The Sadness Box, by Suzanne Palmer

The setting for The Sadness Box is America projected forward maybe 15 or 20 years, with worse climate.  Saying that, you'd figure the setting itself is the sadness box.  But no, it's a box built by a boy's father, a very detached inventor.  It is an AI built to be paranoid, and turn itself off every time it's turned on.  A useless machine.  But the protagonist finds a way to get through to it.  The boy just trying to live his life in this setting is sad enough.  Oof.

Falling Off the Edge of the World, by Suzanne Palmer

Asmov's Science Fiction has put Falling Off the Edge of the World out for free temporarily during award season.  It's a very sweet and readable story of a crew searching for a lost ship, gone 30 years.  They find it in strange but not horrifying condition, and unexpectedly a couple of survivors--maybe?  Not a groundbreaking story but well crafted and entertaining, worth the read.

Bots of the Lost Ark, by Suzanne Palmer

The second in this series and both won Hugos. The story is absolutely fun to read. The spaceship carrying what might be the last of humanity has suffered heavy damage from aliens trying to wipe them out, and now faces internal issues as well--bots that have been directed to take on the tasks and personas of their human crew in stasis. They get a little too into their roles. Palmer gives the characters personality and a good problem space to work in. Go read it.

My Goodreads Review

The Secret Life of Bots, by Suzanne Palmer

The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is an enjoyable little novelette. It's a bit standard for a Hugo win, but it will contend. Highly humanized robots have always been a thing, and they definitely are this year (see All Systems Red and Fandom for Robots). Sometimes I think about wanting to see a story from a more uniquely "robotic" perspective, but then again, we are creating them so I guess it's a good bet that they will end up with our personalities. Anyway, it's worth the time to read.



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