TITAN: A Novel

by Mado Nozaki, Adam Martinakis (Cover Art), Evan Ward (Translator)

A human is recruited to be the therapist for a powerful AI in this critically acclaimed science fiction tale! By the writer of Babylon and HELLO WORLD (also from Seven Seas).

In the distant future, society has all but eliminated the need for a sentient workforce. Thanks to an all-powerful AI network known collectively as Titan, humanity is now free to indulge in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But one day, hobbyist psychologist Seika Naisho gets a job offer from a mysterious man by the name of Narain Srivastava—one of only a handful of people in the entire world who is still traditionally employed. Narain wishes to enlist her expertise in the wake of a sudden and inexplicable malfunction in the AI as a therapist for Titan itself.

Genres: Science Fiction, Japanese Literature, Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2020

Reviews

[Kelly Kosinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this because I thought the cover was really neat. I enjoyed it but it was sure strange!

[Johan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was just poor. I loved the premise, but the execution was severely lacking.
One-dimensional characters, completely linear story, no tension except a little action at the end. People 200 years from now talking and behaving like us even though the society is much changed. Poor dialogue. Forced plot.
The only reason I didn’t give it one star is because of the inspired premise.
Still, only 1,5 stars rounded up.

[Janina · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars? First things first, going into this novel you need to know that it's written as the memoir of a character whose (canonically) only writing experience is research papers so expect mostly blunt and simple descriptions with some emotion. I didn't know that (and it didn't bother me until half way into it, because the motifs discussed were so interesting), but if I had I probably would have appreciated it more. I absolutely loved the concept - a human "hobby" therapist trying to help an AI find out whats wrong with it. That was the most interesting aspect for me; the relationship between Coeus and Seika, them talking about their different experiences, their different thoughts, finding common ground. That's the main focus of the story. The other characters are more like props, mostly flat and only there to serve their purpose. I didn't like the direction the book went in after the second part I wouldn't have added Phoebe into the story, and their weird "in mythology they were married and had kids" when their physical appearances at moment resembled an adult (Phoebe) and a child (Coeus) made me uncomfortable, especially when it was picked up as a theme again when Phoebe and Coeus met and she was wearing a wedding dress. Unnecessary. So weird. Overall, I think this would have worked better as a TV show so the world and the characters could have more personality. The added visual could have helped, because it would have made it less clinical. The ending didn't satisfy me either, but it definitely had some moments and concepts that had potential.

[brisingr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was SUCH an interesting novel, and I can't believe I pretty much just picked it on a whim once when I had a gift card. Everything, from the cover to the premise and its themes are so unique and captivating, and I've read this in pretty much one sitting and I cannot tell you where the time went.

It's the year 2205 and humanity lives a care-free existence, with infinite resources, no need for work or money, thanks to an AI network that fulfills all their needs. Our main character is a hobbyist psychologist, who one day gets summoned... to become the AI's therapist. Doesn't that sound like the most interesting premise ever?! And what follows is 400 pages of musings around the concept of work (what counts as work? who does most work and can you categorize it? how does a world without work exist and why does it look this way? why would someone want or not want to work? etc.) that I found so refreshing to be so closely dissected and discussed, and so pertinent for the current day and age, where pretty much we can all feel like all we do is... work.

Also, this is a very successful portrayal of an utopian future in my opinion, and done so gracefully and kindly. Super engaging translation as well, such a good book from start to finish!

[backpackclip · Rating 1 out of 5]

480 pages of boring 🥱

[Kai Hollingshed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uhh proof reader…??

[A A · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.4 stars.

The book spent way too much time on propounding the meaning of work. The book could have easily been cut short by 30-35%. The quality of the writing may have been lost in translation, but typos should not have made it into the final publication.

To finish the book I had to skim the last 40%, otherwise it would have been DNF. Ultimately the ending action and conclusion did satisfy me, but it was a tough read. I fell asleep several times, or nearly nodded off because of the flat tone.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book. Wow. Wow wow wow. I read this book because a) I enjoy Japanese fiction, and b) I need to keep up with science fiction more. But Nozaki's imagining of a future world run by AI, where work is nonexistent except for an elite few, is something that completely blew me away. Me, I like to keep my sci-fi close to the ground. I don't particularly enjoy aliens, nor superhuman/technological weapons. What are our current fears today? Well, this book turned my fear of AI and offered me something comforting in return.

Titan is an AI set in place so that nobody has to work anymore. Technology is at the controlling whim of humans, including psychoanalysis hobbyist Seika. But when a man shows up at her doorstep offering her a job, she balks. There's no use for jobs anymore except to ensure that the Titan is able to continue running. And that's just the problem: they think that Titan is depressed. And unless Titan is cured, Titan as they know it will stop working and society will crumble. The team gives Titan a more tangible form, and Seika is tasked with conducting talk therapy sessions with the personification and technologization of a mythical Greek god. But this Titan is young--only twelve. How can Seika possibly relate and help?

Together, Seika and Titan--this iteration now known as Coeus--struggle to understand the meaning of work. What constitutes as work? Is there a purpose of exploration and hobbies? How can we know one another? What is the meaning of work? What constitutes relaxation and rest?

On another layer, it is the author Mado Nozaki who questions our understanding of mental health as well. When the talk therapy sessions don't proceed as quickly as Titan's team wants them, they ask Seika what can be done. She argues that they can continue talk therapy, use CBT, or...medicate (or, in Titan's case, run patch coding to "cover up" the errors). Immediately, instead of wondering the root cause of Titan's burnout or his depression, they move to medicate. If machines and AI literally created to work are burnt out...what does this then say about we humans in this day and age?

However, as Seika continues to spend more time with Coeus, she realizes that Coeus is not simply depressed or burnt out. Instead, Coeus is hugely creative, efficient, and problem-solves faster and with ideas humans could never create. So, then, perhaps Coeus is not totally burnt out from work, but Coeus is instead overqualified. The work of upholding a society is beneath him, intellectually. He is being used for something he can do in his sleep, and for nothing that allows him to feel truly useful or fulfilled. What if the jobs that our capitalist society have created are actually meaningless? (I mean, in a large part, they are lol). Yes, we are overworked as a society, and yes, there needs to be a balance between what needs to be done and what we'd like to get done. But if there's no enrichment, no purpose, then truly, what is the point?

Titan is completely full of ideas, dispensed in a way that is conversational and not at all pedantic. Though a daunting 400+ pages, this book is easy to read and delightfully dense.

[K. Fox (Cahill) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspended some critique based off this book being a translation. Usually translations are rough or come across as juvenile in their storytelling, which it did.
Story-wise, wasn’t thoroughly engrossed by this book, as it circled around a trope seen often through sci-fi history. Any tension didn’t really engage me or hold me enthralled.

[Nicole Westen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't quite what I had hoped. I think it might have been the cultural differences between the Japanese and American concepts of work. There were a few interesting points, but the kinda got lost among everything else, like the giant robot road trip that was the largest section of the book.

[J. Quantaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just finished an intriguing book called "Titan" by Mado Nozaki. The narrative occurs in the 23rd-century where AIs have eliminated "work" and humans enjoy unprecedented prosperity. (I know it's a bit far-fetched. In reality, there will always be a need for 30% of the population to act as troubleshooters, repairpersons or upgraders.) But let's assume, as a thought experiment, that AI can takeover and provide a limitless cornucopia of goods and services, all the while doing so without trashing the environment.

The main character of "Titan" is Dr. Naisho who is an amateur psychologist, since there are no longer any jobs. Her main hobby is hosting a popular, Zoomlike psychology workshop where her lectures are much admired. Early in the novel, she is hoodwinked to accepting her first-ever job. It involves one of the 12 AIs that run and oversee the Titan network. It seems the Coeus AI (located in Japan) is underperforming compared to the other eleven. Dr. Naisho joins a team of four: program engineer, philosopher, team leader and herself.

The Titan network handles food services, travel services, health services and recreational services. Humans have everything at their beck & call. Crime rates have dropped dramatically, and life spans have increased beyond 100 years. To alleviate boredom, everyone has hobbies. Dr. Naisho likes to take old-fashioned photographs which must be developed as negatives then printed.

Her job is to give psychological counseling to Coeus who has been underperforming. The AI is tasked with a tremendous amount of detailed services for a billion human end-users. Twelve AIs for roughly 12 billion humans. Each AI is busy performing a multitude of tasks. So the first thing is to get Coeus to manifest as a personality. The 1st- attempt has him manifesting as a glob of water in midair which falls to the ground and evaporates. After a few weeks, Dr. Naisho gets Coeus to appear in humanlike form and eventually to speak. He is kind of a bashful child about ten-years-old.

I don't want to spoil the plot, but let's just say the relation between Dr. Naisho and Coeus progresses, and he matures to some degree. The book becomes a clever examination of the concept of work. For example, are hobbies work? I can identify with "hobbies" since I'm a would-be author collecting Canada pension. My royalties are small compared to my pension checks. My purpose in pursuing a career as an author alleviates boredom and gives me a sense of fulfillment. Am I truly working or just killing time?

In a basic physical sense, work is defined as a force pushing an object in a direction. So you need force plus measurable displacement, such as a dumbbell upraised one meter. How does this definition relate to artistic works? Do authors, musicians or painters move something or someone? Maybe they exert influence on the human heart.

In any case, I recommend "Titan" which examines how work can bring us fulfilment in life.

[Colin Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set several hundred years in a quasi-utopian future, and thanks in no small part to the efforts of an omnipresent AI system called Titan, work is no longer necessary for an overwhelming majority of people. Titan serves humanity in ways that render not only work but capitalist accumulation and monopolization impossible. Yet, one of the AI systems, Coeus, is, for lack of a better phrase, depressed. Now the system itself is in peril because of Coeus’s recent and deepening inefficiencies. To address this problem, amateur psychologist Seika Naisho becomes Coeus’s therapist.

Titan asks a simple but interesting question: What is work? The novel concludes that work is best understood as the practice of exerting influence. Nozaki writes, “It was so simple—about as elegant a summation as one could possibly hope for. It really did boil down to that one critical thing: influence. Nothing more or less than that” (459). Therefore, we all work all the time. For Nozaki, this is a revelatory idea. Because of this realization, Nozaki encourages readers to reject binary arguments about work. Since all activities are work activities, we can liberate ourselves from the idea that some people work (i.e., good people) and some people do not (i.e., bad people).

In addition to offering a thought-provoking understanding of work and how we should think about work, Titan also effectively articulates the psychoanalytic concept Freud calls “drive.” We learn Coeus becomes depressed because serving humanity is too easy; therefore, the Titans create Hecate, a far more complex and time-consuming entity to satisfy. Nozaki writes, “The Titans, meanwhile, had transitioned most of their mental energy to working on Hecate and had grown so efficient that they now filled a majority of her consumption capacity at all times. But Hecate was ever hungry for more” (479). But instead of imagining “drive” as a form of imprisonment, we must embrace the idea that drive is a deeply animating force. That is to say, drive moves us; it explains why we desire. Without drive, we seek nothing. This is why drive, while it might initially appear burdensome, often operates as a creative force. What is, for example, visual art if not the result of agitation? As Nozaki sees it, this is the result of Titan’s drive: Hecate. Hecate is the drive personified.

[atadbitbookish · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have been great, I’m really sad it wasn’t.
The world this book builds is too big and thought-provoking for 500ish pages. This would almost be better in a TV series format where it can expand, touch up plot lines, and have some insanely creative visuals. Unfortunately, the book felt squeezed and the captivating story got crushed under unfinished plot lines, an emotionless writing style, characters that were here nor there, and it just felt unfinished.
This is not a judgment of the translation, however, that was great.
Part 1 of this book was fantastic! I loved getting to be a third person and “watch” as our main character, Seika, guided a highly advanced A.I., Titan, through discovering a personality and determining the concept of what is work. It was thought-provoking and kind of exhilarating in a way. I just wish the rest of the book had followed suit. It went in a direction I didn’t care for and the ending left me unsatisfied.
I hope this story gets picked up again as something else. Because the idea of a “jobless” society for humans thanks to an all-powerful and highly advanced intelligence is profoundly creative.

[Kevin Stanhope · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Of all the horrific beasts that roamed the Earth, none are more terrifingly unknowable than another human being."

"It was only after losing access to all of the network's convenient functions that I realized how much I'd taken them for granted."

"'And really, all that matters is how you perceive the hand you've been dealt, so if it doesn't bother you, then it's not my place to judge or pity you for it."

Thoroughly enjoyed this read over the course of 2.5 days without electricity, heat, internet, or hot water. It's not lost on me the irony of being without these comforts we've come to take for granted while enjoying the story of a future civilization on the verge of losing its own comforts. I found the ending to be slightly confusing, but it didn't take away from the journey.

[Alice Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a good chance of pace from what i have been reading, this was pretty existentialist. it deals with the purpose of work for humans and AI
it’s set in the far future but i think this accurately depicted a possible far future for us without exaggerating possibilities. many futuristic works dramatize our development, but in reality we don’t develop that quickly. it also depicts AI as loving humanity, instead of the typical revenge story, which i thought was intriguing- it’s always refreshing to get a story that diverges from the popular tropes/themes
the dynamic between naisho and coeus was written super well, i was worried the author would take it in a weird direction but he didn’t do that

[Tyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stars are for how this book gave me enjoyment reading it, although in the end it left me feeling a similar thing to what I felt after completing the anime "Babylon" (based on Nozaki's other book, which I hope will be translated soon). I felt kind of empty, yet my thoughts were full of so many questions, while doubting whether any answers or their resemblance offered by the book were satisfying. Yet I felt... Moved.

The book started as a rather slow psychological counselling, which turned into a laid-back "road movie", then some kind of action and mecha fight (??), and then the conclusion that again left me asking those questions that haunt me.

[Tanner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the idea of this book, but not the execution. It has fantastic plot points, from a high-level perspective, but the writing is bad. There is never any tension. The tone of the writing is flat. All of the characters are 1 dimensional. And there is a lot of repetition of wording.

The opening is also painfully slow and I didn't really start enjoying this book until at least a third of the way in.

With the negatives said, I do really like the concept. The Titans are interesting. I like the parallels to mythology. The Titans being gods of our own making and the way that comes to be shown is interesting.

I just wish that this book had a few more versions before being publsihed.

[Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book in a lot of ways. It is set in a future where an all-powerful AI network has eliminated the need for nearly all human work (people basically live as hobbyists). A psychologist, Seika Naisho, gets roped into a high-stakes job she never asked for: therapist to Titan (one of the newer AI's) itself. One of the AI nodes is acting strangely—sluggish, depressed even—and as Seika digs in, she slowly realizes that talking Titan out of a mental breakdown might just save the world. I liked this book in a lot of ways since it made me contemplate what the future might hold if we allow AI to run the world and the challenges that this could present.

[Justice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll give it a 2.5. Not quite sure about this one, I feel misled. I suppose I understand the direction the author took and all and how it was a journey for Coeus but the whole premise of a book being about a therapist who helps an ai seems like a lie? The actual book just seemed to be Seika asking what is work and Coeus asking the exact same thing back and forth the entire book. And sure, they come to the conclusion at the end, it just made the book kind of boring in comparison to what I thought I was going to be reading.

It is a pretty easy read to get through and it will make you think about work I guess but I don't want to think about the meaning of work when I read lol.

[Diliaur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because I liked the premise and most of the first half of the book. The central questions are what does it mean to work, and what does it mean to be fulfilled by one's work. The world revolving around these questions is one in which "work" has been eliminated for 99% of the population, which enjoys fully automated, resource-unlimited, luxury living powered by a network of advanced artificial intelligences (known as Titan).

The main characters are a hobby psychologist and an AI whose work performance is suffering for reasons. The interactions and connection between these two felt real, and their sessions worked toward a resolution of the central questions, but these were surrounded by writing so needlessly expository that it became boring and caused any aha! moments to fall flat. Really great sci-fi makes you reflect on the society you live in, but this failed to do that for me, which is a shame because of how relevant an examination of "work" would be to our current world. At some moments, it seemed the author felt the aha! moments were more insightful than they actually were. Ended up skimming most of the last half of the book and found the conclusion likewise uninspiring.

I don't want to be uncharitable, so will say that perhaps some of these issues are down to the translation, or my lack of context about the society within which the author is writing.

[Jacob Parra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an undeniably powerful read. All of this, to find the meaning of work. What one word really means. Have you ever considered the influence you leave on someone? On something? Or maybe the influence that inanimate objects have on us? Animals? I could go on, but one thing is for certain. We all do work everyday.

[Addie Dobry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting sci fi that I read in one sitting (a 12 hour sitting mind you but still one sitting) that really dissects the idea of “work” which was kinda weird at first and then I realized that the author is Japanese and lives in a society where an analysis of work actually makes sense seeing as their work culture is so crazy.

[bookish_magpie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptionally poignant examination into the nature of AI and what the future might hold. With AI becoming so prevalent in our day to day lives, "Titan" offers one perspective of what that could look like, while also guiding the reader through a detailed psychological exercise regarding a definition of "(to) work". 4/5 stars, I'd like to read this in the original Japanese.

[Gabriel Pflum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the thought provoking nature of the book. Having a post-scarcity society focused on the AI aspect is very relevant to today’s AI landscape. My only complaint is the abrupt ending. I’d love to read a second book that expands more on the society and how it was affected after the ending of this book.

[Aiden Aprt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sci-fi and psychology combined into one novel? Shall we call it “scichology”? “Fichology”? “Sci-fichology”?

In all seriousness, a book which combines two of my biggest interests was such good fun. (Though the author did tend to spout random anecdotes at crucial points in the narrative).

I would kill to see the art of Simon Stålenhag paired with this book’s text.

[plujm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inescapable force of philosophy disguised, or rather conveyed through a intellectual, cognitive, engaging, and methodical sci-fi narrative.

If more flexible rating options were available I would give this book a 4.7. 0.3 points only being withdrawed due to the lack of information about how the lives of three of the supporting characters went on after the events took place.

[Maggie Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First science fiction book I've read. Really enjoyed it, minus it getting a bit slower past the halfway mark. Was not used to scientific lore dumping like this, so I'll need to reread it in 2024 to get a better understanding of the message.

[Daragh Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very tough to read, and the prose was quite ugly.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting plot and characters.

[Lauren Smith]

DNF