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Machina
With Earth becoming increasingly uninhabitable, some look to space for humanity’s salvation. In the arid California desert, two companies face off for the opportunity to develop the autonomous robots that will precede settlers to Mars. Scientists and staff alike mingle at Moonshot Bar, and they all begin to realize that there’s more than scientific discovery at stake.
285 pages, Audiobook
First published January 1, 2020
8 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Fran Wilde
114 books525 followersTwo-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published nine novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years' best anthologies.
The Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.
The Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.
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December 30, 2019Overall, I really enjoyed this book, which will be an audiobook release from Serial Box. (And I assume it will get a text release as well.)
What we have is a near future dystopic setting, but there is implied hope in a race for Mars to save humanity. This race is open to any company who can win certain tests set up by a government agency, using AI-driven robots.
The main focus is between the leaders and top coders of two companies (who used to be one), offset by the entries of a journalist who manages to get in on a lot of the action and record it as it happens.
I really enjoyed this story. It's fast paced, with plenty of character interaction as well as skiffy. It's a testament to the writers' skill how well I could follow the tech talk, though I am about as ignorant and hapless a tech idiot as can be found on the planet. But the excitement of coding, the elegance of the math behind it, was sketched in beautifully, and what the robots did was also quite intriguing, setting up all kinds of interesting questions.
I found the two CEOs of the rival companies complex and interesting, but I think my favorite was the bar keeper Smits, and his robot dog.
For a multi-author project, the voices stayed reasonably complementary, though those penned by Fran Wilde seemed to come to life more strongly, making me wonder if the kernel of the idea was hers.
About my only complaint was that the writers, in choosing to use plurals for a non-binary character, kept forgetting to untangle the plurals when more than one person was in the scene--a problem writers sometimes have when two or more of a single gender are in a scene, leaving the reader wondering "which 'she' is speaking now" or "which 'he' just picked up the poison?"
More than half the time I saw "them" and "they" in scenes with that character, it was in scenes containing at least one other character, forcing me to backtrack and disentangle the visuals. This might only be an issue for visual readers like me--and it likewise could be that the voice actors doing the serial will be able to indicate by tone whether 'they' is singular or plural. (I know English is evolving--for decades I've watched writers experiment with various methods for avoiding gendered plurals, but I wish we'd just outright adopt the Chinese "tā"--which, spoken, doesn't differentiate between the singular he, she, or it.)
That nitpickery aside, I got super engrossed in this story, and while the ending gave me resolution, it also left some very intriguing questions open, leaving me hoping very much for a continuation to this story.
Copy provided by Serial Box
What we have is a near future dystopic setting, but there is implied hope in a race for Mars to save humanity. This race is open to any company who can win certain tests set up by a government agency, using AI-driven robots.
The main focus is between the leaders and top coders of two companies (who used to be one), offset by the entries of a journalist who manages to get in on a lot of the action and record it as it happens.
I really enjoyed this story. It's fast paced, with plenty of character interaction as well as skiffy. It's a testament to the writers' skill how well I could follow the tech talk, though I am about as ignorant and hapless a tech idiot as can be found on the planet. But the excitement of coding, the elegance of the math behind it, was sketched in beautifully, and what the robots did was also quite intriguing, setting up all kinds of interesting questions.
I found the two CEOs of the rival companies complex and interesting, but I think my favorite was the bar keeper Smits, and his robot dog.
For a multi-author project, the voices stayed reasonably complementary, though those penned by Fran Wilde seemed to come to life more strongly, making me wonder if the kernel of the idea was hers.
About my only complaint was that the writers, in choosing to use plurals for a non-binary character, kept forgetting to untangle the plurals when more than one person was in the scene--a problem writers sometimes have when two or more of a single gender are in a scene, leaving the reader wondering "which 'she' is speaking now" or "which 'he' just picked up the poison?"
More than half the time I saw "them" and "they" in scenes with that character, it was in scenes containing at least one other character, forcing me to backtrack and disentangle the visuals. This might only be an issue for visual readers like me--and it likewise could be that the voice actors doing the serial will be able to indicate by tone whether 'they' is singular or plural. (I know English is evolving--for decades I've watched writers experiment with various methods for avoiding gendered plurals, but I wish we'd just outright adopt the Chinese "tā"--which, spoken, doesn't differentiate between the singular he, she, or it.)
That nitpickery aside, I got super engrossed in this story, and while the ending gave me resolution, it also left some very intriguing questions open, leaving me hoping very much for a continuation to this story.
Copy provided by Serial Box
January 30, 2020
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review. Here be me honest musings. . .
Well mateys, back in the day I was surprised when a company called Serial Box contacted me out of the blue offering an advanced copy of one of their sci-fi stories. That was the vela and was an absolute treasure. For those unfamiliar with the company:
So when Serial Box's recent communique nicely offered me a copy of machina of course I said "Aye!" The talented bunch o' scribblers in this batch have written excellent yarns including: updraft – book 1 (Fran Wilde), waypoint kangaroo – book 1 (Curtis C. Chen), and all systems red – book 1 (Martha Wells **I LOVE MURDERBOT!!**). Take these writers add an AI competition and ye get an excellent combo.
On this version of Earth, climate change has brought about the beginning of the end. Humanity is looking to Mars as its future home. To accomplish that goal, companies around the world are designing AI robots to terraform the red planet. So what better way to choose the final AI system then a competition?
The focus of the story involves two AI companies - DevLok and Watchover. The leaders of these companies have different approaches and a very bad history with each other. So while the competition heats up, old rivalries get out of hand. I absolutely loved seeing what their tech could do even though early on I certainly picked the team I was rooting for.
While the competition is the focus, the characters and their interpersonal relationships are the highlight. I absolutely loved the bartender Smits and his robot dog. The Moonshot bar is excellent neutral territory and I loved pretty much every scene that took place there. Other favourites include Cameron, a non-binary coder, and Hiro, the journalist who happens to be an actual tech geek. HR head Simplicity was a hoot. There is also a romance subplot between rival factions that I found sweet and loved. I was even entertained that the corporate suit, Nico, grew on me. Watching his reactions to all the volatile personalities was fun.
I wanted to wait and listen to the episodes as they came out but once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. No patience for me! I thought the writing blend was excellent and eventually gave up tracking which author wrote which section. I love when that happens. Out of the 10 episodes, I really loved the first 8. The final competition was a bit predictable but I still enjoyed it. I can totally see meself picking up the audiobook and revisiting the story that way. The first episode releases today - go and check it out!
So me hearties, I raise me grog in toast to Serial Box and this fantastic season. May we continue to savour this truly wonderful partnership. Arrrr!
So lastly . . .
Thank you Serial Box!
Well mateys, back in the day I was surprised when a company called Serial Box contacted me out of the blue offering an advanced copy of one of their sci-fi stories. That was the vela and was an absolute treasure. For those unfamiliar with the company:
Serial Box brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).
Like TV, we release a new episode of our serials every week and serials typically run for seasons of 10-16 weeks. Easy to pick up, episodes are enjoyable on their own but build over the course of the season to tell a bigger story. Each episode is available in ebook and audio and takes about 40 minutes to enjoy.
So when Serial Box's recent communique nicely offered me a copy of machina of course I said "Aye!" The talented bunch o' scribblers in this batch have written excellent yarns including: updraft – book 1 (Fran Wilde), waypoint kangaroo – book 1 (Curtis C. Chen), and all systems red – book 1 (Martha Wells **I LOVE MURDERBOT!!**). Take these writers add an AI competition and ye get an excellent combo.
On this version of Earth, climate change has brought about the beginning of the end. Humanity is looking to Mars as its future home. To accomplish that goal, companies around the world are designing AI robots to terraform the red planet. So what better way to choose the final AI system then a competition?
The focus of the story involves two AI companies - DevLok and Watchover. The leaders of these companies have different approaches and a very bad history with each other. So while the competition heats up, old rivalries get out of hand. I absolutely loved seeing what their tech could do even though early on I certainly picked the team I was rooting for.
While the competition is the focus, the characters and their interpersonal relationships are the highlight. I absolutely loved the bartender Smits and his robot dog. The Moonshot bar is excellent neutral territory and I loved pretty much every scene that took place there. Other favourites include Cameron, a non-binary coder, and Hiro, the journalist who happens to be an actual tech geek. HR head Simplicity was a hoot. There is also a romance subplot between rival factions that I found sweet and loved. I was even entertained that the corporate suit, Nico, grew on me. Watching his reactions to all the volatile personalities was fun.
I wanted to wait and listen to the episodes as they came out but once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. No patience for me! I thought the writing blend was excellent and eventually gave up tracking which author wrote which section. I love when that happens. Out of the 10 episodes, I really loved the first 8. The final competition was a bit predictable but I still enjoyed it. I can totally see meself picking up the audiobook and revisiting the story that way. The first episode releases today - go and check it out!
So me hearties, I raise me grog in toast to Serial Box and this fantastic season. May we continue to savour this truly wonderful partnership. Arrrr!
So lastly . . .
Thank you Serial Box!
February 6, 2020
3.5 stars. After a series of climate-related catastrophes, four university students (Trey, Stephanie, Lakshmi and Smits), recently escaped from one of these catastrophes, form a company with the idea of aiding with the colonizing of Mars.
Years later, we are told there are now two companies, DevLok with Trey as its head, and Watchover, with Stephanie and Lakshmi as the Chief Officers. Both companies are engaged in creating robots and the associated software for entries into a competition that will put the robots through their paces, in tasks and under conditions similar to those on Mars. The test conditions will include intermittent communication and adverse site conditions, so the robots must be autonomous, which means that the teams have also developed, in addition to a number of interesting hardware innovations, artificial intelligences for each of their robots.
The years have not been kind to Trey. His earlier hinted at self-centredness and paranoia and abusiveness are on full display, as he goads and exhorts his employees to get DevLok's robot ready so it can reflect him in the competition. Meanwhile, the Watchover team, headed by Tama Whakite, with lead developer Cameron Davidson, are working crazy hours to ensure their robot is ready to meet whatever challenges the test designers throw at them. Cameron is a genius developer, with bad memories of a particular incident during her time at DevLok. There's also a brash, eager reporter embedded with DevLok to ensure the public sees all the technical and other drama as it unfolds.
And there's lots of drama during the weeks this story takes place. There are personality conflicts, Trey's outbursts, issues amongst the developers, and a burgeoning relationship between two characters from opposing teams. Each story installment covers either a technical problem or achievement that's often overshadowed by the relationships swirling around the robots. The authors focus on multiple perspectives over the test runs and during the actual competition, and also give us a little background on what caused the split (his name rhymes with 'play'), and how personal the drama is between the former colleagues, and strongly influences the story action.
Though I occasionally found the melodrama overpowered everything, I could see how the super-stressful development and competition periods would accentuate already existing character traits and create problems for both teams. I really liked all the discussion around developing robots and the artificial intelligences, as well as the variety in development ideas for colonizing an environment inimical to humans.
I enjoyed this and though I found it hard at first to latch onto a particular character, I grew to care about the participants (except for one, but I think it's also really obvious we're not supposed to like him as he's not written with a lot of nuance). There are a few details left unanswered by the end of this season, and hey, it's all about going to space, so yeah, I want to know what happens next.
(I also particularly liked the robotic dog, Pseudo. I want one!!)
Thank you to Serial Box for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Years later, we are told there are now two companies, DevLok with Trey as its head, and Watchover, with Stephanie and Lakshmi as the Chief Officers. Both companies are engaged in creating robots and the associated software for entries into a competition that will put the robots through their paces, in tasks and under conditions similar to those on Mars. The test conditions will include intermittent communication and adverse site conditions, so the robots must be autonomous, which means that the teams have also developed, in addition to a number of interesting hardware innovations, artificial intelligences for each of their robots.
The years have not been kind to Trey. His earlier hinted at self-centredness and paranoia and abusiveness are on full display, as he goads and exhorts his employees to get DevLok's robot ready so it can reflect him in the competition. Meanwhile, the Watchover team, headed by Tama Whakite, with lead developer Cameron Davidson, are working crazy hours to ensure their robot is ready to meet whatever challenges the test designers throw at them. Cameron is a genius developer, with bad memories of a particular incident during her time at DevLok. There's also a brash, eager reporter embedded with DevLok to ensure the public sees all the technical and other drama as it unfolds.
And there's lots of drama during the weeks this story takes place. There are personality conflicts, Trey's outbursts, issues amongst the developers, and a burgeoning relationship between two characters from opposing teams. Each story installment covers either a technical problem or achievement that's often overshadowed by the relationships swirling around the robots. The authors focus on multiple perspectives over the test runs and during the actual competition, and also give us a little background on what caused the split (his name rhymes with 'play'), and how personal the drama is between the former colleagues, and strongly influences the story action.
Though I occasionally found the melodrama overpowered everything, I could see how the super-stressful development and competition periods would accentuate already existing character traits and create problems for both teams. I really liked all the discussion around developing robots and the artificial intelligences, as well as the variety in development ideas for colonizing an environment inimical to humans.
I enjoyed this and though I found it hard at first to latch onto a particular character, I grew to care about the participants (except for one, but I think it's also really obvious we're not supposed to like him as he's not written with a lot of nuance). There are a few details left unanswered by the end of this season, and hey, it's all about going to space, so yeah, I want to know what happens next.
(I also particularly liked the robotic dog, Pseudo. I want one!!)
Thank you to Serial Box for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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January 7, 2020Hi! I'm Fran -- the lead author for MACHINA. I can't wait to introduce you to this latest series from Serial Box. The team -- Malka Older, Curtis Chen, myself, and Martha Wells as our special guest -- worked all through last year to bring you this story about the race to create the robots who may (or may not) get us to Mars. I'll share some more soon. In the meantime, I hope you're getting ready to start listening to (or reading) MACHINA, coming January 29!
June 3, 2020
This review is long over due- thank you so much to the wonderful team at Serial Box who gave me the opportunity to read and listen to it early.
I love Serial Box for their audio episodes and fantastic teams of writers. I feel like the audio experience is one that should not be missed. It's very immersive and filled with sound effects (like little beeping robots, or the noise of keys being tapped as someone types) and just sort of whisks me away for an hour. And even better- it can be enjoyed in small doses for those like me with short attention spans. The hardest part is waiting for the new episode to come out every week!
Machina is a fun story about two companies competing to put their AI on Mars first. They are in an official competition and the goal of each round is one specific task, clear a camp site and build something there, mining in the earth without disturbing the surrounding environment too much, etc.
The characters are all complex and fully fleshed out. We are treated to little glimpses of their lives separate from the competition. A budding romance between two characters on opposing teams, some personal sabotage for the book's antagonist, a journalist who's just trying to get ahead in his career, etc. Each one had a story that was interesting and each episode seems to focus on one of the characters which makes the whole story much easier to follow.
There is lots of talk about coding and AI. I didn't follow the coding so much, because I'm not a coder, but it wasn't confusing in anyway. Very accessible for someone like myself, but someone who does understand it might enjoy it that much more.
Highly recommend Machina and I'll definitely check out season two, but I also recommend just giving Serial Box a try in general. It's a great product. Thanks again to the team who provided me with a free copy for review.
I love Serial Box for their audio episodes and fantastic teams of writers. I feel like the audio experience is one that should not be missed. It's very immersive and filled with sound effects (like little beeping robots, or the noise of keys being tapped as someone types) and just sort of whisks me away for an hour. And even better- it can be enjoyed in small doses for those like me with short attention spans. The hardest part is waiting for the new episode to come out every week!
Machina is a fun story about two companies competing to put their AI on Mars first. They are in an official competition and the goal of each round is one specific task, clear a camp site and build something there, mining in the earth without disturbing the surrounding environment too much, etc.
The characters are all complex and fully fleshed out. We are treated to little glimpses of their lives separate from the competition. A budding romance between two characters on opposing teams, some personal sabotage for the book's antagonist, a journalist who's just trying to get ahead in his career, etc. Each one had a story that was interesting and each episode seems to focus on one of the characters which makes the whole story much easier to follow.
There is lots of talk about coding and AI. I didn't follow the coding so much, because I'm not a coder, but it wasn't confusing in anyway. Very accessible for someone like myself, but someone who does understand it might enjoy it that much more.
Highly recommend Machina and I'll definitely check out season two, but I also recommend just giving Serial Box a try in general. It's a great product. Thanks again to the team who provided me with a free copy for review.
May 3, 2020
The Earth has become increasingly uninhabitable and instead dedicating resources to saving the planet they are fixated on an escape to Mars. To create a better society? I doubt it. There is no discussion of making anything better. Nor is there any exciting space action. All you are getting here is two groups of engineers sniping at each other, and devastating the environment, for the hopes of personal gain. It was a chore to read.
January 20, 2020
SO excited to have received an ARC of MACHINA! It wasn't just good; it was could-not-put-it-down good. Quick premise: The planet is dying because humans are jerks and we need to colonize Mars to survive. A contest pits rival tech companies against one another to build an AI capable of getting the job done (i.e., building shelter, creating a livable environment, etc.) and the roller coaster ride begins. The suspense builds and builds until WHOA. Your heart will be racing throughout those last chapters. And of course, there is some crazy cool tech happening throughout, and the terrifying prospect of sentient AI that doesn't do what it's programmed to do. The humans, as they do, keep their secrets and struggle with their own demons, which makes for an equally compelling story. There's even a love story or two (and some fabulous nonbinary representation), a robot dog who delivers cocktails, some pitch-perfect Star Wars and Hamilton references, and hey, if we're lucky, the coders may just save the day. Maybe.
June 8, 2020
Very enjoyable story about two teams competing to build the AI that will create a habitat for humanity on Mars. It was more about the personalities of the team members, though, and less about the mechanics of creating the AI. If you're expecting much information about the actual robots, or the tech advances (as shown in the teams' equipment), or the reason behind the need to colonize Mars in the first place, you won't see much of that. But as a character study, it's really enjoyable. And it starts to touch on some of the other issues that come up when you look into creating a fully independent AI, too. I'm looking forward to Season 2. (I'm assuming there will be one, since this was definitely billed as Season 1.)
January 29, 2020
4.5 Stars #SerialBox #Machina
I've talked about the Serial Box platform in the past. It's a hybrid platform that allows the reader to both read the text version and listen to the audio version of the story in a single app on a smartphone or tablet that allows you to switch seamlessly between reading and listening. The stories are released in weekly installments, i.e. this is a serial subscription for a story that typically is divided into ten to twelve episodes.
Machina, written by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, Curtis E. Chen, and Martha Wells, is set in the early days of the climate apocalypse on earth. California is pretty much gone, between fires and earthquakes. A group of robotic engineering friends who escaped Los Angeles as it was quite literally going down, have left just a month shy of their graduation from Occidental College. Trey already had a job lined up, while Stephanie, their friend Smits, and a TA they rescued, Lakshmi, are all facing uncertain futures. Trey has big plans, and basically all of them know that the people of Earth need to get off this planet ASAP. The overarching goal involves developing an AI system that will save humanity and allow it to shift to a human base on Mars. You would think these friends could work well together to reach these goals— they are after all, friends, right? But that's just because you haven't spent enough time with Trey yet. Trey appears to be cut from the Steve Jobs/Elon Musk "I am an asshole genius" mode and after the opening evacuation from LA, we fast forward to five years down the road to find that Stephanie and Lakshmi had had enough and left to form their own company and develop their own code for an AI system. Their company, Watchover, is in direct competition with Trey's company DevLok for a contract with IARPA, the space agency that is going to send the AI to Mars. Stephanie and Lakshmi's reasons for breaking away from Trey will become increasingly obvious from the first chapter on but are carefully enumerated in Episode 6, just in case you have any doubts by then. In some respects, Machina is a cautionary tale for the pitfalls of being an asshole genius, and/or working for one.
Overall, Machina is a tale of corporate espionage and "mysterious interference," that has some quirky characters (can't get enough of Smits and the cocktail-making robo-dog Pseudo), and is graced with a female collaborative relationship, a strong non-binary character, and a mystery that hovers at the end suggesting the possibility of a second season. At ten episodes and about 300 pages in text, it's a hearty story that releases today, January 29 and will run in weekly episodes through April 1. The chapters written by the four authors do have distinct styles but meld well into the overall story. Fran Wilde's episodes feel ever so slightly more descriptive and character-focused. Malka Older's chapters focus on that sharp eye she has for tech. Chen's chapters mesh well with these and Wells' sole chapter is the pivotal one in which Stephanie and Lakshmi have had enough and DevLok's Y3 goes rogue. (Martha Wells knows all about AIs going rogue. She's an expert!)
All in all, this is one of my favorite Serial Box productions I've read and listened to. The audiobook is narrated by the award-winning Natalie Naudus.
I received an Advance Review Copy of the series from SerialBox in exchange for an honest review.
I've talked about the Serial Box platform in the past. It's a hybrid platform that allows the reader to both read the text version and listen to the audio version of the story in a single app on a smartphone or tablet that allows you to switch seamlessly between reading and listening. The stories are released in weekly installments, i.e. this is a serial subscription for a story that typically is divided into ten to twelve episodes.
Machina, written by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, Curtis E. Chen, and Martha Wells, is set in the early days of the climate apocalypse on earth. California is pretty much gone, between fires and earthquakes. A group of robotic engineering friends who escaped Los Angeles as it was quite literally going down, have left just a month shy of their graduation from Occidental College. Trey already had a job lined up, while Stephanie, their friend Smits, and a TA they rescued, Lakshmi, are all facing uncertain futures. Trey has big plans, and basically all of them know that the people of Earth need to get off this planet ASAP. The overarching goal involves developing an AI system that will save humanity and allow it to shift to a human base on Mars. You would think these friends could work well together to reach these goals— they are after all, friends, right? But that's just because you haven't spent enough time with Trey yet. Trey appears to be cut from the Steve Jobs/Elon Musk "I am an asshole genius" mode and after the opening evacuation from LA, we fast forward to five years down the road to find that Stephanie and Lakshmi had had enough and left to form their own company and develop their own code for an AI system. Their company, Watchover, is in direct competition with Trey's company DevLok for a contract with IARPA, the space agency that is going to send the AI to Mars. Stephanie and Lakshmi's reasons for breaking away from Trey will become increasingly obvious from the first chapter on but are carefully enumerated in Episode 6, just in case you have any doubts by then. In some respects, Machina is a cautionary tale for the pitfalls of being an asshole genius, and/or working for one.
Overall, Machina is a tale of corporate espionage and "mysterious interference," that has some quirky characters (can't get enough of Smits and the cocktail-making robo-dog Pseudo), and is graced with a female collaborative relationship, a strong non-binary character, and a mystery that hovers at the end suggesting the possibility of a second season. At ten episodes and about 300 pages in text, it's a hearty story that releases today, January 29 and will run in weekly episodes through April 1. The chapters written by the four authors do have distinct styles but meld well into the overall story. Fran Wilde's episodes feel ever so slightly more descriptive and character-focused. Malka Older's chapters focus on that sharp eye she has for tech. Chen's chapters mesh well with these and Wells' sole chapter is the pivotal one in which Stephanie and Lakshmi have had enough and DevLok's Y3 goes rogue. (Martha Wells knows all about AIs going rogue. She's an expert!)
All in all, this is one of my favorite Serial Box productions I've read and listened to. The audiobook is narrated by the award-winning Natalie Naudus.
I received an Advance Review Copy of the series from SerialBox in exchange for an honest review.
April 6, 2020
This was a fun story of competition and hubris - not to mention AI robots - and a dash of romance and a whole lot of diversity. Lighthearted and totally binge-able in these trying times, MACHINA examines how far humanity is willing to go in order to save itself: lying? cheating? stealing? All fair game in the race to Mars. Until it's not.
When four friends' time in college is cut short by a catastrophic natural disaster, these prodical programmers use some pre-arranged connections to start a company whose goal is making human life possible on Mars. Fast forward several years and the group (and the company) has undergone more than one schism, leaving one founding member personally hugely successful and the others combining brilliance and ingenuity as the two groups join a competition to build an AI-powered robot to prep Mars for human habitation.
Apart from a few very unexpected flashbacks (one entire episode was dedicated to an old incident before the big split that took me a long time to figure out) and a slightly distracting romance plot, I felt like we got a great handle on each of our main characters and some foundational peripheral characters. The story did a brilliant job of outlining how personal pride really does lead to a fall, what constitutes sentient life, the importance of personal privacy, how effective teams are built and run, and a lot of really awesome programming best practices (as a professional coder myself, I really appreciated this part). Plus, the AIs were just COOL. Plus there was just enough of a little twist to the ending to give a hint at a second season.
Thank you SerialBox for the gifted copy; all opinions are my own. I'm definitely excited for season two!
When four friends' time in college is cut short by a catastrophic natural disaster, these prodical programmers use some pre-arranged connections to start a company whose goal is making human life possible on Mars. Fast forward several years and the group (and the company) has undergone more than one schism, leaving one founding member personally hugely successful and the others combining brilliance and ingenuity as the two groups join a competition to build an AI-powered robot to prep Mars for human habitation.
Apart from a few very unexpected flashbacks (one entire episode was dedicated to an old incident before the big split that took me a long time to figure out) and a slightly distracting romance plot, I felt like we got a great handle on each of our main characters and some foundational peripheral characters. The story did a brilliant job of outlining how personal pride really does lead to a fall, what constitutes sentient life, the importance of personal privacy, how effective teams are built and run, and a lot of really awesome programming best practices (as a professional coder myself, I really appreciated this part). Plus, the AIs were just COOL. Plus there was just enough of a little twist to the ending to give a hint at a second season.
Thank you SerialBox for the gifted copy; all opinions are my own. I'm definitely excited for season two!
December 19, 2025
I really enjoyed this series and I hope it gets a second season at some point because I'm not ready to leave Cam, Nor and Pseudo the robot dog behind.
The only downside was the narrator's painful attempt at a Kiwi accent for Tama, but we didn't hear it very often.
The only downside was the narrator's painful attempt at a Kiwi accent for Tama, but we didn't hear it very often.
April 2, 2020
Compelling, endearing, sometimes a touch over-dramatic, but really solid. I followed this as an audio serial on SerialBox, and when the last episode wrapped up the story I realized I didn't want it to be over, didn't want to leave this story and these characters! I am hoping there's a sequel/season 2 - there's plenty of open-ended possibility, a big future, and some lingering questions I'd love to see more of.
It's the story of two competing companies, headed by ex-friends turned resentful rivals, developing experimental AIs that can autonomously terraform Mars in the hopes of preparing the planet for human habitation as the Earth is inexorably environmentally failing. Against a premise of sweeping scope, the story itself is mostly about the interpersonal tensions and the people making up the companies - their hopes and fears and rivalries and clashes and secrets and pride, and untangling all their interacting feelings and loyalties from their ostensible grand goal for humanity. (I thought some of them got off remarkably lightly for some really unethical things they did along the way... but on the other hand, that's the tech world, isn't it?)
The F/NB romance is cute enough, if kind of... fast and mildly hard to believe. I was more interested in the relationships between the ex-college-friends and their falling-out, and between the intense CEOs with personal grudges and something to prove and their frazzled, tired, trying-their-best employees, and the peppy nosy reporter who just wants to be part of this, man, this is where it's a ll happening.
It was fun, it was engaging, it had so many robots, it had an excellent robot dog, and this along with "Tides" podcast are what single-handedly kept me sane the last few weeks in the coronavirus explosion and subsequent lockdown. It's sometimes kinda pulpy but has a lot of cool ideas and a lot of heart and I would love to see a season 2.
It's the story of two competing companies, headed by ex-friends turned resentful rivals, developing experimental AIs that can autonomously terraform Mars in the hopes of preparing the planet for human habitation as the Earth is inexorably environmentally failing. Against a premise of sweeping scope, the story itself is mostly about the interpersonal tensions and the people making up the companies - their hopes and fears and rivalries and clashes and secrets and pride, and untangling all their interacting feelings and loyalties from their ostensible grand goal for humanity. (I thought some of them got off remarkably lightly for some really unethical things they did along the way... but on the other hand, that's the tech world, isn't it?)
The F/NB romance is cute enough, if kind of... fast and mildly hard to believe. I was more interested in the relationships between the ex-college-friends and their falling-out, and between the intense CEOs with personal grudges and something to prove and their frazzled, tired, trying-their-best employees, and the peppy nosy reporter who just wants to be part of this, man, this is where it's a ll happening.
It was fun, it was engaging, it had so many robots, it had an excellent robot dog, and this along with "Tides" podcast are what single-handedly kept me sane the last few weeks in the coronavirus explosion and subsequent lockdown. It's sometimes kinda pulpy but has a lot of cool ideas and a lot of heart and I would love to see a season 2.
Read
February 6, 2020In the end, I had the same problems I had with The Vela - I like the story in theory, love the set up and the diverse cast, and then... everything just fizzles out, because there's something lacking. I don't know how these stories come to be, but they feel as if they were plotted by different people from those actually writing them. Every single character is paper-thin, puppet-like, following a pre-determined plot from point A to point B - one that would be cool, in theory, if any of them felt remotely like real people.
June 13, 2021
"Halt and Catch Fire" with AI robots.
Machina is a somewhat engaging dramatic podcast by Realm in ten episodes covering the finals of a government military competition to create the artificially intelligent robots that will build humanity's settlement on Mars, told from various POVs of the personnel involved, including an intrepid vlogger. There's a couple of romance angles, an oh-crap-what-have-we-done angle, and the usual inter- and intra-company rivalries, personalities, and politics.
Kind of predictable, but I enjoyed it. Machina gets an extra star for mashing up Boston Dynamics and this xkcd strip!
Machina is a somewhat engaging dramatic podcast by Realm in ten episodes covering the finals of a government military competition to create the artificially intelligent robots that will build humanity's settlement on Mars, told from various POVs of the personnel involved, including an intrepid vlogger. There's a couple of romance angles, an oh-crap-what-have-we-done angle, and the usual inter- and intra-company rivalries, personalities, and politics.
Kind of predictable, but I enjoyed it. Machina gets an extra star for mashing up Boston Dynamics and this xkcd strip!
February 1, 2020
First episode was fantastic. Cannot wait for more!!
May 30, 2020
Reviewed on speculative chic http://speculativechic.com/2020/04/01...
April 4, 2020
Wowza. This story is a must read/must listen. Get your mind off of everything that is going on, leave your home behind and meet the teams who are competing to get their robots to Mars.
This title can be purchased at serialbox.com for less than $10. Serial box is a great way for people who want to buy an audio books when they want something to listen to. It is just like going to a bookstore. Come in and buy serialbox owned content when you are ready to listen. Keep the books forever in your library.
This title can be purchased at serialbox.com for less than $10. Serial box is a great way for people who want to buy an audio books when they want something to listen to. It is just like going to a bookstore. Come in and buy serialbox owned content when you are ready to listen. Keep the books forever in your library.
April 7, 2020
What a ride! Thanks, Serial Box, for the eARC of this great sci-fi story.
August 25, 2020
In this near-future Earth, climate change and other disasters, possibly related, are rendering the planet less and less habitable, and a race is on to get to Mars. But this races isn't just to build rockets powerful enough to get there. Right now, it's a race among tech companies to build an AI that can carry out the first stages of terraforming and building working human habitats on Mars.
Devlok was founded by several college students fleeing a series of disasters near their school. Trey, Stephanie, Lakshmi, and Smits create a company aimed at creating an AI that can help humans colonize Mars.
Watchover is founded by Stephanie and Lakshmi after Smits resigns because progressive disability plus Trey's high-handed, egotistical abuse becomes the last straw--for him and for the two women. Other Devlok employees go with them; Smits was hardly alone in being a target of Trey's abuse. Eighteen months later, the two companies are the leading competitors among the six that have qualified for the government competition for building the first colony on Mars.
Both companies have a truly kickass AI, designed along very different principles. Trey wants absolute control, top-down decision-making. He wants no surprises from his AI. Watchover's approach values flexibility, the ability of the AI to make decisions when communication is cut off or something happens that needs response faster than scientists on Earth would be able to respond.
Both approaches have obvious advantages, and obvious dangers.
The two companies are located not far apart, in the desert, with not a lot else near them. Smits, who owns the Airstream RV they escaped the disaster in, has made it into a bar, the Moonshot, that provides neutral territory for the techies and other employees of both companies. He also has a dog--a discarded Boston Dynamics robotic dog, whom he rescued from a discard pile, repaired, modified, and named Pseudo.
It's at the Moonshot that we get to see interaction among members of the two teams, and some of the character development. It is, for instance, where two characters, members of the opposing teams, meet and find romance. Other action takes place at the respective companies, where we see that all of these characters are flawed, but in different ways--and to different extremes. Further adding to the liveliness is a journalist, embedded with Devlok, named Hiro, who is a real tech geek. At first he seems like just an "anything for the story" guy, but we get to know him, too, and he becomes an interesting enhancement of the story.
This is from Serial Box, and the story is very much in serial format. I find this enjoyable; it makes for nicely timed segments for when I'm out driving.
Recommended.
I got this audiobook serial as part of Serial Box's Thursday night "free for four days
Devlok was founded by several college students fleeing a series of disasters near their school. Trey, Stephanie, Lakshmi, and Smits create a company aimed at creating an AI that can help humans colonize Mars.
Watchover is founded by Stephanie and Lakshmi after Smits resigns because progressive disability plus Trey's high-handed, egotistical abuse becomes the last straw--for him and for the two women. Other Devlok employees go with them; Smits was hardly alone in being a target of Trey's abuse. Eighteen months later, the two companies are the leading competitors among the six that have qualified for the government competition for building the first colony on Mars.
Both companies have a truly kickass AI, designed along very different principles. Trey wants absolute control, top-down decision-making. He wants no surprises from his AI. Watchover's approach values flexibility, the ability of the AI to make decisions when communication is cut off or something happens that needs response faster than scientists on Earth would be able to respond.
Both approaches have obvious advantages, and obvious dangers.
The two companies are located not far apart, in the desert, with not a lot else near them. Smits, who owns the Airstream RV they escaped the disaster in, has made it into a bar, the Moonshot, that provides neutral territory for the techies and other employees of both companies. He also has a dog--a discarded Boston Dynamics robotic dog, whom he rescued from a discard pile, repaired, modified, and named Pseudo.
It's at the Moonshot that we get to see interaction among members of the two teams, and some of the character development. It is, for instance, where two characters, members of the opposing teams, meet and find romance. Other action takes place at the respective companies, where we see that all of these characters are flawed, but in different ways--and to different extremes. Further adding to the liveliness is a journalist, embedded with Devlok, named Hiro, who is a real tech geek. At first he seems like just an "anything for the story" guy, but we get to know him, too, and he becomes an interesting enhancement of the story.
This is from Serial Box, and the story is very much in serial format. I find this enjoyable; it makes for nicely timed segments for when I'm out driving.
Recommended.
I got this audiobook serial as part of Serial Box's Thursday night "free for four days
April 27, 2020
Review first published on The Curious SFF Reader
After a series of climate catastrophes, Earth is falling apart and Mars is the only hope for humanity. Four computer-science students: Trey, Stephanie, Smits and Lakshmi dream of working together to create an AI that will help them terraforming the red planet.
Several years and arguments later, what started as one company has now become two. Trey is the head of Devlok, Stephanie and Lakshmi are the heads of Watchover and Smits is now a bartender with a robot dog.
A competition is organized to select the company that will send their AI on Mars to establish the first camp. Of course, Devlok and Watchover are the two runners-up and there can be only one winner. Trey is certain that Watchover stole code from Devlok and, Stephanie and Lakshmi want to prove that Watchover is completely different and better than their former company.
Machina is told from the point of view of Trey, Stephanie, Lakshmi, Smits but also several employees of both companies like Watchover’s genius programmer Cameron, Devlok’s sociologist Noor and a reporter who always manages to be at the center of the action.
This book was so much fun! It was my first time reading an episodic novel: it is written by four authors and they all worked on a couple of episodes (or chapters) each. I was worried that it might disrupt the flow of the story but actually all the authors’ voices worked well with each other and it wasn’t jarring at all. The first episode was so intriguing that I had to read the following episodes immediately.
I am a sucker for competition in books, I had so much fun discovering the different challenges and how companies had to deal with the various issues with their AIs (and employees!).
Out of all the point of views, my favorites were Stephanie’s and Noor’s since they were the characters that intrigued me the most. I really liked the fact that we followed people from both companies, indeed, at first, Watchover sounds like the best place on Earth while Devlok looks like the worst company ever. However, the more the story goes on, the more we understand that it’s not as simple as that and that each company and employees are morally grey.
I really enjoyed how fast-paced and fun the story was. The only complaint I have is that some characters were kind of flat. For example, Cameron is a non-binary super smart programmer and while their perspective was interesting, they weren’t fleshed out that well. A lot of times, I didn’t understand why they reacted the way they did to certain situations. The same goes for Trey, he’s kind of the bad guy of the story: he’s self-centered and obsessed with winning but in my mind, it’s not enough to make a character. However, even if the characters weren’t the most complex, I had so much fun while reading and I was so immersed in the story that it didn’t bother me that much.
If Machina sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend it. I couldn’t put it down: each time I finished an episode, I wanted to read the next one immediately. I mean, it has all the elements to make a great story: AIs, robots, challenges and nerdy programmers who want to go on Mars. What’s not to love?
Highly recommended.
I received a copy of this book from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
After a series of climate catastrophes, Earth is falling apart and Mars is the only hope for humanity. Four computer-science students: Trey, Stephanie, Smits and Lakshmi dream of working together to create an AI that will help them terraforming the red planet.
Several years and arguments later, what started as one company has now become two. Trey is the head of Devlok, Stephanie and Lakshmi are the heads of Watchover and Smits is now a bartender with a robot dog.
A competition is organized to select the company that will send their AI on Mars to establish the first camp. Of course, Devlok and Watchover are the two runners-up and there can be only one winner. Trey is certain that Watchover stole code from Devlok and, Stephanie and Lakshmi want to prove that Watchover is completely different and better than their former company.
Machina is told from the point of view of Trey, Stephanie, Lakshmi, Smits but also several employees of both companies like Watchover’s genius programmer Cameron, Devlok’s sociologist Noor and a reporter who always manages to be at the center of the action.
This book was so much fun! It was my first time reading an episodic novel: it is written by four authors and they all worked on a couple of episodes (or chapters) each. I was worried that it might disrupt the flow of the story but actually all the authors’ voices worked well with each other and it wasn’t jarring at all. The first episode was so intriguing that I had to read the following episodes immediately.
I am a sucker for competition in books, I had so much fun discovering the different challenges and how companies had to deal with the various issues with their AIs (and employees!).
Out of all the point of views, my favorites were Stephanie’s and Noor’s since they were the characters that intrigued me the most. I really liked the fact that we followed people from both companies, indeed, at first, Watchover sounds like the best place on Earth while Devlok looks like the worst company ever. However, the more the story goes on, the more we understand that it’s not as simple as that and that each company and employees are morally grey.
I really enjoyed how fast-paced and fun the story was. The only complaint I have is that some characters were kind of flat. For example, Cameron is a non-binary super smart programmer and while their perspective was interesting, they weren’t fleshed out that well. A lot of times, I didn’t understand why they reacted the way they did to certain situations. The same goes for Trey, he’s kind of the bad guy of the story: he’s self-centered and obsessed with winning but in my mind, it’s not enough to make a character. However, even if the characters weren’t the most complex, I had so much fun while reading and I was so immersed in the story that it didn’t bother me that much.
If Machina sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend it. I couldn’t put it down: each time I finished an episode, I wanted to read the next one immediately. I mean, it has all the elements to make a great story: AIs, robots, challenges and nerdy programmers who want to go on Mars. What’s not to love?
Highly recommended.
I received a copy of this book from Serial Box in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
February 13, 2021
I enjoyed listening to this, and some bits were really great. I loved Sudo the rescue robot dog from Boston Dynamics; and the description of E's solution to the third challenge was beautiful.
But the contours of the relationships were just too obvious: DevLok too controlling, bad; Watchover more organic and believing in automony, good. Even E's obvious superiority to Y3 was never in any doubt throughout the trials. For a brief moment, when Stephanie's surveillance came to light, I was hoping that this black-and-white flavor would become more complex, but then Lakshmi smooths it all over and we're back to DevLok bad/Watchover good again. Nico, who knew business but not programming, was a great character and offered a really nice opportunity for an alternative perspective on the plot, but that was underdeveloped, and a missed opportunity. And dhe climactic showdown between Y3 and E also didn't really deliver on any kind of promised complexity. Where was Noor's ability to reason with the AI, which we saw when we first met her? Y3 is a sentient being, initiating conversation--so why don't they ask Noor to talk to it? They just wring their hands over the morality and then send E after it with blades.
The only person with any real kind of complexity was Hiro, who started out annoying and everyone wished he'd go away, but then turned into a bit of a cheerleader for Kameron. That worked; but that wasn't enough to balance out the overly simplistic elements everywhere else.
But the contours of the relationships were just too obvious: DevLok too controlling, bad; Watchover more organic and believing in automony, good. Even E's obvious superiority to Y3 was never in any doubt throughout the trials. For a brief moment, when Stephanie's surveillance came to light, I was hoping that this black-and-white flavor would become more complex, but then Lakshmi smooths it all over and we're back to DevLok bad/Watchover good again. Nico, who knew business but not programming, was a great character and offered a really nice opportunity for an alternative perspective on the plot, but that was underdeveloped, and a missed opportunity. And dhe climactic showdown between Y3 and E also didn't really deliver on any kind of promised complexity. Where was Noor's ability to reason with the AI, which we saw when we first met her? Y3 is a sentient being, initiating conversation--so why don't they ask Noor to talk to it? They just wring their hands over the morality and then send E after it with blades.
The only person with any real kind of complexity was Hiro, who started out annoying and everyone wished he'd go away, but then turned into a bit of a cheerleader for Kameron. That worked; but that wasn't enough to balance out the overly simplistic elements everywhere else.
September 15, 2020
This is a story that I expected to enjoy... but I just never got pulled into it. The story follows several characters, that I mostly didn't care about, and one of 'em, I actively disliked (Trey)! So every time the story was almost about to draw me in, we'd switch back to Trey, and that would kill my interest "deader thana popcorn fart"! At times my listening brain would actually switch off, and I'd lose track of the storyline, even going as far as thinking that I probably should backup 10min to relisten, but I always found myself disinclined to commit to the action, as it just didn't seem to be worth the effort!
Not even Natalie Naudus' perfect performance as narrator could save this book for me!
Not even Natalie Naudus' perfect performance as narrator could save this book for me!
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December 17, 2024Audio podcast by Fran Wilde, Malka Ann Older, Martha Wells & Curtis C. Chen:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
November 25, 2020
And when does Season 2 come out??? I’m hooked!! I need more!! Clearly the drama of going through all these trials in creating AI that is independent without being self aware is only the first part of the story, right? They still have to either save the human race!! They are not done yet, and I was not ready for the ending 😫
April 5, 2020
Meh. Silly, not bad. Felt more like watching unrealistic kids cartoons on a Saturday than reading good science fiction.
October 31, 2020
dnf
annoying as...
annoying as...
July 23, 2021
Good story.
June 9, 2022
It pulled itslef together toward the end! A fantastic finale. 3.5 would be a better reflection, but the fall apart in episodes/chapters 7/8 made me stick with 3, however.
March 16, 2024
Mostly good. Bits near the end were less so. 3 writers I love and one that was meh.
July 24, 2023
Two teams of engineers compete to create the robot that will save humanity from the dying earth by helping us colonize Mars. Diverse characters, slightly bogged down with tech talk, and a predictable plot.
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