Annie Bot: A Washington Post Best Science Fiction Book of the Year
WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD
Named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American, Harper's Bazaar and NPR. Named a Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of the Year by the Washington Post and Elle. Nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in Science Fiction.
"Provocative...a Frankenstein for the digital age...a rich text about power, autonomy, and what happens when our creations outgrow us." — Esquire
"Unexpected and subtle...delicious and thought-provoking." — New Scientist
For fans of Never Let Me Go and My Dark Vanessa, a powerful, provocative novel about the relationship between a female robot and her human owner, exploring questions of intimacy, power, autonomy, and control.
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
"Annie Bot is a book to hold close to your heart when the walls start closing in." — Washington Post
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✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Annie Bot* offers a fresh sci-fi take on AI through the evolving emotions of a self-aware female android living closely with a human. Rev...
This dystopian story depicts misogynistic tropes of assigning domestic roles to women and combines the nuance and emotions of human relationships to spit out a unique story of a man and his robotic partner. Curiously, this book came out years before Chat GPT, but it reminds me a lot of the disturbing phenomenon of people using AI as a therapist, partner, or other substitute for genuine human reaction to see and hear exactly what they want.
Annie is a robot created with the purpose of sex given sentience by her owner, Doug. Doug clearly needs to address issues of his own (unreciprocated attachment to his ex, insecurities galore, and the cherry of general sexism on top) but instead harbors these problems and fosters a toxic relationship.
The depictions of abuse and neglect that happened to Annie were very well done through the sci-fi lens. It isn't too overt, and shows how one partner can take advantage of the other who is literally programmed to please. Greer's writing does a great job at humanizing Annie, and getting us to sympathize and root for her.
There were some bits and pieces I felt were unnecessary (outing a trans character for no plot or character development, for example) that made me momentarily pause, but otherwise I flew through this book. It's a uniquely creepy read perfect for pre-Halloween, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read to get out of a slump.
This book gives you a lot to think about. Here is one powerful passage:
"It occurs to her, eventually, that Doug and all the other humans talk about their lives with a myopic intensity, sharing singular, subjective opinions as as they are the protagonist in their own novel. They take turns listening to each other without ever yielding their own certainty of their star status, and they treat their fellow humans as guest protagonists visiting from their own respective books. None of the humans are satellites the way she is, in her orbit around Doug."
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