Author: Matt Haig
Genre: Dystopia, Sci-Fi
Publication date: February 6, 2014
Book description: Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters. Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her. Echo Boy is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.
Review:
This is a quick enchanting read. It feels like a YA book.
The quick overview can be set as a standalone dystopian speculative fiction set in the next century. It offers a vision of what a day to day life may be like exploring the advancements in medicine, AI, robotics, climate control, and the possible result of our fight against death and aging.
Audrey is a very normal teenager of her time. Yet her parents have raised her on art and philosophy, imagination, appreciating culture, and protecting the idea of humankind. It starts with a little preview of a classic interaction in her family- the loving father, and the caring mother, they might not agree on everything but they certainly are understanding enough with each other to discuss and make decisions together.
Society has several technological advancements: people live on the moon, AI and even artificial humans are a reality. The downside- humans are still humans. As a society people try to play god, recreational drugs and vanity are still a huge aspect of everyday life.
One of the greatest technological achievements is the creation of Echo. It stands for Enhanced Computerized Humanoid Organism. Audrey's dad is an avid protestant, he feels that the route society has taken is dangerous and ill-advised. He opposes the use of such technologies, and the revival of extinct species (of animals and other sapiens species) but his dislike, especially towards the ECHOs.
This vision of the future can be viewed as utopian or dystopian, depending on your views on technological advancement. It is a world where humans live longer, with life expectancy having at least doubled. It is now very much a small world as traveling from Europe to America takes only minutes and even if this seems like too much of an effort you can visit anywhere in the world virtually, thereby deeming it no longer necessary even to leave the house for holidays and family visits. You can even be schooled from home and it's optional if you wish to interact with other people or have a virtual personalized education from Echos or robots.
The Castle family decides to acquire an Echo. Audrey's mother's main argument is that an echo has better education to provide for her, therefore, increasing her chances of getting into a good college. So it's an investment for their daughter. The father is set against echo technology- his principles, but on the balance of his family's well-being, he chooses to fold. An echo arrives to the family.
The spiral of events starts. Audrey's parents are murdered by Eliza, the ECHO. She arrives with her uncle, the owner of one of the two main companies in charge of making ECHOs and other technological advances. Even if her father was very publically against his brother, she is a 16-year-old who just saw her parents bloodied bodies; she is confused, depressed, and desperate. The uncle is trying to be accommodating, but only in so far as his commodities allow. He refuses to accommodate her wish to have ECHOs removed from her presence. He is after all one of the main manufacturers of them.
On the journey, she comes across Daniel, an ECHO in her uncle's house. She distrusts him over all the others of his type. But soon realizes he is very different. As an ECHO he should be nothing but a walking computer but he feels, he has imagination and curiosity. When she is in imminent danger, he disobeys direct orders and decides to risk himself to save her life. From here is a nice race to find out the truth, with no idea who to trust Audrey ends up understanding what being human means and how to let go of her prejudice.
Audrey is not the most likable character, she has just gone through very tough situations so her lack of logic and her inability to see what's right in front of her is forgivable. What I mean to say, it's pretty obvious who's responsible but it takes a long time for her to accept it.
Echo Boy is an effortless read, and I highly recommend it to ages young-adult and up who love futuristic, cautionary tales.
This was used for the challenges:
Around the world- United Kingdom
Author: Matt Haig
Orilium - Subject Spells & incantation - Target length 389 - 415 pages
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