Reviews: Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep (3)

Dead but dreaming of electric sheep by Paul Tremblay. This one wasn't really for me, I really tried but I DNFd at 38%. I really enjoyed the Julia side of the story but Bernie's perspective was, well, just too freaking weird and completely messed with the storytelling and rhythm. I have given it three stars as it would be unfair to give it less considering I didn't finish it

I’ve read a lot of Paul Tremblay’s other work and this is not his best.
The book is designed to make a point about the dangers of artificial intelligence, both to creativity and to humanity itself. It tells the story of Julia, a drop-out gamer, who is engaged by her mother’s software company to navigate an individual (in a vegetative state but implanted with AI) across the US using a handheld controller similar to computer games.
Needless to say, things don’t go to plan as the body becomes increasingly capable of independent movement.
The book is split between Julia’s viewpoint and the viewpoint of the body (or is it?).
It’s described as a horror/comedy but I didn’t find it much of either. Julia’s sections were ok but the body’s bits were often (deliberately but still frustratingly) incoherent, at times unreadable, and interrupted the flow.
And as for the ‘anti-AI’ sections, well, give it 5 minutes and it’ll be inserting them too.
The ending was pretty easy to predict.
I probably wouldn’t have bothered finishing it if I wasn’t going to review it.
Overall, it felt like a story dashed off to satisfy an external requirement ie ‘Paul, you’ve been asked to write a book about the threat of AI’ rather than ‘hey, I’ve had a great idea for a story to explore possible threats by AI’.

3.5 rounded up
So... with AI becoming more and more prevalent in today's, well, everything, and me being a bit of a sceptic of the whole shebang, I am probably the target audience for this character driven AI horror sort of black comedy!
We start with Julia who has been tasked by her estranged mother to accompany one of her employees on a journey. Seems like a bit of a basic babysitting duty but it's far from that. You see, the employee who she nicknames "Bernie" and if you need that explaining then there's no point explaining! And he is brain dead, his "movements" all controlled, via an APP, by bots implanted in his brain. Where and why she is transporting his near-lifeless body, I'll leave you to find out yourself.
We then hear from both Julia and Bernie as they travel, her detailing their, often quite funny, journey and him, well, we witness what is left of his thoughts, nightmare like and surreal as they are, and this is where the main mystery lies... Especilly the significance of the rabbit tattoo...
I did enjoy this book. It was nothing like I have read before, it also being my first book by this most prolific author. However, I did struggle with his style a bit and also did find the narrative a bit slow and repetitive in parts. I also found some of Bernies ramblings broke the momentum of the journey which made the whole not flow as well as it could have for me.
There's also quite a bit of thinkie stuff contained wrt the whole explosion that is AI and how the technology is way out growing any legislation which is still desparately trying to play catch up. Remember also that AI is usually found without and crossing borders of the countries who are trying to legislate!
All in all, a complicated book for me as there were parts I loved and parts I didn't quite get on with as well as I'd have liked. All coming together into an ending that kinda satisfied but, at the same time, also annoyed me. Maybe you'll understand that better when you get to the end. Although, that said, I am now perusing his back catalogue as, despite the challenges this book gave me, I am interested in reading more by him.