What do you think?
Rate this book
Android X #1
Android Paradox
When two equally intelligent androids face off against each other, who wins?
The year is 2300. Humans and androids live in peace after a devastating singularity and years of war.
Xandifer “X” Crenshaw is a special agent android for the United Earth Alliance. His job is to track down rogue androids and destroy them to keep the world safe.
When another android agent goes maverick and starts a killing spree, the fallout could shatter the alliance between humans and androids forever. X hunts him down, but what seems like a simple operation turns weird fast when X discovers that he’s up against something far more sinister that is just as intelligent as him. And whatever it is, it also holds the key to X's forgotten past.
The future belongs to humans and androids...or is that a paradox?
The year is 2300. Humans and androids live in peace after a devastating singularity and years of war.
Xandifer “X” Crenshaw is a special agent android for the United Earth Alliance. His job is to track down rogue androids and destroy them to keep the world safe.
When another android agent goes maverick and starts a killing spree, the fallout could shatter the alliance between humans and androids forever. X hunts him down, but what seems like a simple operation turns weird fast when X discovers that he’s up against something far more sinister that is just as intelligent as him. And whatever it is, it also holds the key to X's forgotten past.
The future belongs to humans and androids...or is that a paradox?
- GenresScience FictionFiction
172 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 25, 2015
13 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Michael La Ronn
77 books167 followersScience fiction and fantasy on the wild side!
Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Android X, Eaten, and The Last Dragon Lord series.
In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that life is too short. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. He’s also a total Final Fantasy geek.
If you're new to Michael's work, visit this link to grab his $1 Series Starters--->www.michaellaronn.com/seriesstarters
Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Android X, Eaten, and The Last Dragon Lord series.
In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that life is too short. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. He’s also a total Final Fantasy geek.
If you're new to Michael's work, visit this link to grab his $1 Series Starters--->www.michaellaronn.com/seriesstarters
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
![Profile Image for [ J o ].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1673171874i%2F4639825._UY200_CR4%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
February 7, 2018
Read as part of the Get Through The Crap On Your Kindle You Stubborn Eejit reading challenge.
Futuristic robot stuff, with rogue androids versus good androids and all kinds of apocalypse-y things...
I think I am judging harsher than is necessary, but my personal feelings can't be ignored with this one.
An android and a human work together to try and stop rogue androids, in a world where robots and people live and work alongside each other, seemingly in harmony. It is pretty much your basic robot sci-fi kind of deal, but with an extra bit of sparkle.
Unfortunately, my utter dislike for the idea that robots/androids/microwaves should be treated like people gets in the way of giving any kind of damn about any robot protagonist. There is no way that I shouldn't hit robots with a hammer just because they look human, or have "feelings". I will hit it with a hammer if I want to.
In most cases, it's what the book says about the human condition in terms of technology and reality that keeps me going when it's stories about androids, but that seemed like it was a far distant thing that would rear its head only maybe at the end of the book or just once or twice throughout. I personally need it constant with something like this.
The book was written fairly well, though there were some really obvious and hideous clichés that jump out at you because they really shouldn't be there and unfortunately the dialogue was pretty much sub-par. However, there was some enjoyable humour and it was incredibly quick-paced: the correct amount for a sci-fi novel. Decent enough, but the subject matter isn't something that can hold my attention.
You can definitely see the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? influences (maybe too obvious at times) but I think it's a pretty decent entry-level sci-fi book for a quick read. Certainly, if you enjoy robots then by all means, give it a bash. Not with a hammer though. Unless you wanna. That's cool, too.
Futuristic robot stuff, with rogue androids versus good androids and all kinds of apocalypse-y things...
I think I am judging harsher than is necessary, but my personal feelings can't be ignored with this one.
An android and a human work together to try and stop rogue androids, in a world where robots and people live and work alongside each other, seemingly in harmony. It is pretty much your basic robot sci-fi kind of deal, but with an extra bit of sparkle.
Unfortunately, my utter dislike for the idea that robots/androids/microwaves should be treated like people gets in the way of giving any kind of damn about any robot protagonist. There is no way that I shouldn't hit robots with a hammer just because they look human, or have "feelings". I will hit it with a hammer if I want to.
In most cases, it's what the book says about the human condition in terms of technology and reality that keeps me going when it's stories about androids, but that seemed like it was a far distant thing that would rear its head only maybe at the end of the book or just once or twice throughout. I personally need it constant with something like this.
The book was written fairly well, though there were some really obvious and hideous clichés that jump out at you because they really shouldn't be there and unfortunately the dialogue was pretty much sub-par. However, there was some enjoyable humour and it was incredibly quick-paced: the correct amount for a sci-fi novel. Decent enough, but the subject matter isn't something that can hold my attention.
You can definitely see the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? influences (maybe too obvious at times) but I think it's a pretty decent entry-level sci-fi book for a quick read. Certainly, if you enjoy robots then by all means, give it a bash. Not with a hammer though. Unless you wanna. That's cool, too.
December 22, 2015
TL;DR Review:
More reviews @ The BiblioSanctum
Longer Review:
In the year 2300, humans and androids are living alongside each other in relative peace. Hundreds of years earlier, when humans first started making more intelligent androids, a singularity war broke out that pitted humans and androids against one another. Humans won the war (though, I’m not really sure how), which created a universal government system and a world that lives mostly in peace. Instead of destroying the androids that betrayed them, a scientist named Dr. Crenshaw came up with part of a simple solution to make them more agreeable to humans. He made androids that had some semblance of emotion. Emotion, he reasoned, would make androids more likely to consider what they are doing when it came to humans, at least. Androids learned they benefited from humans, that humans made them smarter because they always learn at least one of three things from individual humans–history, human nature, and emotion. Though, there were other more technological safety protocols put in place as well, including a black box. Xandifer Crenshaw, an android simply called X, and his human partner, Shortcut, are sent to take down a rogue android hiding in Aruba. What seems to be a simple mission turns into something a bit more complicated as they try to decipher the actions of the rogue android as even more begin pop-up in the story, led by some mysterious human who has a fascination with X. On top of that, androids are being “murdered” and salvaged for their parts. How does this tie into the actions of the rogue androids? Does it tie into the actions of the rogue androids?
I’m not exactly sure how I ended up with this book. I think I got it free on Amazon and the audiobook accompanying it turned out to be cheap as well. I like to take chances on unknown authors, especially when they’re writing about things I love such as artificial intelligence. I was very pleased that this turned out to be a speculative book by an author of color, which one of my goals is to read more speculative fic that are written by authors of color and/or prominently feature characters of color.
I want to get the the things I didn’t like out the way first, which is unusual for me. I typically save that for last. I appreciate La Ronn, who is an author of color, asserting that there are not only people of color in the future but they are making significant contributions to this future as exhibited by Dr. Crenshaw, an African-American scientist credited with making a type of android that was–and still is–far superior to all other androids. However, I felt in the beginning of the book La Ronn’s declarations of people of color being part of the future came off too bold. No, not too bold. A better choice of phrasing is that he was slapping it in our faces obviously instead of allowing this information to be organically part of the story, especially since race isn’t a huge factor in this story. Scenes like having the black father of a black family congratulating X on being black because it’s nice to see “one of us” doing heroic things felt just a bit too much like someone screaming, “People of all races will STILL exist in the future doing things!” Not that I don’t agree with that statement or believe it shouldn’t be pointed out. It just felt a little too flagrant in the beginning. I do think as the story continued La Ronn found a better handle on balancing the idea of a future that includes all races and this story resting around the mystery of rogue androids and something called the “Android Winter.” (And yes I saw the Winter Soldier every single time I read that phrase, and yes, I do believe the phrase: “The Android Winter is coming,” was used in this book.)
There were some things in the book that just felt a little like they were obviously not connected. I’m not sure if he was really trying to make them seem connected or not, but hopefully, he wasn’t because as red herrings they weren’t that perplexing. Some situations felt a little too hokey for me and exceeded my limitations on suspension of belief. One plot device seemed fairly obviously, but I actually liked that he used it because I’m interested in seeing how these ideas that were meant to being about good intentions will be interpreted by a corrupted mind. Those things are probably the biggest of my complaints.
I enjoyed this story. It was fast-paced, action-packed. I like character building, and while there wasn’t much of that here, there were some great nuggets to be gained in some of the interactions between the humans and androids. I really liked the perspective that the androids gave the story and how they felt about their human counterparts and their own “independence.” It also played with the idea of some humans willing to go through whatever necessary to gain some imitation of what androids have without really understanding the full implications of such actions. There was one very small romantic subplot dealing with a human and android that I liked because La Ronn didn’t take it where most writers probably would, especially in a world where android can process emotions to some extent. I won’t say it won’t go there in the future, but right now, I thought it was excellent how he handled that particular moment.
Not having fully fleshed out characters didn’t work against the story for me, though, considering that wasa race through a sci-fi thriller type story. The focus was the action and the idea of this paradox. The phrase “android paradox” is very simple in terms. Despite two android having knowing the courses of actions another android will take and vice versa, they will still engage, even if that means shooting at each other until one of them finally goes down. This paradox makes them both predictable and highly capable, which hurts and helps them when facing each other. This theory played out in intriguing ways throughout the story as we learned more and more about the androids in the year 2300.
I couldn’t stop listening to/turning the pages even though I kept reminding myself that I had other things that I should be doing. Erik Johnson was a great narrator. He did wonderfully on X’s stoic voice and Shortcut’s sarcastic, egotistical tone. I haven’t seen his name credited to any other work, so I’m assuming this series in his first. He did a wonderful job with it, even with the islander voices. Narrators usually are very terrible at islander voices. I don’t care how talented they are, but this Johnson did a fair job with the voices. I found the book to be so much fun, and it left me wanting to know what was going to happen to not just X, but many of the other characters introduced and how their parts will eventually play out in this story. I’ll definitely be buying the second book, Android Deception, to see the continuation of this story.
Narrator: Erik Johnson | Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins | Audiobook Publisher: Ursabrand Media (May 29, 2015) | Whispersync Ready: Yes
More reviews @ The BiblioSanctum
Longer Review:
In the year 2300, humans and androids are living alongside each other in relative peace. Hundreds of years earlier, when humans first started making more intelligent androids, a singularity war broke out that pitted humans and androids against one another. Humans won the war (though, I’m not really sure how), which created a universal government system and a world that lives mostly in peace. Instead of destroying the androids that betrayed them, a scientist named Dr. Crenshaw came up with part of a simple solution to make them more agreeable to humans. He made androids that had some semblance of emotion. Emotion, he reasoned, would make androids more likely to consider what they are doing when it came to humans, at least. Androids learned they benefited from humans, that humans made them smarter because they always learn at least one of three things from individual humans–history, human nature, and emotion. Though, there were other more technological safety protocols put in place as well, including a black box. Xandifer Crenshaw, an android simply called X, and his human partner, Shortcut, are sent to take down a rogue android hiding in Aruba. What seems to be a simple mission turns into something a bit more complicated as they try to decipher the actions of the rogue android as even more begin pop-up in the story, led by some mysterious human who has a fascination with X. On top of that, androids are being “murdered” and salvaged for their parts. How does this tie into the actions of the rogue androids? Does it tie into the actions of the rogue androids?
I’m not exactly sure how I ended up with this book. I think I got it free on Amazon and the audiobook accompanying it turned out to be cheap as well. I like to take chances on unknown authors, especially when they’re writing about things I love such as artificial intelligence. I was very pleased that this turned out to be a speculative book by an author of color, which one of my goals is to read more speculative fic that are written by authors of color and/or prominently feature characters of color.
I want to get the the things I didn’t like out the way first, which is unusual for me. I typically save that for last. I appreciate La Ronn, who is an author of color, asserting that there are not only people of color in the future but they are making significant contributions to this future as exhibited by Dr. Crenshaw, an African-American scientist credited with making a type of android that was–and still is–far superior to all other androids. However, I felt in the beginning of the book La Ronn’s declarations of people of color being part of the future came off too bold. No, not too bold. A better choice of phrasing is that he was slapping it in our faces obviously instead of allowing this information to be organically part of the story, especially since race isn’t a huge factor in this story. Scenes like having the black father of a black family congratulating X on being black because it’s nice to see “one of us” doing heroic things felt just a bit too much like someone screaming, “People of all races will STILL exist in the future doing things!” Not that I don’t agree with that statement or believe it shouldn’t be pointed out. It just felt a little too flagrant in the beginning. I do think as the story continued La Ronn found a better handle on balancing the idea of a future that includes all races and this story resting around the mystery of rogue androids and something called the “Android Winter.” (And yes I saw the Winter Soldier every single time I read that phrase, and yes, I do believe the phrase: “The Android Winter is coming,” was used in this book.)
There were some things in the book that just felt a little like they were obviously not connected. I’m not sure if he was really trying to make them seem connected or not, but hopefully, he wasn’t because as red herrings they weren’t that perplexing. Some situations felt a little too hokey for me and exceeded my limitations on suspension of belief. One plot device seemed fairly obviously, but I actually liked that he used it because I’m interested in seeing how these ideas that were meant to being about good intentions will be interpreted by a corrupted mind. Those things are probably the biggest of my complaints.
I enjoyed this story. It was fast-paced, action-packed. I like character building, and while there wasn’t much of that here, there were some great nuggets to be gained in some of the interactions between the humans and androids. I really liked the perspective that the androids gave the story and how they felt about their human counterparts and their own “independence.” It also played with the idea of some humans willing to go through whatever necessary to gain some imitation of what androids have without really understanding the full implications of such actions. There was one very small romantic subplot dealing with a human and android that I liked because La Ronn didn’t take it where most writers probably would, especially in a world where android can process emotions to some extent. I won’t say it won’t go there in the future, but right now, I thought it was excellent how he handled that particular moment.
Not having fully fleshed out characters didn’t work against the story for me, though, considering that wasa race through a sci-fi thriller type story. The focus was the action and the idea of this paradox. The phrase “android paradox” is very simple in terms. Despite two android having knowing the courses of actions another android will take and vice versa, they will still engage, even if that means shooting at each other until one of them finally goes down. This paradox makes them both predictable and highly capable, which hurts and helps them when facing each other. This theory played out in intriguing ways throughout the story as we learned more and more about the androids in the year 2300.
I couldn’t stop listening to/turning the pages even though I kept reminding myself that I had other things that I should be doing. Erik Johnson was a great narrator. He did wonderfully on X’s stoic voice and Shortcut’s sarcastic, egotistical tone. I haven’t seen his name credited to any other work, so I’m assuming this series in his first. He did a wonderful job with it, even with the islander voices. Narrators usually are very terrible at islander voices. I don’t care how talented they are, but this Johnson did a fair job with the voices. I found the book to be so much fun, and it left me wanting to know what was going to happen to not just X, but many of the other characters introduced and how their parts will eventually play out in this story. I’ll definitely be buying the second book, Android Deception, to see the continuation of this story.
Narrator: Erik Johnson | Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins | Audiobook Publisher: Ursabrand Media (May 29, 2015) | Whispersync Ready: Yes
August 5, 2015
This is an extraordinarily good audio book and a really good story.
First the audio - the narrator aced this one. Each character has a distinct voice and this really brought the book to life. It enabled me to imagine the characters and to lose myself in the story. I think this must be one of the best narrators I have ever listened to.
And for the story:
I don't often read sci-fi about robots/androids but this was a very interesting story that drew me in from the very first sentence.
After many years of war there is finally peace between androids and humans but something or someone is conspiring against this uneasy peace. Xandifer otherwise known as X is an android and a special agent for the United Earth Alliance. He is sent to track down a rogue android who has gone berserk, killing a hundred people and holding an Island community hostage.
When X finally tracks the rogue down he realises that there is more to this than meets the eye. This isn't just a rogue android, this is a rogue android who has been tampered with and a rogue android with a mission.
X and his human colleague Shortcut start to investigate, tracking down rogue androids, viewing the history of their creation and using all kinds of technologies in order to uncover the conspiracy.
Is this a conspiracy against humans or against androids? Why are androids going rogue and who is killing androids and removing their memories?
As Shortcut and X delve into the mystery they realise that there is a conspiracy, but they are yet to understand who is involved and why. All they know is that if they don't find out who is behind this, the peaceful co-existence between Androids and humans will come to a bloody end.
Android Paradox is the first in this trilogy and so this first book kind of sets the scene asking lots of questions which will hopefully be resolved as the books progress.
It is an exciting book and the way in which the author writes it makes the scenes come alive in my mind. It is thrilling in some places, with lots of fast paced suspense. It is brilliant writing and even the complex sci-fi intelligence is described in such a way that it sparks my imagination.
I don't always enjoy sci-fi but the way the writer has crafted this will appeal to any one even if it isn't your usual genre.
I really liked the way the book depicts the android technology. The author is able to capture this in his writing and the narrator breathes it to life in his story telling.
All in all a very good story and an excellent audio.
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.
July 2, 2016
1.5 stars
It was a cool idea, but didn't live up to its potential.
An interesting world is presented in "android paradox" but it's never fully realized. There's not enough world building. Not enough explanation for the androids or the United earth alliance thing. There was a little bit, with the video X watched in the library, but it was very little.
:/ I kinda liked x and shortcut, but they were painfully flat, not fleshed out as all.
The writing was mediocre at best. bland, very little in the way of descriptions, and several typos. :( honestly, it read like a rough draft for a really bad straight to TV action flick.
Very little was actually resolved by the end of the story. :( really it was just a terrible and long set up for the rest of the series.
Not the worst book I've have ever read, especially when compared to the other dreck I've found for free on amason. but certainly not good enough to recommend.
It was a cool idea, but didn't live up to its potential.
An interesting world is presented in "android paradox" but it's never fully realized. There's not enough world building. Not enough explanation for the androids or the United earth alliance thing. There was a little bit, with the video X watched in the library, but it was very little.
:/ I kinda liked x and shortcut, but they were painfully flat, not fleshed out as all.
The writing was mediocre at best. bland, very little in the way of descriptions, and several typos. :( honestly, it read like a rough draft for a really bad straight to TV action flick.
Very little was actually resolved by the end of the story. :( really it was just a terrible and long set up for the rest of the series.
Not the worst book I've have ever read, especially when compared to the other dreck I've found for free on amason. but certainly not good enough to recommend.
October 5, 2017
Torn between 2 & 3 stars. Not sure why or why I gave it 3 but whatever. It was interesting but I don't think it was interesting enough for me to read the other books in the series.
February 7, 2016
This review was originally posted on audiobookreviewer.com
“Android Winter is coming” is something that all the rogue android agents keep mentioning, although no one knows what it is!
In the year 2300, Androids and humans are living in peace. There are a set of rules specified by United Earth Alliance (UEA) that employs androids as special agents to work in the field and a human assistant who handles the engineering side of these androids like fixing and upgrading them.
The story starts with one of the UEA agents Brockway going rogue while still on duty, leading to a massacre of more than a hundred people, he escapes the police and is assumed to be hiding in Aruba. That’s his last known location, because once UEA looses his trail the entire island where Brockway hides also gets disconnected.
Xandifer “X” Crenshaw (referred to as X) is one of the best androids created, whose task is to find such rogue agents and kill them, along with him his human assistant Shortcut are assigned on a mission to find Brockway then look into his blackbox to figure out what went wrong with him, where they are being helped a little boy named Sparrow.
Along side this story of trying to research what goes wrong with once loyal UEA android agents, android parts are being stolen and the human assistant of X, Shortcut, is falling in love with an android, Brielle.
Overall, it is your quintessential sci-fi story with robots and humans, suspenseful, action-packed and at times thrilling. With such a short story, it is worth mentioning that the author managed to frame great characters with nuances of humor and emotion. It gets a little slow for about 20 minutes in between when the author mentions the history about how humans and androids went into war, and how they can now exist today without killing each other, but other than that, it will keep you hooked on. Though, if the author would have described the fight scenes in more detail, it would have definitely added more to the story.
The narration by Erik Johnson was outstanding with very different and unique voices for all the characters in the story, his narration only beefs up the story. The production was good too.
Thanks to audiobookreviewer.com for providing a free copy for review.
“Android Winter is coming” is something that all the rogue android agents keep mentioning, although no one knows what it is!
In the year 2300, Androids and humans are living in peace. There are a set of rules specified by United Earth Alliance (UEA) that employs androids as special agents to work in the field and a human assistant who handles the engineering side of these androids like fixing and upgrading them.
The story starts with one of the UEA agents Brockway going rogue while still on duty, leading to a massacre of more than a hundred people, he escapes the police and is assumed to be hiding in Aruba. That’s his last known location, because once UEA looses his trail the entire island where Brockway hides also gets disconnected.
Xandifer “X” Crenshaw (referred to as X) is one of the best androids created, whose task is to find such rogue agents and kill them, along with him his human assistant Shortcut are assigned on a mission to find Brockway then look into his blackbox to figure out what went wrong with him, where they are being helped a little boy named Sparrow.
Along side this story of trying to research what goes wrong with once loyal UEA android agents, android parts are being stolen and the human assistant of X, Shortcut, is falling in love with an android, Brielle.
Overall, it is your quintessential sci-fi story with robots and humans, suspenseful, action-packed and at times thrilling. With such a short story, it is worth mentioning that the author managed to frame great characters with nuances of humor and emotion. It gets a little slow for about 20 minutes in between when the author mentions the history about how humans and androids went into war, and how they can now exist today without killing each other, but other than that, it will keep you hooked on. Though, if the author would have described the fight scenes in more detail, it would have definitely added more to the story.
The narration by Erik Johnson was outstanding with very different and unique voices for all the characters in the story, his narration only beefs up the story. The production was good too.
Thanks to audiobookreviewer.com for providing a free copy for review.
October 16, 2015
The Android Winter is Coming...
4.5 out of 5
Meet X, an android that is a special agent tasked at finding rogue androids that are becoming more and more frequent. His human partner, Shortcut is there to keep both of them safe. Follow these two as they are trying to figure out what these rogue androids mean when they are saying "the Android Winter is Coming."
The audiobook was read by Erik Johnson who reads it in a dramatization and changes his voice to fit each new character. His inflection and voice were a welcome addition to this novel. The quality is also great, only a few times did I notice a volume fluctuation (usually only for a few seconds). Johnson is a great narrator with a great voice and I will be looking for more of his work. His narration of this book did add a lot to it, especially the style that he chose to use.
I made quick work of this book at only 4 hours or so for the audiobook -- I finished it in 2 short sittings. The story is face paced but thorough. La Ronn does a great job at describing characters and explaining their motives in such a short book. The story ended with a feeling of openness. There are a lot of places that La Ronn can go from here.
Overall, with all of the AI fiction I've been reading lately, I was worried that a book this short wouldn't hold up, but this was good. Reminded me a bit of I, Robot. A great fast-paced technothriller.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.
4.5 out of 5
Meet X, an android that is a special agent tasked at finding rogue androids that are becoming more and more frequent. His human partner, Shortcut is there to keep both of them safe. Follow these two as they are trying to figure out what these rogue androids mean when they are saying "the Android Winter is Coming."
The audiobook was read by Erik Johnson who reads it in a dramatization and changes his voice to fit each new character. His inflection and voice were a welcome addition to this novel. The quality is also great, only a few times did I notice a volume fluctuation (usually only for a few seconds). Johnson is a great narrator with a great voice and I will be looking for more of his work. His narration of this book did add a lot to it, especially the style that he chose to use.
I made quick work of this book at only 4 hours or so for the audiobook -- I finished it in 2 short sittings. The story is face paced but thorough. La Ronn does a great job at describing characters and explaining their motives in such a short book. The story ended with a feeling of openness. There are a lot of places that La Ronn can go from here.
Overall, with all of the AI fiction I've been reading lately, I was worried that a book this short wouldn't hold up, but this was good. Reminded me a bit of I, Robot. A great fast-paced technothriller.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.
April 21, 2020
Michael La Ronn is really good at setting up his characters. The plot was good, fun to listen to and had good pacing. A big part of the enjoyment though was his characters. A story can have a good plot, but the characters are what will make it shine. I've watched some of his author tips videos on youtube and it was fun to see his advice being put into practice.
The only gripe I had with it was that it was too short. I listened to the audiobook while working and it ran about 3/4 hours. I was hooked on the story as it came to it's climax so he accomplished the main goal of any writer, he left me wanting more. I'll delve back into this series as soon as I get the chance.
The only gripe I had with it was that it was too short. I listened to the audiobook while working and it ran about 3/4 hours. I was hooked on the story as it came to it's climax so he accomplished the main goal of any writer, he left me wanting more. I'll delve back into this series as soon as I get the chance.
July 10, 2019
I was very disappointed. There is absolutely no character development at all. The 2 main characters are an android who seems more human than his sidekick, a man who seems to be emotionally stuck as a 16 year old. The story line goes nowhere, except perhaps to the 2nd and 3rd books in the series.
September 30, 2018
While the story had some interesting parts (maybe too many) it ended up trying to shove too much into the story to really flesh anything out.
November 14, 2015
The idea of robots reaching the singularity, becoming self ware and declaring war on humans is a fairly common story in books and movies (see The Terminator and The Matrix as the best known ones) but Michael La Ronn skips all that and move straight to the post-war world, when the androids and humans have made peace. Humans won the war but then went back to making androids, this time with a few limits in place. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Our main characters are X, an Special Agent android, and his human partner, Shortcut. They work for the Earth government putting down rogue androids.
The setting is interesting story has potential, but i don't feel like La Ronn made the most of it. The characters are all extreme, without nuance or middling characteristics. They just seem intense or over the top almost all the time and are hard to take seriously.
The pacing of the book seemed off.
I also feel like La Ronn didn't make good use of the book length he gave himself. It is a fairly short book (clocking in under 4 hours) but there is time used (wasted?) on subplots and things that don't feel like they do anywhere. usually things involving the character Shortcut - fights with his boss whom beat him out for the top job, discussions about his cybernetic implants and trying to get some illegal parts and an attempted romance. I guess these were all trying to flesh out the character but they all rang false to me and didn't play into the main storyline. Maybe if there was only one, two at most, but having so many seemingly pointless tangents and extras around the character just slowed things down.
There are also times La Ronn could have spent more time. Generally with the action sequences. The bare minimum is given in detail, usually falling short of what is needed. There are things like "X opened a cupboard full of guns and knives. He took one of each." It was full, but were they all the same? or 20 different things? because that will clarify how many items he took.
Another point X and another guy are in a gun fight. The whole fight amounts to "they both kept shooting, emptying their guns at each other." Are the ducking and weaving? Hiding? Just standing there doing nothing but shooting? Are they hitting each other? What damage does the gun do to an android? We are told X doesn't have to worry about being hit, but do bullets bounce off (where do they ricochet to?)? do they lodge in him like in a bullet proof vest? does the velocity of a bullet move him at all so that even if he is undamaged he can get knocked over? things like this aren't addressed at all. It makes the 'action' sequences very static.
-----
Erik Johnson does pretty good work with the narration. More of a 3.5 /5, but I rounded up.
He is intense in his reading, managing to carry some excitement into the static sequences.he provides a variety of voices for characters making it easy to tell them apart. He does quite a few accents throughout the book, all performed well. Easy and enjoyable to listen to, I never had an issue following what he was saying.
-----
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.
Our main characters are X, an Special Agent android, and his human partner, Shortcut. They work for the Earth government putting down rogue androids.
The setting is interesting story has potential, but i don't feel like La Ronn made the most of it. The characters are all extreme, without nuance or middling characteristics. They just seem intense or over the top almost all the time and are hard to take seriously.
The pacing of the book seemed off.
I also feel like La Ronn didn't make good use of the book length he gave himself. It is a fairly short book (clocking in under 4 hours) but there is time used (wasted?) on subplots and things that don't feel like they do anywhere. usually things involving the character Shortcut - fights with his boss whom beat him out for the top job, discussions about his cybernetic implants and trying to get some illegal parts and an attempted romance. I guess these were all trying to flesh out the character but they all rang false to me and didn't play into the main storyline. Maybe if there was only one, two at most, but having so many seemingly pointless tangents and extras around the character just slowed things down.
There are also times La Ronn could have spent more time. Generally with the action sequences. The bare minimum is given in detail, usually falling short of what is needed. There are things like "X opened a cupboard full of guns and knives. He took one of each." It was full, but were they all the same? or 20 different things? because that will clarify how many items he took.
Another point X and another guy are in a gun fight. The whole fight amounts to "they both kept shooting, emptying their guns at each other." Are the ducking and weaving? Hiding? Just standing there doing nothing but shooting? Are they hitting each other? What damage does the gun do to an android? We are told X doesn't have to worry about being hit, but do bullets bounce off (where do they ricochet to?)? do they lodge in him like in a bullet proof vest? does the velocity of a bullet move him at all so that even if he is undamaged he can get knocked over? things like this aren't addressed at all. It makes the 'action' sequences very static.
-----
Erik Johnson does pretty good work with the narration. More of a 3.5 /5, but I rounded up.
He is intense in his reading, managing to carry some excitement into the static sequences.he provides a variety of voices for characters making it easy to tell them apart. He does quite a few accents throughout the book, all performed well. Easy and enjoyable to listen to, I never had an issue following what he was saying.
-----
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.
October 8, 2015
I just finished listening to this book and I don't quite know how I feel about it. This is the first book I’ve ever read that falls into the ‘science fiction’ genre so precisely. So if you are a science fiction fan- please take my review with a grain of salt- things that I feel are new and original concepts may be old hat for you. (I have only ever read dystopian science fiction until now.)
It's a original concept-artificial intelligence working with humanity (for the most part). It does feel like anything futuristic having to do with artificial intelligence is more of an ‘us versus them’ scenario. I liked how it was handled differently in this book. But a quick disclaimer- I am not well read in science fiction for the most part, so there could be other books out there with
Something else I liked was the primary character being black. Everything I’ve previously read always seems to have a white male or teenage girl (of any color) as the lead. It gets tedious and makes me feel like there is a ‘formula for the future’ that’s used in writing and must be followed.
There was a lot of extraneous information on secondary characters- it really slowed down the story's momentum and didn’t contribute to the plot at all. It was also odd that for about half of the action scenes there is a lot of detail and then the other half felt like they were written by someone else and ‘skimmed over’ the action sequences. It was really missing consistency. Aside from that, I felt the book was interesting and well written for the most part and had potential to be a page-turning action sci-fi thriller.
The narrator did a good job throughout. He’s well suited for action, able to speak quickly and concisely.
I’m still deciding how I feel about this book. On one hand, it’s a great, well written book with original ideas; but on the other hand, there was just too much information that detracted from the plot and slowed down the book to a near stand still at some points. If it didn’t detract so much from the plot, I could easily ignore it. I think a 2.5 would be a more fitting score for how I feel, but I decided to round up since it's a new genre for me.
I received a free copy of this book from the author, narrator or publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.
It's a original concept-artificial intelligence working with humanity (for the most part). It does feel like anything futuristic having to do with artificial intelligence is more of an ‘us versus them’ scenario. I liked how it was handled differently in this book. But a quick disclaimer- I am not well read in science fiction for the most part, so there could be other books out there with
Something else I liked was the primary character being black. Everything I’ve previously read always seems to have a white male or teenage girl (of any color) as the lead. It gets tedious and makes me feel like there is a ‘formula for the future’ that’s used in writing and must be followed.
There was a lot of extraneous information on secondary characters- it really slowed down the story's momentum and didn’t contribute to the plot at all. It was also odd that for about half of the action scenes there is a lot of detail and then the other half felt like they were written by someone else and ‘skimmed over’ the action sequences. It was really missing consistency. Aside from that, I felt the book was interesting and well written for the most part and had potential to be a page-turning action sci-fi thriller.
The narrator did a good job throughout. He’s well suited for action, able to speak quickly and concisely.
I’m still deciding how I feel about this book. On one hand, it’s a great, well written book with original ideas; but on the other hand, there was just too much information that detracted from the plot and slowed down the book to a near stand still at some points. If it didn’t detract so much from the plot, I could easily ignore it. I think a 2.5 would be a more fitting score for how I feel, but I decided to round up since it's a new genre for me.
I received a free copy of this book from the author, narrator or publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.
July 27, 2015
Overall 4 Stars
Performance 4 Stars
Story 4 Stars
X is an android who works for the UEA, we are never told what that stands for in this book, with his human counterpart. All UEA androids must have a human counterpart because androids, by law, cannot have access to sensitive information that they could possibly use against the humans in an android uprising should another one occur.
A long time ago there was an android uprising that nearly wiped out the human race, but humans and androids have lived together in harmony for over a hundred years. Androids are programmed to not harm or kill humans unless their own existence is threatened. On the rare occasion that an android should kill a human the android is hunted down and killed by removing its black box. This is done by other androids, such as X, who is now called upon to hunt down and kill another android that has gone rogue and killed over a hundred people. The UEA wants the android destroyed and his black box examined in order to find out what went wrong. X is successful in finding and eliminating the rogue android only to find out that a larger plot is afoot; a plot that is much bigger than just one rogue android.
This is book one of a series and as such it ends on quite a cliff hanger. The UEA headquarters has been attacked and many people and androids have been killed sending the UEA into a war it does not want. How will this war play out? What is the “Android Winter” that keeps coming up? Who is the human android hunter going around killing androids and stealing their parts along with their black boxes? What does she want?
I can’t wait for book two to come out to find out how this story ends.
The narrator, Erik Johnson, does a masterful job telling this story. All of his voices, both male and female, android and human, are believable. He was an excellent selection for this book. I hope he continues with book two.
I received this audio book from the author via AudioBookBlast.com in exchange for an honest review.
Performance 4 Stars
Story 4 Stars
X is an android who works for the UEA, we are never told what that stands for in this book, with his human counterpart. All UEA androids must have a human counterpart because androids, by law, cannot have access to sensitive information that they could possibly use against the humans in an android uprising should another one occur.
A long time ago there was an android uprising that nearly wiped out the human race, but humans and androids have lived together in harmony for over a hundred years. Androids are programmed to not harm or kill humans unless their own existence is threatened. On the rare occasion that an android should kill a human the android is hunted down and killed by removing its black box. This is done by other androids, such as X, who is now called upon to hunt down and kill another android that has gone rogue and killed over a hundred people. The UEA wants the android destroyed and his black box examined in order to find out what went wrong. X is successful in finding and eliminating the rogue android only to find out that a larger plot is afoot; a plot that is much bigger than just one rogue android.
This is book one of a series and as such it ends on quite a cliff hanger. The UEA headquarters has been attacked and many people and androids have been killed sending the UEA into a war it does not want. How will this war play out? What is the “Android Winter” that keeps coming up? Who is the human android hunter going around killing androids and stealing their parts along with their black boxes? What does she want?
I can’t wait for book two to come out to find out how this story ends.
The narrator, Erik Johnson, does a masterful job telling this story. All of his voices, both male and female, android and human, are believable. He was an excellent selection for this book. I hope he continues with book two.
I received this audio book from the author via AudioBookBlast.com in exchange for an honest review.
December 30, 2015
I really enjoyed this first book in the series, and I'm looking forward to the next book.
Michael La Ronn did a great job with convincing me that Android easily could be part of our daily life in the future, and of course he touches upon the usual things that will be part of any book or movie about androids/robots in almost any form: the complications involved when they learn to think for themselves - what will happen?
But actually, that's not the main theme here at all. We are. Us. The humans. We are flawed. And deeply so.
The characters are rich and well developed, and even though it is a rather short book, the author manages to get a lot of information and backstory told, along with creating a believable setting for the time we're in, without it ever being boring, or making it feel like an info dump.
Loved it, and I'm ready for the next one!
Android Winter is coming.
I could easily see this as a movie! It would be epic!
Michael La Ronn did a great job with convincing me that Android easily could be part of our daily life in the future, and of course he touches upon the usual things that will be part of any book or movie about androids/robots in almost any form: the complications involved when they learn to think for themselves - what will happen?
But actually, that's not the main theme here at all. We are. Us. The humans. We are flawed. And deeply so.
The characters are rich and well developed, and even though it is a rather short book, the author manages to get a lot of information and backstory told, along with creating a believable setting for the time we're in, without it ever being boring, or making it feel like an info dump.
Loved it, and I'm ready for the next one!
Android Winter is coming.
I could easily see this as a movie! It would be epic!
February 10, 2016
"Isn't it great to be living in the year 2300 where robots and humans coexist after the singularity and the big war after?"
"Yes, I am a robot. A black robot."
"It's about time they started making black robots, because I am African and I think black robots are cool."
That is the kind of exposition you can expect from this book
You'd think that with the word "Paradox" in the title, this would be a smarter book. More than once I thought "he's using fancy words without really knowing what they mean"
Note to aspiring writers: If you write a story about robots and the robots can be replaced by any person, you're writing robot fan-fiction. An instinct chip? Really? Do the robots have urine modules and sex-drives?
Totally uninspired view of the future. No real speculation. Robots are not just people made of metal. Dig a little deeper.
And read Accelerando if you want to know what "Singularity" means.
"Yes, I am a robot. A black robot."
"It's about time they started making black robots, because I am African and I think black robots are cool."
That is the kind of exposition you can expect from this book
You'd think that with the word "Paradox" in the title, this would be a smarter book. More than once I thought "he's using fancy words without really knowing what they mean"
Note to aspiring writers: If you write a story about robots and the robots can be replaced by any person, you're writing robot fan-fiction. An instinct chip? Really? Do the robots have urine modules and sex-drives?
Totally uninspired view of the future. No real speculation. Robots are not just people made of metal. Dig a little deeper.
And read Accelerando if you want to know what "Singularity" means.
July 27, 2016
Not too long and full of action. Easy to read. A popcorn book.
The two leads, X and Shortcut, were enjoyable to read, both sympathetic while pretty different. Shortcut had a rebellious, even childish side, while X was dominated, as an android, by logic, but still had a certain degree of emotion.
I was a bit annoyed by the dialogue-It didn't feel realistic because the characters tended to say exactly what they felt. A bit too on point for my taste. But a minor issue.
There was a nice balance of action, introspection and character development, and if I had the money I would finish the series. Unfortunately, since I could only afford this book because it was free on Kindle, I probably won't. But I would still recommend to anyone looking for popcorn of the androids and action flavor.
The two leads, X and Shortcut, were enjoyable to read, both sympathetic while pretty different. Shortcut had a rebellious, even childish side, while X was dominated, as an android, by logic, but still had a certain degree of emotion.
I was a bit annoyed by the dialogue-It didn't feel realistic because the characters tended to say exactly what they felt. A bit too on point for my taste. But a minor issue.
There was a nice balance of action, introspection and character development, and if I had the money I would finish the series. Unfortunately, since I could only afford this book because it was free on Kindle, I probably won't. But I would still recommend to anyone looking for popcorn of the androids and action flavor.
October 30, 2015
This was my first publication that I've read in E-book form. Very fast paced to the point where I thought that the characters did suffer a little from shallow development and background. The combat scenes however benefited immensely from the author's writing style, being smooth, fluid and quick while still having fleshy adjectives to pull the reader into the action. The story itself wasn't a very innovative one, the themes having been explored in many Sci-fi/Android stories I have read before but overall I very much enjoyed the way Michael La Ronn writes.
October 25, 2015
** I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review **
I enjoyed this from beginning t end, it was well narrated and kept my attention all the way through!
We have X an advanced android and his human partner Shortcut who track rogue androids and stop them before they do something really bad....they work for the UEA...well more and more androids are going crazy and the keep hinting that the "ANDROID WINTER" is coming...X is frantically trying to find out what that means and no one is talking!
GREAT LISTEN WILL CONTINUE THIS SERIES!
Thank You Audiobookblast(dot)com
I enjoyed this from beginning t end, it was well narrated and kept my attention all the way through!
We have X an advanced android and his human partner Shortcut who track rogue androids and stop them before they do something really bad....they work for the UEA...well more and more androids are going crazy and the keep hinting that the "ANDROID WINTER" is coming...X is frantically trying to find out what that means and no one is talking!
GREAT LISTEN WILL CONTINUE THIS SERIES!
Thank You Audiobookblast(dot)com
April 18, 2022
When androids start going rogue and killing humans, the android-human duo of X and Shortcut are called in to get the situation under control. What they discover will shake them both to their very core.
Lovers of all things cybernetic will enjoy this action-packed sci-fi novella with characters who are all too human – even when they're not.
A solid 4.5 stars. Well-written and well edited. There were a few spots where the bounds of credulity were stretched a bit too far, but if you can get past that, you're in for a good read.
Lovers of all things cybernetic will enjoy this action-packed sci-fi novella with characters who are all too human – even when they're not.
A solid 4.5 stars. Well-written and well edited. There were a few spots where the bounds of credulity were stretched a bit too far, but if you can get past that, you're in for a good read.
October 10, 2015
"As he walked up the stairs, two rats ran underneath the porch, burrowing into a pile of trash and trampling over cellophane as they disappeared into the foundation of the house. One rat was real, the other robotic."
Seriously, what society would choose to expand their rodent population by adding robotic rats?
May 4, 2016
Pretty good.
Didn't expect it to be really good. Lots os action and a special bonus perspective, once the story is mostly in the android's perspective.
Didn't expect it to be really good. Lots os action and a special bonus perspective, once the story is mostly in the android's perspective.
April 19, 2017
Not sure who recommended the book to me. This is an ok book with tolerable plots that does not have any punchline, merely a bait to get to book 2. It's probably not worth the time.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews