Set My Heart To Five
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- €8.49
Publisher Description
‘You shall read this with unadulterated pleasure’ Scotland on Sunday
‘A beautiful, funny, heartfelt analysis of what it means to be human’ Simon Pegg
Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, Set My Heart To Five is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening.
Unhappy with his programmed job of dentistry and inspired by a love of classic movies, Jared sets out on a bold mission: to use the power of his burgeoning feelings to forever change the world for him and all his kind. Unfortunately, Jared intends to do this by writing his own movie, and things do not proceed according to plan…
Unlike anything you have ever read before, Set My Heart To Five is a book for anybody who has feelings, loves movies, and likes to laugh and cry and sometimes do both at the same time. It comes uniquely guaranteed to make its readers weep a minimum of 29mls of tears.*
*Book must be read in controlled laboratory conditions arranged at reader’s own expense. Other terms and conditions may apply to this offer.
Reviews
‘[A] laugh-out-loud funny debut novel … absurdist, outrageous, irreverent and satirical… by the end of Jared’s adventures, readers will find themselves left with … an appreciation for the mutuality of all sentient life, and for the universal desire to be acknowledged and appreciated, whether one is birthed from factory or hospital … In Stephenson, Vonnegut may have his first true protégé.’ Washington Post
‘I doubt I’ll encounter a more endearing, more joy-provoking character this year’ The Bookseller, Book of the Month
‘A truly hilarious, clever, and strangely affecting meditation on the absurdity of Homo sapiens….I cried 67ml of tears’ Saga Magazine
‘Funny, original and thought-provoking’ Daily Mail
‘It is the closest thing I’ve read in a long time to Terry Pratchett … You will read this with unadulterated pleasure’ Scotland On Sunday
‘This beguiling debut exposes our frailties with subversive humour’ Mail on Sunday
‘Genuinely funny … pacey and emotive’ Sunday Times
‘Only the truly heartless would deny the art at work here’ The Herald
‘This entertaining and surprisingly poignant story is a charmer’ Publisher’s Weekly
About the author
Simon Stephenson is an author and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. His previous book Let Not The Waves Of The Sea won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A humanoid bot specializing in dentistry becomes an unlikely fugitive when he discovers the ability to feel emotions in Stephenson's lighthearted sophomore novel (after Let Not the Waves of the Sea). By 2054, "the Great Crash" has locked humans out of the internet forever, New Zealand has been nuked by North Korea, and, though bots are productive members of society, they are forbidden from having feelings by the Bureau of Robotics and painted as villains in most pop culture. After a movie unexpectedly moves dentist bot Jared to tears, his human office mate encourages Jared to further explore the complexity of human emotion with the aid of a "Feelings Wheel." When Jared receives a recall notice from the Bureau of Robotics, he decides to hightail it to Los Angeles, hoping to write his own screenplay and change the narrative surrounding bots with feelings. Of course, nothing goes as planned. But Jared's mechanical coming-of-age brings to the forefront the things that make life worth living as Stephenson delivers an amusing commentary on logic, love, and feeling. This entertaining and surprisingly poignant story is a charmer.