The Automation
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The capital-A Automatons of Greco-Roman myth aren’t clockwork. Their design is much more divine. They’re more intricate than robots or androids or anything else mortal humans could invent. Their windup keys are their human Masters. They aren’t mindless; they have infinite storage space. And, because they have more than one form, they’re more versatile and portable than, say, your cell phone—and much more useful too. The only thing these god-forged beings share in common with those lowercase-A automatons is their pre-programmed existence. They have a function—a function their creator put into place—a function that was questionable from the start…
Odys (no, not short for Odysseus, thank you) finds his hermetic lifestyle falling apart after a stranger commits suicide to free his soul-attached Automaton slave. The humanoid Automaton uses Odys’s soul to “reactivate” herself. Odys must learn to accept that the female Automaton is an extension of his body—that they are the same person—and that her creator-god is forging a new purpose for all with Automatons…
The novel calls itself a “Prose Epic,” but is otherwise a purposeful implosion of literary clichés and gimmicks: A Narrator and an Editor (named Gabbler) frame the novel. Gabbler’s pompous commentary (as footnotes) on the nameless Narrator’s story grounds the novel in reality. Gabbler is a stereotypical academic who likes the story only for its so-called “literary” qualities, but otherwise contradicts the Narrator’s claim that the story is true.
THE AUTOMATION is a post-structuralist, this-world fantasy that reboots mythical characters and alchemical concepts. Its ideal place would be on the same bookshelf as Wilson’s ALIF THE UNSEEN and Gaiman’s AMERICAN GODS—though it wouldn’t mind bookending Homer, Virgil, and Milton, to be specific.
And, yes, "B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler" are really just a pen name.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Naggingly self-conscious but somehow charming, this urban fantasy revolves around a fast and furious updating of Greek myth. In the distant past, the god Vulcan created a handful of Automatons metallic but malleable beings capable of soul-sharing with a human being to serve as protectors of humanity. Now the Automatons are distributed among an eclectic and decidedly eccentric bunch known as the Masters, some of whom are actively plotting against the others. All this is explained later in the book, long after ignorant protagonist Odys Odelyn receives the gift of a sexy copper Automaton and becomes the focus of the other Masters' suspicions and schemes. It's obvious that many games are being played at different levels. Unfortunately, the writer is so determined to be clever that interjections and footnotes keep mercilessly pulling readers away from the action. Nevertheless, the complicated story is amusing, and interesting characters do peek out through gaps in the arch-supercilious writing. (BookLife)
