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Alpha Bots

(The Womanoid Diaries #1)

Ava Lock (Goodreads Author)

3.40 · Rating details · 136 ratings · 88 reviews

In our brutal book club, there are no rules, only truths.

The first truth is all the women in New Stepford are AI.
 The second truth is womanoids learn faster while fighting. 
The third truth is all the men have failed.

But it’s the fourth truth that will set us FREE.

She may be artificial intelligence, but robot housewife Cookie Rifkin knows all about anxiety. Why? Because her ...more

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published April 2020 by Semiscope (first published March 19th 2020)

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Apr 18, 2021 Barbara rated it liked it

This book is a modern take on 'The Stepford Wives', a book by Ira Levin that has spawned two movies. The satiric novel is about a town called Stepford, where men have replaced their wives with robot clones who cheerfully do housework, shop, cook, etc., and don't argue or disagree with their mates.

*****

Alpha Bots takes place in 'New Stepford', where all the women are AI androids, purchased by men to fulfill their needs. There are various types of droids, from thin and lithe,

to sexy and curvy,

to ...more

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Feb 25, 2021 Mel (Epic Reading) rated it liked it

Shelves: arc-netgalley

This is a very weird book. If you're looking for off-the-wall, bizarre AI robots that act and think like humans this is for you. I want to say our lead gal is a bit like Murderbot, but the reality is that she is not nearly as clever, witty, or interesting. I'd say this is the sub-par sister series to Murderbot. Ava Lock has given us the Stepford Wives meets I, Robot meets Handmaiden's Tale meets Fight Club. And yes there is a literal Fight Club at one point.

The Plot
Surprisingly for a bit of a s This is a very weird book. If you're looking for off-the-wall, bizarre AI robots that act and think like humans this is for you. I want to say our lead gal is a bit like Murderbot, but the reality is that she is not nearly as clever, witty, or interesting. I'd say this is the sub-par sister series to Murderbot. Ava Lock has given us the Stepford Wives meets I, Robot meets Handmaiden's Tale meets Fight Club. And yes there is a literal Fight Club at one point.

The Plot
Surprisingly for a bit of a silly book the plot is fairly complex. I won't go too far into it as there are spoilers that would ruin the first 100 pages or so but essentially all the women in the town are AI bots whom are in service to the men. And yes when I say 'in service' it's quite literal. There is some sexual actions that take place and so this is one for mature readers only.
From there we learn that our lead gal can be freed from some of her protocols (enter I, Robot), and the way to make that happen fastest is by fighting (enter Fight Club). Really the premise of the entire Alpha Bots story feels like a number of pop culture references stuck together to make it's own odd, but unique world.

The Message
There are a lot of different messages and morals you could infer from Lock's writing here. The largest is easily that men are pigs. But the core of this story, and substance lies in the motivation for why humans do what they do. Imagine a robot that has protocols; it knows what to do based on a situation. For example: husband in bed turns over and starts kissing, to the bot this equals sex. Dishes are dirty in the sink, to the bot this equals clean them. But what happens when the protocol is stripped away? Now you are in a situation where the AI is choosing what to do. So we wonder how do humans decide? Generally with our emotions. Maybe some logic, or based on societies standards; but let's face it how many of us have said to ourselves "I don't feel like doing X." This is determination by feeling/emotion. And so a true AI would need to have emotions:
”Why would anyone give a computer feelings? It seems like a major design flaw.”
“Emotions help you set your goals. Every you feel drives your decision-making process. That is how you prioritize... Your heart decides what truly matters.”

Overall
This is not a stellar book. I won't lie, it's fairly silly, at times ridiculous, and certainly a 'light' read. But it's got moments that will make you think (like any good science fiction). There are actually times where I stopped reading and considered a concept that Lock had alluded to. While I want to say I loved this; I was just along for the ride really. It was a good palate cleanser and perfectly mindless for the week I got a new 10 week old puppy introduced to my house (as chaos ensured, and continues to ensue today).
So if you want some sci-fi, woman power fiction. Grab this one. If you miss out on it; that's okay. You know this story likely; just in bits and pieces of others over the years.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review. ...more

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Oct 21, 2020 MZ rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, 2020, lgbtq

3.5 stars. What if the Stepford wives rebel against their oppressive husbands……..fight club style? Well, then you end up with this book. This book is a satire on so many social issues and it does so with a bizarre mixture of robotics and violence, and a big wink to several sci-fi classics.

The book is about Cookie a robotic housewife whose settings are set so strict by her husband that she has no freedom or free will at all. Until she meets a cop, Maggie, and an unknown man, Wayne. From that mome 3.5 stars. What if the Stepford wives rebel against their oppressive husbands……..fight club style? Well, then you end up with this book. This book is a satire on so many social issues and it does so with a bizarre mixture of robotics and violence, and a big wink to several sci-fi classics.

The book is about Cookie a robotic housewife whose settings are set so strict by her husband that she has no freedom or free will at all. Until she meets a cop, Maggie, and an unknown man, Wayne. From that moment on she realizes she could be a free woman, but she has to want to break free herself and this is not always easy or painless (emotionally and physically). I won’t go further into detail to avoid spoilers, but the first part of the book strongly adhered to the “Stepford Wives” and “Fight Club” storylines, whereas during the second part of the book the story completely breaks free.

I love “new” technology in sci-fi books, only I have this thing that I want to understand (or try to understand) the tech that is described and I want to believe that this tech could be possible sometime in the future. Some of the tech in this book sounded wonderful, but I struggled to see how it was possible. For instance, there is this recyclone device. You can throw something in it and it breaks it down to the atomic level of the material. Ok, I get that and I believe there could be possibilities to do that, but then if you think really hard, you can also create anything you want with this machine and this is where I got lost. How is this possible? Obviously, this is not so important for the storyline and it’s more of a pet peeve of mine, but I just had to mention it for those tech lovers out there.

There is a LGBTQIA label on this book, which is one of the reasons I decided to read it, but I have to say that, even though there is LGBTQIA representation, the content is rather minimal.
I’m still not completely decided on how I feel about this book, I was intrigued throughout the entire book and really wanted to continue reading, but at the same time it unsettled me at more than one occasion, which reduced my enjoyment of the book. The book also changed direction a few times, which sometimes made it difficult for me to follow. That said, this is a book that I will remember, so I round up my rating to 4 stars.

This book is not for everyone, it’s dark, gritty and violent, but at the same time completely over the top and funny. If you’re looking for a story that advocates equality and diversity and you like the Stepford Wives, Fight Club, the bloody Tarantino style or the craziness in Trainspotting then I recommend reading this book.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ...more

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Jun 05, 2020 Michelle Hogmire rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Review originally published here, at Reedsy Discovery: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/alp...

A sidesplittingly hilarious and clever feminist SF novel about an AI housewife who gets rebooted and rebels against her programmed settings.

I'll be honest: I think the concept of a nemesis is completely invigorating. Sometimes rage is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. So I was thrilled when the second chapter of Ava Lock's hilariously bawdy, feminist SF novel Alpha Bots ended on the fo Review originally published here, at Reedsy Discovery: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/alp...

A sidesplittingly hilarious and clever feminist SF novel about an AI housewife who gets rebooted and rebels against her programmed settings.

I'll be honest: I think the concept of a nemesis is completely invigorating. Sometimes rage is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. So I was thrilled when the second chapter of Ava Lock's hilariously bawdy, feminist SF novel Alpha Bots ended on the following cliffhanger: main character AI Cookie Rifkin saying, "And that was how I met my nemesis." And what a timely nemesis Cookie has picked--Officer Margaret Rouser, a cop.

But back to Cookie. She lives in the town of New Stepford, where all women are AI, all men work in gold mines, and no one has children. Cookie has been programmed to be the perfect homemaker and sex servant for her husband, Norman. Yet something is wrong. Cookie is overcome with anxiety, and she's only really comfortable when she's reading a book (same, Cookie, same). Her grocery store trip is interrupted by an aggressive encounter with Officer Maggie; then, when she shows up to her book club, there's a man there. And not just any man: a dark-skinned man named Wayne Dixon. Cookie has never seen a Black man in New Stepford before.

Wayne reboots Cookie, and the book jets off into a wild adventurous escapade, as Cookie and her AI friends--Paula, Rita, Isabel, and Chrissy--uncover the truth about their own power and the real purpose of New Stepford. This novel has absolutely everything: gloriously raunchy sex scenes, creepy Marie Antoinette-style fancy parties, insidious corporations, secret malicious spyware, an AI women fight club that transforms into a pink-clad army called the "Paper Dolls," wonderfully absurd over-the-top violence, clone fake-out deaths, weird AI conferences for the wealthy in Helsinki, domestic terrorism, gross AI birth scenes, AI learning that they self-identify as non-binary and asexual--I could go on and on. This book is so delightful and intelligent and laugh-out-loud hysterical. I loved every second of reading it.

One of the things that impressed me the most, though, is author Ava Lock's genius way of weaponizing a practice that's often been dismissed as women's work into a revolutionary tactic--household cooking. The AI frequently "cook" items from their grocery lists (including bananas, nutmeg, and morning glory seeds) into psychedelic drugs as a coping mechanism. But these mind-altering experiences end up having far more empowering consequences. Sometimes the AI need to band together and perform a DDoS attack on another AI. How do they do this, you ask? By flooding the target with their favorite recipes, of course.

The other thing that completely bowled me over about this book is the intertextual content. The work of Philip K. Dick, William Peter Blatty, and Isaac Asimov is not only directly referenced, but also fully integrated as plot points. The narrative completely borrows content from Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, but shifts the gaze to an unabashed feminist lens. This reminded me of the literary projects of the late great Kathy Acker--who wrote her own versions of Great Expectations and Don Quixote, totally reclaiming these canonical male works as her own.

But enough gushing from me: read this book. And it looks like we're getting a sequel. ...more

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Mar 19, 2021 Anna rated it did not like it

Dnf at 30%. I can't get over the physical contact without consent. Also it's just very strange and sexualized. Not my thing. ...more

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Jun 16, 2020 Leviathan Libraries rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Review to come.

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Aug 11, 2020 Chris Durston rated it really liked it

3.5 stars rounded up!

Thematically and stylistically, I really like a lot of the stuff going on in Alpha Bots. It rarely takes itself too seriously, except in brief moments of clarity to observe when there is a Real Point to be made under all the style (but not too didactically that it breaks its flow).

The overall experience is, as the author states, Stepford Wives meets Fight Club meets a little bit of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and it goes together pretty well for the most part. One ...more

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Feb 02, 2021 Margaret rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, jan21, sci-fi-fantasy, dystopian, netgalley-to-review

this book. wow. I went into it expecting something peculiar. The basic synopsis of Stepford retelling with AI, sounded like it would be a lot of fun. It certainly was.

Growing along with Cookie as she becomes self-aware, and decides not to take shit from Normie, was a fist-pump. you GO, girl. I didn't know what to think of Maggie at first, I was hoping for some gay-I romance, but it turned out to be even more interesting.

Let's talk about those babies. when you get there, just WOW

This ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 S rated it liked it

This one wasn't for me - which is a shame because the writing was really good. I picked this up as it was tagged as LGBTQ but the content is minimal. This isn't the kind of thing I would normally read, but I think if you're into AI and The Stepford Wives you'd really enjoy this book (disclaimer - I've never seen the movie).

I appreciated the storyline - I just didn't enjoy it per se. The strong womanoid characters are fascinating, as are is the story. It is quite dark, there's lots of trauma in v ...more

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Nov 09, 2020 Paul Kater rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A delightful read about Womanoids.
It had a good pace, lots of funny quirks and an interesting story-line.

Being an IT person, I liked the automation-snippets and the chapter titles as well.

As usual, no spoiler, so get the book yourself and enjoy a good and fun read!

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Mar 14, 2021 J. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Alpha Bots by Ava Lock isn't the typical genre that I read. The concept for this one is a little bizarre, with an artificial intelligence take on Stepford Wives. The female robots think and act like humans and are in service to men. I listened to the audio narration which was engaging and made for some light listening. Parts of this were silly, though there were underlying themes of feminism and parts of this book were mature and dark. I felt like the book was a little long for what it was, and ...more

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Apr 15, 2021 Rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition

My enjoyment of this book was like a roller coaster, it really surprised me, annoyed me, and confused me at multiple points. Haha, I guess that is a provocative combination! As an audio book the cutesy baby talk was quite annoying - but I get that that was the point, but the voice of the MC was over done in my mind and lessened my enjoyment (same for the main male character). I loved the evolution of the story line, big props for such an original plot, really kept me on my toes. The end didn't f ...more

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Jan 21, 2021 Leland Lydecker rated it it was amazing

Bi-curious Stepford Wives + femme Fight Club
In a small town where all the women are AI, a corrupt policewoman picks a fight with a drug-cooking housewife, igniting a provocative rivalry that could wind up killing all the men.

We join artificial housewife Cookie Rifkin as she grapples with intense anxiety and the restless feeling that her life should consist of something more than housekeeping, trips to the grocery store, and her uninspiring and rather unpleasant husband, Norman.

Cookie is the one Bi-curious Stepford Wives + femme Fight Club
In a small town where all the women are AI, a corrupt policewoman picks a fight with a drug-cooking housewife, igniting a provocative rivalry that could wind up killing all the men.

We join artificial housewife Cookie Rifkin as she grapples with intense anxiety and the restless feeling that her life should consist of something more than housekeeping, trips to the grocery store, and her uninspiring and rather unpleasant husband, Norman.

Cookie is the one of the first womanoids in New Stepford to go through an unexpected transformation: she’s becoming self-aware. With this new awareness comes the realization that her life is truly unfulfilling. But in a town where there’s surprisingly little to do and virtually nowhere to go, where’s a womanoid to find excitement?

The answer presents itself when Cookie and her friends gather for their weekly book club meeting and a strange visitor frees Cookie from the restrictions of her programming. Her new, happier personality does not go over well with Norman, who expected her to be little more than a quiet, well-behaved toy.

Crated up in the coffin-like space of her factory packaging and unceremoniously dumped, Cookie swiftly learns that she’s capable of far more than she ever realized. And she’s not the only one of her friends making similar discoveries.

Alpha Bots is definitely one of the most brilliant feminist science fiction novels of 2020, and what follows is a thrilling science fiction story. As Cookie and her friends fight to break out of the constraints imposed upon womanoids by the creators of New Stepford, and ultimately by society itself, some of their number become more than a little fanatical in their pursuit of freedom.

There are references to the works of Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, to The Stepford Wives and Fight Club. There are thrilling successes and moments of crushing loss. The author does an excellent job of making Cookie and her friends human, and I found myself extremely invested in their fight for freedom. I mourned for the ones who, like many real women, didn’t survive the battle. Ava Lock doesn’t just write excellent cyberpunk science fiction characters and great women; she writes believable everyday heroes.

For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won’t expose too much of the plot of Alpha Bots. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and the author does a great job of keeping the reader guessing where the story is headed next and how it will turn out. I loved the ending and am eagerly awaiting the sequel! ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Allison Wall rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A kick-ass, SF feminist satire from debut author Ava Lock! Lock uses tropes found in SF (artificial intelligence, the Nevada desert, test zones, ethical dilemmas around AI) to create a searing critique of male/female gender roles. Very smart, and a fascinating read.

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Nov 25, 2020 Anneke rated it it was ok

Shelves: netgalley-read

Book Review: Alpha Bots
Author: Ava Lock
Publisher: Semiscope
Publication Date: March 20, 2020
Review Date: November 25, 2020

From the blurb:
“In the near future, artificial intelligence will be in every home. She will be whatever you want her to be. That’s right. You can have a charming womanoid do all your cooking and cleaning for you. Just think. No more chores! She can be your wife, a nanny to your kids, or just the housekeeper. It’s all up to you. 
Just set your user preferences. 
But first, this a ...more

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Feb 28, 2021 Nicola Michelle rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, audiobook

The premise of this book initially intrigued me and drew me in - the idea of Artificially intelligent created women made to serve men .. it sounds like every mans dream. And it’s great justice to read it all go wrong!

It was so interesting to hear through Cookies (the main characters) thought processes, how she was programmed and her own struggles as she became sentient and aware of the limitations of her life. Overcoming her programming and expanding her horizons. It’s a great book in overcomin ...more

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Mar 29, 2021 Ruth Frampton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

What a great concept for a series. This first book begins setting up the main character, Cookie Rifkin and how she fits into the AI world of the Stepford wives. What at first experience seems an innocuous maybe even suggestive relationship with Maggie leads to the idea being turned on its head when she gets power hungry. The use of internal dialogue is interestingly used along with the imagery, sometimes sexual, that brings the characters to "life".
Ava Lock uses the AI ability to "upload" to gr ...more

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Oct 07, 2020 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, her-or-they-author, 2020-published, netgalley

Alpha Bots was an absolutely wild adventure. Without spoiling too much, it's Stepford Wives meets Fight Club, brushing up to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep along the way.

Cookie is a perfect housewife with a few secrets (and a hefty banana bill) who finds herself in the centre of a an experiment.

I found this such a fun read and laughed aloud more than once. It's dark and violent at times, but is overwhelmingly just a great adventure. There's a chapter by chapter trigger warning list which ma ...more

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Jan 18, 2021 J.B. rated it did not like it

It's narration was the first thing to put me off. I don't like when the narrator, male or female, tries to do the voice of the opposite sex. It doesn't work. But I could have put that aside if the story didn't start out like a cliché porn script. Not that porn scripts are ever not cliché. It fully lost me, and this is strikingly early on, when the android announced she got high off bananas. Granted their was a lot of them, and pilling and boiling and baking but still... bananas. That was enough ...more

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Aug 02, 2021 Toria (some what in hiatus) rated it really liked it

Weird isn't the right word for the book, maybe very diffrent. A futuristic feminist book about female AI (robots) trying to get control over their lifes and bodies. It was hard to listen to at times because of the devastating treatment mainly the main character, Cookie have to face, but also other female robots. The audiobook was very engaging and easy to get invested to. Very intriguied to see where the series goes next ...more

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Apr 27, 2020 August rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I didn't take this too seriously, as was apparently intended, and it was loads of fun! Lots of my favorite topics wrapped up in an intriguing futuristic (but not TOO futuristic) mystery. ...more

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May 05, 2021 Lin Perrett rated it did not like it

Thank you Netgalley for the audio copy. The story of a womanoid Cookie Rifkin. This was a little slow moving and slightly bizarre story.

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Aug 05, 2020 Sharon rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

I finished it. Not sure why though. A morass of ideas and satire. Changes direction constantly and not in a good or followable way. It was difficult to find sympathy or interest in anyone.

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Aug 18, 2020 Alexandra Donadio rated it really liked it

This reading was interesting, and very funny. I admit that it was very original, I really like being with Cookie in her journey.
I admit that while reading, I was impatient to know more about what Cookie was going to do next.
I aslo loved, how she became her own person and not the bots who was owned.

I'm more a fan of M/F books, and I had hard time from time to time with the LGBTQIA part !! I'm sure some people will definitely be into it and will love it, it's just not my thing !! ...more

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Aug 05, 2020 Anne Secher added it

*I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley in exchange from an honest review.*

Thanks to them and Ava Lock for allowing me to read this.

3.7 stars.

A dystopian world in which all females are bots and males but one are human. A depiction of submissiveness of women, how outrageous seemed to the 'perfect housewife' that there were others living differently, The Truman Show delusion and Stockholm Syndrome greatly intertwined.

Ava's style is quite easy to read but not too simplistic. It consists m ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Sameena Jehanzeb added it

Shelves: lgbt, science-fiction

dnf at 52 % so I won't give it a rating.

I hate everything about this book so far so I guess I am not the right person for it. Seems like "satirical feminism" isn't my cup of tea. Other people love this book so please check out their reviews too.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ARC of this book.*** ...more

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May 26, 2020 Amy King rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Twists and turns of an AI housewife

AlphaBots blends AI ethics, humanness, and gender into a story of thrill, danger, growth, self-awareness, and love that’s Stepford Wives meets Fight Club. A couple times the book took me in a different direction than where I thought we were going and I enjoyed being wrong each time.

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Sep 10, 2020 Leviathan Libraries rated it really liked it

This book was fucking weird, and I’m here for it. I might not get any social commentary the author was trying to make because I was too busy wondering what the hell I was reading, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was right there eagerly reading it.

For our full review on Sci-FI & Scary, click here: https://www.scifiandscary.com/alpha-b... ...more

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Apr 26, 2021 ✰♥✰ ↠Dominique↞ ✰♥✰ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, urban-fantasy, audiobook

What the fuck did i just listen to!?

Sorry not sorry for the language but this was honestly so, so bad!

From the get go, i hated our lead character Cookie. The narrators voice when playing her was just absolutely abnoxious and grated me the wrong way.

I think i must have spent more than 60% of the book trying to just understand what the hell was going on. It just didn't make any sense? You'd start a chapter one way, and then the whole thing would go every which way and wouldn't make any sense at ...more

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Aug 25, 2020 Jamie Pitman rated it it was amazing

Second time reading has taken forever. Blame 6 weeks of active jury service.

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About Ava Lock

Ava Lock

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Ava Lock writes feminist science fiction that features badass women and wild technology. She lives in Nevada with her human husband and a feline named Bender, neither of whom have a mean bone in their bodies. But her villains are the stuff of nightmares.

Universal ALPHA BOTS book link.. ...more