_joy_'s review
It was moving too slow for me and wasn't keeping my interest.
I put it on my TBR list years ago. I finally got around to giving it a try and it just wasn't a (possible) good fit for me anymore.
I put it on my TBR list years ago. I finally got around to giving it a try and it just wasn't a (possible) good fit for me anymore.
lolabella's review
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
keary's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
katrinepoetry's review
5.0
Such a beautifully structured tale of a woman and her technological creation. Definitely an incredible inspiration of a novel which I will be reading again.
missbear's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This book had an excellent atmosphere. Maybe it helped that I'm quite familiar with Kate Bush, so that driving rhythm of strings and ethereal voice of Cloudbusting were echoing in my head the whole time I was reading (and for several days afterwards). But I do think this book fits the song, in a strange sort of way. The ceaselessly progressing chronology does drive the story forward and the themes of love and loss and memory do play ethereally over it.
I was younger than Laura in the 90s, but even I felt nostalgic over the first section of this book, with its focus on mix tapes and telephone bills and teenage friendships. I felt like this atmosphere smoothly flowed into the future sections of this book, keeping the different time periods from feeling overly choppy and disconnected.
Perhaps my main criticism is that I wish that the book had focused on Laura's perspective. The sections that slipped away from her were the least interesting to me: I just wanted to spend the whole time invested in Laura and Organon's relationship. What really made this book work for me, in the end, was the theme of memory and the connections made between computer memory, social memory, and personal memory. I wasn't expecting the touching portrayal of dementia when I began reading, but I think it's the true heart of the story.
I was younger than Laura in the 90s, but even I felt nostalgic over the first section of this book, with its focus on mix tapes and telephone bills and teenage friendships. I felt like this atmosphere smoothly flowed into the future sections of this book, keeping the different time periods from feeling overly choppy and disconnected.
Perhaps my main criticism is that I wish that the book had focused on Laura's perspective. The sections that slipped away from her were the least interesting to me: I just wanted to spend the whole time invested in Laura and Organon's relationship. What really made this book work for me, in the end, was the theme of memory and the connections made between computer memory, social memory, and personal memory. I wasn't expecting the touching portrayal of dementia when I began reading, but I think it's the true heart of the story.
amy_reads91's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
thebooksheelf's review
4.0
It does a lot well. It’s an engaging and thought provoking bit of speculative fiction that seamlessly integrates the topic of mental health. The first few chapters had a bit too much cringey 90s nostalgia for me and I think we should blanket ban men from writing as teenage girls but, early bumps aside, a thoroughly enjoyable read with a compelling female protagonist. Totally recommend for fans of the speculative fiction end of the Sci Fi spectrum.
Someone should send Ian McEwan a copy.
Someone should send Ian McEwan a copy.
missindyrose's review
4.0
Really good and very interesting and engrossing read. I loved the technological elements within it as well as the time jumps.
The other thing I loved about this book is that it wasn’t just a book about AI and technology, it was about people and the choices we make and how that influences us, our lives and our decisions as well as what we create.
Can’t wait to see this released into the world.
The other thing I loved about this book is that it wasn’t just a book about AI and technology, it was about people and the choices we make and how that influences us, our lives and our decisions as well as what we create.
Can’t wait to see this released into the world.
patchworkbunny's review
5.0
Laura needed someone to talk to after her father disappeared, so she made Organon. It's more than just software to her, it's her friend and therapist. The year is 1997 and AI has a long way to go, but someone sees promise in her work, setting Laura, AI and the world towards their future.
I Still Dream is a story for my generation, and I don't just mean Millennials but more the older end that is usually lumped in but doesn't quite fit in either it or the previous generation. We grew up as digital technology grew up. Nineties Laura talks to her friends for hour on the landline and runs up bills on the dial-up internet. She makes mix tapes and listens to the same music I listened to. She forms a relationship with a stranger online, with no thought to the possible perils. I usually skim over music stuff in books but for once I got it. Laura could be me.
The story is structured by decades, each section jumping forward ten years. It's Laura's lifetime, with all the road bumps of adulthood along the way. It revisits the past and takes us into a possible future, and manages to capture the zeitgeist whilst doing so. With giant corporations holding so much data on us, we're starting to see the danger of that and are questioning what they are doing with it. What if we'd handed our lives over to something even more wide-reaching and insidious than Facebook?
James Smythe explores the ideas of artificial intelligence in a much more realistic way than most science fiction. Despite Organon's original purpose, Laura never stops thinking of it as code, doesn't forget that it is shaped by people and how it learns is up to us. I loved the contrast between Laura's AI and that of Silicon Valley, highlighting the concerns that we have today about who is exactly creating the rules. Laura's AI has empathy of a sort, it had to in order to be what she needed. Silicon Valley's is taught how to play games. The dangers of developing in a monoculture are very real.
The book also revisits the themes of The Machine. Now we're living longer Alzheimer's is a huge concern, whether we fear losing our own memories or having to deal with the slow decline of a parent. Memories make us who we are, and they also allow an AI to learn. Yet our memories are fallible, we shape them to suit us or focus on the bad things. The nostalgia of the early chapters also feed in to the theme of memory, what else is it than warm fuzzies brought on by old memories?
Considering the bleakness of his previous books, I Still Dream left me feeling hopeful. I mean there's sadness, of course; you cannot go through a lifetime without loss. I'm finding it hard to write what the ending meant to me without giving too much away, but it resonated with me as an atheist. Emotional, thought-provoking and a book I could connect with at every level, I loved it.
It's set in the same reality as The Machine and No Harm Can Come to a Good Man, although they are all completely standalone. The references are just a nod and you might not even notice them if you had read the other books. There's a TV adaption in the pipeline too and I can just imagine it with a Halt and Catch Fire vibe.
Review copy provided by publisher.
I Still Dream is a story for my generation, and I don't just mean Millennials but more the older end that is usually lumped in but doesn't quite fit in either it or the previous generation. We grew up as digital technology grew up. Nineties Laura talks to her friends for hour on the landline and runs up bills on the dial-up internet. She makes mix tapes and listens to the same music I listened to. She forms a relationship with a stranger online, with no thought to the possible perils. I usually skim over music stuff in books but for once I got it. Laura could be me.
The story is structured by decades, each section jumping forward ten years. It's Laura's lifetime, with all the road bumps of adulthood along the way. It revisits the past and takes us into a possible future, and manages to capture the zeitgeist whilst doing so. With giant corporations holding so much data on us, we're starting to see the danger of that and are questioning what they are doing with it. What if we'd handed our lives over to something even more wide-reaching and insidious than Facebook?
James Smythe explores the ideas of artificial intelligence in a much more realistic way than most science fiction. Despite Organon's original purpose, Laura never stops thinking of it as code, doesn't forget that it is shaped by people and how it learns is up to us. I loved the contrast between Laura's AI and that of Silicon Valley, highlighting the concerns that we have today about who is exactly creating the rules. Laura's AI has empathy of a sort, it had to in order to be what she needed. Silicon Valley's is taught how to play games. The dangers of developing in a monoculture are very real.
The book also revisits the themes of The Machine. Now we're living longer Alzheimer's is a huge concern, whether we fear losing our own memories or having to deal with the slow decline of a parent. Memories make us who we are, and they also allow an AI to learn. Yet our memories are fallible, we shape them to suit us or focus on the bad things. The nostalgia of the early chapters also feed in to the theme of memory, what else is it than warm fuzzies brought on by old memories?
Considering the bleakness of his previous books, I Still Dream left me feeling hopeful. I mean there's sadness, of course; you cannot go through a lifetime without loss. I'm finding it hard to write what the ending meant to me without giving too much away, but it resonated with me as an atheist. Emotional, thought-provoking and a book I could connect with at every level, I loved it.
It's set in the same reality as The Machine and No Harm Can Come to a Good Man, although they are all completely standalone. The references are just a nod and you might not even notice them if you had read the other books. There's a TV adaption in the pipeline too and I can just imagine it with a Halt and Catch Fire vibe.
Review copy provided by publisher.