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A review by thisisgettingstupid999
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
3.0
London 1982. A single event (we discover very late in the book), decades earlier, has changed the course of history and Charlie has just taken delivery of Adam, a very life-like android.
I really enjoyed the description of Adam’s first days – from plugging in the charger to having a fully-grown naked man standing in the kitchen.
In the background, the Falklands war is lost, governments are formed and dissolved and there’s civil unrest on the streets. Meanwhile, Charlie and Adam ramble on and on about the meaning of life. Yawn.
Charlie and Adam live with Miranda, Charlie's neighbour-then-partner-then-wife. I don’t understand why she’s ten years younger than Charlie, at 22, and her young age makes the improbable storyline about adopting a child, even less probable. She seems totally devoid of character – even more so than Adam the android! What’s more , they all seem to live in a bubble , without jobs or social contact (except Miranda’s equally unlikely father) . When, late on in the book they mention having friends round to dinner, my reaction was – what??? They’ve got friends??!!
Perhaps McKewan was trying to cram in too many ideas when he wrote this book. At its heart it's an intriguing story of human interaction with artificial intelligence and this is the element that worked.
I really enjoyed the description of Adam’s first days – from plugging in the charger to having a fully-grown naked man standing in the kitchen.
In the background, the Falklands war is lost, governments are formed and dissolved and there’s civil unrest on the streets. Meanwhile, Charlie and Adam ramble on and on about the meaning of life. Yawn.
Charlie and Adam live with Miranda, Charlie's neighbour-then-partner-then-wife. I don’t understand why she’s ten years younger than Charlie, at 22, and her young age makes the improbable storyline about adopting a child, even less probable. She seems totally devoid of character – even more so than Adam the android! What’s more , they all seem to live in a bubble , without jobs or social contact (except Miranda’s equally unlikely father) . When, late on in the book they mention having friends round to dinner, my reaction was – what??? They’ve got friends??!!
Perhaps McKewan was trying to cram in too many ideas when he wrote this book. At its heart it's an intriguing story of human interaction with artificial intelligence and this is the element that worked.