Overview

George Simling has grown up in the city state of Illyria in the Eastern Mediterranean, an enclave of logic and reason founded as a refuge from the Reaction, a wave of religious fundamentalism that swept away the nations of the twenty-first century. Yet to George, Illyria's militant rationalism is as close-minded and stifling as the faith-based superstition that dominates the world outside its walls. For George has fallen in love with Lucy. A prostitute. A robot. She might be a machine, but the semblance of life is perfect. And beneath her good looks and real human skin, her seductive, sultry, sluttish software is simmering on the edge of consciousness. To the city, authorities robot sentience is a malfunction, curable by periodically erasing and resetting silicon minds. Simple maintenance, no real problem, it's only a machine. But it's a problem for George, he knows that Lucy is something more. His only alternative is to flee Illyria, taking Lucy deep into the religious Outlands where she must pass as human because robots are seen as demonic mockeries of God, burned at the stake, dismembered, crucified. Their odyssey leads through betrayal, war and madness, ending only at the monastery of the Holy Machine .

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9781848876569

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Reviews

Let's waste no time: this book is incredible * Interzone * One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time... A triumph * Asimov's * Should be on the radar of anyone who professes concern for science fiction as a literary form * Alastair Reynolds *

Should be on the radar of anyone who professes concern for science fiction as a literary form * Alastair Reynolds * One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time... A triumph * Asimov's * Let's waste no time: this book is incredible * Interzone *

Let's waste no time: this book is incredible Interzone One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time... A triumph Asimov's Should be on the radar of anyone who professes concern for science fiction as a literary form Alastair Reynolds

Karen writes: This excellent stand alone Sci-fi novel deals with what makes us human. The world is divided by faith. A chaotic impoverished majority have rebelled against the wealthy science/atheist community and most are locked out of the rich Balkan city-state. Robots fulfil service and policing roles and some, covered with a layer of living flesh, called syntecs, are even programmed to fulfil a person's sexual fantasies. A virtual world that hooks up to the human brain can fulfil almost every desired human experience. As robots become more sophisticated and self taught the question of sentience is raised. George, a comfortably off white collar administrator, becomes obsessed with Lucy one of the syntecs who service a high class "brothel". George's job takes him into the frontier lands and when Lucy stops behaving as programmed he flees to these lands with Lucy in tow. There is terrific tension in the novel as the powerful wealthy city state and the superstitious masses try to appropriate the sentient or holy, depending on your view; Lucy for their own ends. This novel raises all sorts of fascinating issues, many contemporary, but it never loses the powerful narrative that makes it so enjoyable.

Author Information

Chris Beckett is a former social worker and now university lecturer who lives in Cambridge. Beckett has written over 20 short stories, many of them originally published in Interzone and Asimov's. In 2009, he won the Edge Hill Short Story Competition for his collection of stories The Turing Test.

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