Saturn’s Children

Imagination and ingenuity are hallmarks of Charles Stross’ books, and in his relatively brief career as a novelist, he’s shown a cross-genre mastery in science fiction, fantasy and even Lovecraftian/spy thriller mash-ups. He’s taken themes and memes and remixed them into works that are utterly his own. SATURN’S CHILDREN is another masterpiece, as Stross creates a future in which robots, who were created to serve mankind, have created their own society hundreds of years after humanity’s extinction.
 
There’s a sexy, purple-haired robot on the cover; that ostensibly is Freya Nakamichi, a love robot created to serve a human’s every desire. The catch is, however, that Freya was born too late to ever meet an actual human. So she gets by, doing odd jobs and trudging through her unfulfilled life, never able to meet her One True Love.

Fortunately for us, she gets caught in a web of interplanetary intrigue, forcing her to become a smuggler and, eventually, uncover some well-hidden secrets about her lineage. Higher classes of robots, called “aristos,” have filled the leadership void left by the humans, and their plans, factions and conspiracies are the main motivation behind Freya’s adventures.
 
Being that Freya is a sexbot, fans of robot sex will be more than satisfied with the hectares of robot sex involved in this book. There’s sex between a giant industrial space crane and a robotic transport pod; sex between Freya and a, err, self-aware hotel; and more. There’s tons and tons of robot sex, and some of it even resembles human intercourse, albeit in conditions where humans likely would suffocate, burn up or freeze to death. But when your protagonist is a sexbot, what can you really do? You couldn’t not have robot sex; that would be implausible.
 
Beyond the non-human intercourse, there are deeper themes, and the robots Freya encounters on her journeys have stories that are strangely poignant and resonant, even when the object of our sympathy is an out-of-work hobo-mining robot.
 
This is what makes Stross brilliant: When he comes up with a fantastic idea, he doesn’t go halfway, or create a movie set with that idea. He goes for the full Monty, realizing the smallest minutiae and consequence of life in a society created by humans and built to serve humans, but without any humans. Science fiction is the realm of ideas, but Stross takes his ideas and creates realities that, if not 100 percent feasible, have enough feasibility to stand up to critical readers.
 
Or, you might just want to get it for the robot sex. There’s a tentacle or two in there, too, if that gets you going. I’m not one to judge. —Ryun Patterson

Buy it at Amazon.

“I smile, and touch my chest. Oh! That feels strange! I don’t have full breasts, but I’m acutely aware of even the lightest touch or breeze across my nipples. What’s it like down below? I explore farther down, and clench my thighs tight around my hand in surprise. So that’s a … vagina? And anus? It’s a whole new world of tingling smelly delightful squeamish slippery strangeness down there. Why didn’t they give me one of these before? I experiment with my fingers and discover that they’ve switched on some other reflexes at the same time. It’s like sticking my hand in a socket that had been unwired the day before, only to find it live —”

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE CLAN CORPORATE by Charles Stross

About Ryun Patterson

Ryun is an editor in Chicago, by way of Cambodia.