Review: The Automaton by Ian Young

Blurb:

Humanity is on the cusp of extinction. Deteriorating populations threaten the planetary economy and risk the collapse of humanity itself. In desperation, human-like machines are built to serve where man no longer can.

These are the Automata.

Five thousand years later, humankind no longer walks the Earth, but has ascended beyond biology to float above Earth in a hemisphere-spanning supercomputer. When an anomaly arises on Earth that not even a post-biological civilization can comprehend, XR-345x—a long-deactivated top-of-the-line automaton—is awoken in a derelict facility deep within the overgrown jungles of Africa.

With help from Hank—a mysterious holographic A.I.— XR must learn of the advent of the automata and the resulting civil unrest, to a war that destroyed humanity’s trust in their would-be saviors, to racial disparities that divided the globe, to love eventually building a bridge that ultimately saved the human race.

At the same time, a violent automaton faction threatens XR, the anomaly, and what they represent for the future of Earth. Time is one thing the automaton does not have.

Review:

To begin this review, I’d like to apologize for taking about four months to actually start writing it. However, even with the four months having passed, this novel has stayed in my head to this day. And that's mostly due to the fact that there are few novels out there that gave me the same feeling as Isaac Asimov's writing does.

If I had to sell this book in a quick second, I’d say this:

“A machine stirs in an abandoned facility, with a voice to guide it through turmoil. And what's more, forgotten memories begin to surface. Care for more info?”,

all while getting a large scroll out of an antiquated backpack, ready to give said “more info”.

To start this off, we have the main character, the man, or in this case, the robot of the hour, XR, and his virtual assistant, Hank. XR goes through this novel reliving the experiences of a robot that lead up to a point, and through those interactions, learns more about the world he finds himself in, all while literally being chased by ghosts in the machine. The automata XR finds itself going from an uncaring robot to a man, all while not ruining the suspense that was had while reading. I liked how Young was able to carry that through the novel, stringing me along to the final part of the novel.

While XR is reliving a lot of past events, Hank is just vibing, being a virtual assistant, doing virtual assistant things. He does have a twist at the very end, and that part was well thought out, especially because it was unclear to see that while reading the shenanigans of the past.

That brings me to the plot. If you’ve read “The Positronic Man” by Asimov, then you’re familiar with the centuries of history that can happen for a machine. Young takes that to a whole new level, with shenanigans happening that are both similar to that tale and other shenanigans playing out that are completely different. That’s the one half of the book, the other half is a gamut of learning about how the world got to the point where XR is being woken up in the middle of Africa by Hank while escaping from mindless robots that want to add him to their hive. Until the end, where all is… well… RAFO.

From there, we have the world building, which is somewhat simple in regards to the fact that “The Automaton” takes place in our world. What doesn’t make it simple is the fact that almost everything else that happens after the 21st century, 2022 and beyond, is science fiction, with a new war a la terminator style, racism to robots that want to be like humans, and digitally uploading consciousness to the cloud. All of it meshes well, delivering a good ending that makes me want to see more of “The Automaton” universe.

Lastly, due to my need to find criticism of any book, I’d have, for this one, it was too short. Parts of the novel could’ve gone even more in depth, exploring more of the Sci-Fi world, and could’ve said more on some topics. But that’s my own opinion, it can be seen by everyone else differently, so I encourage everyone who’s read this review to go make their own opinion of it.

Now, if you enjoy robots, science fiction history and lots and lots of drama between the automata and humans, “The Automata” is for you.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards the book to add to your TBR-pile. However, if I haven’t, don’t fret, since we over here on this review team have a massive selection of reviews for you to peruse. Novels from every conceivable genre, with reviewers from all around the globe. If you’re feeling adventurous, a link to a review will be here → link to review. It might be something up your alley, it might not. Go check out what other reviewers are saying.
As always, wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!