption generated by the collapse of farming (much of it now run by bêtes) have given the UK a post-apocalyptic feel, where cars are rare, the countryside is near empty and vast masses of the unemployed desperately competing for a handful of jobs in the cities. As Graham travels through this worsening dystopia it becomes clear that despite his many flaws he may play a larger role in this new world than that of wandering butcher-tramp, regardless of whether he wants to or not.
Graham's hatred of bêtes, his self-destructive hair-trigger temper and his loneliness all make for a character whose head is a strange, but interesting place for a reader to be immersed in. Around this dislikeable character Roberts explores numerous philosophical ideas- when is a creature truly sapient? If you augment intelligence with computing power, is the resulting hybrid a machine, or something more? Would intelligent animals be able to look past humanity's long history of treating them as disposable chattels?
Roberts usually writes really well, but this is the first of his novels where I have been struck by the beauty of some of his phrases, and the elegance with which he expresses some very thoughtful ideas.
Stone is still my favourite Roberts novel - it's an absolutely brilliant, instant SF classic in my opinion - but Bete comes a very close second. Bete is the full package, giving readers a heady blend of high-concept, often genuinely original ideas mixed with properly interesting and flawed characters, whose interactions make for engrossing reading.
Read Roberts. He's worth your time.
Roberts has written many books, most of them based on fascinating concepts, but sometimes the story around the concept is flawed, such as in his novels On and Polystom. Bete suffers from no such flaws.
Bete begins with a cattle farmer, Graham Penhaglion, arguing with a cow he is about to slaughter, an animal that enrages him when it has the temerity to quote Morrissey. Environmental activists have implanted a chip into the beast (and tens of thousands of others) that has given it both intelligence, and wireless access to the internet. Cows, cats, dogs, birds, deer, foxes, even rats have been upgraded in this way, elevating them to reason and sparking fierce debates about animal rights and farming in general.
Graham refuses to believe that these talking beasts, these 'canny cows' or bêtes as they are now known, are truly aware, preferring to see them as nothing more than talking computers, toasters with voices. He has no compunction in killing them, but the law sees differently, and his actions in his cowshed carry consequences that will follow him throughout the rest of his life.
Graham loses both his farm and his marriage and becomes an embittered, impoverished itinerant butcher, roaming the English countryside and killing animals for the fewer and fewer people in society who still want to eat real meat. We follow Graham on his journey, seeing the new world of intelligent animals through his (often angry) eyes.
England isn't what it once was. Shortages of fuel and the economic disruption generated by the collapse of farming (much of it now run by bêtes) have given the UK a post-apocalyptic feel, where cars are rare, the countryside is near empty and vast masses of the unemployed desperately competing for a handful of jobs in the cities. As Graham travels through this worsening dystopia it becomes clear that despite his many flaws he may play a larger role in this new world than that of wandering butcher-tramp, regardless of whether he wants to or not.
Graham's hatred of bêtes, his self-destructive hair-trigger temper and his loneliness all make for a character whose head is a strange, but interesting place for a reader to be immersed in. Around this dislikeable character Roberts explores numerous philosophical ideas- when is a creature truly sapient? If you augment intelligence with computing power, is the resulting hybrid a machine, or something more? Would intelligent animals be able to look past humanity's long history of treating them as disposable chattels?
Roberts usually writes really well, but this is the first of his novels where I have been struck by the beauty of some of his phrases, and the elegance with which he expresses some very thoughtful ideas.
Stone is still my favourite Roberts novel - it's an absolutely brilliant, instant SF classic in my opinion - but Bete comes a very close second. Bete is the full package, giving readers a heady blend of high-concept, often genuinely original ideas mixed with properly interesting and flawed characters, whose interactions make for engrossing reading.
Read Roberts. He's worth your time.
March 7, 2015
As Graham lifts the bolt, the cow turns to him and asks if he will Turing test him before pulling the trigger. The cow is a Bête, an animal with a AI chip in its brain that means it can converse and think. The law is just about to change, so that the killing of these beasts is now murder.
And so begins a raft of changes in Graham's life, as his farm fails and he hits the road just to survive. The rise of the animal rights movement has empowered the animals in England, and given them some political power. As he drifts in and out of of a dramatically different society, he never really escapes from his past actions. And one day that very past confronts him, and offers him a choice.
Possibly the strangest book I have read in a while, it is a blend of a dystopian future, with a cyber culture sub text. The society was fairly well advanced until the rise of these AI enhances creatures. As I read it I felt that I was reading a modern version of Animal Farm, but rather than a communist overthrow of a farm, this was the rise of the AI animal. Weird and disturbing at times, this was a genuinely original dystopian novel.
And so begins a raft of changes in Graham's life, as his farm fails and he hits the road just to survive. The rise of the animal rights movement has empowered the animals in England, and given them some political power. As he drifts in and out of of a dramatically different society, he never really escapes from his past actions. And one day that very past confronts him, and offers him a choice.
Possibly the strangest book I have read in a while, it is a blend of a dystopian future, with a cyber culture sub text. The society was fairly well advanced until the rise of these AI enhances creatures. As I read it I felt that I was reading a modern version of Animal Farm, but rather than a communist overthrow of a farm, this was the rise of the AI animal. Weird and disturbing at times, this was a genuinely original dystopian novel.
January 18, 2025
The bucolic tranquility of the English countryside is shattered by a most unexpected bovine rebellion when Graham Penhaligon, poised to dispatch a cow, is met with a spoken plea for mercy from the very creature he intends to slaughter. This is no ordinary cow, but one equipped with an AI chip that grants it the power of speech and, more troublingly, the capacity for philosophical debate. As Graham grapples with the ethical implications of his actions, he finds himself at the heart of a societal upheaval where animals, now articulate and self-aware, demand rights akin to those of humans.
Roberts crafts a witty novel that is as sharp as a butcher's cleaver, slicing through the moral quandaries of our time with surgical precision. Graham's journey from a simple farmer to an unwitting revolutionary is peppered with moments of biting satire and reflection. As the story unfolds, the reader is invited to ponder the nature of consciousness and the ethical, and even religious, boundaries of technological advancement.
However, despite its intriguing premise, the book suffers from being unnecessarily long and repetitive. What could have been a compelling novella is instead stretched into a full-length novel, seriously diluting its impact. The storyline, while initially engaging, becomes mediocre as it progresses, and some of the writing veers into the realm of the downright weird—in a bad way. The book tells a very long story but has very little to say.
Bête tries to explore humanity's relationship with the natural world, attempting to challenge us to reconsider our place within it. Here and there, Roberts captures the absurdity of a world where cows can quote Shakespeare and pigs ponder existentialism. Against a backdrop of prophetically rampant AI, societal collapse, and technological dystopia, readers are left questioning not just the future of human-animal relations, but the very essence of what it means to be alive, and, as in my case, why did they actually finish the book???
"...‘I’ve no idea where I’m even going,’ I said. ‘Or to whom I'm supposed to be speaking. Or even what the terms are I’m supposedly negotiating for. And another thing: what do I do with the Lamb when I get there? Do I find a high-rank general and feed it to his housecat?’
‘Or connect it to a computer,’ said the cat. ‘Might be simpler, Graham.’
I sniffed. ‘You can call me Graham, ’I told the cat. ‘So long as we understand one another. And by understand, I mean — none of your other béte pals have that intimacy. OK? Now fuck off.’
He hopped off the pack onto the frosty ground, and walked haughtily away from me with his tail up, like an aerial, and his puckered arsehole pointed in my direction. I didn’t see him again on that journey..."
Bruuuh...
Roberts crafts a witty novel that is as sharp as a butcher's cleaver, slicing through the moral quandaries of our time with surgical precision. Graham's journey from a simple farmer to an unwitting revolutionary is peppered with moments of biting satire and reflection. As the story unfolds, the reader is invited to ponder the nature of consciousness and the ethical, and even religious, boundaries of technological advancement.
However, despite its intriguing premise, the book suffers from being unnecessarily long and repetitive. What could have been a compelling novella is instead stretched into a full-length novel, seriously diluting its impact. The storyline, while initially engaging, becomes mediocre as it progresses, and some of the writing veers into the realm of the downright weird—in a bad way. The book tells a very long story but has very little to say.
Bête tries to explore humanity's relationship with the natural world, attempting to challenge us to reconsider our place within it. Here and there, Roberts captures the absurdity of a world where cows can quote Shakespeare and pigs ponder existentialism. Against a backdrop of prophetically rampant AI, societal collapse, and technological dystopia, readers are left questioning not just the future of human-animal relations, but the very essence of what it means to be alive, and, as in my case, why did they actually finish the book???
"...‘I’ve no idea where I’m even going,’ I said. ‘Or to whom I'm supposed to be speaking. Or even what the terms are I’m supposedly negotiating for. And another thing: what do I do with the Lamb when I get there? Do I find a high-rank general and feed it to his housecat?’
‘Or connect it to a computer,’ said the cat. ‘Might be simpler, Graham.’
I sniffed. ‘You can call me Graham, ’I told the cat. ‘So long as we understand one another. And by understand, I mean — none of your other béte pals have that intimacy. OK? Now fuck off.’
He hopped off the pack onto the frosty ground, and walked haughtily away from me with his tail up, like an aerial, and his puckered arsehole pointed in my direction. I didn’t see him again on that journey..."
Bruuuh...
March 7, 2015
How do I arrive at an OK rating then - Well all very subjective but here goes - Have to say it completely fizzled out in the end & dropped in rating as I progressed, having started out around a good 3.5 stars & finishing up as slightly less than ok at 1.5 stars, giving an average of 2.5 stars rounded down to 2.
Thank you to Goodreads for sending me this book in a Goodreads Giveaway & in return I shall do my best to offer a review...... even though I dont really know how too.
Ive read Adam Roberts work before, namely Yellow Blue Tibia, which i quite enjoyed so was looking forward to reading some more by ways of a change in genre.
Started of really good, where we meet Graham, a farmer about to bolt-shoot a cow.... well actually commit murder as the cow can talk.... yes honest, its a Bete, a what? A Bete of course. Graham is mostly angry & an enjoyable character of a middle aged, the good ol days were better, why dont you all f@#k Arf style of fellah, I grew to him....
Then theres the talking animals (Betes) by way of an evolutionary chip that melds with their brain & they are very superior in their manner with us homo sapiens, all very drole so far & the world is plausible - somehow that is if you imagine the Green Party of today coming to power & over a generation there way of thinking becomes acceptable & the norm, that & a whole generation have become atatched to their mobile devices rather than socilise properly..... sounds familiar....? The sci-fi side of things seem quite normal when put into their context within the story.
The story revolves around Graham & his interactions with the Bete & then he finds love with a landlady - he mostly tramps around the countryside who has a Bete Cat who predicts that a WAR is coming.....
Upto here I really enjoyed it & in part thereafter where Graham's interactions were involved & the observations of the world BUT........ thats where it fell away for me after about 1/3rd of the way in & it meanders & drifts for large part, we also see graham mellow & that jus doesnt work either & all leads to a very unsatisfying ending.
I wanted to like it more & I did give it a good read but there yer go.
Thank you to Goodreads for sending me this book in a Goodreads Giveaway & in return I shall do my best to offer a review...... even though I dont really know how too.
Ive read Adam Roberts work before, namely Yellow Blue Tibia, which i quite enjoyed so was looking forward to reading some more by ways of a change in genre.
Started of really good, where we meet Graham, a farmer about to bolt-shoot a cow.... well actually commit murder as the cow can talk.... yes honest, its a Bete, a what? A Bete of course. Graham is mostly angry & an enjoyable character of a middle aged, the good ol days were better, why dont you all f@#k Arf style of fellah, I grew to him....
Then theres the talking animals (Betes) by way of an evolutionary chip that melds with their brain & they are very superior in their manner with us homo sapiens, all very drole so far & the world is plausible - somehow that is if you imagine the Green Party of today coming to power & over a generation there way of thinking becomes acceptable & the norm, that & a whole generation have become atatched to their mobile devices rather than socilise properly..... sounds familiar....? The sci-fi side of things seem quite normal when put into their context within the story.
The story revolves around Graham & his interactions with the Bete & then he finds love with a landlady - he mostly tramps around the countryside who has a Bete Cat who predicts that a WAR is coming.....
Upto here I really enjoyed it & in part thereafter where Graham's interactions were involved & the observations of the world BUT........ thats where it fell away for me after about 1/3rd of the way in & it meanders & drifts for large part, we also see graham mellow & that jus doesnt work either & all leads to a very unsatisfying ending.
I wanted to like it more & I did give it a good read but there yer go.
November 6, 2019
Roberts is a skilled writer who can evoke character, situation, and setting, and mood in really vivid and memorable ways. Scenes from this novel will stick in my mind and haunt me for a long time - and that's a good thing. The story is coherent, compact, forceful, with no extraneous elements.
There's a big idea at the heart of this novel and Roberts pursues that idea with tremendous focus and seriousness.
However, that's where the novel falls apart in my view. Roberts swings for the fences, which is admirable, but it's a swing and a miss.
The thing is, animals are not just, you know, stupid humans. Every different animal species has a different sensorium, a different embodied cognition, a different world of experience.
Dogs, for example, can smell in as much vividness and detail as we can see. A dog sniffing a lamp post on its morning walk gets as much information as we get reading the morning paper.
Sheep are herd animals, and prey animals. Humans are pack animals — herds and packs have different social structures. And we are predators, not prey.
Dogs and sheep can think associatively, but not representationally. They can associate a signifier with its signifed through association but they cannot, as far as we know, think about the sign as a sign. Even so, their ability to perceive their physical and social world sensorily and think associatively about it is in some ways far more extensive than ours.
Nonhuman animals are not simply lesser, intellectually crippled versions of ourselves; they are different from us in nonlinear ways, supremely adapted to evolutionary niches that we would not survive in.
So what happens when a nonhuman animal, inhabiting a nonhuman phenomenology, is somehow given human intelligence? What does that even mean? And what would such a being say?
Roberts completely ignores this question.
In Watership Down, Richard Adams takes time to imagine how a rabbit who had, for instance, never seen a river, might experience that river, what terms from their prior experience they might use to make sense of this completely new phenomenon. He does it repeatedly, when the characters experience new things: a big hill, a train, a piece of artwork made by other, captive, rabbits. It's one of the great elements of that book, the continual transformation of his animal characters' consciousness as they undergo radically new experiences.
Roberts doesn't attempt any of that in Bete. Instead, all of his speaking animals speak and act like Enlightenment liberal subjects. They exhibit an individualized sense of self, they talk about being oppressed and exploited, they demand rights, they set up some kind of representational governance amongst themselves.
It's not just anthropocentric, it's Eurocentric. Not even all humans think and act this way; most, historically, have not. That animals suddenly gifted with speech should think and act as if they'd been reading Rousseau all their lives makes not a lick of sense. It's a complete failure of imagination on the author's part.
There is some brief discussion within the story of whether the animals' new form of consciousness is an authentic extension of their animal nature or an artifact of the AI technology used to give them the power of speech, but that question gets dropped.
In fact, one could be forgiven for thinking that this novel is not about animal intelligence at all. It makes much more sense as a novel about the destruction of the conservative social order, which is to say, the catastrophic breakdown of a world of experience that depends on strict and traditional hierarchies, such as those between human and animal, by an irruption of uncontrolled liberal egalitarianism.
On that level, the novel works quite well, and illustrates its themes powerfully.
But I was hoping for a science fiction story about animal consciousness, darn it, not a conservative political allegory. I feel like I've been bait-and-switched.
There's a big idea at the heart of this novel and Roberts pursues that idea with tremendous focus and seriousness.
However, that's where the novel falls apart in my view. Roberts swings for the fences, which is admirable, but it's a swing and a miss.
The thing is, animals are not just, you know, stupid humans. Every different animal species has a different sensorium, a different embodied cognition, a different world of experience.
Dogs, for example, can smell in as much vividness and detail as we can see. A dog sniffing a lamp post on its morning walk gets as much information as we get reading the morning paper.
Sheep are herd animals, and prey animals. Humans are pack animals — herds and packs have different social structures. And we are predators, not prey.
Dogs and sheep can think associatively, but not representationally. They can associate a signifier with its signifed through association but they cannot, as far as we know, think about the sign as a sign. Even so, their ability to perceive their physical and social world sensorily and think associatively about it is in some ways far more extensive than ours.
Nonhuman animals are not simply lesser, intellectually crippled versions of ourselves; they are different from us in nonlinear ways, supremely adapted to evolutionary niches that we would not survive in.
So what happens when a nonhuman animal, inhabiting a nonhuman phenomenology, is somehow given human intelligence? What does that even mean? And what would such a being say?
Roberts completely ignores this question.
In Watership Down, Richard Adams takes time to imagine how a rabbit who had, for instance, never seen a river, might experience that river, what terms from their prior experience they might use to make sense of this completely new phenomenon. He does it repeatedly, when the characters experience new things: a big hill, a train, a piece of artwork made by other, captive, rabbits. It's one of the great elements of that book, the continual transformation of his animal characters' consciousness as they undergo radically new experiences.
Roberts doesn't attempt any of that in Bete. Instead, all of his speaking animals speak and act like Enlightenment liberal subjects. They exhibit an individualized sense of self, they talk about being oppressed and exploited, they demand rights, they set up some kind of representational governance amongst themselves.
It's not just anthropocentric, it's Eurocentric. Not even all humans think and act this way; most, historically, have not. That animals suddenly gifted with speech should think and act as if they'd been reading Rousseau all their lives makes not a lick of sense. It's a complete failure of imagination on the author's part.
There is some brief discussion within the story of whether the animals' new form of consciousness is an authentic extension of their animal nature or an artifact of the AI technology used to give them the power of speech, but that question gets dropped.
In fact, one could be forgiven for thinking that this novel is not about animal intelligence at all. It makes much more sense as a novel about the destruction of the conservative social order, which is to say, the catastrophic breakdown of a world of experience that depends on strict and traditional hierarchies, such as those between human and animal, by an irruption of uncontrolled liberal egalitarianism.
On that level, the novel works quite well, and illustrates its themes powerfully.
But I was hoping for a science fiction story about animal consciousness, darn it, not a conservative political allegory. I feel like I've been bait-and-switched.
August 14, 2015
Pretty decent read. The concept is genius but sadly doesn't take up the lion's share of the plot, which is conversely comprised with an ex-farmer - a thoroughly unliveable protagonist - contemplating his navel and his place in this new society. But the prose itself reads sublime; it's the literary equivalent of a great vodka, how fluidly and literature Roberts writes. I'm definitely going to give some of his other work a go.
December 16, 2015
Adam Roberts’ 15th novel, Bete, begins with a cow talking to a farmer just as the farmer is about to pull the trigger on a bolt gun. What seems like the beginning of a joke, or a fantasy novel involving talking animals, becomes a heated conversation about the Turing Test and a plea from the “sentient” cow not to be slaughtered. It transpires that were in a near future where green political activists have been slipping into farms and embedding chips into the brains of animals thus providing them with intelligence. The farmer doesn’t buy the cow’s argument, stating that it’s not the cow begging for its continued existence but the chip. He fires the bolt gun.
If this were a short story it would have all the hallmarks of the type of quirky thought experiment often taught to first year philosophy students to elaborate on complex ideas such as fatalism, modality and the problem of God. (My favourite was always the “Story of Osmo” – Google it). But Adam Roberts’ isn’t willing to stop at the farmer, the bolt gun or the very dead cow. Instead through the eyes of the cantankerous Graham Penhalgion – for that would be the farmer’s name – Roberts’ imagines the radical changes that would occur to society, to the economy, to our relationship with the natural world if animals could tell us to fuck off.
Graham spends a good deal of the novel in denial. As a freelance butcher in a world where people have become squeamish eating real meat, he maintains the argument that the animals are not self-aware or sentient, that they are simply computers masquerading in animal clothing. As the last person to kill a chipped animal, or bete, he briefly becomes the poster boy for others who refuse to see animals as anything more than livestock or pets. But as more and more animals are chipped, Graham finds himself on the fringe of society; a man wandering from town to town, making a measly earning from those who still desire freshly slaughtered meat.
It’s only when he meets Anne, and her chipped cat Cincinnatus, that Graham again finds someone to care about. Anne owns a bed and breakfast (that never seems to have guests) which Graham returns to regularly, partly because the sex is nice, but also because he can relax with Anne, even though he detests her cat. It’s Cincinnatus, though, who warns Graham that a war is coming and suggests that he visits an enigmatic figure known only as the lamb.
Bete could easily have been a silly satire, an extension of the Dish of the Day gag from Douglas Adams’ Restaurant at the End of the Universe. But while the book has its funny moments, it’s a novel that takes seriously the idea of animal rights and self-awareness. For decades scientists and philosophers have argued as to whether animals can be counted as sentient – which of course fuels a larger argument about what sentience actually is. With the introduction of the chip, by having animals actually talk, Roberts’ compels the reader to consider the difference between the “hardware” and “software” running our consciousness versus the physical hardware that allows a cow to beg for its life. For all those first year philosophy students in the audience it’s the Physicalism / Cartesian debate just with nuance, depth and… talking livestock.
But this novel is more than just an argument for self-awareness. Graham’s lonely wanderings, as he looks for freelance work or simply tries to escape from chatty pigs and sheep, means that this is a very rural novel. It’s not necessarily nostalgic about the British village and countryside, but with farming now the province of betes, humanity has migrated in their droves to the cities. And this give the book a sense of isolation as these small, bustling communities and villages are turned into ghost towns. I don’t know whether the abrupt death of British country life portrayed in the novel reflects what’s happening in the UK, but there’s certainly a vibe that the betes are only hastening a process that had well and truly begun.
I also really liked grumpy Graham. Yes he’s a reactionary, and yes he’s angry that the rug has been pulled from underneath him, but inspite of the rough edges he’s a surprisingly engaging character. Much of this has to do with his relationship with Anne. It’s a romance that’s deliberately free of sentimentality, and yet some of most powerful and personal scenes in the novel are those moments where Graham gets to let his guard down and open up to Anne.
Unfortunately, this relationship also embodies one of the novel’s weaker aspects. About halfway through the novel Anne contracts cancer and as Graham increasingly returns to the bed and breakfast he watches as the woman he loves fades away and dies. While Roberts’ thankfully doesn’t protract Anne’s suffering for the sake of drama, because we see Anne’s situation through Graham’s eyes were only given access to his hopelessness and anxiety rather than Anne’s pain. As a result, Anne’s death (which has this predictability about it the moment Graham falls in love with her) is more about Graham’s man pain then Anne’s suffering. It’s a sour note in an otherwise well realised relationship.
Overall though, Bete is a quiet, personal and very intelligent novel about self-awareness, the death of the countryside and rural communities and talking animals. Given the high quality of this book I can’t understand why Roberts’ doesn’t feature on more awards lists.
If this were a short story it would have all the hallmarks of the type of quirky thought experiment often taught to first year philosophy students to elaborate on complex ideas such as fatalism, modality and the problem of God. (My favourite was always the “Story of Osmo” – Google it). But Adam Roberts’ isn’t willing to stop at the farmer, the bolt gun or the very dead cow. Instead through the eyes of the cantankerous Graham Penhalgion – for that would be the farmer’s name – Roberts’ imagines the radical changes that would occur to society, to the economy, to our relationship with the natural world if animals could tell us to fuck off.
Graham spends a good deal of the novel in denial. As a freelance butcher in a world where people have become squeamish eating real meat, he maintains the argument that the animals are not self-aware or sentient, that they are simply computers masquerading in animal clothing. As the last person to kill a chipped animal, or bete, he briefly becomes the poster boy for others who refuse to see animals as anything more than livestock or pets. But as more and more animals are chipped, Graham finds himself on the fringe of society; a man wandering from town to town, making a measly earning from those who still desire freshly slaughtered meat.
It’s only when he meets Anne, and her chipped cat Cincinnatus, that Graham again finds someone to care about. Anne owns a bed and breakfast (that never seems to have guests) which Graham returns to regularly, partly because the sex is nice, but also because he can relax with Anne, even though he detests her cat. It’s Cincinnatus, though, who warns Graham that a war is coming and suggests that he visits an enigmatic figure known only as the lamb.
Bete could easily have been a silly satire, an extension of the Dish of the Day gag from Douglas Adams’ Restaurant at the End of the Universe. But while the book has its funny moments, it’s a novel that takes seriously the idea of animal rights and self-awareness. For decades scientists and philosophers have argued as to whether animals can be counted as sentient – which of course fuels a larger argument about what sentience actually is. With the introduction of the chip, by having animals actually talk, Roberts’ compels the reader to consider the difference between the “hardware” and “software” running our consciousness versus the physical hardware that allows a cow to beg for its life. For all those first year philosophy students in the audience it’s the Physicalism / Cartesian debate just with nuance, depth and… talking livestock.
But this novel is more than just an argument for self-awareness. Graham’s lonely wanderings, as he looks for freelance work or simply tries to escape from chatty pigs and sheep, means that this is a very rural novel. It’s not necessarily nostalgic about the British village and countryside, but with farming now the province of betes, humanity has migrated in their droves to the cities. And this give the book a sense of isolation as these small, bustling communities and villages are turned into ghost towns. I don’t know whether the abrupt death of British country life portrayed in the novel reflects what’s happening in the UK, but there’s certainly a vibe that the betes are only hastening a process that had well and truly begun.
I also really liked grumpy Graham. Yes he’s a reactionary, and yes he’s angry that the rug has been pulled from underneath him, but inspite of the rough edges he’s a surprisingly engaging character. Much of this has to do with his relationship with Anne. It’s a romance that’s deliberately free of sentimentality, and yet some of most powerful and personal scenes in the novel are those moments where Graham gets to let his guard down and open up to Anne.
Unfortunately, this relationship also embodies one of the novel’s weaker aspects. About halfway through the novel Anne contracts cancer and as Graham increasingly returns to the bed and breakfast he watches as the woman he loves fades away and dies. While Roberts’ thankfully doesn’t protract Anne’s suffering for the sake of drama, because we see Anne’s situation through Graham’s eyes were only given access to his hopelessness and anxiety rather than Anne’s pain. As a result, Anne’s death (which has this predictability about it the moment Graham falls in love with her) is more about Graham’s man pain then Anne’s suffering. It’s a sour note in an otherwise well realised relationship.
Overall though, Bete is a quiet, personal and very intelligent novel about self-awareness, the death of the countryside and rural communities and talking animals. Given the high quality of this book I can’t understand why Roberts’ doesn’t feature on more awards lists.
January 27, 2023
This is a well written, witty, well characterised, vivid and thought provoking science fiction novel about ethics and the “what if” scenario of animals being empowered to have a voice in society.
If you want to read a fast paced, original, unpredictable story that explores a potential future once speaking animals can influence our behaviour, this book is for you.
It really was quite special.
If you want to read a fast paced, original, unpredictable story that explores a potential future once speaking animals can influence our behaviour, this book is for you.
It really was quite special.
October 8, 2014
Aunque reconozco que mi entrada en el libro no ha sido inmediata, me parece una novela brillante. La vería perfectamente en una editorial generalista, y no me extrañaría que a diez o veinte años vista se hubiese convertido en un clásico de la cifi. Tiene cierto aroma new wave.
Me ha pegado fuerte.
Me ha pegado fuerte.
October 12, 2015
A perfect sf novel. The heart of Sturgeon, the head of Stapledon, and the humor of those guys who write for Peep Show. This smart and intimate dark comedy deserves more recognition-- a Clarke award longlist nom is not enough-- AND WHY OH WHY DOES THIS NOT HAVE A U.S. PUBLICATION DATE YET? Unjustly served, this one.
January 4, 2015
This was one of my standout books of 2014, coming in only a very close second to We by Yvgeny Zamyatin.
Bête is near-future moral sci-fi at its best. Forget space battles and shining off-world colonies; this is the science fiction of the everyday, couching horror in the banal, in the unglamorous, in everything we would assume to be safe because it's so normal. A boarded up Costa in Wokingham, the terror of the working, dystopian Oracle shopping centre in Reading... The result is profoundly unsettling.
This book is funny, too, though that humour often has claws and teeth. It's erudite, yet many of references are familiar, they belong to that same, seemingly unassailable British "everyday" – Led Zep, Dad's Army – that Roberts chips away at so mercilessly throughout the book. Knowledge and instinct clash, "humanity" frays, and we are constantly pushed off balance, unable to set a foot down firmly without becoming tangled in questions that we can't – and don't want to – answer.
Ultimately, Bête reminds me of a Ray Bradbury comment: that good science fiction concerns the possible, one idea, that doesn't exist yet, but if it did, would change everything.
Bête is near-future moral sci-fi at its best. Forget space battles and shining off-world colonies; this is the science fiction of the everyday, couching horror in the banal, in the unglamorous, in everything we would assume to be safe because it's so normal. A boarded up Costa in Wokingham, the terror of the working, dystopian Oracle shopping centre in Reading... The result is profoundly unsettling.
This book is funny, too, though that humour often has claws and teeth. It's erudite, yet many of references are familiar, they belong to that same, seemingly unassailable British "everyday" – Led Zep, Dad's Army – that Roberts chips away at so mercilessly throughout the book. Knowledge and instinct clash, "humanity" frays, and we are constantly pushed off balance, unable to set a foot down firmly without becoming tangled in questions that we can't – and don't want to – answer.
Ultimately, Bête reminds me of a Ray Bradbury comment: that good science fiction concerns the possible, one idea, that doesn't exist yet, but if it did, would change everything.
September 29, 2014
One of Adam Roberts "personal" books like Splinter, new Model Army or Land of the headless, beautifully written technically and with lots of clever word play that rarely feels contrived;
These kinds of books though "live or die" mostly on how you feel about their "one or few notes" subject, here these being farming, animals, the English countryside, all in a sfnal context with musings on the nature of consciousness and AI described well in the blurb and since my interest in all the above is limited at best, I thought ulti9mately the book to be a clever but lifeless exercise that left very little impression and especially towards the end starting wearing thin its Bete/canny animals premise
The other main shortcoming of the book is the view of humanity as "predators" on nature, when imho it's simply that humans are just cleverer, hence most efficient, but there is no such thing as living in harmony with nature, as predators prey, prey reproduces and while the equilibrium may last more than our human limited view-span, it's fragile and easily shattered as the whole history of climate changes, extinctions and evolution shows
Overall, clever but lifeless unless you care about the books' themes which i do not really...
These kinds of books though "live or die" mostly on how you feel about their "one or few notes" subject, here these being farming, animals, the English countryside, all in a sfnal context with musings on the nature of consciousness and AI described well in the blurb and since my interest in all the above is limited at best, I thought ulti9mately the book to be a clever but lifeless exercise that left very little impression and especially towards the end starting wearing thin its Bete/canny animals premise
The other main shortcoming of the book is the view of humanity as "predators" on nature, when imho it's simply that humans are just cleverer, hence most efficient, but there is no such thing as living in harmony with nature, as predators prey, prey reproduces and while the equilibrium may last more than our human limited view-span, it's fragile and easily shattered as the whole history of climate changes, extinctions and evolution shows
Overall, clever but lifeless unless you care about the books' themes which i do not really...
June 4, 2015
Marked this up from 4 to 5 stars after mulling it over for a day, this is a special book - deeper and more subtle than the promotional blurb would suggest.
Roberts skilfully combines an extremely plausible near future scenario with a complex characterisation that allows his world to be seen from many angles.
There's an Orwellian feel to this doom-laden story that goes beyond the presence of talking animals, and like many of the best novels, the final pages throw up implications that force you to re-examine what's gone on beforehand.
The cover art is also a thing of beauty. Roberts seems to be a perpetually under-appreciated author (Bête has been curiously overlooked by this year's awards panels), but he really deserves to be recognised as one of Britain's best current SF writers.
Roberts skilfully combines an extremely plausible near future scenario with a complex characterisation that allows his world to be seen from many angles.
There's an Orwellian feel to this doom-laden story that goes beyond the presence of talking animals, and like many of the best novels, the final pages throw up implications that force you to re-examine what's gone on beforehand.
The cover art is also a thing of beauty. Roberts seems to be a perpetually under-appreciated author (Bête has been curiously overlooked by this year's awards panels), but he really deserves to be recognised as one of Britain's best current SF writers.
January 9, 2023
Reading Bete by Adam Roberts was wholly satisfying and a bit of a hidden treasure.
I recommend Bete to those who enjoyed Orwell’s Animal Farm, especially for the strength of its examination of humanity, society, and consciousness.
If you were only iffy on Animal Farm and your hesitation centers on talking animals, Bete feels more real, as Roberts gives an acceptable scifi reasoning for the animal’s new found abilities to speak.
Though not a comedy, I recommend Bete for moments of laugh out loud humor.
I recommend this for poetic, fluid, and brilliant prose.
I recommend Bete for science fiction readers who enjoy speculative fiction that imagines how the world might respond to dramatic advances in artificial intelligence and why.
I recommend bete for those who liked the pacing, setting, and very local feel of of HG Well’s classic, The War of the Worlds.
Both books really stay very local in a small area of England, while also having serious implications for the world and the whole of humanity.
Finally, I recommend Bete to those who have not yet read the work of Adam Roberts.
I am also currently reading “The Thing Itself” by Adam Roberts and have Jack Glass on my TBR, and it’s crystal clear, he is a unique and talented writer delivering phenomenal and profound science fiction novels.
Published in 2014 Bete begins with a cow begging, or maybe more accurately, reasoning for his life. If he understood main character Farmer Graham better, he might have been better off just shutting up.
Graham’s no fan of talking cows or any talking animals for that matter.
In Bete Adam Roberts displays a world in which animals, aided by a revolutionary new microchip based technology are able to communicate and reason.
Its not difficult to see why Graham, a farmer and butcher, is not on board for the “human rights for animals” movement.
Like so many times before, Graham is probably going to slay and butcher the cow, because that’s his job, its what he does.
The only difference, aside from the cow having the ability to speak, is the urgency of the situation.
The chip technology is pretty new and the government, special interests, and activists, are debating the merits of animal rights and other related legislation.
Graham taking some liberties with where he sees the grey areas of the law, doesn't want to wait to slaughter this cow, considering it could be a citizen tomorrow.
That’s an exaggeration, but certainly not far-fetched.
Speaking of fetched, there are some talking dogs in this, as well as lambs, cats, rats, and more. Where Orwell’s animal farm presented animals spontaneously talking and a story that could be confused for a children’s book, there is no mistaking it.
Bete is a serious science fiction novel exploring what the world might look like if technology bestowed speech and reasoning upon animals.
Would we be able to eat big macs, hot dogs, and pepperoni pizza any more?
Would cats and dogs still be our pets?
WIll our pets guilt trip us for using them for our own selfish needs for affection?
The questions surrounding consciousness and sentience are the most dominant themes in the story.
In Bete, the primary setting is the English countryside and much of the plot centers on the intelligence-enhanced animals' and their success or failure to be accepted and granted rights as well as how they respond to the humans who will fight tooth and nail against them.
Graham is an interesting main character as he seems an unlikely person to play any larger role than what might occur on his farm, but that changes quickly.
Graham is rough around the edges, mostly angry, and very stubborn.
On one hand, I might caution readers who shy away from books with a main character they find it hard to root for, and on the other, I find Graham’s character refreshing.
He feels very real and his evolution, what little there is, feels organic and in no way forced. He’s angry and stays angry.
A few things soften his heart and make him feel more human, but he never really changes how he thinks, even in the face of experience and new evidence.
I believe that with this character.
Extreme experiences can change people dramatically but they can also change people just a little bit.
More often than not, the books I read present characters that change or evolve a lot.
THis was a nice change of pace.
I recommend Bete to those who enjoyed Orwell’s Animal Farm, especially for the strength of its examination of humanity, society, and consciousness.
If you were only iffy on Animal Farm and your hesitation centers on talking animals, Bete feels more real, as Roberts gives an acceptable scifi reasoning for the animal’s new found abilities to speak.
Though not a comedy, I recommend Bete for moments of laugh out loud humor.
I recommend this for poetic, fluid, and brilliant prose.
I recommend Bete for science fiction readers who enjoy speculative fiction that imagines how the world might respond to dramatic advances in artificial intelligence and why.
I recommend bete for those who liked the pacing, setting, and very local feel of of HG Well’s classic, The War of the Worlds.
Both books really stay very local in a small area of England, while also having serious implications for the world and the whole of humanity.
Finally, I recommend Bete to those who have not yet read the work of Adam Roberts.
I am also currently reading “The Thing Itself” by Adam Roberts and have Jack Glass on my TBR, and it’s crystal clear, he is a unique and talented writer delivering phenomenal and profound science fiction novels.
Published in 2014 Bete begins with a cow begging, or maybe more accurately, reasoning for his life. If he understood main character Farmer Graham better, he might have been better off just shutting up.
Graham’s no fan of talking cows or any talking animals for that matter.
In Bete Adam Roberts displays a world in which animals, aided by a revolutionary new microchip based technology are able to communicate and reason.
Its not difficult to see why Graham, a farmer and butcher, is not on board for the “human rights for animals” movement.
Like so many times before, Graham is probably going to slay and butcher the cow, because that’s his job, its what he does.
The only difference, aside from the cow having the ability to speak, is the urgency of the situation.
The chip technology is pretty new and the government, special interests, and activists, are debating the merits of animal rights and other related legislation.
Graham taking some liberties with where he sees the grey areas of the law, doesn't want to wait to slaughter this cow, considering it could be a citizen tomorrow.
That’s an exaggeration, but certainly not far-fetched.
Speaking of fetched, there are some talking dogs in this, as well as lambs, cats, rats, and more. Where Orwell’s animal farm presented animals spontaneously talking and a story that could be confused for a children’s book, there is no mistaking it.
Bete is a serious science fiction novel exploring what the world might look like if technology bestowed speech and reasoning upon animals.
Would we be able to eat big macs, hot dogs, and pepperoni pizza any more?
Would cats and dogs still be our pets?
WIll our pets guilt trip us for using them for our own selfish needs for affection?
The questions surrounding consciousness and sentience are the most dominant themes in the story.
In Bete, the primary setting is the English countryside and much of the plot centers on the intelligence-enhanced animals' and their success or failure to be accepted and granted rights as well as how they respond to the humans who will fight tooth and nail against them.
Graham is an interesting main character as he seems an unlikely person to play any larger role than what might occur on his farm, but that changes quickly.
Graham is rough around the edges, mostly angry, and very stubborn.
On one hand, I might caution readers who shy away from books with a main character they find it hard to root for, and on the other, I find Graham’s character refreshing.
He feels very real and his evolution, what little there is, feels organic and in no way forced. He’s angry and stays angry.
A few things soften his heart and make him feel more human, but he never really changes how he thinks, even in the face of experience and new evidence.
I believe that with this character.
Extreme experiences can change people dramatically but they can also change people just a little bit.
More often than not, the books I read present characters that change or evolve a lot.
THis was a nice change of pace.
July 13, 2018
DNF at page 99. I always try and give books 100 pages to settle in and grab me, but unfortunately, Bete did not.
While the ideas presented about what would happen if animals were given a voice (by Green activists) are engaging and interesting, I feel this would have made a far more excellent short story than one elongated over 310 pages, and I kept coming across typo’s and strange word choices that I haven’t quite decided were stylistic choices, or poor editing.
If you’re looking for a philosophical slow-burn about animal rights and the effects of veganism, then this book is for you. If you’re looking for an Animal Farm-esque allegory, then look elsewhere.
While the ideas presented about what would happen if animals were given a voice (by Green activists) are engaging and interesting, I feel this would have made a far more excellent short story than one elongated over 310 pages, and I kept coming across typo’s and strange word choices that I haven’t quite decided were stylistic choices, or poor editing.
If you’re looking for a philosophical slow-burn about animal rights and the effects of veganism, then this book is for you. If you’re looking for an Animal Farm-esque allegory, then look elsewhere.
May 11, 2023
I really enjoyed Roberts' writing style. The wordplay he uses throughout this book is incredible. It has such fantastic elements of metafiction, allusions, and use of language.
While I greatly enjoyed his language and the philosophical nature of this book, the plot was a little convoluted. I wish the timeline of Graham's life was more clear and I did not enjoy that due to Graham's stay in the woods, the reader was denied a knowledge of what occurred politically around the bêtes and their existence. I think it could have been very interesting to see exactly how the legal status of bêtes unfolded and when the war started. But alas, due to a plot point, this was not something I got to learn about.
While I greatly enjoyed his language and the philosophical nature of this book, the plot was a little convoluted. I wish the timeline of Graham's life was more clear and I did not enjoy that due to Graham's stay in the woods, the reader was denied a knowledge of what occurred politically around the bêtes and their existence. I think it could have been very interesting to see exactly how the legal status of bêtes unfolded and when the war started. But alas, due to a plot point, this was not something I got to learn about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2023
A surreal book. Overall I did enjoy this, which is surprising because the main character is very unlikeable, being a rude and angry slaughterman (probably one of the people I hate most in the world). However his character is multi-faceted and I actually did feel some sympathy for him in parts of the story.
The idea of animals being able to use human speech to convey their thoughts and emotions is something which I wish was real. There is something about a cow being able to say 'I want to live' in human language rather than in it's natural animal vocalisations that would make it register with most people that it may be wrong to take their life. And this is demonstrated in the book by the fact that new laws are made for 'canny' animals (called 'betes') who can speak in human language and express their feelings about being killed and used by humans.
What I couldn't quite figure out is whether the AI chip implanted in their brain creates a new kind of consciousness in the animal, which it doesn't have without the chip, or if it merely enables animals to express their already held consciousness in a way obvious to humans. I believe it is a mixture of the two, with the already known-to-be-held emotions of animals such as fear, pain, happiness etc. being allowed to be conveyed in human words, but also human only concepts such as business, money, politics and abstract ideas being given to the animal through the chip.
My criticism of the book is that I believe the story could have been so much more. With such a great idea, it could have been so much more eventful, rather than the story be focused on the isolated Graham who hates betes and spends most of his time in the wilderness, away from the civilisation where the reaction to the phenomenon of betes is all happening. We barely get an insight into the sudden huge expansion of the animal rights movement itself which would have been really interesting, and which was what I thought the book would focus on.
However I did enjoy the story for what it was. It had a good atmosphere (albeit depressing and apocalyptic). The writing is excellent with some of the best use of similes / metaphors to make the feelings and observations of the character more vivid to the reader.
I really liked how the not too distant future the UK is so realistic, and scarily could be what is waiting for us. Sky high prices for food, cars becoming too expensive to run, blimps replacing petrol vehicles and horribly overpopulated towns and cities. I also love that the prices of everything in the book is in Euros instead of pounds, and is not alluded to in any other way; it's just another hint at the UK economy having gone through another crisis and the attempts to survive it.
4 stars overall, because it could have been way more action packed and have the ALF make an appearance but I did still really enjoy it anyway!
The idea of animals being able to use human speech to convey their thoughts and emotions is something which I wish was real. There is something about a cow being able to say 'I want to live' in human language rather than in it's natural animal vocalisations that would make it register with most people that it may be wrong to take their life. And this is demonstrated in the book by the fact that new laws are made for 'canny' animals (called 'betes') who can speak in human language and express their feelings about being killed and used by humans.
What I couldn't quite figure out is whether the AI chip implanted in their brain creates a new kind of consciousness in the animal, which it doesn't have without the chip, or if it merely enables animals to express their already held consciousness in a way obvious to humans. I believe it is a mixture of the two, with the already known-to-be-held emotions of animals such as fear, pain, happiness etc. being allowed to be conveyed in human words, but also human only concepts such as business, money, politics and abstract ideas being given to the animal through the chip.
My criticism of the book is that I believe the story could have been so much more. With such a great idea, it could have been so much more eventful, rather than the story be focused on the isolated Graham who hates betes and spends most of his time in the wilderness, away from the civilisation where the reaction to the phenomenon of betes is all happening. We barely get an insight into the sudden huge expansion of the animal rights movement itself which would have been really interesting, and which was what I thought the book would focus on.
However I did enjoy the story for what it was. It had a good atmosphere (albeit depressing and apocalyptic). The writing is excellent with some of the best use of similes / metaphors to make the feelings and observations of the character more vivid to the reader.
I really liked how the not too distant future the UK is so realistic, and scarily could be what is waiting for us. Sky high prices for food, cars becoming too expensive to run, blimps replacing petrol vehicles and horribly overpopulated towns and cities. I also love that the prices of everything in the book is in Euros instead of pounds, and is not alluded to in any other way; it's just another hint at the UK economy having gone through another crisis and the attempts to survive it.
4 stars overall, because it could have been way more action packed and have the ALF make an appearance but I did still really enjoy it anyway!
December 27, 2016
For a long time, my taste in science fiction writers was limited to the favourites from my youth. The likes of Asimov, Blish, Brunner, Clarke, Heinlein, Kornbluth and Pohl. About as trendy as I got was Zelazny. But lately I've discovered two who have re-invigorated my love of SF - Iain M. Banks and Adam Roberts, both combining style and entertainment with superb ideas that really make you think.
The opening of Roberts' novel Bête had me spellbound. The cow that a farmer is about to kill is pleading for its life - and the scene is handled brilliantly. So too are conversations exploring the borderline between AI and consciousness. If an animal is made apparently intelligent by an implanted chip, is it the chip that is intelligent or the animal... or neither?
Some of the rest of the book worked well for me as well. The surreal conversations, packed with popular culture quotes (some of which I got) were fascinating. However, I'm not a great fan of disaster novels - I loved Wyndham as a teenager, but rather grew out of the callousness of the whole concept; the action that takes place throughout Bête is a disaster novel scenario, even if, this being Roberts, it is given all sorts of unexpected twists. So it's my fault, rather than the book's that I was fascinated by that opening scenario and the main character (especially as a friend is an ex-organic dairy farmer), but for me, it would have made a brilliant short story or novella, rather than requiring the rest of the book.
So Bête is not one of my favourite Roberts novels, even though the bits that really got to me comprised some of the best SF writing I've ever seen. Let's be clear, every Roberts novel is worth far more than most post 60s SF - and I strongly encourage anyone who likes science fiction, or the philosophy of AI to read this book. It simply wasn't in my top five.
The opening of Roberts' novel Bête had me spellbound. The cow that a farmer is about to kill is pleading for its life - and the scene is handled brilliantly. So too are conversations exploring the borderline between AI and consciousness. If an animal is made apparently intelligent by an implanted chip, is it the chip that is intelligent or the animal... or neither?
Some of the rest of the book worked well for me as well. The surreal conversations, packed with popular culture quotes (some of which I got) were fascinating. However, I'm not a great fan of disaster novels - I loved Wyndham as a teenager, but rather grew out of the callousness of the whole concept; the action that takes place throughout Bête is a disaster novel scenario, even if, this being Roberts, it is given all sorts of unexpected twists. So it's my fault, rather than the book's that I was fascinated by that opening scenario and the main character (especially as a friend is an ex-organic dairy farmer), but for me, it would have made a brilliant short story or novella, rather than requiring the rest of the book.
So Bête is not one of my favourite Roberts novels, even though the bits that really got to me comprised some of the best SF writing I've ever seen. Let's be clear, every Roberts novel is worth far more than most post 60s SF - and I strongly encourage anyone who likes science fiction, or the philosophy of AI to read this book. It simply wasn't in my top five.
August 17, 2018
So the start of this book drew me in very easily. I am lucky to be on school holidays from work right now and therefore able to indulge in my love of the late night. I was up until 4am greedily devouring about 150 pages. It continued for a while when I picked it up again the next day.
But then I started to get a niggling feeling in my mind- not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but that more and more things were being pushed to the back of my mind that I hoped would be explained or further explored later on. As the pages dwindled, I began to realise that I was still left in the dark about many aspects of the story. It’s nothing I could put my finger on but *something* felt unexplored.
The final part made that feeling grow exponentially. I know exactly what was happening in terms of storyline, and without spoiling anything, it involves a bête chip transferring through a few levels. But I was left with a distinct feeling that I’d missed something.
This was my main issue with the book- I felt like I had missed something. I’m sure this could be waved away with a dismissive “authors don’t need to provide answers to everything”, which they don’t of corse, but they need to provide a satisfying ending.
To summarise the above, I read another review on here which mentioned that it never seemed to justify its own length. It is a fascinating idea, and in the first marathon reading session, I was convinced this was a sure fire for my favourites list, but it never really came to anything. Still, I will certainly be reading more of his work in the future.
(As a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have read a few Roberts book in the past, in my early teenage years- he wrote The Soddit, The Da Vinci Cod and The Matrix Derided that I used to hunt for in Waterstones!)
But then I started to get a niggling feeling in my mind- not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but that more and more things were being pushed to the back of my mind that I hoped would be explained or further explored later on. As the pages dwindled, I began to realise that I was still left in the dark about many aspects of the story. It’s nothing I could put my finger on but *something* felt unexplored.
The final part made that feeling grow exponentially. I know exactly what was happening in terms of storyline, and without spoiling anything, it involves a bête chip transferring through a few levels. But I was left with a distinct feeling that I’d missed something.
This was my main issue with the book- I felt like I had missed something. I’m sure this could be waved away with a dismissive “authors don’t need to provide answers to everything”, which they don’t of corse, but they need to provide a satisfying ending.
To summarise the above, I read another review on here which mentioned that it never seemed to justify its own length. It is a fascinating idea, and in the first marathon reading session, I was convinced this was a sure fire for my favourites list, but it never really came to anything. Still, I will certainly be reading more of his work in the future.
(As a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have read a few Roberts book in the past, in my early teenage years- he wrote The Soddit, The Da Vinci Cod and The Matrix Derided that I used to hunt for in Waterstones!)
November 2, 2014
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, so I'm grateful for the opprtunity to read it...
But gosh, it was dull. It starts off with such a promising idea: animal activists inserting microchips into animals so they can speak. There is such great potential for where this might lead, and the back story hints at this - but we are left following the lonely ramblings of a disagreeable old man in the woods. I could never quite escape the feeling that I was reading a university set text - check out the intertextuality (lots of it); note the unusual sentence structure and use of language (heavy going, flowery). It felt like the author was trying too hard to write an academic, worthy book, and it just eneded up boring, slow moving, with no discernible story. I sped-read a great chunk in the middle, and nearly abandonded the whole thing.
It seems to be getting some great reviews, so I guess if you have read other books by Adam Roberts and like his style, this one will be for you. Definitely not my cup of tea, though.
But gosh, it was dull. It starts off with such a promising idea: animal activists inserting microchips into animals so they can speak. There is such great potential for where this might lead, and the back story hints at this - but we are left following the lonely ramblings of a disagreeable old man in the woods. I could never quite escape the feeling that I was reading a university set text - check out the intertextuality (lots of it); note the unusual sentence structure and use of language (heavy going, flowery). It felt like the author was trying too hard to write an academic, worthy book, and it just eneded up boring, slow moving, with no discernible story. I sped-read a great chunk in the middle, and nearly abandonded the whole thing.
It seems to be getting some great reviews, so I guess if you have read other books by Adam Roberts and like his style, this one will be for you. Definitely not my cup of tea, though.
May 14, 2019
A brilliant concept, but the book skips over all of the most interesting details on this world within the first few chapters in favour of following the protagonist into the woods. What I understood to be the philosophical ideas and themes that would be explored in the book were put aside very quickly and just stage setting to give us a story about a man who can't find his place in a modern world.
What would happen if animals were intelligent enough to argue for themselves? We find out what, but not how, as the protagonist distances himself from the world very quickly, and the book crams a whole lot of other ideas that felt like a perfect storm to reach the conclusion. Not only are there smart animals, but the world falls apart with global warming, financial collapse, man made diseases, new religions and whatever the author felt like was needed to move the story to it's nonsensical conclusion.
Overall I didn't like it much, but I would like to see someone else tackle this idea.
What would happen if animals were intelligent enough to argue for themselves? We find out what, but not how, as the protagonist distances himself from the world very quickly, and the book crams a whole lot of other ideas that felt like a perfect storm to reach the conclusion. Not only are there smart animals, but the world falls apart with global warming, financial collapse, man made diseases, new religions and whatever the author felt like was needed to move the story to it's nonsensical conclusion.
Overall I didn't like it much, but I would like to see someone else tackle this idea.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2017
I didn't like it as a novel. I liked parts of it -- the pop culture references, some turns of phrase, some moments of characterisation, but as a whole, it didn't.... work? for me. It was a bit of a jumble, felt like.
I think the idea behind the novel is brilliant, but execution-wise I found it extremely frustrating, which I found out during a class discussion about the novel -- 80% of it was speculation because Roberts didn't provide the answers. Maybe the answers don't exist.
As provoking thought? 5 stars. But as a reading-and-thinking-about-the-novel experience: 3 stars.
I think the idea behind the novel is brilliant, but execution-wise I found it extremely frustrating, which I found out during a class discussion about the novel -- 80% of it was speculation because Roberts didn't provide the answers. Maybe the answers don't exist.
As provoking thought? 5 stars. But as a reading-and-thinking-about-the-novel experience: 3 stars.
February 22, 2018
DNF
this, as far as i could tell from how far i got into it, is trying to make me hate eco-activism and animal rights movements. you lose me pretty much immediately when the main character mercilessly kills a sentient creature as it begs for its life and then gets mad when people think its wrong, and feels entitled.
could be good if i read more than a chapter but honestly this is my second time trying and i just cant get past this point.
this, as far as i could tell from how far i got into it, is trying to make me hate eco-activism and animal rights movements. you lose me pretty much immediately when the main character mercilessly kills a sentient creature as it begs for its life and then gets mad when people think its wrong, and feels entitled.
could be good if i read more than a chapter but honestly this is my second time trying and i just cant get past this point.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2015
Wow..... Just..... Wow. There is a lot to process with this book. I have to toss it around in my head for a while. It was an extreamly strange read but one that makes you think about some things. I think a lot of vegetarians might get a kick out of this book. I'll get back to you on this one.
March 15, 2025
This was a very entertaining read. The second of Adam Roberts' novels I have read. (Jack Glass was ace also.) This is a strange book where animals upgraded with AI chips have risen up against their human oppressors. It didn't quite work for me but it was still a lot of fun.
May 28, 2015
This is a fantastic piece of science-fiction and philosophy. It revels in language and is incredibly dense in a very good way. It's also about talking animals!
December 25, 2017
"'Wise cat is wise,' said the cat. 'Wireless cat casts its web world-widely.'" (p. 66)
"For outside are dogs and sorcerers, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (p. 225)
"For outside are dogs and sorcerers, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (p. 225)
May 30, 2019
We know from the epigraph, “You? Better. You? Bête” - attributed to Pete Townshend but given Roberts’s own slant - that we are in for a tale full of word play and allusion; everything from Led Zeppelin lyrics to the riddle of the Sphinx, with nods to previous SF (at one point there is the shout, “Butlerian Jihad!”) as well as Animal Farm.
The novel begins with dairy farmer Graham Penhaligon, who has also trained to butcher his own livestock, having a verbal disagreement with a “canny” cow which does not wish to be slaughtered. This is shortly before such Loquacious Beasts (as the Act has it) are to be legally protected. The encounter makes Graham famous, after a fashion. The advent of speaking animals had come with green activists, “creeping around farms in the dead of night, injecting chips into the craniums (sic) of farm animals.” These bêtes at first spouted authentic sounding phrases, responses of animal rights propaganda, but quickly the chips, by now AIs, develop into something more integrated with their hosts.
It is tempting to find faint echoes in this set-up of Wells’s Dr Moreau but the comparison is too stretched to be truly viable. No vivisection is involved; the chips only have to be ingested to make their way into the host’s brain. Graham reflects that Moore’s Law made this sort of augmentation inevitable but he never believes that the animals are really expressing themselves; it is the computers in their heads doing so. Soon enough bêtes become legal citizens competing with humans for jobs. Along with the almost simultaneous development of synthetic Vitameat, one of the ramifications is that Graham’s farm is no longer viable.
He resorts to a nomadic existence, taking the odd slaughtering job, living (poorly) off the land, his peregrinations bringing him into irregular but recurring contact with Anne Grigson, with whom he falls in love. She has a canny cat, Cincinnatus, which loves its mistress but also exhibits a peculiar interest in Graham.
Graham is prickly from the outset. “Don’t call me Graham,” he tells the argumentative cow - and nearly everyone else whom he meets thereafter. He is especially so with the bêtes he encounters. These internet enabled, wifi-ed animals recognise him instantly, but there is always a hint of menace in it. A shambling incoherent human appears to know Graham but has been chipped; with “higher” animals schizophrenia is the unerring result of such a merger. Dogs, cows, horses are much more suitable.
This scenario gives Roberts scope to comment on humanity’s collective relationship with the biosphere, sometimes through his minor characters, ‘“Animals have feelings and thoughts – it’s just that only now have they been able to bring them out,”’ otherwise through Graham’s thoughts, “Speciesism is more deeply entrenched within us than sexism, and that is deep enough,” “Nature: it’s not nice, it was never nice. Niceness is what we humans built to insulate ourselves from – all that.” Cincinnatus provides the barbed observation, “Misrecognition. It’s what humans are best at.”
At times Bête takes on some of the characteristics of the post-disaster stories associated with British SF of the fifties and early sixties. Also stalking the land and causing AIDS-like panic is the disease, Sclerotic Charagmitis, where mucus membranes scar over, leading to death. The countryside is abandoned to the animals, people huddle together in the larger towns, the regime becomes repressive, but shuts off the wifi too late. There are tales of inter-species war in the north, animals immolated on pyres by the army. In his isolation, Graham does not witness any of this, though.
He makes much of language and his relish of it and notes his is a very English tale. Language is a field, he tells us, and farmers are used to working with fields. A strange aspect of the narrative, though, is its frequent use of archaisms. “And you have brought it me,” wroth, thrice. Sadly, this last appeared only twice.
But Anne dies from cancer, and Graham reflects that the loss of love brings resentment, bitterness, anger, envy. Fair enough, but I don’t quite buy his contention that, for adults, crying is always a performance, intended for an audience. The crux of the novel comes at Graham’s delayed meeting with the leader of the bêtes in the south, an AI in the brain of a very old ewe known (in a piece of somewhat heavy-handed symbolism) as The Lamb, which makes him an offer.
While the essential motor of the plot is that this is a love story, Graham’s relationship with Anne does not come over like a grand passion. Everything is a touch too intellectual; described, not experienced. Bête is good stuff, though, probably enough to ensure Roberts’s usual award nomination.
The novel begins with dairy farmer Graham Penhaligon, who has also trained to butcher his own livestock, having a verbal disagreement with a “canny” cow which does not wish to be slaughtered. This is shortly before such Loquacious Beasts (as the Act has it) are to be legally protected. The encounter makes Graham famous, after a fashion. The advent of speaking animals had come with green activists, “creeping around farms in the dead of night, injecting chips into the craniums (sic) of farm animals.” These bêtes at first spouted authentic sounding phrases, responses of animal rights propaganda, but quickly the chips, by now AIs, develop into something more integrated with their hosts.
It is tempting to find faint echoes in this set-up of Wells’s Dr Moreau but the comparison is too stretched to be truly viable. No vivisection is involved; the chips only have to be ingested to make their way into the host’s brain. Graham reflects that Moore’s Law made this sort of augmentation inevitable but he never believes that the animals are really expressing themselves; it is the computers in their heads doing so. Soon enough bêtes become legal citizens competing with humans for jobs. Along with the almost simultaneous development of synthetic Vitameat, one of the ramifications is that Graham’s farm is no longer viable.
He resorts to a nomadic existence, taking the odd slaughtering job, living (poorly) off the land, his peregrinations bringing him into irregular but recurring contact with Anne Grigson, with whom he falls in love. She has a canny cat, Cincinnatus, which loves its mistress but also exhibits a peculiar interest in Graham.
Graham is prickly from the outset. “Don’t call me Graham,” he tells the argumentative cow - and nearly everyone else whom he meets thereafter. He is especially so with the bêtes he encounters. These internet enabled, wifi-ed animals recognise him instantly, but there is always a hint of menace in it. A shambling incoherent human appears to know Graham but has been chipped; with “higher” animals schizophrenia is the unerring result of such a merger. Dogs, cows, horses are much more suitable.
This scenario gives Roberts scope to comment on humanity’s collective relationship with the biosphere, sometimes through his minor characters, ‘“Animals have feelings and thoughts – it’s just that only now have they been able to bring them out,”’ otherwise through Graham’s thoughts, “Speciesism is more deeply entrenched within us than sexism, and that is deep enough,” “Nature: it’s not nice, it was never nice. Niceness is what we humans built to insulate ourselves from – all that.” Cincinnatus provides the barbed observation, “Misrecognition. It’s what humans are best at.”
At times Bête takes on some of the characteristics of the post-disaster stories associated with British SF of the fifties and early sixties. Also stalking the land and causing AIDS-like panic is the disease, Sclerotic Charagmitis, where mucus membranes scar over, leading to death. The countryside is abandoned to the animals, people huddle together in the larger towns, the regime becomes repressive, but shuts off the wifi too late. There are tales of inter-species war in the north, animals immolated on pyres by the army. In his isolation, Graham does not witness any of this, though.
He makes much of language and his relish of it and notes his is a very English tale. Language is a field, he tells us, and farmers are used to working with fields. A strange aspect of the narrative, though, is its frequent use of archaisms. “And you have brought it me,” wroth, thrice. Sadly, this last appeared only twice.
But Anne dies from cancer, and Graham reflects that the loss of love brings resentment, bitterness, anger, envy. Fair enough, but I don’t quite buy his contention that, for adults, crying is always a performance, intended for an audience. The crux of the novel comes at Graham’s delayed meeting with the leader of the bêtes in the south, an AI in the brain of a very old ewe known (in a piece of somewhat heavy-handed symbolism) as The Lamb, which makes him an offer.
While the essential motor of the plot is that this is a love story, Graham’s relationship with Anne does not come over like a grand passion. Everything is a touch too intellectual; described, not experienced. Bête is good stuff, though, probably enough to ensure Roberts’s usual award nomination.
August 17, 2020
I read this because I was impressed by The Thing Itself.
I was impressed by the premise and the beginning of this book as well. Unfortunately, that feeling faded as the book went on. There is fun sarcasm, wordplay, references, and the anger and, well, unlikableness of the main character is mostly entertaining.
But the premise of the book is destroyed about two thirds in.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
So animals can now talk and are granted citizen rights. Later, as it turns out, all the intelligence and consciousness resides in the chip alone, when Graham (can I call him Graham?) literally has the Lamb in his pocket. The implications of this (that Graham was in fact right all the time) are not discussed at all, contrary to what the blurb leads us to believe. The last chapter even hints at immortality through chips. These chips would alter our world in a completely different way than just leading to human rights for animals. And the latter would be unmerited. The cat's chip even decides to sacrifice the cat - note: the cat, not itself. It is fully aware that the cat will die and it will not. This would, firstly, mean that the book would have needed to be about citizen rights for AI chips, not for animals. And secondly, the potential option for immortality, even if only achievable for a fraction of humans (those who don't go insane with a chip), would be quite a big deal, an even bigger deal than any non-human intelligence, animal or chip. People would be able to choose between the risk of becomine schizophrenic and the certainty of death. As these chips seem to be very cheap to produce, everyone would be able to choose.
Other than that (or maybe it is the symptom of the same problem), I frequently had the feeling that this is rather a series of essays on a lot of things, loosely connected by a plot. That got better in the second half, but didn't disappear entirely. Roberts seemed to have many (brief as well as complex) ideas he wanted to talk about/present, so he did, no matter if they fit in without seeming forced or artificial.
Also, what I didn't really get: the choice of what to set in italics.
(sidenote to self: read this in parallel with The Grapes o Wrath, both books have a character called Preacher)
I was impressed by the premise and the beginning of this book as well. Unfortunately, that feeling faded as the book went on. There is fun sarcasm, wordplay, references, and the anger and, well, unlikableness of the main character is mostly entertaining.
But the premise of the book is destroyed about two thirds in.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
So animals can now talk and are granted citizen rights. Later, as it turns out, all the intelligence and consciousness resides in the chip alone, when Graham (can I call him Graham?) literally has the Lamb in his pocket. The implications of this (that Graham was in fact right all the time) are not discussed at all, contrary to what the blurb leads us to believe. The last chapter even hints at immortality through chips. These chips would alter our world in a completely different way than just leading to human rights for animals. And the latter would be unmerited. The cat's chip even decides to sacrifice the cat - note: the cat, not itself. It is fully aware that the cat will die and it will not. This would, firstly, mean that the book would have needed to be about citizen rights for AI chips, not for animals. And secondly, the potential option for immortality, even if only achievable for a fraction of humans (those who don't go insane with a chip), would be quite a big deal, an even bigger deal than any non-human intelligence, animal or chip. People would be able to choose between the risk of becomine schizophrenic and the certainty of death. As these chips seem to be very cheap to produce, everyone would be able to choose.
Other than that (or maybe it is the symptom of the same problem), I frequently had the feeling that this is rather a series of essays on a lot of things, loosely connected by a plot. That got better in the second half, but didn't disappear entirely. Roberts seemed to have many (brief as well as complex) ideas he wanted to talk about/present, so he did, no matter if they fit in without seeming forced or artificial.
Also, what I didn't really get: the choice of what to set in italics.
(sidenote to self: read this in parallel with The Grapes o Wrath, both books have a character called Preacher)
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