MachineHood by S.B. Divya Book Review

 Machinehood 

By S.B. Divya 

Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist 

Debut Novel 

Published Year : 2021

Page Count: 370 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite 

Genre : Space Opera, Science Fiction, Hugo Award Finalist, Nebula Award Finalist, Action, Robots, Singularity, 2025-read. 

Rating : 3.85/5 

The year is 2095. Robots have passed the Turing test a few centuries ago. They are now co-existing with humans but without sentience. They don't have a notion of self determination or will to demand their freedom/equality with humans. They are mostly worker bots which are supervised by humans and discarded after they become dysfunctional. They are also in the form of personal agents integrated in the form of chips for individuals in special professions. Most humans don't have stable, full time jobs and work multiple gigs to earn their dime. In order to compete with the AI bots that are way superior in physical and mental strength, humans rely on pills and drugs. The corporations and funders who design and release these pills into the market are hungry for making money and don't do thorough testing of the pills and their side effects if any. There are swarms of satellites orbiting earth which provide continuous connectivity between all places on the planet except a closed off area called the Maghreb. In this place called the Maghreb, the lights are off, so to speak. They are averse to adapting themselves to technology and advances it is making everywhere outside in the world. Enter into the fray, a space station called Eko-Yi which means 'One'- which is allowing selected residents from Earth to make home on it. They follow the teachings of Neo-Buddism which to me felt very resonant with Hindu religion's holy book Bhagavad Gita. Lol. 

Welga is a shield agent to one of the pill funders on earth. While she was on her job of protecting a funder named Briella Jackson, a super fast and superior skilled protestor kills the funder and detonates before getting caught and interrogated. After a couple more such incidents and accidents, they capture a live agent who calls itself resident from the station Eko-Yi. Until then, suspicions were ripe that these acts of murder are the work of an organization called MachineHood with ties to Maghreb. Welga makes a choice to secretly enter Eko-Yi and understand the links the station has with Machinehood and to stop, if possible, their further mayhem. What follows is not linear argument at all, I felt. The station and Machinehood are trying to force their way of living on to the residents of Earth and are willing to embrace violence to do so. They are branding it equality between humans and machines .. but as much as I wrack my head, I can't understand how converting/evolving humans into machine integrated bodies makes them equal in to machines that can't think, feel, emote and are still non sentient ??? I hit my first road block here. And Welga is supposed to stop the madness from spreading but she only becomes an agent to perpetuate it. Which felt totally out of logic. What did she do in the end? Why couldn't this development be achieved through non violent and less dramatic means by the Eko-Yi station?? 

Other than these minor flaws, I felt the book splendid. It is very thorough and I admire that this is a debut novel by the author. I am also proud that this is the work from an Indian author .. me being an Indian. Do check it out and if u can somehow answer my qualms or address my concerns from above .. please do comment. Cheers 🍻 🥂