Tag Archives: Robots

Slick

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Slick by M. M. Vaughan

Book of the Week: 26 January 2020

Cover design by Leo Nickolls

‘My name is Danny, and I need your help. First off, I should tell you that this isn’t my story – it’s Eric’s. Well, the name he was given was Eric, but I called him Slick, and he was my best friend. I say was because he died six months ago … Two, and this is kind of important: Slick was a robot.’

We are told from the very beginning that Slick is a robot, or android, but how he became Danny’s best friend and why he ‘died’ are the questions we need answering. Slick and his family have just moved to Ashland and are keen to get to know everyone. Danny, who regularly gets into trouble in school and who worries about his mum since his dad left them, is really only interested in computer games. When he first meets Slick he discounts him as a ‘weirdo’ who takes everything literally and is obsessed with brand names. After this unpromising start, Slick proves impossible to avoid and Danny becomes more and more intrigued about his mysterious weekly visits to a dentist and his parents who either ignore him, or turn up uncannily quickly when he gets injured. As the story progresses, being told alternately by Slick and Danny, we realise that Slick has no idea what he actually is and is only eager to make friends and understand the world. Danny, however, is intent on finding out where Slick came from and what exactly is going on with his unusual new friend.

This is an intriguing science fiction book that makes us think about what it means to be human and how the power of friendship can alter our lives.

The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare

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The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell

Book of the Week: 10 June 2018

Cover illustration by Matt Saunders

When steak from the vending machine costs £80,000, a bag of King Edward potatoes at £5,000 seems like a bargain. Auden and his mum are shopping in Cambridge and, as you might guess from the price list, the world is different from our own. This is a future Britain where it hardly ever rains and countries have gone to war over water. Food prices have soared and water is rationed. The immediate problem facing Auden and his mum is that they have moved across the country to Unicorn Cottage which has been left to them by his uncle, Jonah Bloom. Auden’s mum says the cottage is untidy because Jonah was an eccentric inventor who had no time for tidiness, but Auden thinks someone has broken in and has been looking for something. When he makes friends with his allocated ‘New School Buddy’, Vivi Rookmini, who lives with her mother in rooms in a Cambridge college, they find an extraordinary invention in Uncle Jonah’s shed and Auden thinks his uncle has been working on a cure for Auden’s inability to see colour. This is exciting enough for Auden, but what happens next turns out to be a lot more important and will affect the future of everyone on the planet.

I also read My Messed-Up Life by Susin Nielsen this week, about Violet who thinks the answer to her single mum’s problems would be to date George Clooney. It is a fun read but I think practically all her books have featured as Book of the Week over the years, so it only gets a mention rather than a headline.

Echo Boy

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Echo Boy by Matt Haig

Book of the Week: 28 June 2015

Echo Boy

Many books tell a story using two different characters as narrators but how many of them describe the action from the point of view of a robot? The Echo boy of the title is called Daniel, an Enhanced Computerised Humanoid Organism. He is employed by Alex Castle, the hugely rich and powerful owner of Castle Industries, a kind of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates character, who takes in his niece Audrey after the death of her parents. Audrey has a deep fear of Echos, with good reason because her parents were murdered by a rogue humanoid called Alissa who worked for her family. Her father had been a well-known campaigner against society’s over-reliance on technology and artificial intelligence. He encouraged Audrey to read old books and wanted her to be taught by humans rather than androids. This was no easy task because the future where the book is set is one devastated by climate change and shortages. Technology seems to be the only tool that will provide a comfortable life. Following her parents’ deaths Audrey goes to live with her uncle, his brattish son Iago and a house-full of Echoes, but she never feels at ease. Is Uncle Alex as well-meaning as he appears and why does she feel there is something strange and compelling about one of the Echoes?

Echo Boy is a thoughtful look at what it means to be human as well as being a gripping science fiction thriller.