An Unnatural Life

A short story that explores the rights of AI.

Robotnik 812-3 has been sentenced to life in prison on Europa for murdering a human.

But did he have a fair trial, when all the Jurors were human?

Is he guilty?

Aiya must battle her own inner doubts, as well as her fellow Europans and even her partner, to fight for the AI's legal right to a trial of his peers.

3 Stars

#JennyGuy Colvin

2.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
An Earth lawyer working as a rehabilitator on Europa agrees to represent a robot accused of murder.

Review
There's nothing particularly wrong with An Unnatural Life, but there's nothing particularly new about it, either. Aside from a mostly distracting side thread about alien life on Europa – which has, so far as I can tell, really nothing to do with the story – this is a fairly by-the-numbers ‘are robots alive?' story. The protagonist is reasonably engaging, but we've seen this all before, and the more interesting aspect – robots acting against their will – is largely unexplored.

Tor.com publishes a lot of tie-in novellas to promote full novels, and I have to wonder whether this, with its alien life thread, is also in that vein, though I confess I'm not aware of the novel it might be meant to promote. On its own, it's ... okay, but not compelling.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.