New! willow healy reviewed Automaton Nation

A wonderfully fast-paced read July 8, 2020

It’s the year 2045. Climate change has ravaged the country and Sacramento is now an island community of the haves and have nots. Humans and robots exist in a fractured world of simmering co-existence until the massacres begin and California explodes into social and political upheaval.

Dat, the newest 500 model robot, is a product of Dr. Rod Tate’s cutting-edge Genealogy project. Dat has the memories and feelings of famed chef, Tony De LaFleur uploaded into his system and he not only looks human, but thinks like one. At a prestigious event, he is presented to the guests by Dr. Tate and is purchased by the wealthy Landers, but before they can take him home, the party is crashed by robot terrorists. Blood and destruction is everywhere. During the chaos, Dat rescues Dr. Tate’s teenaged daughter Val. The attraction is mutual and electric. Val and Dat manage to see one another and their bond deepens into romance. Because Robots are considered just machines and lower than humans, Val’s parents are appalled by Val’s insistence that she loves him. Val’s eyes are opened to the prejudice and brutal life many robots experience. She and Dat are soon caught up in the robot rebellion, where things aren’t always as they seem.