The Red Men | Matthew de Abaitua | Review
*Image and book provided via NetGalley for an honest review.
Summary:
In the near future the company, Monad, has revolutionized AI to the point where some people believe it came from the future. Nelson just wants to be a good family man and provide for his family and help his friend get a job to do the same. Unfortunately he gets caught up in a war, not just between the rival companies Monad and Dyad, but also between the AIs called Red Men and their real life counterparts.
Review:
This was an interesting book. It felt like it was modeled after a 70's drug-trip dystopian movie. It goes back and forth between Nelson's perspective and his friend Raymond's with a couple other minor characters as well. I greatly appreciated Nelson's everyman perspective. He is genuinely a good person who wants to do the right thing, but wants to put his family's well being above all. I kinda wish we could've gotten to see the world from the perspective of a Dr. Easy robot. We got a monologue from the main AI, but I the things that the Dr. robots have to go through would have been really interesting.
It took longer to read than I expected, and I felt frustrated with that at a few points, bored at others, but the ending was really worth it. I finished the book feeling like I had spent my time well. There were a few time jumps that I had a little trouble following, but overall the story was well paced with the occasional needed humor, there was just a lot of story. And this is the edition that had some stuff removed!
If you like corporate dystopia books or drug-trip books, you'll really enjoy The Red Men. I greatly appreciated the philosophical/ethical discourse about those who conquer, those who fight and those who remain quiet. I kinda wish this wasn't such a book for our times, but it's got some good messages for the world today.
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