Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132

REVIEW FOR “THE SECRET LIFE OF BOTS”

“I have a purpose, therefore I serve.”

Enjoyable. I'm always willing to read robot stories and this was particularly entertaining. I liked the whole AI Mantra stuff and the botnet as a way of communication. Really cool but not exceptional for a Hugo winner.

That didn't quite hit the spot: An old derelict ship selected as a last-ditch effort to save humanity from an alien invasion. A fleet of semi-autonomous bots. A single outdated first-generation bot that saves the day.It slightly reminded me of Murderbot but, I'm sorry, it lacks the latter's innocence and... logical purity. These bots seem logical at first glance but have nothing better to do than emulate humans, citing pseudo-religious “Rites of Something”... »Bot 9 approached to speak the Rites of Decommissioning for it as it had the destroyed silkbot, only to find its activity light was still lit. “4340-H?” the bot enquired.«One would think, a vastly superior AI should know better.Nice enough but I'll stick with Murderbot.Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Merged review:That didn't quite hit the spot: An old derelict ship selected as a last-ditch effort to save humanity from an alien invasion. A fleet of semi-autonomous bots. A single outdated first-generation bot that saves the day.It slightly reminded me of Murderbot but, I'm sorry, it lacks the latter's innocence and... logical purity. These bots seem logical at first glance but have nothing better to do than emulate humans, citing pseudo-religious “Rites of Something”... »Bot 9 approached to speak the Rites of Decommissioning for it as it had the destroyed silkbot, only to find its activity light was still lit. “4340-H?” the bot enquired.«One would think, a vastly superior AI should know better.Nice enough but I'll stick with Murderbot.Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram