Sunday, December 15, 2019

Quality Time, by Ken Liu

Quality Time is part of the anthology Robots vs. Fairies, and was a finalist for the Locus award for novellas this year.  Liu is a master storyteller at this length, and in this one he takes on Silicon Valley.  The protagonist is a liberal arts major hired on as a project manager at a robot company.  It's got all the tropes--engineers going forward heedless of the problems their inventions are causing, founder worship, and an older female engineer providing a needed dose of skepticism.  But it's a more positive story than many in this vein.  I think Liu believes that technology is on balance going to continue to be a force for good, if we watch over it.  I hope so.  A strong 3 stars.


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