Saturn's Children (Freyaverse #1) in Beyond Reality

Mar 25, 2013 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, space-opera

I enjoy a good space opera every now and then, but more importantly, I enjoy Mr. Stross's space operas very very much. Sometimes, his novels remind me of the best genre virtuosity. It is an ongoing commentary on all the greats, like Asimov and Heinlein, and it tickled my funny bone to revisit the three laws.

I'll be honest, though. While the story was fun in a light but slightly twisted way, I still got a lot more enjoyment out of the ideas. It reminded me why I preferred sci-fi over almost all ...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Soo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Notes:

Yay for libraries!

I loved parts of the story, but the jagged POV changes and meandering focus kept the story being 4 stars.

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Apr 10, 2018 Tomislav rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

After humanity goes extinct, our androids live on in lives driven by the goals and objectives we built into them when they were our personal servants. Yes, that means automated sex, and lots of it. They do have feelings and you can identify with them, but unfortunately the sex seems like something inevitable that just happens to them.

Freya, just such a femmebot, takes an illicit courier job to escape from her subsistence life kilometers above the surface of Venus, only to find layers of intrigue ...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Paul Perry rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, male-author, sf, hard-sf

3.5 stars

This is one of those books that is so nearly great. Set several hundred years after humanity have died out (due to unspecified causes, but possibly at their own hand through environmental degradation) human influence continues in the solar system in the many intelligent servants (the term 'robot' is the filthiest of insults) that they created, in a society shaped by the psyche of their creators and social power structures of their own making.

The protagonist, Freya, is a - droid? replica 3.5 stars

This is one of those books that is so nearly great. Set several hundred years after humanity have died out (due to unspecified causes, but possibly at their own hand through environmental degradation) human influence continues in the solar system in the many intelligent servants (the term 'robot' is the filthiest of insults) that they created, in a society shaped by the psyche of their creators and social power structures of their own making.

The protagonist, Freya, is a - droid? replicant? these machines are alive, fully conscious, thinking and feeling entities - member of a line of courtesan robots, created for the pleasure of men, who find themselves utterly obsolete in a universe where their purpose for being created is long gone, and they are physically outmoded, largely because the weight restrictions of space travel have caused smaller, lighter, more compact forms to become more 'fashionable'.

So we have an excellent framework for riffs on free will, social inequality, slavery (while most of the robots were hardwired to serve, some have managed to free themselves from this programming and ruthlessly take the place of vanished humanity, setting themselves up as a new aristocracy), all in the hands of one of the finest SF writers around today. Throw in some great in-jokes (arguments about evolution and religion - "obviously we were made by our creators, so they must have been made by someone else!" - and Freya's programmed, uncontrollable lust-response as a metaphor for love), as well as seriously well thought out hard science that doesn't detract from the fiction (travel between planets in the solar system taking anything between months and years, and being seriously uncomfortable even for the almost indestructible androids), and we have what ought to be a truly great SF novel.

You've probably guessed by this point that there's a problem. I love Stross's writing; his prose is solid, occasionally sparkling, with decent characterisation and, usually, excellent pace and plotting. In Saturn's Children, the main plot driver is in the form of 'soul chips', recording chips for experiences and personality development, from one of Freya's supposedly dead 'sisters', which Freya is slowly absorbing into her own memories, to the extent that she begins to dream her sister's dreams, and even become her in some circumstances (if you read SF this probably makes sense to you, if not the last sentence may be complete gibberish, for which I apologise). Unfortunately, the effect of these changes of perspective and personality, especially toward the end of the book, become extremely confusing and frustrating. While this is Freya's state of mind, and since it is told in the first person this can be argued to be consistent, it does mean that the plot gets rather lost. Which is a great shame, as it is a book that is well worth reading. As long as you don't mind a fair bit of robot sex.

Other books I'd place it with thematically:
Asimov's Robot books (of course), which it frequently references
Justina Robson's {book:Natural History] (possibly the best exploration of human-made machine intelligence I've read)
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (a superb noir thriller in future where consciousness can be easily transferred between bodies, with almost pornographic levels of sex and violence) ...more

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Dec 05, 2010 Stuart rated it liked it · review of another edition

This tale of a female robot almost works. It is a tale that moves the goalposts a little too often and borrows from Asimov and Heinlein. At times, it is quite exciting and there is a very imaginative approach to space travel. The sexual content is sparser than the flap jacket or some of the more lurid covers might make you imagine. It is also not surprisingly described in quite mechanical fashion. I never quite felt the attachment for the heroine I wanted to; I think it was more to with the book ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Scott Shjefte rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scotts-shelved-books, space-books, futurology-books

Good read set in a dystopia when humanity has been replaced by human acting robots and AI type super human machines, our solar system has been developed and there are space elevators on the smaller planet and moons. The robots are obsessive about their lost humans as they are psychological enslave to be slave to humans. We follow the story of Freya a sex robot who has never seen a human...

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Jul 20, 2015 Craig Brown rated it liked it

I enjoyed reading this, but didn't love it. Stross seems to wander a bit much for my tastes. ...more

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Dec 04, 2024 Matthew Reads Junk rated it really liked it

Emberassing cover not withstanding, really good high concept sci-fi. And the type where the high concepts are just given to you naturally without needing pages of textbook explination.

It's a very confluted sort of spy thriller and by the end I'm not really sure I understood the plot at all, but I enjoyed the ride. ...more

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