Debbie Urbanski

I was provided a copy of this review by NetGalley, and this is my personal opinion. Many thanks to NetGalley and Debbie Urbanski!

This debut novel follows the last human on Earth, Sen, and the AI responsible for telling her story. Humanity has asked AI to help it stave off environmental disaster, and the outcome is one any sci-fi fan could predict - remove humans from the equation. They are to be 'exited' from the Earth, and their consciousness uploaded into a new digital world called Maia. The story doesn't focus on how this is achieved, although it does discuss it. The true heart of the novel concerns a worker process that is tasked with watching Sen as she carries out her job as a Witness to the Great Transition. It pours over her journals, endless hours of video and audio, and begins to piece together a narrative of her life and approaching death. As it does so, it begins to learn, change, and develop it's own persona - one that is increasingly attached to Sen.

Can an AI learn emotions? Can it love? What does it mean to be Human?

Don't be fooled by my 3 star rating - that is due to my own personal preference for plot driven post-apocalyptic stories, rather than character driven. But if your sweet spot is the intersection of post-apocalyptic fiction and character driven stories, then I suspect this may be a book for you. I found the first section a little rough to get through, as it was framed from the point of view of the newly instantiated AI storymaker, and was cold, clinical, programmatic. But this turned out to be a successful gambit as it drove home the personification of the AI. The reader is able to watch as it softens and develops a personality that becomes more approachable and more readable, all the more impactful compared to its initial distance. It watches Sen, it watches her relationships with her mothers, it learns, it falls in love. It's heart breaking but also so familiar, to watch it review Sen's past and desperately wish to change things. To try and spin up simulations where things fell out differently. To want so badly to save someone you love and spare them pain.

This isn't a happy, fuzzy story. It's bleak and it doesn't hold anything back, but it's guaranteed to make you think. There are a lot of ideas about humanity's responsibility and culpability regarding environmental collapse, the place of AI in our society, and what lies in the places between.… (meer)