⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

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A nifty and chuckle-inducing sci-fi fable, sure to delight fans of Douglas Adams, and the Martha Wells “Murderbot” series.

Nineteen year old Ruby is smart, ambitious, and has a thing about robots. That is to say, she hates them, actually, despises them with every cell of her being, blaming them for her mothers untimely death and most of the ills that have plagued her young world.

Which is not exactly a good position to be in when the year is 2192 and you live on a planetary space station, light years away but still tied to the excesses of a technologically advanced Mother Earth.

In a world where Earth is crawling with robots, most of them driven by advanced AI, Ruby longs for a life free and clear of the influence, control and reach of AI technology and she is prepared to take extreme measures to get there.

All of this changes abruptly when Ruby is introduced to “Swell Driver 587”, a three-foot-tall robot who looks like a colorful snowman and, as his name implies, is good at driving spaceships.

Now nicknamed SD, Ruby’s somewhat harsh introduction to the robot and the adventures that follow are entertaining, clever, insightful and cheekily fun. SD and his robot world are fun to explore, with details expanding to a level that allows the author to draw clever and thought-provoking robot-human parallels on a whole host of interesting themes, some of which include:

• How different really are pre-programmed machine-based algorithms and the human DNA core?
• What does this mean to the illusion of “free will” ?
• Is flawed human genetic coding nothing other “data corruption” leading to compromised behavior?
• How are belief systems imprinted and propagated? What does this imply with respect to the fierceness with which organized religions must defend them? ( I enjoyed and chucked at the very ingenious “Church of Blockchain” reference).
• Is the meaning of creation really resolvable within the frame of reference of the “created” themselves?

Throughout it all, the biggest revelations of all for Ruby may be the surprising ideas she cannot help but consider as her understanding of the robot life evolves.

• Can robots really be evil (as she had been formerly convinced) or are they just doing the bidding of their coding and thus their creator?

I highly recommend this inventive and delightful tale, which I understand is the first in a planned series by the author.

A big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.