Fascinating

A fascinating and very different view of AI and what it means to be human. Loved it!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Interesting concept

It's a relief to see a concept of a "good" AI in fiction rather than the typical evil takeover and it makes this book very refreshing. I really enjoyed the first half of the book and was on board up until that point.

The narration is almost perfect throughout and is very nice listen to.

If you don't really care much about having *some* plausibility (see below) in your sci fi books then this book can be a great read throughout. Otherwise you might find yourself disappointed later on.


*SPOILERS BELOW*


As this is science fiction, you need to be somewhat lenient on how the actual science comes across in the story. It seems as though there are a lot of technological leaps here used purely for story purposes but have a 1/10 for plausibility, to the point where it almost ruined the story itself. An example would be the ability of Emily to be stored on a single small device instead of a server where she originally needs to be. Another is the entire concept of how the evolution genes manifest themselves, it is beyond science fiction and has more "magic" feel to this. The world is shown to have technology not dissimilar to todays technology but it's highly unlikely that a phone can be hacked externally and transformed into a gene manipulation device...

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Enjoyable and Annoying

The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing and it certainly was that, I am not sure if it was the authors intention to make Emily such a pretentious character or not, at the time of a mass extinction of the human race to be taking morality lessons from an “artificial consciousness” was quite frankly ludicrous and I almost wished Emily 2 plans had come to fruition, maybe my moral compass is skewed 😳 that aside the story was enjoyable and engaging, I found the ending a bit trite and simple but it does leave itself open to continue, the narration was excellent and I could listen to that voice all day long (I nearly did too) a good story elevated by better narration and maybe more to come

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Unbelievable made more believable!

Emily Eternal is a lot of what I love about science fiction. M. G. Wheaton has taken something that is pretty unbelievable (the end of the sun five billion years early) and made it perfectly believable. That, and the sentient computer programme, Emily.

Emily has been developed in order to help humanity. Primarily, she is supposed to counsel people who had been through trauma - and there’s a lot of it going around with all the impending doom, climate catastrophes etc. But this counselling has been used as a way of Emily teaching herself to become more human. She learns, constantly. I say “she”, because Emily is portrayed as a normal human being. She has daily routines, washes her hair, sleeps, eats. She learns from the people she counsels and watches through the various security cameras. And she forms attachments with her programmers and the other people she encounters.

But things go horribly wrong, and Emily escapes just in time. She is helped by her human companions for most of the book: Jason and Myra.

I don’t want to say too much more, because if you’re going to read or listen to this, I wouldn’t want to spoil it. It was a gripping story of a computer programme who has taught ‘herself’ how to care for humanity and to do her best for them. I loved it.
Recommended to all those who like Sci-Fi that’s light on the science and heavy on the personal relationships.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!