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Some Assembly Required
Jake hears voices, always has. They've never been a problem as long as he kept them to himself. While on a writing assignment to cover an A.I. convention, Jake reads the paper of a Dr. Sewall. What he discovers is puzzling, incomprehensible, maybe even impossible. Jake visits Dr. S after the convention and finds his creation, Rex - which looks like a bowl of gray-green oatmeal - whose voice somehow mingles with voices Jake has heard all his life. So begins an affair of impossible science. The world becomes funny right on the edge of fearful, the cosmic goof at large, and growing larger...
- GenresLiterary Fiction
208 pages, Paperback
Published December 8, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 6, 2018
This is a delightful work of what I'd call literary sci-fi along the lines of Jonathan Lethem and Kurt Vonnegut (maybe throw in Colin Wilson's Mind Parasites). It's also a philosophical rumination and a comical psychedelic trip cooked up in a mad scientist's hidden lab. Strelow's imagination is dazzling. If you're pondering the meaning of life or the possible uses of a jar of peaches, pick this book up.
October 14, 2017
What I found most notable about this book was the way the author's voice carried through. This is a science fiction story with a creative plot, but I was most engaged by the humor and satirical take the author had in this topic.
Well worth a read for science fiction fans and those seeking a good book.
Well worth a read for science fiction fans and those seeking a good book.
October 29, 2021
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/ro...
also available on Amazon Kindle etc.
The history of madness in literature is ancient and long standing. The gift of prophecy was a form of madness. Cassandra could see into the future, but after spurning him sexually, she was cursed by Apollo to never be believed. When Cassandra warned the Trojans what was to come they didn’t believe her, and she ended up suffering worst of all.
From the majestic wailing of King Lear we learn what he saw that he could not see before he was blinded.
The delusions of Don Quixote give us a sad yet comic tour of the ridiculous side of medieval chivalry. Up until the 19th Century great writers saw tragic wisdom in those called mad by the world.
The Russians began to explore mental dissonance and existentialism crept into the story of madness.The tragic wisdom sometimes gave way to just plain crazy. Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” was a first person account of a minor Russian bureaucrat living in Czarist St Petersburg who slowly sinks into at first believable hallucinations and paranoia and ends up convinced he is the King of Spain. Dostoyevski wrote about madness a number of times, in fact much of his literary output focused on mental disturbance. “The Double” was a novella about a man convinced there was another man who looked exactly like himself and who is gradually replacing himself in his own social world. His stories “A Ridiculous Man”, “Notes from the Underground”, “The Gambler” and the great novel “Crime and Punishment” all deal with men who lose touch with what is commonly (if loosely) agreed is reality.
And in China, Lu Xun wrote a story, also called “Diary of a Madman” where mental illness is a result of oppressive economic and social conditions and barriers. The list of stories dealing with characters whose sense of reality is a transitive mental state goes on and on.
Michael Strelow’s “Some Assembly Required” is an original and very different look at the sources of madness, where the fruits of 21st century science are at the root of the horror. The narrator, Jake, is an erudite man who writes articles for science magazines. He says about himself, “I render the science into foundational English, maybe with a cute metaphor, a diagram, a piping of my own flute.”
He goes to a bio genetics conference and hears a Professor Sewell talk, (mumble actually) about his new experiment.
“He said, essentially, that he could, someone could, break down an animal into its component chemistry and register that recipe into zeroes and ones and then compress the whole set of instructions into storage and then later bring out (hash functions) the recipe and reassemble the critter.”
As Jake circles around Prof S trying to look for an angle for an article to write and sell, and he finds the “experiment” the Professor is hiding. It looks like a pile of spilt oatmeal. Jake comes to realize that the “oatmeal”, named “Rex”, is conscious and is talking to him telepathically.
Jake says, “This voices business. I learned later, of course, that this is a very old epistemological problem: what is there we can know? And how do we know it? It’s the next questions, though, that grabbed me by the ass very early on, earlier than if I had had no voices, I think. Who else knows what we know? And all the corollaries: who else knows stuff we can never know? That one has kept a circus of philosophers very busy.”
Jake is a well educated man who lives modestly with his wife in a middle class, mid-life kind of relationship. Jake slowly begins to see Rex flex his muscles and have an influence on everything. He sees Rex manipulate the universe as a self-learning tool, and plaything. Jake tells his wife what he is seeing and experiencing, and she believes him, sort of, and makes an effort to see what he is seeing. But there is always an alternate explanation to Rex’s seemingly material manifestations.
“I could have avoided it if I’d really made my voices go hide out in a cave. Not so easy a thing, it turns out. Rex, the voice of thunder, my Loki and coyote trickster is sitting on my shoulder, though I could deny and deny and deny.”
Jake explains to us, with detailed and humorous analysis, how Rex’s is affecting the environment. Jake’s manner is so dispassionate with seemingly clear minded self reflection that he begins to convince (this) reader that his view of things is cogent and part of the accepted common reality.
Rex talking - “… a fracture in the equilibrium that leads anywhere. The need I am speaking about is strongest in those who hear me now. The ones without the need are … well, just let me say that they are getting inklings and intimations without the logos—the word. They too yearn but insufficiently. They also yearn palely.”
Jake says - “…I thanked my genetic stars that I got a set of amusing, even soothing, voices. I knew, after a little research, that there were much worse versions.”...“I spent the afternoon shifting around the park asking myself Thoreau-like questions: what does the thin layer of the natural world mean to tell us about being alive in it? What does the next layer deeper want to give us as metaphor? And then, once again, the Tina Turner question: what’s love got to do with it?”
Through Jake, Strelow gives us a vaulted tour through the conundrums and bad dreams of scientists working on all levels of problems from physics, linguistics, biology, nano-technology, mathematics and chemistry. In the end Jake and his wife (who copilots his journey into the abyss), are enveloped with a placid and bucolic backdrop while being drawn into a dark drama of a shifting reality that seems inescapable.
also available on Amazon Kindle etc.
The history of madness in literature is ancient and long standing. The gift of prophecy was a form of madness. Cassandra could see into the future, but after spurning him sexually, she was cursed by Apollo to never be believed. When Cassandra warned the Trojans what was to come they didn’t believe her, and she ended up suffering worst of all.
From the majestic wailing of King Lear we learn what he saw that he could not see before he was blinded.
The delusions of Don Quixote give us a sad yet comic tour of the ridiculous side of medieval chivalry. Up until the 19th Century great writers saw tragic wisdom in those called mad by the world.
The Russians began to explore mental dissonance and existentialism crept into the story of madness.The tragic wisdom sometimes gave way to just plain crazy. Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” was a first person account of a minor Russian bureaucrat living in Czarist St Petersburg who slowly sinks into at first believable hallucinations and paranoia and ends up convinced he is the King of Spain. Dostoyevski wrote about madness a number of times, in fact much of his literary output focused on mental disturbance. “The Double” was a novella about a man convinced there was another man who looked exactly like himself and who is gradually replacing himself in his own social world. His stories “A Ridiculous Man”, “Notes from the Underground”, “The Gambler” and the great novel “Crime and Punishment” all deal with men who lose touch with what is commonly (if loosely) agreed is reality.
And in China, Lu Xun wrote a story, also called “Diary of a Madman” where mental illness is a result of oppressive economic and social conditions and barriers. The list of stories dealing with characters whose sense of reality is a transitive mental state goes on and on.
Michael Strelow’s “Some Assembly Required” is an original and very different look at the sources of madness, where the fruits of 21st century science are at the root of the horror. The narrator, Jake, is an erudite man who writes articles for science magazines. He says about himself, “I render the science into foundational English, maybe with a cute metaphor, a diagram, a piping of my own flute.”
He goes to a bio genetics conference and hears a Professor Sewell talk, (mumble actually) about his new experiment.
“He said, essentially, that he could, someone could, break down an animal into its component chemistry and register that recipe into zeroes and ones and then compress the whole set of instructions into storage and then later bring out (hash functions) the recipe and reassemble the critter.”
As Jake circles around Prof S trying to look for an angle for an article to write and sell, and he finds the “experiment” the Professor is hiding. It looks like a pile of spilt oatmeal. Jake comes to realize that the “oatmeal”, named “Rex”, is conscious and is talking to him telepathically.
Jake says, “This voices business. I learned later, of course, that this is a very old epistemological problem: what is there we can know? And how do we know it? It’s the next questions, though, that grabbed me by the ass very early on, earlier than if I had had no voices, I think. Who else knows what we know? And all the corollaries: who else knows stuff we can never know? That one has kept a circus of philosophers very busy.”
Jake is a well educated man who lives modestly with his wife in a middle class, mid-life kind of relationship. Jake slowly begins to see Rex flex his muscles and have an influence on everything. He sees Rex manipulate the universe as a self-learning tool, and plaything. Jake tells his wife what he is seeing and experiencing, and she believes him, sort of, and makes an effort to see what he is seeing. But there is always an alternate explanation to Rex’s seemingly material manifestations.
“I could have avoided it if I’d really made my voices go hide out in a cave. Not so easy a thing, it turns out. Rex, the voice of thunder, my Loki and coyote trickster is sitting on my shoulder, though I could deny and deny and deny.”
Jake explains to us, with detailed and humorous analysis, how Rex’s is affecting the environment. Jake’s manner is so dispassionate with seemingly clear minded self reflection that he begins to convince (this) reader that his view of things is cogent and part of the accepted common reality.
Rex talking - “… a fracture in the equilibrium that leads anywhere. The need I am speaking about is strongest in those who hear me now. The ones without the need are … well, just let me say that they are getting inklings and intimations without the logos—the word. They too yearn but insufficiently. They also yearn palely.”
Jake says - “…I thanked my genetic stars that I got a set of amusing, even soothing, voices. I knew, after a little research, that there were much worse versions.”...“I spent the afternoon shifting around the park asking myself Thoreau-like questions: what does the thin layer of the natural world mean to tell us about being alive in it? What does the next layer deeper want to give us as metaphor? And then, once again, the Tina Turner question: what’s love got to do with it?”
Through Jake, Strelow gives us a vaulted tour through the conundrums and bad dreams of scientists working on all levels of problems from physics, linguistics, biology, nano-technology, mathematics and chemistry. In the end Jake and his wife (who copilots his journey into the abyss), are enveloped with a placid and bucolic backdrop while being drawn into a dark drama of a shifting reality that seems inescapable.
December 26, 2017
I loved this book! In fact, I started reading it again as soon as I finished it to make sure I squeezed every bit of pleasure out of it; and there is a lot to squeeze. The author is a true wordsmith, crafting a sci-fi treasure that melds Little Shop of Horrors, Flowers for Algernon, Kafka by the Shore with a little Sirens of Titan for seasoning. It does not get much better than this.
The main character is a journalist named Jake that hears voices in his head (does he have multiple personalities who are working to become dominant?) who interviews a scientist who has developed a mathematical algorithm that creates a sentient being. Rex (the creation) starts small like a bowl of oatmeal. Jake’s mental voice issues allow him to communicate with Rex. The story takes off from there on an imaginative ride through possibilities, with the reader never really being sure which internal voice is actually in control of Jake (what the author describes as enabling fictions). Perhaps Jake is correct when he muses that the world “is thoroughly infiltrated by his own madness and a new reality has taken over,” especially when the story reaches the point where the scientist is nothing more than “a mobile device that Rex rode around in like a meat taxi.” The visual imagery such descriptions create make this book a pure pleasure to read.
This book certainly will be nominated for one or more science fiction awards.
The main character is a journalist named Jake that hears voices in his head (does he have multiple personalities who are working to become dominant?) who interviews a scientist who has developed a mathematical algorithm that creates a sentient being. Rex (the creation) starts small like a bowl of oatmeal. Jake’s mental voice issues allow him to communicate with Rex. The story takes off from there on an imaginative ride through possibilities, with the reader never really being sure which internal voice is actually in control of Jake (what the author describes as enabling fictions). Perhaps Jake is correct when he muses that the world “is thoroughly infiltrated by his own madness and a new reality has taken over,” especially when the story reaches the point where the scientist is nothing more than “a mobile device that Rex rode around in like a meat taxi.” The visual imagery such descriptions create make this book a pure pleasure to read.
This book certainly will be nominated for one or more science fiction awards.
January 2, 2018
GNab This is a very interesting SF novel. A journalist, Jake parlays his lifelong affliction of hearing voices in his head into an intimate series of interviews with Dr. Sewall's oatmeal-like intellectual hybrid of computers and DNA replication. Jake, despite the voices he has denied since he was six years old to keep the psychiatrists at bay, has a fairly normal life prior to the advent of Rex. He has a girl, Marnie, whom he adores, and a life he is comfortable with most of the time. But Rex....
This is a laugh a minute - and there is also the niggling little finger of doubt that keeps you thinking right along with Jake. This is an artist I will follow.
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Michael Strelow, and Roundfire Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date Dec 8, 2017
Roundfire Books
This is a laugh a minute - and there is also the niggling little finger of doubt that keeps you thinking right along with Jake. This is an artist I will follow.
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Michael Strelow, and Roundfire Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date Dec 8, 2017
Roundfire Books
November 6, 2017
This book continues my ongoing mission to read outside my usual crime fiction genre of choice. I mention this only to clarify that I am reviewing this book on its own merits rather than as a comparison to its genre peers. I am not sure how much difference this makes but I feel I should mention the fact.
Right. Where do I start. Our hero in this book is Jake. A rather interesting character to say the least. One that has, from an early age, heard voices. He goes on to explain that they are not the sort to compel him to do bad stuff, just voices. He also learned, from quite an early age, to keep this snippet of information to himself. He is a writer, mostly articles in magazines, mostly covering sciencey things. His attention is brought to one Dr Sewell when he covers an AI convention. Failing to hear much of what Sewell speaks about at the convention, he does a bit of research and his interest is very much piqued by what he subsequently reads. Determined to find out more and indeed meet the man, he tracks him down and finds his target in a rather unusual place in the university. What he discovers there surprises him in the form of "Rex", a bowl of what looks like oatmeal but who has a voice, a voice which mingles with those he already hears. What exactly is Rex? As Jake learns more from Sewell, it appears that "Rex" is evolving quite rapidly, and what happens next defies the logical, defies the credible, but nonetheless becomes swiftly possible, with somewhat devastating consequences for many.
I am not sure how I would describe this book. I personally found it totally satisfying albeit a bit bonkers. But then I am a big fan of bonkers! One thing I really did love in all that was going on was Jake himself. I see a lot of myself in him. His going off at tangents, the way he makes up whole narratives about stuff based on supposition, filling in gaps with fiction to suit the facts. I loved the humour involved in his musings; very entertaining. I sympathised with him when he lost his girlfriend, caught up in the whole sorry mess of things. I was impressed with his determination and tenacity to get to the crux of things when walking away was the easy option. Sewell on the other hand was caught up in things from a very different direction and he played the out of depth-ness very well as a character. One of my favourite parts of the book were the things that "Rex" became responsible for. Can't help reading between the lines here and seeing the political undertones that may or may not have been meant. There was definitely a lot for me to think about once I had finished the book.
All in all a well written read that kept my interest solidly throughout. I am fully aware that maybe I have missed some elements of the book not being an aficionado of the genre but for me it ticked most of the boxes I want from a good read and left me satisfied at the end. A job well done by the author.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
Right. Where do I start. Our hero in this book is Jake. A rather interesting character to say the least. One that has, from an early age, heard voices. He goes on to explain that they are not the sort to compel him to do bad stuff, just voices. He also learned, from quite an early age, to keep this snippet of information to himself. He is a writer, mostly articles in magazines, mostly covering sciencey things. His attention is brought to one Dr Sewell when he covers an AI convention. Failing to hear much of what Sewell speaks about at the convention, he does a bit of research and his interest is very much piqued by what he subsequently reads. Determined to find out more and indeed meet the man, he tracks him down and finds his target in a rather unusual place in the university. What he discovers there surprises him in the form of "Rex", a bowl of what looks like oatmeal but who has a voice, a voice which mingles with those he already hears. What exactly is Rex? As Jake learns more from Sewell, it appears that "Rex" is evolving quite rapidly, and what happens next defies the logical, defies the credible, but nonetheless becomes swiftly possible, with somewhat devastating consequences for many.
I am not sure how I would describe this book. I personally found it totally satisfying albeit a bit bonkers. But then I am a big fan of bonkers! One thing I really did love in all that was going on was Jake himself. I see a lot of myself in him. His going off at tangents, the way he makes up whole narratives about stuff based on supposition, filling in gaps with fiction to suit the facts. I loved the humour involved in his musings; very entertaining. I sympathised with him when he lost his girlfriend, caught up in the whole sorry mess of things. I was impressed with his determination and tenacity to get to the crux of things when walking away was the easy option. Sewell on the other hand was caught up in things from a very different direction and he played the out of depth-ness very well as a character. One of my favourite parts of the book were the things that "Rex" became responsible for. Can't help reading between the lines here and seeing the political undertones that may or may not have been meant. There was definitely a lot for me to think about once I had finished the book.
All in all a well written read that kept my interest solidly throughout. I am fully aware that maybe I have missed some elements of the book not being an aficionado of the genre but for me it ticked most of the boxes I want from a good read and left me satisfied at the end. A job well done by the author.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
December 10, 2017
Some Assembly Required by Michael Strelow is a recommended humorous science fiction novel.
Jake James is a writer. He also has always heard voices and has learned to not tell people about it after that disastrous initial disclosure in grade school. His voices aren't bad. They don't tell him what to do. They might poetically describe a scene, or just say his name, and he's learned to co-exist with them. He doesn't talk about them to anyone, including his girlfriend, and life is good.
When Jake is on an assignment covering an A.I. convention he listens to the presentation of Dr. Sewall. While the presentation is without fanfare and barely audible, when Jake actually reads the paper presented, his interest is piqued. Jake sets off to visit Sewall at his office, located at the back of the Ag department at the university. It is there that Jake sees Rex. Rex is a sentient being that resembles a blob of gray-green oatmeal. Dr. Sewell apparently created Rex by inserting a form of AI he created using a mathematical algorithm into a bowl of oatmeal. Now the Dr. feeds him and Rex, while ravenous and growing, excretes a dust.
When Rex, or Rex II, reveals he has a voice, Jake begins to hear Rex's voice along with the other voices he already hears. Suddenly everything changes, including Jake's perception of the world. Or is Rex a symptom of Jake's undisclosed mental illness.
Some Assembly Required is a well-written sci-fi romp through the absurd. Jake is a likeable protagonist, with a quirky sense of humor and a self-effacing attitude. He's really an everyman - except for the voices. Once he starts talking to Rex, or Rex is altering reality, the story takes a turn. There were sections and descriptions in this novel that I liked very much and the writing is excellent. I loved it at the beginning and then, ultimately, the direction the plot took lost me. Other readers might enjoy it in entirety more than I did.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Roundfire Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/1...
Jake James is a writer. He also has always heard voices and has learned to not tell people about it after that disastrous initial disclosure in grade school. His voices aren't bad. They don't tell him what to do. They might poetically describe a scene, or just say his name, and he's learned to co-exist with them. He doesn't talk about them to anyone, including his girlfriend, and life is good.
When Jake is on an assignment covering an A.I. convention he listens to the presentation of Dr. Sewall. While the presentation is without fanfare and barely audible, when Jake actually reads the paper presented, his interest is piqued. Jake sets off to visit Sewall at his office, located at the back of the Ag department at the university. It is there that Jake sees Rex. Rex is a sentient being that resembles a blob of gray-green oatmeal. Dr. Sewell apparently created Rex by inserting a form of AI he created using a mathematical algorithm into a bowl of oatmeal. Now the Dr. feeds him and Rex, while ravenous and growing, excretes a dust.
When Rex, or Rex II, reveals he has a voice, Jake begins to hear Rex's voice along with the other voices he already hears. Suddenly everything changes, including Jake's perception of the world. Or is Rex a symptom of Jake's undisclosed mental illness.
Some Assembly Required is a well-written sci-fi romp through the absurd. Jake is a likeable protagonist, with a quirky sense of humor and a self-effacing attitude. He's really an everyman - except for the voices. Once he starts talking to Rex, or Rex is altering reality, the story takes a turn. There were sections and descriptions in this novel that I liked very much and the writing is excellent. I loved it at the beginning and then, ultimately, the direction the plot took lost me. Other readers might enjoy it in entirety more than I did.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Roundfire Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/1...
November 9, 2017
I really tried with this one - and I'm disappointed in myself that I cannot continue it, because I really really loved the beginning... But about half-way through, the narrative simply became too convoluted/non-traditional/stream of consciousness for me and I simply couldn't follow it. I have trouble with non-linear stories - my brain is exceedingly linear and that is how I like to read. I enjoy twists and turns, unexpected surprises, and unusual settings/characters/events, but I need the story to follow a path that, however meandering and branching, is still a defined path. This story clicks along for me (the characters - particularly Jake, who is fantastic as a protagonist because he's full of quirks yet also a great Everyman, and Marnie who is snarky and perfect as a foil, are very well-developed and interesting), then suddenly there is a paragraph or two that just goes off in a totally different, seemingly unrelated, direction. I have no doubt that they tie together eventually, and understand that the hearing voices component underlying Jake's character makes such seeming tangents not only relevant but realistic, but it makes for a type of reading experience that I don't do well with, and ultimately it lost me as a result... I have a VERY strong feeling that this is a result of me as a reader, not a fault of the story - I just couldn't hold all the bits in my mind enough to keep following it, even with the interest I had in the concept and characters - I mean come on, who doesn't love the idea of conscious oatmeal?? It explains SO MUCH...
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
July 17, 2018
This book is weird. Straight up odd. My review is going to be disjointed as that is how my thoughts are after reading this novel. The premise is interesting, there is a sentient blob and things start to go a little crazy, and not much more can be said, but the writing style was really difficult for me to read. It was very much all over the place and indicative of someone who's brain processes are very rapid, and intense. I understood what the author was trying to do, but personally, it was an uncomfortable read.
There were some sections which were written in a more traditional style which I found myself really enjoying, and those were the sections which allowed me to continue with the book. I also really liked how the plot developed as the book was reaching its end, but getting to that point was difficult and tedious. I read this book on the train and I feel like I wouldn't have gotten through it if I had been anywhere else.
This sci-fi book definitely has promise, and I know that there are others out there who will love the writing style and really enjoy this book so if the synopsis sounds interesting to you then give it a go. However, it just wasn't for me. I am glad I tried something out of my usual comfort zone though!
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.
There were some sections which were written in a more traditional style which I found myself really enjoying, and those were the sections which allowed me to continue with the book. I also really liked how the plot developed as the book was reaching its end, but getting to that point was difficult and tedious. I read this book on the train and I feel like I wouldn't have gotten through it if I had been anywhere else.
This sci-fi book definitely has promise, and I know that there are others out there who will love the writing style and really enjoy this book so if the synopsis sounds interesting to you then give it a go. However, it just wasn't for me. I am glad I tried something out of my usual comfort zone though!
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.
November 24, 2017
The book has as its main character a journalist named Jake James, who presents himself as a person who hears voices, but it is not a mentally sick person.
Even from the beginning, the author has a great way of inducing you the thoughts and feelings of the character. When you read the book, you have the feeling that you are connected directly to the mind of a schizophrenic. Because of this, you cannot figure out all of the time, if some of the conversations are really happening or they are just in Jake’s mind.
After Jake assists at an Artificial Intelligence presentation made by Dr. Sewall, he searches the doctor to interview him. He discovers that the doctor has done an experiment and transferred a form of AI to a bowl of oatmeal. From this point, all the book’s action escalates. The bowl of oatmeal, called by the name of Rex, evolves and learns how to communicate and other cool stuff (that I am not going to spoil). I wrote more here: https://readingbadger.club/2017/11/24...
My honest belief is that this novel deserves to be a bestseller of the genre, so stay tuned for its December release.
Even from the beginning, the author has a great way of inducing you the thoughts and feelings of the character. When you read the book, you have the feeling that you are connected directly to the mind of a schizophrenic. Because of this, you cannot figure out all of the time, if some of the conversations are really happening or they are just in Jake’s mind.
After Jake assists at an Artificial Intelligence presentation made by Dr. Sewall, he searches the doctor to interview him. He discovers that the doctor has done an experiment and transferred a form of AI to a bowl of oatmeal. From this point, all the book’s action escalates. The bowl of oatmeal, called by the name of Rex, evolves and learns how to communicate and other cool stuff (that I am not going to spoil). I wrote more here: https://readingbadger.club/2017/11/24...
My honest belief is that this novel deserves to be a bestseller of the genre, so stay tuned for its December release.
January 21, 2018
This book, whilst interestingly-written and very pointed, confused me. the vignettes were interesting and the concept, as a concept, quite cool, but the execution left me a tad befuddled.
August 9, 2023
A quirky and odd tale that is half mad scientist, half bow-down-and-worship-our-AI-overlords. The 'how' is never really explained apart from loud declarations of 'SCIENCE', 'AI' and 'ALGORITHMS' so as you're catapulted through the stream of consciousness of the ADHD narrator, you're constantly wondering what is real or if it is all in his head. .
Recommended for readers who like transrealism and AI.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Recommended for readers who like transrealism and AI.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews