SF, but the kind of soft-around-the-edges SF that creates a world for you without really needing to get into the details of how it works. The viewpoint character Klara is a solar-powered AF, an artificial intelligence designed to be a dedicated friend to some child wealthy and lonely enough to need one; that lonely child is Josie, whose parents have made choices that now define their lives and hers. Klara’s combination of innocence and fiercely detailed observational skills allow her to make piercing insights about the human characters, while also remaining childishly naïve about the humans’ motives. I particularly loved Ishiguro’s rendering of her understanding of the world, which brought items to the foreground of her attention depending on their urgency, and categorized actions into shifting area boxes; when she is disturbed, the boxes and priorities devolve into a colorful, shifting mess of meaningless geometries. Very well done.
Day: June 29, 2022
Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Really short and focused compared to previous Tchaikovsky reads. It starts out feeling like a fantasy novel, with a princess running away to seek the help of an legendary wizard… but then you find out that the wizard is actually a hapless anthropologist, stranded when he came to study a far-flung space colony, and his fabled magics are really just Clarke’s third law in action. The characters were thoughtfully created and beautifully executed, and their internal, interpersonal, and external conflicts were all brilliantly woven together, with the narrative giving each time to develop and grow. Really solid piece.