Shelter

by Susan Palwick

The three basic human needs are food, water…and shelter. But in the late 21st century, compassion is a crime. You can get your memories wiped just for trying to help.
 
Papa Preston Walford's world doesn't allow for coincidences. Accidents. Secrets in the backs of closets. Or the needs of his own daughter.
 
Meredith Walford has reason to seek shelter. She needs protection from the monsters in her mind, in her history, in her family. And the great storms of a changing climate have made literal shelter imperative.
 
When a cutting-edge, high-tech house, designed by a genius with a unique connection to Meredith, overcomes its programming to give shelter to a homeless man in a storm, from its closets emerge the revelations of a past too painful to remember.
 
In the world of Susan Palwick's Shelter, perception is about to meet reality, and reality has mud all over it. The truth won't make you happy, but it may just make you whole.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, Fantasy

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Susan Palwick is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she teaches writing and literature.

Raised in northern New Jersey, Palwick attended Princeton University, where she studied fiction writing with novelist Stephen Koch, and she holds a doctoral degree from Yale. In the 1980s, she was an editor of The Little Magazine and then helped found The New York Review of Science Fiction, to which she contributed several reviews and essays.

Palwick's work has received multiple awards, including the Rhysling Award (in 1985) for her poem "The Neighbor's Wife." She won the Crawford Award for best first novel with Flying in Place in 1993, and The Alex Award in 2006 for her second novel, The Necessary Beggar. Her third novel, Shelter, was published by Tor in 2007. Another book, The Fate of Mice (a collection of short stories), has also been published by Tachyon Publications.

Susan Palwick is a practicing Episcopalian and lay hospital chaplain.

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but it had so many things that made it perfect for me to read: set in San Francisco (with lots of references to the city), AI and robots, social work-type stuff... It did have flaws, but they're not worth listing because I loved it anyway. Susan Palwick is like Maureen McHugh in that their science fiction feels like it was written by a woman without being heavy-handed about it. Awesomeness.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Shelter' was first published in 2007 and I have no memory of how it ended up on my to-read list. I bought a second-hand copy off eBay, then ignored it for a while as it smelled a bit odd. There is no mention in the blurb of a plague, so I was deeply disconcerted that the novel begins with a scene of an 8 year old girl quarantined in hospital suffering from a pandemic virus named, I shit you not, CV. This virus also spreads in the air and causes a serious post-viral syndrome in many who recover from it. None of that is particularly sibylline except the name CV, I guess. The opening chapter was a flashback and thankfully the vast majority of the novel plays out long after the pandemic ended. I am in no mood for pandemic sci-fi right now, thanks. 'Shelter' earned its alternate history tag with these two paragraphs from page 112, which left me gobsmacked:

Meredith survived, as most people who weathered the virus did, because her family was wealthy enough to afford round-the-clock, individual medical care, teams of doctors to track the progress of CV in her system and treat its various manifestations as quickly as possible. The pandemic was relatively limited in the United States, thanks largely to Preston's swift recognition of the dire nature of his illness. Because he had called the Bio-containment Unit as soon as he had, everyone who had been on the company jet back from Africa, and all of their contacts since landing, were promptly isolated, at MacroCorp's expense. A few dozen people died - the pilot and several flight attendants, and various people they'd kissed, spoken to, or visited since landing - but at least so far, Preston's foresight seemed to have prevented a major outbreak in the US.

From the television news, when she was well enough to tell her father to vanish from the screen so that she could watch it, Meredith learned of the fate of thousands of Preston's African employees, one of whom had evidently infected him during a plant tour. Without access to isolation, they didn't survive. The virus spread so easily, especially in countries where people still spoke to each other most often in person, rather than by phone or the Net. Neither did vast numbers of their relatives and friends. The ill soon swelled into the tens of thousands, a complex web of human relationships ensuring that by the time the epidemic ended, much of Africa and large pockets of Asia and South America, already ravaged by HIV, would be further decimated.

There is so much in there that now seems horribly unrealistic. (Quite apart from the lazy treatment of Africa like a country rather than a continent. Where did this flight take off from, Africa Airport?) Imagine a super-rich American businessman reporting his own illness then paying for his employees to quarantine! Imagine the US authorities tracing all their contacts and isolating them! Imagine dozens dying of a pandemic virus in the US rather than 439,830 as of 3rd February 2021!

I am not blaming Susan Palwick for failing to predict in 2007 that incompetent neo-nationalist demogogues would let many thousands more people die in the US and UK than countries with ostensibly much weaker health systems. I just assumed this was a completely alternate universe, in which climate change was mostly under control and Gaia worship a normal part of American culture. It evidently wasn't intended as a utopia, though. Three major themes are mental illness, personhood, and medical surveillance. The structure of the book reminded me somewhat of The Untamed, as it initially plunges you straight into dramatic events without explaining who anyone is - a major character dies on page 26. There follows the main substance of the book, consisting of two massive flashbacks in which each protagonist more or less recounts their life to date.

The two protagonists, Meredith and Roberta, have very different backgrounds yet their lives are significantly intertwined. Both experience tragedy, moral dilemmas, and mental illness. However Meredith is rich, white, and privileged while Roberta is not, which makes their experiences very different. Meredith struggles to conceal her problems from the media, but remains largely in control of how she is treated. Roberta is diagnosed with 'excessive altruism', considered a mental illness, and puts up with intrusive surveillance in order to avoid having her brain wiped. One result of the CV pandemic is a modified form of the virus can be used to wipe people's memories, personality, and knowledge. It is widely used as a punishment for criminals and a treatment for mental illness, including in children. In parallel, there is a debate about whether AIs are people and entitled to the rights of a person. In the middle of this are the few able to save their memories in the cloud and exist as uploaded personalities after death. I appreciated the thoughtful way these issues were examined, including sadly realistic details like people ending up homeless post-brainwipe.

'Shelter' is an interesting examination of privilege and inequality, via a small cast of characters whose lives are recounted in great detail. I think it could have been a little shorter. The sequences in a nursery school were very tense but somewhat repetitive, for instance. It reads as meandering and considered sci-fi with horror overtones, that slowly builds up detailed characterisation of the flawed yet sympathetic protagonists. The two twists at the end were a little too neat and one was easy to predict from the start. The conclusion wasn't really as important as the journey there, however. 'Shelter' wanders through domestic settings in an unusual alternate universe, conveying thoughtful insights about how we treat AI and each other via interpersonal drama.

[Kris Sellgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outstanding and thought-provoking novel examines the various meanings of isolation and shelter by following two women whose lives intersect first as children, as survivors of a plague, and then again as the mother of and daycare provider for a troubled boy. In this dark future, excessive altruism is a psychiatric condition; artificial intelligences are legal only outside the US; and brain-wiped criminals who cannot be re-socialized swell the ranks of the homeless. Palwick makes us question what is sane, what is human, what is just; yet leaves us with hope.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelter tells the near future story set in San Francisco, during a major storm that costs many lives, and two old acquaintances, one who has inadvertently harmed the other, meet and explain how their lives lead them to that point. One, Roberta, is poor and on probation, diagnosed with a mental illness of "excessive altruism" because of a series of events the other woman, Meredith, put into motion in an attempt to protect her son. Meredith is rich, privileged, and has some mental illness issues of her own, and a complicated family life that includes her father as the first ever human consciousness translated into a digital form.

The book is not the usual type of thing I read... one decent way to describe it is as a near future family drama, but wow, it really does turn out to be pretty impressive. There's a lot going on, and it has a lot to say about mental illness, how you can harm people even with the best of intentions, forgiveness, AI rights, and a number of other issues, with a host of well-drawn and interesting characters and a mostly convincing and plausible extrapolation of our world.

There's a wide variety of characters, mostly human and a few AI, and a few who arguably could be either (one major underlying issue is Meredith's refusal to accept that her father actually is her father, and is instead just a clever machine, and different people will see different answers to that question), and mostly they're compelling and vivid and feel real, and their interactions kept me invested even when it became fairly clear generally where the plot was going... I knew more or less what was going to happen, but I still wanted to know exactly how, and how everyone would deal when they found out.

The setting does one of the things I like best in SF, really selling a near future world with dozens of tiny details. About the only major slipup is that phones and TV habits seem a bit too conventional, and there seems to be widespread acceptance of a non-Judeo-Christian religion (although, I was never clear if it was supposed to be the dominant one, or if it just happened to be influential to many of the main characters and some of the underlying philosophies were embraced by the world). Still, it's easy to ignore those minor issues and focus on the good. I particularly liked how plausible the "excessive altruism," something we'd consider laudable today, turning into being considered a mental illness was. It's not a blatant "selfishness is best" philosophy pervading the world, but more subtle. And the genius of it being shorthanded as "exalted" was a really nice touch. I kind of wish we got more on that topic, actually, maybe another story set in the universe.

Shelter doesn't hit you over the head with its messages, but it does give you a lot to think of, and I found myself very impressed with it. My biggest complaint is the ending seemed a little too... pat, with a few things working out just too conveniently good, when reality it should have been a little messier. Also, at times it does run a little slow and repetitive. Still, this is a book that I think can be read even by non-SF readers, and is something of an undiscovered gem, having received little mainstream acknowledgement.

Highly recommended.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific "What If" science fiction, written as literature. *Lots* of ideas. Most of the characters are interesting women, but not in a stridently feminist way. More than one is gay. The writing is graceful, the structure strategic. The 'predictions,' eg for climate change, celebrity & media, smart homes, etc., are not too dated.

Anyone interested in AI or in uploaded consciousness as immortality or in 'brain-wiping' for 'mental illnesses' or in near-future SF should check it out.

(I'm not used to reading such big books so I did miss some details, and lose track of a couple of people for a little while. But the ending, and then the reading group questions at the end, did make everything add up to a meaningful experience for me. It would be even more meaningful if a group discussed it.)

I like the advice I can use when feeling anxious, for example if a loved one is late home and I'm imagining they've been in an accident. "You have to imagine the happiest story you can."

"Tooth Fairy, Vernal Rabbit, and summer Solstice Sloth."

"... irrelevant, like... seaweed on the surface of the moon."

The apartment they could afford was "on a block that remained stubbornly scuzzy."

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberta is on parole for "excessive altruism" when Meredith reenters her life, prompting both to reflect on the events which drew them together: a devastating virus, Preston, first man translated into virtual existence, and their attempts to protect Nicholas and Fred, an unstable child and an artificial intelligence. Shelter has a number of flaws: over-explained backstory, a too-simple conclusion, and heavy-handed themes. Nonetheless it's a brave and intelligent book. The plotline is intriguing and the characters empathetic, and the book is rich which thoughtful issues of identity. While it could be better, it's still quite enjoyable and I recommend it.

Shelter opens with a speaking house, a homeless man, and a violent rainstorm; it's rich with mystery and hints at a dystopic near-future. What follows this promising beginning is far more concrete, and some of the book's magic is lost in the change. Roberta and Meredith recollections are highly detailed and lean towards over-explication. The conclusion, by contrast, is rushed and verges on a deus ex machina, ending the book on a somewhat sour note. Despite these extremes, the uneven pacing and detail often finds a medium point that houses realistic characters and an intelligent plot; the book is intriguing and on the whole an enjoyable read, but not always a smooth one.

Both plotlines are riddled with issues and events that range from pandemic disease to the autonomy of artificial intelligence, making for a vast and complicated book. Most of these issues are questions of identity: how intelligence, body, memory, and sense of self create a person. That's a bold theme, and Palwick has much to say on it and nearly as many ways to say it. Her approach to the theme is sometimes heavy-handed, addressing it too blatantly and too often. But it's a bold move to reach so far, and Palwick sometimes grasps her goal. Preston, Nicholas, and Fred, as a virtual identity, a child threatened by brain wiping, and an AI, are in turns empathetic and manipulative, artificial and startlingly real. Palwick creates a realistic world where they can all exist, and cultures genuine interest--not always in their safety, but always on the issue of their identity. Shelter is an imperfect book, but I applaud it for what it attempts to be and enjoy it for what it is. I recommend it. It's akin in style and theme to some of Margret Atwood's books (though admitably lacks some of her finesse), and may appeal to a similar audience of readers interested in personal narratives which center around strong science fiction themes.

[Jeffrey Paris [was Infinite Tasks] · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkably well-conceived and well-crafted novel! Palwick imagines a plague that, once it has ravaged Africa, is sufficiently contained to be able to alter brain chemistry and even "mindwipe" undesirables who can then (usually) be re-socialized from scratch. Add in the development of AI entities, smart-bots, and translated consciousnesses (recording memories while alive and then "translating" them to live on in virtual space), and all the tools are in place for a solid speculative investigation of AI personhood (legal and moral) along with issues of privacy, information technologies, and just punishment.

Palwick does more, though - she tells the complementary and intersecting tales of Meredith and Roberta, early survivors of the CV plague whose lives are directed unwittingly by Meredith's father, Papa Preston, the first-ever translated entity. We see the consequences of the horrors they shared early in the book, and then move back in time for them to explain how circumstances could have brought them together after years apart.

As with her short stories (The Fate of Mice, which I finished a week or so ago - and by the way, mice have a big role to play in this book, too!), Palwick is able to develop thick, emotional horror in her story-telling. I recoiled more than once as the moral dimensions of Meredith's actions dawned on me.

The weakness of the novel follows from its strength - though well-conceived, the plot is almost too well-conceived, and there simply aren't enough dangling loose ends for me. Character's lives are too knotted up with one another for my taste, and resolutions pat enough to be predictable. It is a solipsistic universe inhabited only by a dozen or so people, and the rest of the planet looks on via ScoopNet.

Two other problems: first, for the mid-twentieth century, there is an unbelievable reliance on landlines and other stationary information technology. The book was only published a few years ago, when mobile tech was apparent enough. And second, college students used "books" in their classes, an interesting idea, but one that has pretty much run its course. A few anachronisms in an otherwise rich novel are not so terrible.

[martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could rate each half of this book differently. The first half is SO SLOW; it needs some serious weed-whack editing and could stand to be much, much shorter, without losing anything of value. I'm glad I plowed through, though, because the second half was really gripping, and not at all what I expected the book to be about.

Cool things contained herein: AIs, Roomba-descendant bots, San Francisco in the mid-21st century, global pandemics, social services issues, characters of color, the evolution of Green thinking into a religion. (Although I do NOT buy that within 30 years Christianity will have been replaced by a cheerful paganism in which everyone swears by saying Gaia or Goddess, and people attend religious services at Gaia's Temple.)

I LOVED Fred and want a Fred of my own. I really felt the quandary of the situation Meredith and Roberta were both put in regarding Nicholas, and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I finished.

Also I wish we'd gotten more exploration of things like the AI who "told us that it had discovered that it was a 'sunbright carp soul enmeshed in circuit-scald'" and demanded to be put in a goldfish tank.

And I don't think I would have noticed it if not for another review, but it's 2040-whatever, in a world where robots and AIs exist, but none of the main characters have cell phones? The criminalization of altruism also struck me as really unrealistic, and underdeveloped. But I still enjoyed the book overall.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was thoroughly engrossed by this story. Here are a few reasons why.

The story is mostly non-linear. We start with a man and an intelligent house. Add in a homeless man, who came in from a storm. Then we meet a couple of women with an old connection that maybe neither really wanted to renew. Then we find out how they are all connected. The story unfolds gradually, and I found it fascinating.

Learning the connections makes the whole story pretty interesting. The world now has a deadly flu that kills many, and doesn't always leave the survivors unscathed. The world is also learning to deal with the ramifications of artificial intelligences, like the entity in the intelligent house. That AI has its own backstory too.

I thought about this book for a few days before I started writing this review. I began to realize that one of the appealing things here is that almost all the important characters are women. This is a women's story, where children and nurturing others and other women are important things. The women have problems and make bad decisions and do the best they can in difficult situations. There's very little worry about what men are thinking here.

I've read Susan Palwick in the past, and she's a good writer. This is a good story. It looks like it's long, but I found it compelling reading. You should read it.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a long time to read. Twice as long as I anticipated. But it was worth it; patience is a virtue. Palwick brings so much heart to this novel. The speculation. The tenderness. The symmetry and the savagery.

I don’t know what to say about it that won’t spoil it for you. But consider this: when the climax came, the twist was that there was no twist. The fear I held all along turned out to be true.

“Architecture, of course. Shelter. How people take a dream of comfort and turn it into a building, someplace they can live, someplace they'll be happy. Not that it ever works. You design your dream house, and then once you build it you realize that the roof leaks and there isn't enough closet space, and anyhow the shape of your dreams has changed, but you'll just have to settle for what you have, because you don't have the money to build another house and may not even have the money to remodel. Plus the taxes keep going up.”

—-

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/eigh...

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially difficult to get into; I might not have continued to make the effort if Martha hadn't recommended it. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that amnesia is a big plot point, and I realized toward the end of the book that trying to read the first 50-ish pages makes you feel like an amnesiac. Not sure if that was intentional. Ending petered out a little bit, but the meat of the book itself was pretty fantastic. Between this and The Year of the Flood, starting to wonder if dystopic eco-evangelism is going to become its own genre.

[Sue Milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long, slow read. Interesting, though. What would have happened if Meredith had reported Nicholas before his final act, would the wiping have gone better? Would he have been less damaged?

[Anthony Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book, bursting with ideas and rich characters. The first hundred pages are exceptional and I loved the way that the rest of the book fills in the gaps. It's both clever and emotionally engaging (I cried twice), a rare combination.

I had never heard of Susan palwick before this but no doubt I'll be trying another one. And thanks to Jo Walton, whose review inspired me to give this a try.

[Daniel Stainback]

Started out interesting, but what made it interesting was soon forgotten by the author as the pages slowly became chapter after chapter of dull backstory.

[Jarezal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una persona puede, sólo por vivir, dañar a otro ser humano profundamente.

Hay libros que descubres por casualidad y que según vas leyendo te das cuenta de que se están convirtiendo en esos libros especiales que recordarás durante mucho tiempo y a los que volverás cada cierto tiempo.

En mi caso es lo que ha ocurrido con Shelter. La historia nos sitúa en un futuro próximo, en una sociedad con tres características principales. Es una sociedad donde las IAs son una realidad y se debate entre considerarlas simples máquinas o personas con derechos. Además, en esta sociedad se ha extendido el culto a la Tierra, el respeto por la naturaleza. Y finalmente es una sociedad donde las enfermedades mentales no están bien vistas y se opta por medidas drásticas para “curarlas”. Hay que tener en cuenta además, que ahora comportamientos como el altruismo excesivo se consideran una enfermedad mental.

En este escenario es donde se moverán un puñado de personajes y veremos cómo sus historias se conectan y sus decisiones influyen en la vida de los demás. Seguiremos durante unos veinte años la evolución de estas personas desde el punto de vista de dos de ellas: Meredith y Roberta. La trama fluye suavemente y seremos testigos de cómo maduran, de cómo cambia la personalidad de algunos personajes debido a los sucesos que viven. De cómo las acciones que realizan para proteger a sus seres queridos afectan a otras personas. Y pese a que llegado un momento algunos se conviertan en personajes egoístas y dañinos y que no compartas las decisiones que toman seguirás queriendo saber más sobre ellos y qué les depara el futuro.

Proteger a los seres queridos es el tema central de la novela. Aunque también hay bastante tiempo para las relaciones, la lucha contra los monstruos y miedos interiores, la privacidad, el equilibro tecnología-naturaleza, la familia, la evolución personal, la definición de persona, afrontar las desgracias… Un gran libro que si te atrapa no querrás que termine.

Y tú, ¿qué estarías dispuesto a hacer por la gente a la que quieres?

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

About 1/3 of the way through the book, I told my mother she had to read it. About 2/3 of the way through, I regretted my recommendation to her, specifically. When I finished the last page and closed the book, I realized that this is one of those books where I couldn't be sure if a person would love it or hate it, though I doubt there would be much middle ground.
I cared about the characters and the story, even though there might have been a bit of a "can't look away from the train wreck" caring thrown in there. It was also a thought-provoking book for me, but not at the expense of the story. I found myself rereading scenes and sentences over and over again, trying to figure out how I felt about, well, everything- earth, human-ness, physical illness, mental illness, you name it. I am VERY glad that I didn't know much (anything?) about this book before I read it - best to go in with no preconceived notions (I read the back blurb afterwards and knew that if I had read it first, I never would have read one page of it.) My copy had a readers' guide in the back, and I can see why - I immediately wanted to talk to someone about the book once I finished.

[Eowyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Argh, I just wrote a whole long review of this book and lost it. I'm not going to write it again but here's the main reason this near future science fiction novel about AI and brainwiping and "extreme altruism" as a psychological disorder and two girls, one wealthy and one orphaned, getting a bad disease and being in isolation for months and then as adults both dealing with a psychologically-disturbed 5 year old only gets 3 stars despite some interesting ideas and a pretty good plot: Too many of the characters' actions felt motivated by the plot instead of being what these characters would actually do. I wanted both of them to just tell someone what was going on and get some help instead of lying and keeping things to themselves and making everything that much worse! Also we're told over and over how much they care for Nicholas, the disturbed boy, and Fred, the AI who helps him, but I didn't actually believe it. I might try another book by this author to see if her writing and characterization get better, but there are many other soft science fiction authors out there who are better.

[Merrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say that most books I read about dystopian futures end up scaring the pants off of me. The idea that our society could develop into something like the one described in this book is TERRIFYING. I can already see the threads of this future in our society today, which makes it all the more chilling.

It's a story set forty years in the future, AIs have become common place enough that large portions of the population are lobbying to grant them personhood. A deadly virus is raging through Africa, and it is discovered that a certain strain of it can do what old-fashioned frontal lobe lobotomies used to do to psychiatric patients- basically a brain scrub, although with the CV strain there is some hope for rehabilitation. A new personality disorder is categorized, excessive altruism, or putting the needs of others before the needs of yourself.

These storylines all weave together for a very good but INCREDIBLY creepy story about love, family, and the power of forgiveness.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what this book was about before I started reading it. I only picked it up because it was written by Susan Palwick, whose short story collection, The Fate of Mice, I'd recently read and loved.

I think if I did know what this was about, I might not have read it. It doesn't have anything in particular in here that would make me like it. A passing minor character who's intersexed, and somewhat major character who's lesbian, but otherwise.. nope.

It takes place in the future, with conflicts over AI rights, a global pandemic, people whose consciousness has been transferred online, lots of cute (and not-so-cute) robots, smart houses, and etc.

Yet mostly it's about two women growing up, and caring very deeply for one interesting little boy.

Parts of it aren't happy. Parts of it are disturbing. Well.. lots of it isn't happy. Yet somehow it's not a downer to read.

Makes me want to read even more of her stuff!

[Fauna Hartley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a long read. There were times when I couldn't put the book down it was so engrossing. Then there were times when I wanted to skim pages and skip ahead. But, was it worth it? Sure.
Ultimately, I liked the distinctly femine tone of the book. I've read other books about AI that seemed to come off too cold and technical for my taste. This story centers around altruism, empathy and compassion and where that fits within an increasingly artificial world. I also found the presence of faith intriguing. How would the ability to store memories and thought processes (essential immortality) alter our world view on religion?
All in all, this really is an interesting book...a lengthy endeavor, but worthwhile.

[Eva Mitnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the second half of the 21st century and three Big Issues are affecting the lives of a handful of San Francisco residents - a terrible pandemic called CV, the question of whether a being with Artificial Intelligence should be considered human or a machine, and a procedure called mindwiping, which destroys the entire memory and is being used not just for murderers but also for the mentally ill. Although these issues are enmeshed with the plot, it's the thoughts and actions of the characters - human and AI alike - that make this thick book a compelling read from start to finish. Lovely - hated to see it end.

[Janet]

I read "The Necessary Beggar" several years ago and loved it, but inexplicably didn't seek out another book by Palwick until now. You should read that book, and this one.
She creates vivid, three-dimensional characters, and gives them hard things to do. Not in the sense of scaling a mountain or fighting a dragon, but making decisions with consequences. Her science fiction futures feel real -- she picks up trends from today, extrapolates them forward and weaves them together in ways that are plausible and illuminating. I couldn't put this down.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book last night, starting at about 5:00, pausing briefly, and fishing around 2:00 this morning. That should tell you something--it's an absorbing read. I think Palwick's great strengths as a writer are her characters and her plot structures; some of the former make me wish I could meet them (and others make me hope I never do), and the way she weaves together various strands of the narrative keeps the plot moving forward with vivid, but not heavy-handed, suspense.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in a near-future San Francisco that's all too real and Kafkaesque, this gripping novel explores what it means to be human, and to be connected to family. As artificial intelligence progresses the line between human and machine blurs, and what it means to be human and compassionate takes on a new dimension.

Excellent and thought-provoking.

[Mary Peret]

A tale of love and loss in a future where AI is possible and real. Can a person live forever as an uploaded series of memories? Can a machine help a seriously disturbed child heal? What does a mother do when all of the decisions she has made to help her child hurt other people? According to to Susan Palwick, all human beings seek one basic need -- shelter. A worthwhile read with a genuine attempt to ask some very big questions.

[rollerkaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a whim from the "staff pick" table at our local library and I'm glad I did. Set in a world with AI beings and people who have "transferred" their consciousness onto the web, Shelter paints a bleak future where brain-wiping is commonly prescribed for seemingly minor social transgressions. It is the connection between the characters, both human and non-human, that really count in this story and make the book such a good read.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good--I haven't read much SF lately. Mr. Rogers *would* make a perfect AI personality. Biggest complaint: At the end, the characters gave up the skeptical POV that had pervaded the rest of the book, and became dreadfully earnest. It's nice to give us a happy ending, but it was less satisfying.

[Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my usual thing, and I found it slow with characters I had little empathy for, particularly Meredith & family. I really couldn't understand why everyone went to such lengths to protect the kid. The ending was far too sugary sweet for my taste. Nonetheless....3 stars for the writing skill. I am intrigued enough to want to read other work by Susan Palwick.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a bit to get into, once it got rolling I was very into it. Meredith is a turd but the story needs her to be, so it works. I loved the concept of a near future AI where a virus incidentally gives us 'brainwipe' technology, after it decimates enough of the global population to make AIs prevalent enough to cause problems re: rights and personhood.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bumped down from 5 stars because the ending is just a little too tidy. Otherwise this was a wonderful book - absorbing, thought-provoking, believable (aside from the ending)... highly recommended for anyone. (Even non-SF fans would likely enjoy it, because it's mainly about people, not gadgets).