His Robot Girlfriend
Mike Smith's life was crap, living all alone, years after his wife had died and his children had grown up and moved away. Then he saw the commercial for the Daffodil. Far more than other robots, the Daffodil could become anything and everything he wanted it to be. Mike's life is about to change.
to have? What clothing, if any, do you wish me to wear? What name would you like me to answer to?"
Mike looked at the clock on the wall. It was 3:20 PM. He counted off six hours on his fingers—9:20. He sat down on the white sofa that was almost never used and looked at the shapely nude robot. With a wry smile, he realized that he could sit and stare at it for the next six hours, or he could get up and do something. He went back to the family room, picked up the texTee, and flipped open Moby Dick, but he didn't read any more of it. Instead he turned the select dial to the bookstore and typed in "names". The titles of half a dozen books appeared including "The Name Book", "The Secret Universe of Names", and "The Baby Name Wizard". He selected the last book of the six: "Virtue Names". It took about twenty seconds for the book to download to the texTee. Looking back to the screen, Mike turned to the first page of the name book. The first name was Agape. Agape? The book said that it had something to
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Man buys robot. Man falls in love with robot. They live happily ever after.
There are two types of books: character-driven and plot-driven. Allison's His Robot Girlfriend is an example of the former.
Much of nothing happens in the story. There is a hint of intrigue, an aroma of conflict, a lot of sensuality referred to but not, thank heaven, described blow-by-blow which would make this simply bad porn. Basically the first sentence of the review is the novella in its entirety.
The dialogue is written well, which is a plus for works put out into free domain. The character of Mike Smith is rather well fleshed out though Patience remains ... well, a robot and doesn't have much of a personality as she is basically a Gal Friday with sexual services attached. The settings are intriguing. It is interesting to see what of our culture the author believes will survive in the near future, and and as credit to the author's craft, I did read the novella in its entirety.
However, reviewers are as varied as wildflowers in a meadow. Personally, I like a strong, well-crafted plot with intriguing lines of conflict, no matter how subtle or blatant they may be. If you like just character vignettes and what people may do in the privacy of their homes with a novel toy, then this might just be your five-star story.
