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A welcoming place where readers share their love of speculative fiction through a lively conversation about a pre-read title.
This is a group for speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) fans who would like to read and discuss genre literature. Each month we'll have a discussion about a book, either a new release or an older book (but ideally something that most people haven't read yet), that we've read before meeting.
Our October title is "Hamlet, Prince of Robots" by M. Darusha Wehm.
Book summary:
Something is rotten in the state of cybernetics.
Elsinore Robotics is on the cusp of a breakthrough — the company is poised to create the first humanoid androids powered by true artificial intelligence. Their only rival, Norwegian Technologies, lost a publicly-streamed contest between their flagship model, Fortinbras, and Elsinore’s HAM(let) v.1.
But when the first Hamlet model is found irreparably deactivated, the apparent victim of wild malware, the field of consumer cybernetics is thrown wide open. However, Hamlet v.1’s memories were not entirely lost in the accident.
Hamlet v.2 swears to avenge his progenitor, but is plagued by the aftereffects of integrating Old Hamlet’s backup into his own neural matrix. Beset by doubts about whether his feelings are truly his own, he worries his love for his boyfriend, Horatio, is an illusion, all the while driven by a consuming need for revenge. While he has a method, there is a madness in it, and Hamlet’s actions will leave no corner of Elsinore unscathed.
A beat-by-beat retelling of the Shakespeare classic, "Hamlet, Prince of Robots" grapples with conscience, ambition, and pain, and what it means to be, or not to be, human.
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