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A review by jaikney
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Undoubtedly another string to Ishiguro's bow, hopping genre to contemporary sci-fi.
I found the characters often spoke more as allegories than as people, and the innocence of Klara's perspective sometimes leaked into twee.
It's a pretty novel, but I struggled to connect with it. At times it felt like an extended short story, and its fairytale aspect took me out of the experience.
Perhaps it's not surprising that the perspective of a 'non-person' (i.e. artificial intelligence) struggles to portray real people in as authentic and multiplicitous a way as I'd like. An interesting limitation to consider in ourselves when the time comes for us to understand AI sentience.
I found the characters often spoke more as allegories than as people, and the innocence of Klara's perspective sometimes leaked into twee.
It's a pretty novel, but I struggled to connect with it. At times it felt like an extended short story, and its fairytale aspect took me out of the experience.
Perhaps it's not surprising that the perspective of a 'non-person' (i.e. artificial intelligence) struggles to portray real people in as authentic and multiplicitous a way as I'd like. An interesting limitation to consider in ourselves when the time comes for us to understand AI sentience.