Katie M. Flynn

I guess there could be worse things than the pandemic restrictions we are currently living through. This book looks at one possibility.

In a future pandemic people living in big cities in California are restricted to their apartments; everything they need can be ordered to be delivered; and for those seeking new experiences other than those on the screen they can have a companion that won't spread the contagion. These companions are mechanical bodies uploaded with the memory of people who died. Some of the companions are little more than vacuum cleaners with a brain but the body can be quite elaborate if the person renting it can afford the cost. One company, Metis, controls the market for companions and if anything goes wrong with a companion Metis is supposed to fix it. The companions are not supposed to have the ability to defy commands but one, Lilac, realizes she can do so. She leaves the confines of the apartment and goes to find the person responsible for her death. Eventually the idea that companions can exhibit free will leads to them being outlawed and all existing companions are supposed to be destroyed. Against all odds Lilac manages to avoid that and gets transferred from body to body. A few other companions also manage to evade disposal but the bodies do not last forever.

I found this novel which jumped around between eight different people (both human and companion) hard to follow. Even though I finished it I didn't feel it was a particularly good read.… (meer)

When I began The Companions, I thought I knew what the basic plot would be. Like the TV show Humans and other novels about AI servants, this one would revolve around an individual/family who engages lovingly/cruelly/carelessly or combinations thereof with the “robot” Artificial Intelligence humanoid. However, after the first chapter, “Two Years Since the Quarantine Began,” I discovered this novel went much deeper into the vagaries of our humanity. Wait, did I say quarantine? I had put down the book for a few weeks, and now the setting is unnervingly eerie. The child whom the first viewpoint Companion interacts with has daily home sessions of “School, “Exercise,” “Shop” and “Socialize” on her screen. When she is done with these, she has her Companion to keep her occupied.

The novel isn't about the quarantine, though. That just sets up the need for many Companions, and thus because downloading one's consciousness into a new body when one dies is scientifically possible, those who die and do not have a family member to become their custodian are leased, as Companions, to wealthy family who need their children entertained. The storyline moves along swiftly and suspensefully as we learn that the young girl's Companion Lilac was killed and she has somehow countermanded her programming and fled to find her killer. Other viewpoint characters (Companions and living humans) continue the plot as we move into the third year of the quarantine, then jump to three months after the quarantine has ended (whew!). The other main characters' lives are also intriguing and suspenseful, including an actor who was uploaded illegally into two bodies at the same time for nefarious reasons. Shades of Altered Carbon there.

Katie M. Flynn shows us the lone-range consequences of extending lives and enslaving people. I was enthralled by the insights and repelled by the inhumanity of the Companion business.… (meer)

So this was a REALLY WEIRD book to read right now. I wonder what the author is thinking these days?
I enjoyed this book, but the experience of reading it was definitely weird. No we don't have Companions (see below) but the whole quarantine thing is not feeling like sci-fi right about now. Which made reading this kind of neat, and kind of just weird.

This novel takes place in near-future California (50-100 years in the future?). There are 2 things going on. First being a multi-year quarantine due to deadly viruses. Really. As the story continues, the quarantines have ended, but people are occasionally still nervous.

The second is that people's memories/knowledge can be extracted from their bodies at death (provided the paperwork is signed!) and placed into fabricated "bodies" or even just screens. This way their knowledge is not lost. But they are also not 100% the same. These Companions are then leased--by the wealthy who use them for child care or other services, or by their own families.

So within the world we meet a lot of people--Lilac, a companion who was killed at age 16 by a female rival (Red). Gabe, who we meet as a 9-year-old whose mother and sister were killed by a virus, and who lives with "the doctor" informally, as a helper/thief. Nat, a young man who also works for the Doctor. Jakob, a movie star who does not realize he is a Companion (his studio arranged this). Cam, a young woman who works at the retirement home Red lives in in her old age. Rolly and his brother Andy, who live on a farm with their father in Del Norte County.

All of these characters' paths cross, some know each other better than others. All intersect in this world of viruses, Companions, leases, and the crime that comes with the creation of Companions.
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Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout for providing me with an egalley of this book.… (meer)

The Companions by Katie M. Flynn is a recommended dystopian science fiction debut novel.

When a highly contagious virus results in people being placed under quarantine in their sealed high rise towers, the Metis Corporation creates "Companions." Companions are the consciousness of a dead person uploaded into a robot and kept in service to the living. Companions range from the early, simple can-like robots to a body-like machine covered in skin. Usually families pay for custody of the Companions of their dead loved ones, but less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death. All companions are the intellectual property of the Metis Corporation. Essentially they have created a new class of people who exist without legal rights or true free will.

Lilac is a very simple robot, one of the early models, leased to a family to be the companion to an adolescent girl, Dahlia. As the narrative begins, Lilac is telling Dahlia her story, the events leading up to her death, while being careful of Dahlia's mother, who hates Lilac. This is when Lilac discovers that not only can she remember her life, she can defy commands, so she runs away to search for the woman who killed her and find out what happened to her best friend. This sets off a chain of events and introduces us to several different characters which will be followed for decades as the plot unfolds.

The character-driven narrative is told through the point-of-view of these eight different figures - some human, some companion. The connection between the characters is Lilac. Her movements link them together as she is part of every story at some point. One of the better developed characters is Gabe, who we meet as a nine-year-old orphan who is street smart and able to hide out in the streets. There is a lot of personal growth and emotional depth to her characterization. However, not all eight of the main characters are that interesting or, really, add a significant layer of depth to the plot.

Part of the problem with the plot is a lack of a specific focus and it feels unfinished. If the focus of the novel is to tell Lilac's story, as it sets out to do at the beginning, and bring closure to her questions about what really happened to her friend and to the girl who killed her, then it does that, but hardly requires the whole novel for the revenge/redemption story. If the purpose of the plot is an introspective look at what makes us human and how human rights are granted, then the focus of the narrative should have been better focused. And it must be said that the world building is not quite as developed as I was hoping for at the start.

I was hooked at the start and had high hopes for The Companions, but, after I finished the novel, I thought it needed some more work. While the writing is good and it presented an interesting idea, the follow-through with each character and the final denouement was a letdown.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/03/the-companions.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3213379277… (meer)