Uncanny Valley

De: C.A. Gray

Narrado por: Melissa Williams

Rebecca Cordeaux knows exactly what her future will hold: she will marry Andy, her crush of the last five years. Once Andy is ready to settle down, she's sure he will discover that she is his soulmate. After several small parts on stage, Rebecca knows she can become a renowned actress. Her writing also shows promise as a future author. Robots perform most human jobs that can be automated, leaving many free to pursue their personal creative interests.

But Rebecca's mother Karen fears the new world of robots, and insists her brilliant daughter join a university research team, studying the hazards of a complete robotic economy. Rebecca's father Quentin was obsessed with the subject to a degree that even her mother considered absurd, prior to his untimely death. So long as she can reserve enough of her time to pursue her true passions on the side, Rebecca half-heartedly agrees to join the research team, if only to please her widowed mother. There she joins a post-doc named Liam, whose conspiracy theories rival even those of her late father.

Liam is convinced that world Republic leader William Halpert's worldwide challenge for researchers to develop synthetic creativity will lead not to the promised utopia, in which every kind of human suffering has been eradicated, but rather to an apocalypse. Rebecca, whose best friend is her own companion bot Madeline, writes Liam off as a bot-hating conspiracy theorist, just like her father was...until she learns that her father's death might not have been due to mere happenstance.

With Liam's help, Rebecca learns of an underground organization known as The Renegades, where Quentin Cordeaux was considered a legend. While Liam attempts to stop Halpert's challenge if he can, Rebecca tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her father. Did he and many of his contemporaries die for something they knew? Who is the mysterious informant who calls himself John Doe?

©2017 C.A. Gray (P)2018 Wanderlust Publishing

Fantastic

Starts off slower than some of her other books but you do not want to put it down. The ending is a real surprise. You got to go on to the next book in the series ASAP.

Will Robot's take over the economy?

And will Rebekka find out who John Doe is? Mystery drama, and romance in this novel. The narrator, Melissa Williams gave a good performance. The writting in this book is quick and witty. A good read



This book
was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Chilling look at a possible future

This book gave me all kinds of goosebumps about how the future, robotics, and our increasing reliance on AI might play out! I really loved how the story largely focused on the characters versus going into extensive technical details. Beck has a lot going on in her life, and she winds up on the trail of a huge conspiracy. And love! I really loved Beck as a character, and latched on to her voice right away. She has a lot of different dimensions, and so does the world around her.

I wasn't always convinced the characters were acting wisely--some things I was pretty much shouting, "don't you see that's going to be a problem??" Though, it all came together in the end. The science didn't feel as rigorous as it might be, but then, it wasn't that kind of book. But the ideas in this book are just so big that I happily overlooked any possible flaws, and the ending got me right in the gut. I can't wait to dive into book two!

The narration was great, too. Very spot-on to the voice of the main character.

If you like stories about AI and a possible heading toward apocalypse, conspiracies, and sweet romance, you'll likely love this book!

I received a free copy at my request and happily left this review.

An intriguing story

This was such a wonderful story! It starts from one angle and gradually turns to someplace completely different! It takes the reader to a world somewhat close to our imagination, but so far in the same time. We have a world of robots, a world where people are being replaced easily. However, some things are not what they seem .

Rebecca’s world is turned upside down once she meets Liam. She is pulled into the conspiracy theories that her father also believed. She wanted to stay away, to follow her dreams, but sometimes destiny calls us to the right path. Once she sees things as they really are, she becomes as involved as her father. Well-built and with a lot of character development, the relationship between Liam and Rebecca easily grows and becomes something more.

I loved how the author offered life to an AI – Rebecca’s best friend. This character was so well created, enough to make it human, but also not forgetting it’s still a robot. Madeline is so innocent and intriguing! Her presence gives a lot of substance to the story.

The narration was quite all right. Even if we have close to no voice acting, it was a clear narration. I had no trouble understanding the words spoken to me. I must admit, in a world of robots, I wished for a little bit of sound effects here and there. But I’m ok, no hard feelings.

All in all, I loved the world, I loved the characters and I cannot wait to read more from this series. C.A. Gray is no disappointment when it comes to her writing. I love her style and I love the way she changes her characters throughout the story. 4 out of 5 stars. Enjoy J q

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by C.A. Gray. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Quick and Easy Read - World with Robots

Rebecca Cordeaux is a neuroscience student, and with interest in many other areas. Set in a future where robots have largely evolved to the point that some are afraid that they will one day eliminate the human race, Rebecca is put in charge of investigating where creativity and moral lay, in order to prevent robots to take our place in the world.

This was a quick and easy read, but I had issues connecting to the main character. It could be due to the fact that she was twenty-one but behaved like a teen since I have been able to enjoy other YA novels. I also had troubles in getting invested in the main conflict in the book: on one hand we have the government willing to create better robots, and on the other hand, there is a group called The Renegades, trying to prevent the dangers that improved robots could bring. The first part of the book was quite interesting and rose elaborate questions about the human nature and whether those aspects could be also applied to robots and how. The second part was not very plausible and partially lost my interest because I did not really believe in it.

Rebecca is a young woman, but emotionally very immature. There is romance in the book, unnecessary but also predictable. And talking about predictable, there were some other things that I guessed quite early in the story, and I wanted to shake Rebecca and tell her so.

There was little world building. My guess is that this book was set around the 30th century since our time is mentioned as the Second Age. It would have been nice to have more details about the world and the society. The only thing that is clear is that traveling has become something fast and cheap since Rebecca and Liam travel from Dublin to San Jose in what it is called a quantum train, and it seems this is a quite quick trip. In a way, this means of transportation reminded me a lot of the one in ‘Logan’s Run’.

The end felt so rushed that when I was approaching it, I was wondering if I just did not have the complete book. This book is the first in a series, and it ends on a massive cliffhanger that got me by surprise.

Melissa Williams’ narration was okay but it felt a bit stiff at times. She did a good job becoming Rebecca, but I missed some differentiation between characters. Also, Madeline’s voice didn’t really match my view of the little robot. She sounded more like an old woman than a little female robot.

All in all, it was a decent listen, but it’s one of those novels exclusively for teens and YA, since the characters are all quite immature, and there is a lot of the philosophical talk typical of high school students.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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