I, AutoHouse

De: Gish Jen

Narrado por: Hillary Huber

It’s a story you may think you know - an aging baseball coach is challenged by the very boy he took in and raised. But in this near future world, "smart” houses talk and listen, and - privy as they are to the secret life of the household - family life gets interesting. Creepy and funny, unsettling and entertaining, this is a story that stands on its own even as it proves the perfect follow up to Gish Jen’s critically acclaimed novel The Resisters.

©2021 Gish Jen (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Alexa meets baseball and family relations

Sitcom or soap opera level intensity, didn’t really build any suspense or tension and no LOL moments. lots of little witticisms and brief conversations drive this along.
So the house smart speaker has Artificial Intelligence and can be set to be Alexa level reactive or downright meddlesome and she/it narrates the story generally although the same voice is used for narration of events the AI wouldn’t know.
You could picture the Brady Bunch or The Jeffersons with AI instead of Alice or Florence and the happenings are similar to sitcom plots. An aging coach and former star player are married, baseball is evolving with new technology which coach considers cheating. Minor hijinks ensue.
I honestly didn’t know what the plot was,or if there was one, until the last 2 sentences. It’s more about lightly described family relationships evolving over a few decades as society also evolves.

Uninspiring

Did not connect with story which I found to be alternating as dull and confusing.

Hmmm, Repetitive at times

The story was promising but failed to deliver. I enjoyed the baseball aspects, but it became a bit repetitive. No surprises really. I was rooting for any character or overly invested in the conclusion.

Cute

A lightweight but amusing story well performed. Jen’s story loses a bit by being heavily focused on baseball to the exclusion of some futuristic tech details in the mold of the house in the Eureka TV series that would have made it funnier and more interesting. But it’s still worth the listen.

Is Literary Science Fiction A Thing?

I, Autohouse by Gish Jen
1h 18m narrated by Hillary Huber

Genre: Science Fiction, Short Stories

Featuring: Audible Original, AI Home, Married Couple, Co-Ed Baseball, Blasian MC, Biracial MC, Programming, Generation Gap, Gossiping Houses

Rating as a movie: PG

My rating: ⭐️⭐️🖥🏠⚾️

Songs for the soundtrack: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, "(You Gotta Have) Heart" by
James Komack, Nathaniel Frey, Albert Linville, and Russ Brown

My thoughts: This was a bit boring, with a lot of baseball, gossiping, and lazy people with frivolous concerns. Is Literary Science Fiction a thing, if not I think Gish Jen may have created it. It was short but too forever to get through because of all of the conversations. There was an interesting development towards the end but it wasn't enough for me. Maybe I would feel differently if I had multiple readings but I have better things to do.

Recommend to others: Nope. There was a reason this was on my TBR for so long.

Didn’t like it.

Made no sense and seemed a little more like political. This isn’t stimulating at all.

Interesting story

The story is slow, after about 45 minutes in it starts to make sense. A good listen but not great. Just my thoughts.

Enjoyed

Much more than a baseball story. Definitely spoke about current automation within reach. I'm a baseball fan and enjoyed this short story.

Great performance, story not fully developed

Narrator was great at all making all the voices (2 male, 4 female) very distinct. This was a very fast-paced short book, that left me wanting to know more about the characters and the world. I felt like the world had a lot more to offer but the story was too short to really get an understanding of AutoAmerica and the people living in it. Also, this book may be better in print due to the use of several compound futuristic words. I am not familiar with baseball, and am also not a native English speaker, so it was little bit hard to follow the baseball references and some of the made-up terms without having to rewind or pause to think about the words said.

Smart House

The future of baseball lies in the programing and execution of a smart house. IT of the future controls people, not the other way around.