Machines Like Me - Rambling Readers

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Feb. 12, 2020 by Vintage.

ISBN:: 978-1-5291-1125-5
OCLC Number:: 1152882489

(2 reviews)

London: an alternative 1980s. Britain has lost the Falklands war, Thatcher battles for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.

Charlie, drifting through life, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. This near-perfect being is beautiful, strong and clever — a love triangle soon forms. As the true nature of Miranda's secret becomes clear, the three will confront a profound moral dilemma, and ask questions about what makes us who we are, and whether a machine can ever understand the human heart. --back cover

11 editions

Slow_Lee@bookwyrm.social reviewed Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

Review of 'Machines Like Me' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This book was a mandatory read for a course I’m following, the main reason being the relationship between the humans and the AI, Adam. As someone who is actively studying the human relationship to technology, it was quite interesting to see the dynamic between Charlie, Miranda and Adam develop. I wish I would have bet money on how it would end though. Spoiler: the same way as every other fiction about this topic. Sympathy for the AI. All the political context seemed to be no more than a distraction from the predictability of the story. Why two stars? Because somehow I was still curious to see how little Mark would end up and how Miranda’s court case would turn out. It passed my time. Otherwise, pretty unnecessary book.

Sean Randall reviewed Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

Review of 'Machines Like Me' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What an evocative work. So different and distant from me, yet some of the overtones stick. To be despised by a man you admire. To have your life torn apart by truth and forthright honesty. To harm, to forgive, and yet to be trapped in a seemingly perpetual state of being damaging to oneself ... all these things rise from the pages here, shining brilliantly and brightly through the lens of a Britain and a technology we've yet to master.

Or perhaps it's just that I finished reading this novel before sunrise, tossed around emotionally without the surcease of sleep to cloak and protect my thoughts.
However deep you care to go, there's something in here to catch the eye and stir the senses. A moving, intrusive novel, with a gentle, almost uncharacteristically diffident feel to its messages with a seemingly disproportionately potent ability to hold me captive and induce …

What an evocative work. So different and distant from me, yet some of the overtones stick. To be despised by a man you admire. To have your life torn apart by truth and forthright honesty. To harm, to forgive, and yet to be trapped in a seemingly perpetual state of being damaging to oneself ... all these things rise from the pages here, shining brilliantly and brightly through the lens of a Britain and a technology we've yet to master.

Or perhaps it's just that I finished reading this novel before sunrise, tossed around emotionally without the surcease of sleep to cloak and protect my thoughts.
However deep you care to go, there's something in here to catch the eye and stir the senses. A moving, intrusive novel, with a gentle, almost uncharacteristically diffident feel to its messages with a seemingly disproportionately potent ability to hold me captive and induce disturbing levels of cogitation.