brilliant. engaging. buying myself a copy because i Will be rereading this. the work put into building and consistently maintaining a nonhuman perspective throughout is impressive. wasn’t expecting the discussions on individuality and sentience, though it added so much depth
plus, how can i be disappointed by gay robots?
tl;dr Literally cried. Actual tears. Blew my nose into tissues. So emotional. That ending hits like a bus, I can’t even describe it. Beautiful book.
Not tl;dr (my thoughts as I read):
Oh man, where to start! Right from the first page I was enamored. I can’t think of a better way to explain it other than child-like whimsy. There’s a fantastical element, despite the sci-fi genre, in how it’s written that just feels so innocent and magical, and also very endearing.
A human may have said that sort of existence was lonely, but FLC0776 did not contain the amount of extra rows and columns to conceive of the concept of loneliness.
He wanted to reach out and touch the bot.
No, that wasn’t correct. FLC0776 hadn’t wanted anything in his entire uptime.“Thank you,” said FLC0776, a pre-programmed nicety.
“Unrequired,” answered the military bot.
It had me reeling from just the first few pages, with the biggest smile on my face and several out-loud chuckles.
The story explores the ‘life’ of robots existing in a human world, seen through the lens of Sterling, and his thoughts and experiences. I’m glad I went through it slowly, giving the work time to digest. There is a lot of depth despite the storyline itself being rather short. It’s not just the typical, “What is the meaning of life?”, “Can robots be ‘alive’?”, it goes further. What does it mean to be you? Who are you? What makes up you? Who are you in relation to others, and what are the costs of reaching inward to discover yourself? Sterling grapples with those questions and many more, as he also travels with Zev, whose way of life is at odds with Sterling’s beliefs, but whose very existence leads to his salvation. Sterling puts his faith into a bot who both fascinates and frightens him, as they travel together in search of robotic paradise.
The characterization and world-building were wonderful and interesting. I agree with another review that it’s ‘both subtle and fully-formed’. Clearly this world is lived in with its characters, it feels very real, but you’re also not bombarded like you are with fantasy novels, with info dumps and intricately specific details, that at least for me, can be overwhelming. You sort of just walk in and you’re there.
But I did have some nit-picks. My main issue was that I wished there were a bit more in the way of descriptions for settings and locations. Just to get a clearer picture of where they are. Some parts were given more imagery than others, but a lot of the time I found myself struggling to ‘ground’ the characters, and ended up leaning heavily on tropes or previous media I’ve consumed to get a better picture.
I will say though, that as the book went on, it did gradually get better. The farther they went on their journey, the deeper into human territory they traversed, the little drops of details, like graffiti, dilapidated structures, and neon lights helped paint a scene. And the part where humans first approach them had me legitimately sweating! Really eloquently written scene, and absolutely terrifying to imagine. (I know there will be a companion book with Inix, I’m eager to read her perspective on her experiences!)
My only other nit-pick was hoping to see more character growth from Sterling. While he does explore emotions, the world, and Zev, I would’ve liked to have seen more self-confidence. There was a lot of “Zev knows all, just trust Zev.” But just a moment where Sterling feels more self-assured to put his foot down rather than always doubt himself would’ve been nice to see.
The visual representation of the internal bot chat was also really cleverly done, and the visuals for THAT scene (I cry) were, oof, my heart. The built up understanding of how the bot chat worked combined with Sterling shutting down and everything glitching out was so sad ;o; Like you WANTED to be able to read it, but you couldn’t, just like him. This whole scene was just…omg. The whole book was building up to this moment and my heart was just RACING.
And okay, I might’ve legit teared up from the first line of chapter 27 after all that. omg ;o;
God damn, that ending though. I have so many thoughts, so many feelings, I’m so overwhelmed, my heart is just screaming, I’m so emotional, my evens cannot. Like ;o;
Like I’m sitting here and I don’t even know what to type. And the epilogue, with Zev, and how things have just…changed. It’s so well done. It hits so hard. Genuinely so emotional. Learning to accept your limitations, your disabilities, just being content to be with the one you love, like I am actually crying. It’s literally just so beautiful.
Hilarious extra at the end though. I love how the “Problem” list gradually gets more and more anomalous related lmaoo
Ahhh this was so good. <3
*4.5*
There is something so special about THE WARM MACHINE that I haven’t quite gotten in anything else. The writing style is perfectly matched to the theme—mechanical and completely logical but with an underlying level of “anomalous” emotion that SWELLS throughout the book. The personalities of these beings comes right off the page, and with each philosophical discussion and bonding moment they had, I was more and more deeply invested in Sterling and Zev finding their happy ending.
This is not your typical romance book in any sense of the genre, and if THE WARM MACHINE weren’t listed under that, I would almost attribute Sterling and Zev’s love for each other to be platonic. They obviously CARE for each other very deeply in the ways they can and learn how, but it never crosses into romantic, in my humble opinion. That being said, their self-sacrificing care for each other TUGGED constantly at my heartstrings, and they clearly do matter to each other in every way they can.
I touched already on the writing style, but I want to add that besides the perfectly suited and extremely well-done style and brilliant dialogue, Cozza excelled at crafting locale, atmosphere, and some visually stunning scenes from time to time that STAND OUT in my memory. I can easily picture the places described in this, and there’s one sequence, in particular, in a trash heap in a storm that feels like a scene straight out of a movie in my mind—SO vivid, so stark, and so perfectly moody and atmospheric. I was TRANSPORTED and, to some degree, still living there, the physical, visual, auditory, and emotional stimuli so clear and powerful as to live in my brain and repeat fragmentally in idle moments.
My one mild dismay was the ending—the last chapter and epilogue—and the last several revelations between the characters there that felt rushed and not discussed between Sterling and Zev like all the other revelations were. A lot of information was packed into those pages, and where normally, Sterling would process and discuss with Zev these revelations, they were instead almost glossed over. Basically? I just wanted MORE Sterling and Zev figuring things out together and would kill for a bonus chapter or two placed between the final chapter and epilogue where some of it is expanded.
Regardless, all told, this was an excellent, unique, and extremely well-written novella, and I enjoyed every bit of it. THIS is a book that deserves more hype!
This book was absolutely beautiful from start to finish. It’s a quick read — or, at least, is was for me, as I didn’t want to put it down. But I enjoyed every second of the story. I grew up reading, and loving, Asimov’s robot novels, and the characterisations of the robots, some of whom were almost human, but just a little bit different. Aimee’s tale fits right in with the fondest memories I have of the best parts of the stories I grew up with.
Told from the view of our protagonist robot, this book is almost entirely devoid of human interaction, helping to solidly anchor the tale in a world in which ‘bots have their own lives, both programmatic, and, sometimes, not. The writing choices, and often design choices in the book, help give the story a nicely bot-centric feel, but never a cold one.
It’s an adventure, a love story, a coming of age tale of sorts all rolled into one. It took a few hours to finish with a break in the middle I absolutely did NOT want to take, but had to eventually (sleep! curse ye). I’m already anxiously awaiting the next of Aimee’s books, as I’m sure it won’t disappoint.
Top notch scifi. Beautiful writing. Lovely world. This was an absolute treat!
Excellent excellent. A thoroughly wonderful story about robots, life, love and everything. I really enjoyed this and looking forward to the sequel. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
