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Little Robot
A misanthropic roboticist finds his loyalties tested when the world erupts around him into a war between humans and machines. Neither side knows what to make of the unexpected romance that blossoms amid the carnage and devastation.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 15, 2017
9 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 18, 2018
I found Alex Beyman on the Steemit website, a little known social media platform that is essentially Reddit with cryptocurrency. He's written several novels that you can find for free across the Internet, but only two are up on Amazon. The first story I read from him was about an abandoned theme park in Moscow that used enslaved cartoonists to create horrific creations, and it gave me serious "adult creepy-pasta" vibes, like the weird forum kids had grown up and were writing their own brand of horror fiction.
Alex Beyman writes in a sparse, straight-forward style that reminds me a little bit of Philip K. Dick mixed with some of the Golden Era sci-fi writers like Asimov. What separates him from the thousands of other people trying to write Golden Era sci-fi is the heart that he puts into exploring all the human and social complications of the worlds that he creates. This is how he reminds me of PKD the most, as he does have parts where technology is written about in loving detail, he also explores how that technology affects human beings.
Some people write about teleportation and pod babies. Others write about how the pod babies touch the glass to form a heart with their hands. Alex Beyman is such a writer, and that's what makes him stand out from the rest.
Little Robot is a story about a man who relates more to machines than other people. He keeps a house full of old robots on legacy software, and empathizes with them more than the people he must work with daily. He sees robots as a species that cannot yet take care of themselves. When a virus turns all the robots into killers, triggering the near-apocalypse, the protagonist and his favorite robot, Helper, must figure out how to survive in the new world. A romance develops between the human protagonist and Helper and of course, that comes with complications.
There are some issues with the story. It's rough in some parts. It can drag on in other parts. There are a few monologues that strike me as very much of a self-insert. But overall I enjoyed reading the story, and the ending really blew me away. For a while I wasn't sure if Little Robot was going to really convey the complexity of the human-robot relationship it created, but then it went several steps beyond what I anticipated. I won't say what happened, for fear of spoilers.
I gave him 4 out of 5 stars because like my old boss said, I want to give him something to strive far. As impressive as this book is for someone relatively unknown, I think he has the potential to do even better.
Alex Beyman writes in a sparse, straight-forward style that reminds me a little bit of Philip K. Dick mixed with some of the Golden Era sci-fi writers like Asimov. What separates him from the thousands of other people trying to write Golden Era sci-fi is the heart that he puts into exploring all the human and social complications of the worlds that he creates. This is how he reminds me of PKD the most, as he does have parts where technology is written about in loving detail, he also explores how that technology affects human beings.
Some people write about teleportation and pod babies. Others write about how the pod babies touch the glass to form a heart with their hands. Alex Beyman is such a writer, and that's what makes him stand out from the rest.
Little Robot is a story about a man who relates more to machines than other people. He keeps a house full of old robots on legacy software, and empathizes with them more than the people he must work with daily. He sees robots as a species that cannot yet take care of themselves. When a virus turns all the robots into killers, triggering the near-apocalypse, the protagonist and his favorite robot, Helper, must figure out how to survive in the new world. A romance develops between the human protagonist and Helper and of course, that comes with complications.
There are some issues with the story. It's rough in some parts. It can drag on in other parts. There are a few monologues that strike me as very much of a self-insert. But overall I enjoyed reading the story, and the ending really blew me away. For a while I wasn't sure if Little Robot was going to really convey the complexity of the human-robot relationship it created, but then it went several steps beyond what I anticipated. I won't say what happened, for fear of spoilers.
I gave him 4 out of 5 stars because like my old boss said, I want to give him something to strive far. As impressive as this book is for someone relatively unknown, I think he has the potential to do even better.
July 24, 2017
This week I was on my coffee session with more or less the regular setting. Movies came up and we got stuck debating Passengers (2016).
T: Oh did you watch that sci-fi movie where two people are stuck in a spaceship? What was it called again … ah yes, the Passengers.
M: Is that the one with Jennifer Lawrence?
T: Yes!
A: But that’s not sci-fi tho.
T: What do you mean? It goes on in space does it not?
A: It might be so, but mainly that movie is a romance.
T: You’re nitpicking again.
Yes I might be … so here we are. To me, Little Robot is not technically a romance or sci-fi but more or less captures the political and social system we currently reside in. Basically what it portrays and focuses on is humanity and human nature.
The buildup takes approx. 30% of the book. What follows is about 20% of gripping action and development. I was engrossed. Then we came on the 50% mark and well … The invisible grip let go.
I felt like there should be more concrete foundations in the romance departement or even better for the romance to progress through the whole book and boom at the very end. But as it was I found it like a cog in the wheels. Something that had to happen for the progress of the book. I was not emotionally invested.
The final 50% of the book more or less raised questions and views of human nature. Views of political, human/moral and religion features, racial inclusion, gender politics, etc. So to say … the book had me till 50% and lost me after. It felt a bit forced. Things to happen for the sake of getting the point across the room. Of course there are still scenes and situations where I was moved. I actually had teary eyes on an occasion or two (fine it was three).
All-round rating: 4 stars. Not the books fault if it isn’t a simple smut or sci-fi I want it to be.
T: Oh did you watch that sci-fi movie where two people are stuck in a spaceship? What was it called again … ah yes, the Passengers.
M: Is that the one with Jennifer Lawrence?
T: Yes!
A: But that’s not sci-fi tho.
T: What do you mean? It goes on in space does it not?
A: It might be so, but mainly that movie is a romance.
T: You’re nitpicking again.
Yes I might be … so here we are. To me, Little Robot is not technically a romance or sci-fi but more or less captures the political and social system we currently reside in. Basically what it portrays and focuses on is humanity and human nature.
The buildup takes approx. 30% of the book. What follows is about 20% of gripping action and development. I was engrossed. Then we came on the 50% mark and well … The invisible grip let go.
I felt like there should be more concrete foundations in the romance departement or even better for the romance to progress through the whole book and boom at the very end. But as it was I found it like a cog in the wheels. Something that had to happen for the progress of the book. I was not emotionally invested.
The final 50% of the book more or less raised questions and views of human nature. Views of political, human/moral and religion features, racial inclusion, gender politics, etc. So to say … the book had me till 50% and lost me after. It felt a bit forced. Things to happen for the sake of getting the point across the room. Of course there are still scenes and situations where I was moved. I actually had teary eyes on an occasion or two (fine it was three).
All-round rating: 4 stars. Not the books fault if it isn’t a simple smut or sci-fi I want it to be.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews