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Heirs to a Flawed Creation: Stories from Near Earth
Assassin. Detective. Cop. Interrogator. Lover. Spy Master. Rebel. All of these.
Purpose defines us. It will define the peoples we leave behind when we are gone. We are children playing with the powers of a god. Our creations will be as flawed as their creators. The gift of intellect comes with doubt.
In the none too distant future, tools will become beings in their own right. Factory floors will be the womb of an entire people. Androids will struggle to exist alongside the lesser gods who created them, even as they surpass us.
These stories explore that struggle.
Purpose defines us. It will define the peoples we leave behind when we are gone. We are children playing with the powers of a god. Our creations will be as flawed as their creators. The gift of intellect comes with doubt.
In the none too distant future, tools will become beings in their own right. Factory floors will be the womb of an entire people. Androids will struggle to exist alongside the lesser gods who created them, even as they surpass us.
These stories explore that struggle.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2024
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10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 23, 2024
I thank the author in giving me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
I was kindly asked if I could take advantage of my fluency using Spanish to read this translated version of the book (I haven't read the original version in English btw) as a personal favor. So, in a way, this review reflects both a review on the book per se along with the quality of the translation.
First, I wll focus on the book.
Los herederos de una creación imperfecta (the heirs of an imperfect creation) is more a collection of 7(?) short stories of variable length by the same author within the same story universe of a dystopic cyberpunk future where highly intelligent robots live alongside humans and have been vying for equal human rights.
None of the stories overlap with others (which was a bit of a letdown because I quite personally enjoyed the Irish mobster story a lot and was hoping the various POVs would converge at the end). Another thing is there isn't any true hints the stories are linear, albeit quite possibly some of them are such as the rather weird story of an all female colonization crew headed for Saturn's moons. Later stories mention there are now permanent human encampments as far away as the Kuiper belt.
While I felt some stories were more fun than others, I did enjoy reading all of them, which was a good sign. For some weird reason, each and every dratted story features both human and robot prostitutes. The book never explores a large range of jobs. We don't get stories about robots publishing books, or opening restaurants in the hopes of turning into planetary system famous chefs.
Some of the android sex workers (who unanimously quite enjoy their job) behave a tad bit too much like Jude Law's love-bot in the Artificial Intelligence film. Usually, the bots are semi retired and in long-term mostly monogamous relationships with either a human or sentinent robot. Once I noticed them popping up in the first 3 stories, I sort of started to expect a sex worker to appear in every story. And yes, they do. There isn't a lot of sex scenes in the book, most of the time the characters are just walking around semi or fully naked while they giggle. Some readers might find that grating, I was more neutral about it. More like I was hoping for a chef bot story for the sake of variety. Maybe something like a robot with the memories of Anthony Bourdain or some other historically famous chef travelling around various planets in the search for the ultimate exotic cuisine. Maybe cook a custard cake using frozen kelp that only grows in Ganymedes or something.
One thing that is surprisingly missing in these stories is the lack of a story of a human having their entire life memories implanted into a bot and forming a third political power that don't quite get along with either humans or robots. Clonation exists in this world (with apparently subpar results and are culturally shunned by everyone).
Even though robots want human rights, they unanimously don't really care about working really crummy jobs that humans hate such as waiting tables in restaurants or cleaning streets. UBI doesn't exist in the world, and it seems like sex bots are so ubiquitous and apparently fun to be around that there really isn't a need for humans to have kids at all. I felt quite surprised about how... uhh... promiscuous seemingly everyone is.
Some stories were veering into menwriteswomen territory where there is an inordinate amount of text describing the perkiness of every female character's boobs. The epitome of the mom & daughter chat in the weird colonization story is not about the excitement of living in a new planet. It is... the 'bird & the bees' chat. More specifically, uhh... the length of a guy's uhhh anatomy. A guy none of them have ever met or chatted with. And not with shame, they were both giggling like 13 year olds. That scene was... uncomfortable. Do moms and young adult daughters really giggle about those things? I dunno.
Again, it wasn't a full-fledged turn off for me, but I can imagine other female readers will scratch their heads while reading this book. Overall, it was certainly a different twist on the space colonization story. Got me a lot of I, Robot movie vibes, only several centuries after robot independence. Oh, I did feel it was weird that Pap smears are still needed in the future. If every kid of both genders today got the HPV vaccine, there would no longer be a need to perform that invasive test. I doubt sex bots can give humans STDs.
Now, let's look at the translation. Definitely human-made and for the most part seems stunningly close to what I will presume is the original English version. While it is using clearly Mexican Spanish, the text for the most part will be understood by people that live in other countries. I think the first chapter isn't as well translated as later ones. Perhaps the translator was just getting the hang of it, and the translation improved in later stories. I think overall it was a good translation. Quite a surprising amount of typos though (mostly misplaced accents but also wrong prepositions and other spelling errors), which is an easy fix.
I had quite a good heap of fun reading this book. Good read despite the weird boob fetish stuff.
I was kindly asked if I could take advantage of my fluency using Spanish to read this translated version of the book (I haven't read the original version in English btw) as a personal favor. So, in a way, this review reflects both a review on the book per se along with the quality of the translation.
First, I wll focus on the book.
Los herederos de una creación imperfecta (the heirs of an imperfect creation) is more a collection of 7(?) short stories of variable length by the same author within the same story universe of a dystopic cyberpunk future where highly intelligent robots live alongside humans and have been vying for equal human rights.
None of the stories overlap with others (which was a bit of a letdown because I quite personally enjoyed the Irish mobster story a lot and was hoping the various POVs would converge at the end). Another thing is there isn't any true hints the stories are linear, albeit quite possibly some of them are such as the rather weird story of an all female colonization crew headed for Saturn's moons. Later stories mention there are now permanent human encampments as far away as the Kuiper belt.
While I felt some stories were more fun than others, I did enjoy reading all of them, which was a good sign. For some weird reason, each and every dratted story features both human and robot prostitutes. The book never explores a large range of jobs. We don't get stories about robots publishing books, or opening restaurants in the hopes of turning into planetary system famous chefs.
Some of the android sex workers (who unanimously quite enjoy their job) behave a tad bit too much like Jude Law's love-bot in the Artificial Intelligence film. Usually, the bots are semi retired and in long-term mostly monogamous relationships with either a human or sentinent robot. Once I noticed them popping up in the first 3 stories, I sort of started to expect a sex worker to appear in every story. And yes, they do. There isn't a lot of sex scenes in the book, most of the time the characters are just walking around semi or fully naked while they giggle. Some readers might find that grating, I was more neutral about it. More like I was hoping for a chef bot story for the sake of variety. Maybe something like a robot with the memories of Anthony Bourdain or some other historically famous chef travelling around various planets in the search for the ultimate exotic cuisine. Maybe cook a custard cake using frozen kelp that only grows in Ganymedes or something.
One thing that is surprisingly missing in these stories is the lack of a story of a human having their entire life memories implanted into a bot and forming a third political power that don't quite get along with either humans or robots. Clonation exists in this world (with apparently subpar results and are culturally shunned by everyone).
Even though robots want human rights, they unanimously don't really care about working really crummy jobs that humans hate such as waiting tables in restaurants or cleaning streets. UBI doesn't exist in the world, and it seems like sex bots are so ubiquitous and apparently fun to be around that there really isn't a need for humans to have kids at all. I felt quite surprised about how... uhh... promiscuous seemingly everyone is.
Some stories were veering into menwriteswomen territory where there is an inordinate amount of text describing the perkiness of every female character's boobs. The epitome of the mom & daughter chat in the weird colonization story is not about the excitement of living in a new planet. It is... the 'bird & the bees' chat. More specifically, uhh... the length of a guy's uhhh anatomy. A guy none of them have ever met or chatted with. And not with shame, they were both giggling like 13 year olds. That scene was... uncomfortable. Do moms and young adult daughters really giggle about those things? I dunno.
Again, it wasn't a full-fledged turn off for me, but I can imagine other female readers will scratch their heads while reading this book. Overall, it was certainly a different twist on the space colonization story. Got me a lot of I, Robot movie vibes, only several centuries after robot independence. Oh, I did feel it was weird that Pap smears are still needed in the future. If every kid of both genders today got the HPV vaccine, there would no longer be a need to perform that invasive test. I doubt sex bots can give humans STDs.
Now, let's look at the translation. Definitely human-made and for the most part seems stunningly close to what I will presume is the original English version. While it is using clearly Mexican Spanish, the text for the most part will be understood by people that live in other countries. I think the first chapter isn't as well translated as later ones. Perhaps the translator was just getting the hang of it, and the translation improved in later stories. I think overall it was a good translation. Quite a surprising amount of typos though (mostly misplaced accents but also wrong prepositions and other spelling errors), which is an easy fix.
I had quite a good heap of fun reading this book. Good read despite the weird boob fetish stuff.
April 8, 2024
(Audiobook Review)
Heirs To A Flawed Creation is a profound look at futuristic possibilities involving androids and AI.
This consists of several short stories filled with mystery, crime and slices-of-life set in a future where the advancement of AI brings both conflict and benefits to the human race.
These stories are dark and have moments which will pull at the heartstrings and/or chill you to the bone.
The author has done a marvellous job of incorporating many details and nuances involved in a setting of this sort. Great work and looking forward to more!
Heirs To A Flawed Creation is a profound look at futuristic possibilities involving androids and AI.
This consists of several short stories filled with mystery, crime and slices-of-life set in a future where the advancement of AI brings both conflict and benefits to the human race.
These stories are dark and have moments which will pull at the heartstrings and/or chill you to the bone.
The author has done a marvellous job of incorporating many details and nuances involved in a setting of this sort. Great work and looking forward to more!
Read
December 4, 2024DNF’d about 75% I think it was. The storytelling was enjoyable enough, but I got tired of the constant adult content, and eventually got the the point that I just didn’t want to press play again after I’d paused it. Just a “not for me” one.
March 18, 2025
Heirs to a Flawed Creation: Stories from Near Earth. Great cover by @felipe_bracioli that captured the noir/sci-fi element of the book with the staircase leading you in. This is one of those collections where each new story becomes your favorite. The Only Good Man & The Found Heart are ties for first place with The Interview taking a very,very dark third. The author creates a realistic future where human and android eke out a fragile coexistence. Man-made creations are often on the cusp of achieving their own form of humanity, but acceptance from the original humans a battle they've yet to win.
The story The Found Heart was an emotional rollercoaster ride. I felt it show the best and worst of humans and their creations.
The only Good Man has an retired by the book detective going head- to- head with the future that is replacing his kind. Sci-Fi and Crime Noir blend together so well in this one.
The Interview is extremely dark, and it tells a deep story of how far a human and an android is willing to go to achieve their end goal.
I highly recommend this book to lovers of Sc-Fi, crime and future speculation, and just damn good writing.
The story The Found Heart was an emotional rollercoaster ride. I felt it show the best and worst of humans and their creations.
The only Good Man has an retired by the book detective going head- to- head with the future that is replacing his kind. Sci-Fi and Crime Noir blend together so well in this one.
The Interview is extremely dark, and it tells a deep story of how far a human and an android is willing to go to achieve their end goal.
I highly recommend this book to lovers of Sc-Fi, crime and future speculation, and just damn good writing.
March 25, 2024
Full disclosure: This is me.
I hope you all enjoy these stories. They deal with struggles of being that androids might face. There's a story of trying to rediscover your purpose after you've been discarded. Kash and Otto make for a noir mystery. A retired detective has to deal with his bias against artificial intelligence and his loyalty to the system. I explore young love in space. And the terrifying possibilities of an android interrogator. Androids will be a heightened expression of the people who built them, warts and all.
Do let me know if you enjoyed it.
I hope you all enjoy these stories. They deal with struggles of being that androids might face. There's a story of trying to rediscover your purpose after you've been discarded. Kash and Otto make for a noir mystery. A retired detective has to deal with his bias against artificial intelligence and his loyalty to the system. I explore young love in space. And the terrifying possibilities of an android interrogator. Androids will be a heightened expression of the people who built them, warts and all.
Do let me know if you enjoyed it.
April 15, 2024
Heirs to a Flawed Creation is a compelling collection of stories that offers unflinching glimpses of a future where androids not only coexist with humanity but also, in many ways, surpass us. The vivid stories cover themes of humanity, compassion, and the very essence of what it means to be human. I highly recommend it!
May 20, 2024
This is a great translation of a good book. Full disclosure, I am the author. It was a pleasure to work with my translator to produce Heirs to a Flawed Creation in Spanish. Herederos de una Creacion Imperfecta successfully tells my stories with a native tongue. It is not a word for word translation, but a collaboration that results in something better.
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