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A book club - with a difference.

Lotus

Someone asked today if there is a book club, so I thought I'd try starting one. Not the usual type of club where everyone reads the same book - I thought we could write a synopsis of a book we've recently read, to give each other ideas for new books to read.

I have a Kindle subscription, so all of mine will be available on there for people who also subscribe.

Parents

  • I've been reading a lot recently, but haven't posted on here for a long time. However the book I've just finished made me want to share it.

     "A hand on Mars" by Francis Malka is about an international mission to Mars, where the crew are given the task of looking for water to see if it can be made habitable. The crew are composed of 16 humans and 16 AI robots, with each human being paired with a robot. One of the first crews sent out to explore finds a dessicated hand, which looks human. Is it human? Are there humanoid aliens? Where did it come from?

    There are fascinating observations of human behaviour, such as the issue of who is going to be first to set foot on the planet - they solve this by getting the robots to build a platform outside the ship entrance, which one human from each of the participating nations walks out onto, then they all step down onto the planet simultaneously while being filmed by one of the robots.

    It's also an interesting look at how robots with AI might assist us in the future, and the story is narrated by a robot known as Glitch.

    It's a really good mystery and I think it might be interesting even to people who don't normally enjoy science fiction .

Reply

  • I've been reading a lot recently, but haven't posted on here for a long time. However the book I've just finished made me want to share it.

     "A hand on Mars" by Francis Malka is about an international mission to Mars, where the crew are given the task of looking for water to see if it can be made habitable. The crew are composed of 16 humans and 16 AI robots, with each human being paired with a robot. One of the first crews sent out to explore finds a dessicated hand, which looks human. Is it human? Are there humanoid aliens? Where did it come from?

    There are fascinating observations of human behaviour, such as the issue of who is going to be first to set foot on the planet - they solve this by getting the robots to build a platform outside the ship entrance, which one human from each of the participating nations walks out onto, then they all step down onto the planet simultaneously while being filmed by one of the robots.

    It's also an interesting look at how robots with AI might assist us in the future, and the story is narrated by a robot known as Glitch.

    It's a really good mystery and I think it might be interesting even to people who don't normally enjoy science fiction .

Children
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