vN: The Machine Dynasty, Book I

mass market paperback, 368 pages

Published by Angry Robot.

ISBN:: 978-0-85766-542-3

(1 review)

"Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine--a self-replicating humanoid robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother's past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks them, Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive. Now she's on the run, carrying her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive. She's growing quickly, and learning too. Like the fact that in her, and her alone, the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has stopped working. Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her"--Publisher's description.

5 editions

Will Sargent reviewed vN: the first machine dynasty by Madeline Ashby

Review of 'vN' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

A good solid book that starts with "synthetic people" -- sentient robots that look and think like people, and can reproduce by hacking their self-repair functions -- and doesn't go down the rathole of "if only I were a real human."

Instead, vN is about what it means to be a real robot. Are you created for purpose? Is it right to seek revenge on people who created you and your children to be slaves? When you feel programmed love for humans who don't deserve it, how can you trust your own feelings and drives?

vN talks about all this and more. There are places where it's not realistic (in a world with working nanobots and some terrifyingly advanced technology, it's a little odd to think that human bounty hunters and police are still the primary means of law enforcement) but it's always emotionally true, down to the fraught relationship …

A good solid book that starts with "synthetic people" -- sentient robots that look and think like people, and can reproduce by hacking their self-repair functions -- and doesn't go down the rathole of "if only I were a real human."

Instead, vN is about what it means to be a real robot. Are you created for purpose? Is it right to seek revenge on people who created you and your children to be slaves? When you feel programmed love for humans who don't deserve it, how can you trust your own feelings and drives?

vN talks about all this and more. There are places where it's not realistic (in a world with working nanobots and some terrifyingly advanced technology, it's a little odd to think that human bounty hunters and police are still the primary means of law enforcement) but it's always emotionally true, down to the fraught relationship that Amy has with her grandmother, Portia.