An interesting, if perturbing, short story that explores the concept of humankind becoming a rarity in favour of eternal life as a robot. ( )

This book focuses on Joe, a citizen who is avoiding the change to robot as long as he can. While he loves Destiny, he does not wish to conform to the others that are making the change to robot in order to live longer. He also wishes that Destiny was as human as he is. This story was quick to read and not long at all, it gives the impression that the government in this story has a strong hold on the general public and would be a great read for conspiracy theorists! This was a good book, and I look forward to more from this author, hopefully in a full length novel! ( )

This story started out with an interesting premise. Technology has advanced so far that we can take our thoughts, personalities, and everything else that makes us (mentally) who we are, and download it into an exact artificial copy of our body. Androids are common place, as well as an agency that’s purpose is to preserve species that are becoming extinct. It all sounds like a great future.

As the story progressed, I found myself becoming more and more interested in the way this world worked and the consequences it has on the individual, as well as humanity as a whole. There’s also a discussion to be made about the love between man and machine because the lines are blurred between the two with Joe and Destiny. I find myself thinking about it even hours after finishing the story.

The outcome was great, too. I found it a realistic way for the story to progress, even if it’s not the most positive conclusion. I can’t elaborate, to avoid spoilers, but I’ll say that I was glad to see it end this way because it helped elaborate on the way this future society handles things and it made me think back on it all, wondering : “What is humanity? What makes us what we are?” ( )

I found this book to be the look to the future times. The different people in the store were making a transition from a current earthly status to what was expected to be a forever status. The Main character was having a hard time making his choice to stay as he was or transition. When he finally makes his choice the program is stopped and he is left in limbo to wait for his forever body.

Boy Buys Girl, Girl Evolves

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic copy of this story for review through Library Thing's Member Giveaways program. Also, the last paragraph contains a vague spoiler.)

"What's the point of a new generation if we can live forever?" And there it is. My whole problem with the Transition. Truthfully, I always wanted kids. But Tara didn't...and Destiny can't. So what's the point?

When Joe's wife Tara leaves him after more than a decade of marriage, he does what many middle-aged, newly-single men of the future do: he buys a companionship android. At first glance, the T-26 known as Destiny might seem to be at odds with Joe's longstanding resistance to the Transition - in which one's consciousness is downloaded into a synthetic version of one's body; everybody's doing it! - but Destiny is a true android: preprogrammed with a variety of factory settings (Erotic, Housewife), she lacks any humanity of her own. Whereas Joe's Transitioned friends are constant reminders of the crumbling wall between "human" and "machine," Destiny is 100%, honest to goodness not-human.

Much like his plasma screen tv and toaster oven, Destiny is just another one of Joe's toys. Until the day she isn't. Destiny begins to learn. Evolve. Becomes sentient.

As Joe finds himself falling in love with an android, he must decide what's more important to him: his humanity, increasingly rare these days - or eternal love.

Smart and full of heart, Destiny is a fun and quick read - a little too quick, if you ask me. I'd love to see this story expanded in novel form. The Habitat Facility is a nice touch, and it's interesting to observe how Joe's behavior parallels that of some nonhuman animals kept in confinement (pandas, for example, are notoriously reluctant to mate in zoos, leading to the rise of panda porn).

http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/06/30/destiny-by-k-c-maguire/ ( )