iD

Written by Madeline Ashby

Narrated by Luke Daniels

The Second Machine Dynasty

Javier is a self-replicating humanoid on a journey of redemption.

Javier's quest takes him from Amy's island, where his actions have devastating consequences for his friend, toward Mecha where he will find either salvation.…or death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781469271965

Madeline Ashby

Madeline Ashby grew up in a household populated by science fiction fans. She graduated from a Jesuit university in 2005, after having written a departmental thesis on science fiction. After meeting Ursula K. LeGuin in the basement of the Elliott Bay Book Company that year, she decided to start writing science fiction stories. While immigrating to Canada from the United States in 2006 , she could not work or study and joined the Cecil Street Irregulars – a genre writers’ workshop founded by Judith Merril – instead. Since then she has been published in Tesseracts, Flurb, Nature, Escape Pod and elsewhere. She has a masters degree in Manga and Anime and writes on such matters for i09, Tor.com and BoingBoing. Currently she works as a strategic foresight consultant in Toronto.

Reviews for iD

[adamwolf_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked it more than vN, even though it's more squicky than vN was. It certainly isn't for everyone.

It's a little James Bond-y... casinos and sex and explosions.

[schant-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Didn't enjoy this as much as the first one. I found it confusing - there seemed to be a lot of running around aimlessly between random unrelated events.

[lexiechan-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Angry Robots for the opportunity to read it.

Don't you think this book is weird? lol.

I got so many issues with this book that I do not know where I should begin. I like the idea of robots. Of vN co-habiting with humans. Working as a nurse, gardener, teacher, etc. I like how they could think of their own but they could not even think of harming a human for it would 'failsafe' them. I think that is such a good idea since in the past, I have watched movies like Terminator, who harms humans because they started to think on their own. Failsafe is like a guarantee that robots, or vN rather, will NEVER hurt humans for they function to serve, protect, love and make them happy.

I get the story of the series. Of Amy's clade having a kind of failsafe glitch. Failsafe is an exemption to Portia and Amy. Of Amy being a vN who thinks of her fellow vN to have some sort of freedom. In this certain book though, the past was revealed. Sort of. And the main protagonist in this story is Javier.

So it was all Javier's thoughts, past, actions, we are seeing. Reasons why he do what he did. I kinda like that the author change POV. From Amy for the first book, to Javier in second. It's a good knowing what were his thoughts.

So, what I didn't like about this book?

1. It's a bit boring in the first part.
2. All Javier thinks of is getting Amy's panties down. It's like, every single time they're together he's asking to fuck her. >_<
3. It's all 'FUCKING' in this book. Fucking as in sex, fucking as in curse.
4. I don't like that it was said that Amy is just a kindergartener a year ago (which is true in the first book), and then for this second book, Javier wanted to fuck her. Please! I mean, I know what kind of vN he is. But still, this does not seem right. It's like Pedophile but then again, Javier is like 4 years old only. I know the norms does not apply to robots (vN) but still. WEIRD.
5. I hate that one moment, someone from Javier's sons or himself, speaks Spanish AND IT WAS NEVER TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH. How would I know what they said?! I'm not a Spanish speaker. I do understand PUTA though. Cause I curse using that word sometimes. Yeah, got Spanish terms here in the Philippines too.
6. I can't even categorize this book to Young Adult because of the language used and the actions shown. I can't even say it's a New Adult or Adult book because of the age of the characters. That does not seem right to any option.

Guess that's it? Oh wait, did I ever told you it really is weird that even male vN iterates which in a simple word means, pregnant? lol. And the book also shows... male to male sex. WTF right? Well, I'm actually not against MM, I love MM. But I'm not reading a Male to Male book, in the first place. If I want to read books like that, I'd turn to my Yaoi mangas.

I am not trying to degrade this book, it might not just be my preference. I do admit I am weird so I got weird tastes sometimes. I'm just trying my best to say what is on my mind as honestly as I could.

Did I enjoy some part of the book? YES.
Did I enjoy the book, overall? NOT SO MUCH. It just kind of dragged.
Will I recommend it to some friends? MAYBE. But to only those who got a strong stomach, doesn't mind the word 'fucking' every now and then, can somehow understand Spanish and who is a bit techy.

It might just be me. You might like it better than I do. So please don't judge the book because you read my review. Good luck and hope you'll have a fun time reading ahead of you! :)

[alcarinqa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Taking up close to where vN left off, iD follows Javier's journey to set things right after everything goes wrong on Amy's island. Although I liked the book well enough, I feel that some of the magic was missing, and I'm not convinced that Javier is as compelling a protagonist as Amy was.Javier makes a few silly decisions throughout this book, and the idea behind them is that he lacks the freedom to have done anything differently. While the focus of vN was very much about the rights that a robot can expect in the human world, iD closely explores the consequences of the failsafe in robots. The failsafe ensures that robots freeze or blue-screen if they harm a human being, or witness harm being done to a human being and fail to interfere (like Asimov's three rules, but subtly different). The failsafe is the reason that Javier, initially programmed for the use of humans to gratify their ... cravings, is especially vulnerable. The question of whether a human can rape a robot, especially one that is compelled to do everything it can to make sure humans are happy, is at the forefront of this story. I'm not sure how I felt about it. I think it's an interesting, compelling question to ask, but I soon tired of just how many sexual interactions there are in the book. It made me deeply uncomfortable to see Javier treated that way, and to see him use sex as a tool to get the answers he was after. But this is very much the idea behind the book.I liked getting to see other communities of robots, and especially learning what they thought of Amy, her rebellion, and her island. I think these interactions provided a lot of information about lives of different castes of robots. The world has also expanded so we get a feel for what humans feel about robots as well - the last book was filled with humans who wanted to control Amy because her failsafe wasn't working, but this book features humans on a broader spectrum.I had difficulty connecting with the plot of iD - something about it failed to engage with me. Most of this can be attributed to the change in protagonist - as I outlined before, he failed to really click with me. However, I also think this book is less thrilling in general, and iD feels like it was extended or padded out. A lot of the action could have been condensed into a shorter, punchier book, in my opinionOverall, iD is an enjoyable read, but I struggled with the changes in protagonist and focus. I liked getting to know the story-world a lot better, and am still sufficiently invested in the characters to be excited about the next book in the sequence.A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic.