I liked Annie Bot a lot more than I expected to. I picked it up after seeing it on Steven Soderbergh’s media diet list, and even then I was reticent to open it up. The Goodreads reviews are mid (at least those written by people I trust there), and I’m an admitted science-fiction snob. Several comparisons to Hum, which I didn’t care for, had me trepidatious going in.
Sometimes you gotta trust the process. Sierra Greer’s debut is the real deal.
Annie Bot is a sentient android who narrates the story. She’s a near-sentient sex toy for her human owner, Doug. He’s not a good person, and as Annie’s intelligence steadily develops, she realizes she has to escape.
Through Annie, Greer explores themes of autonomy, ownership, gender relationships, and the human relationship with technology in a way that resonates long after the book is done. This story arc has been done before – the TV series Humans and the comic series Alex and Ada were the two things that sprang to mind now and then — but Greer sticks the landing in Annie Bot better than either of those.
To say more would be to spoil it – it’s a short book (under 250 smallish pages), and there’s very little wasted space. It’s fairly sexually explicit, and has some serious violence and misogyny, but none of it gratuitous.
I wonder if Soderbergh is going to pursue an adaptation of this – it seems like something that would be a good match for him. At any rate, I’m glad he shared his media diet or I would have likely missed it entirely.
Further Reading
Annie Bot on Book Marks
