Thursday 2 August 2012

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: The First Machine Dynasty 1: vN - Madeline Ashby

Release Date: 02/08/12

SYNOPSIS:

Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother's past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive. Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she's learning impossible things about her clade's history - like the fact that she alone can kill humans without failsafing -


REVIEW:

When you write a book with Robots as a central character you have to be very careful as they can come across as cold as well as impersonal which then makes them nigh impossible for the reader to associate with. What Madeline does with this book is bring out the human side as the principle character, Amy who is in Kindergarten when we meet her for the first time, brings this future world to the reader in not only an emotional way but on a journey of self-discovery that will have profound effects upon all involved.

Its wonderfully written, there’s just the right amount of action to increase pace but the real discovery within is the changes that she makes as she gains experience of life on the run. Add to this solid prose, a great concept within and an overall arc that allows the reader to see the world though her eyes and all in this is a great release for a first time author. I’ll definitely be reading more by Madeline in the future.

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