Klara and the Sun [GRPL Book Club]Like this list

18 items

• Translation State

  Leckie, Ann,

  Add Translation State to your for later shelf

  Anne Leckie's "Translation State" is much broader in scope than the purposefully narrow view of Ishiguro's narrator. But if you're looking for a story that explores the tension between programming and purpose, duty and desire, but on the scale of a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sea of Rust

  [a Novel]

  Cargill, C. Robert, 1975-

  Add Sea of Rust to your for later shelf

  Where "Klara" takes place in a manicured near-future, "Sea of Rust" is decidedly post-apocalyptic, set in the decades following the extinction of the human race at the hands of robots. But this story, too, follows an introspective humanlike AI…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Terminal Boredom

  Stories

  Suzuki, Izumi, 1949-1986,

  Add Terminal Boredom to your for later shelf

  Staff Pick! "The response to the coming dystopia will be an indifferent shrug from the universe as technology creeps into our dreams to steal our thoughts and sell them to aliens on beach vacations. It only serves to reason the author took her own…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Emily Eternal

  Wheaton, Mark, 1975-

  Add Emily Eternal to your for later shelf

  A female-coded (pun-intended) artificial consciousness named Emily was designed to provide emotional support for humans in times of crisis - which becomes *particularly* relevant when the sun starts to die about 5 billion years ahead of schedule.

• Olivetti

  Millington, Allie,

  Add Olivetti to your for later shelf

  Forget slick, sleek robots and high-tech AIs. Olivetti is a humble typewriter, a hard worker with a long memory who has been largely forgotten by the family who owns him. This book is written for younger readers (the typewriter teams up with…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Closed and Common Orbit

  Chambers, Becky,

  Add A Closed and Common Orbit to your for later shelf

  A standalone novel from breakout Sci Fi author Becky Chambers, "A Closed and Common Orbit" follows Lovelace - an artificial intelligence that once powered and piloted an entire spacecraft, but has since woken in a new body without any memory of her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Cybernetic Tea Shop

  Katz, Meredith,

  Add The Cybernetic Tea Shop to your for later shelf

  Like "Klara," "The Cybernetic Tea Shop" is the story of a fully autonomous robot who has spent a long time in a small shop watching the world go by. In this case, Sal isn't waiting to find a "forever home," but instead is continuing to follow her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Windup Girl

  Bacigalupi, Paolo

  Add The Windup Girl to your for later shelf

  Another novel that's much broader in scope than "Klara," digging deeper into a more distant-future apocalypse defined by food scarcity. But it grapples with similar philosophical questions through the character of Emiko, the titular Windup Girl - an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Machines Like Me

  and People Like You

  McEwan, Ian,

  Add Machines Like Me to your for later shelf

  An alternate history rather than near-future Sci-Fi, "Machines Like Me" is set in a parallel 1980s London, where Charlie buys Adam, one of the first synthetic humans - whose personality he programs alongside his girlfriend, Miranda.

• Set My Heart to Five

  a Novel

  Stephenson, Simon,

  Add Set My Heart to Five to your for later shelf

  The story of the emotional awakening of a humanlike robot named Jared. Bots shouldn't be able to feel emotions. But when Jared finds himself crying at the end of a movie, it sends him on a quest to understand what's happening to him... before he can…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hierarchies

  a Novel

  Anderson, Ros,

  Add The Hierarchies to your for later shelf

  Another introspective novel told from the point of view of a synthetic woman who is becoming more self-aware and beginning to question her place in the world. But where "Klara" follows a robot designed to be a companion for a child, Sylv.ie is a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Convenience Store Woman [GRPL Book Club]

  村田沙耶香, 1979-

  Add Convenience Store Woman [GRPL Book Club] to your for later shelf

  Stories about artificial intelligences are often a metaphor for otherness - for struggling to connect with others and finding place or purpose in the world - which all too often becomes a clunky analog for autism. If you'd like a less-Sci-Fi but…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Lifecycle of Software Objects

  Chiang, Ted

  Add The Lifecycle of Software Objects to your for later shelf

  One of Ted Chiang's longer novellas, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" takes a somewhat more tech-oriented approach to the question of synthetic intelligences, examining the relationship between programmers and program over the course of a decade…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Plum Rains

  [a Novel]

  Romano-Lax, Andromeda, 1970-

  Add Plum Rains to your for later shelf

  A fascinating twist on the "robots will take our jobs" plot, "Plum Rains" follows Angelica Navarro, a Filipina live-in nurse working for an elderly woman in Tokyo, whose much-needed job is threatened by a cutting-edge robot caretaker designed…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Tell the Machine Goodnight [GRPL Book Club]

  Williams, Katie, 1978-

  Add Tell the Machine Goodnight [GRPL Book Club] to your for later shelf

  A story about women's compulsory emotional labor, but in this case, our protagonist Pearl is very much human. Rather, it's her job to use a sophisticated machine to discover the one perfect thing that will make her company's clients happy. But why,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• If You Liked All Systems Red by Martha Wells

  View on bibliocommons.com

  Itching for another novella-length internal monologue of an increasingly-self-aware robot? Check out GRPL's Sci-Fi Book Club Pick, "All Systems Red," and more similar titles!

• If You Liked "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" by Becky Chambers

  View on bibliocommons.com

  Looking for many, many more books that explore near-future settings and the relationship between humans and synthetic intelligences? Check out more similar reads here!

• Klara and the Sun [GRPL Book Club]

   a Novel

  Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954-

  Add Klara and the Sun [GRPL Book Club] to your for later shelf

  Haven't had a chance to read "Klara and the Sun"? Click through to check out a copy in your preferred format!