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readhikerepeat's review
4.0
From The Book Wheel:
I received this book from CCLaP in exchange for a fair and honest review.
When Rebecca at Love at First Book first recommended this book, I was a little bit wary because I’m not big into robots. I haven’t watched all of Wall-E and I fell asleep during iRobot. The only robots I like are the Brave Little Toaster and, of course, Rosie from The Jetsons. But, Rebecca rarely steers me wrong and the other reviews I had seen were overwhelmingly positive, so I bit the bullet.
Trust me, no one is more surprised by how much I loved this book than I am. Sad Robot Stories is a charming novella by the young Mason Johnson about a single robot, Robot. From his first day on the assembly line to his days working alongside humans, Robot knew that he was different. He was a little bit too interested in how humans interacted and began to pay attention to them. After being welcomed into the home of a human family, Robot knew he was forever changed.
For the full review, click here.
I received this book from CCLaP in exchange for a fair and honest review.
When Rebecca at Love at First Book first recommended this book, I was a little bit wary because I’m not big into robots. I haven’t watched all of Wall-E and I fell asleep during iRobot. The only robots I like are the Brave Little Toaster and, of course, Rosie from The Jetsons. But, Rebecca rarely steers me wrong and the other reviews I had seen were overwhelmingly positive, so I bit the bullet.
Trust me, no one is more surprised by how much I loved this book than I am. Sad Robot Stories is a charming novella by the young Mason Johnson about a single robot, Robot. From his first day on the assembly line to his days working alongside humans, Robot knew that he was different. He was a little bit too interested in how humans interacted and began to pay attention to them. After being welcomed into the home of a human family, Robot knew he was forever changed.
For the full review, click here.
hsienhsien27's review
5.0
Sad Robot Stories is a CClap novella; it was released a while ago. I’m not sure when, but that doesn’t matter. Despite the fact that it takes place through the mind of a robot, Sad Robot Stories is a coming of age novella. The main character, simply called Robot, is a machine that feels for humans and is an outcast amongst other robots. For some reason, he sympathizes with the humans that surround him, and wants to break through the monotonous life of a machine. So he ventures out and hangs out with humans, befriends them, and then the world ends, leaving him all alone. I feel like Robot might just be a metaphor, is a metaphor the right way to explain this? Robot is a symbol of alienation, the type of person who isn’t in the crowd, a misunderstood person. When he ventures out to other people, he is soon accepted. There is somebody out there who will take you into their world and become your companion; you just have to find them. The coming of age theme seems to be the development in all of the characters, where they change and grow out of their flaws. They move on and accept the changes around them. There is nothing more human than accepting what surrounds you, even if you have to claw your own eyes out to see how it feels. When everything is gone, the only thing a person needs to understand is that everything is temporary. I feel like I’m not doing justice for this book, I don't really have much to say about it. it’s really one of those books that warms your heart, just like the characters’ relationships with books. It’s one of those books that you look back on and think, “Wow, that was a really nice story.”
rebeccafromflorida's review
5.0
I received this book from CCLaP in exchange for a fair and honest review.
A robot with feelings? A robot who makes me cry because of how amazing he is? A robot who loves humans?
Robot (that’s his name) might seem unique to you, and it’s true because in Sad Robot Stories by Mason Johnson, he’s actually unique to everyone.
The book opens up with the how-can-you-not-be-hooked first line of:
“The general consensus was that the apocalypse had made everything considerably quieter.”
For the full review, visit Love at First Book
A robot with feelings? A robot who makes me cry because of how amazing he is? A robot who loves humans?
Robot (that’s his name) might seem unique to you, and it’s true because in Sad Robot Stories by Mason Johnson, he’s actually unique to everyone.
The book opens up with the how-can-you-not-be-hooked first line of:
“The general consensus was that the apocalypse had made everything considerably quieter.”
For the full review, visit Love at First Book
selfwinding's review
3.0
Interesting robot narrative. Really enjoyed the interaction between Robot and Mike's family, and really enjoyed the touch on gender and love and a robot falling into heteronormitivity because of society more so than programming.
I do wish this had stayed Robot's story, though, and there wasn't a first person human narrator involved.
I do wish this had stayed Robot's story, though, and there wasn't a first person human narrator involved.
pksmke's review
4.0
The saving grace of “Sad Robot Stories” is that I can understand why Robot was sad at having lost Mike and Sally. I loved the histories Johnson gave these two characters. From social outcast to pulp novel enthusiast to womanizer to, finally, devoted family man and robot friend, we get to know Mike’s charms and shortcomings. The private school and university educated Sally, with her interest in literature and artificial intelligence, is representative of Millennial women who surpass their male counterparts in education and employment opportunity. And Sally’s drive to perfect Gladys’ AI creativity feels like a quest for immortality normally reserved for men, or expressed as devotion to childrearing.
Johnson’s description of Robot’s siblings in the post-catastrophe world was entertaining. One can sympathize with their relief at being freed, like slaves, from their human masters. The “faithful” community represents the next step on the AI evolutionary rung in which the programmers used religion to subjugate the slaves. It could have been an opportunity to further explore conflict between robots, but instead of resolving the conflict it was ended by a convenient plot device—e.g. lightning bolt.
Some might point out that there were warnings of the human resurrection at the end – the unexplained first person narration inserted from time to time. While I noticed and wondered about the identity of the narrator, I had rather hoped it was Gladys. On the other hand, I do agree with one statement by the unnamed narrator: “I can tell a story though. Robot taught me how.”
Johnson’s description of Robot’s siblings in the post-catastrophe world was entertaining. One can sympathize with their relief at being freed, like slaves, from their human masters. The “faithful” community represents the next step on the AI evolutionary rung in which the programmers used religion to subjugate the slaves. It could have been an opportunity to further explore conflict between robots, but instead of resolving the conflict it was ended by a convenient plot device—e.g. lightning bolt.
Spoiler
Other parts of the story left me feeling cheated or disappointed. Why spend 90% of the narrative telling the reader that humanity has been snuffed out, only to miraculously uncover survivors in collapsed buildings and floating at sea in the final pages? Was the rest just an episode of Dallas? Doesn’t the survival of humans without any other animal species present problems? Until then, it seemed that Johnson was leading up to a world in which humanity was immortalized by its creation of an artificial species made in its own image. Why not? Humanity will become extinct some day, wouldn’t an artificial replacement species be a noble final legacy? Did some editor convince Johnson that people wouldn’t want to read about a world that didn’t include them?Some might point out that there were warnings of the human resurrection at the end – the unexplained first person narration inserted from time to time. While I noticed and wondered about the identity of the narrator, I had rather hoped it was Gladys. On the other hand, I do agree with one statement by the unnamed narrator: “I can tell a story though. Robot taught me how.”
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