Arabella of Mars - Q4
The automaton Aadim seemed possibly sapient, yet the evidence for it was very subjective. Did you enjoy reading about Aadim? Was Aadim an interesting character, or just a plot device? Did you empathize with Aadim? Did you think Aadim was sapient? Or was that a misperception by Arabella? Captain Singh designed Aadim, but Arabella seemed to have a very personal relationship with the device. Was this relationship of interest to you?
Comments
I liked the idea of a mechanical rather than electronic AI, and thought he was well thought-out and presented in the book. Given how hard it's proved to get AI of a broad-based convincing nature working with electronics, I took the comparative ease of doing it mechanically with another pinch of salt. As a plot device to basically say "technology is going to be able to do things better/quicker/more innovatively than people" then I thought he worked very well, and likewise the reactions of the people around.
I don't think we ever got enough definitive info to decide if Aadim really was sapient, but Arabella seemed to think so, and she's our viewpoint into the world so I went along with that.
The nature of why relationships (whether between two people or between a person and an automaton) worked or didn't work was never really explored, but then that seemed to me appropriate for YA... the world just is, and has to be navigated, and questions of why don't really get much mileage.