eBook- A Robot in the garden

eBook- A Robot in the garden

Author: Deborah Install

Score: 10/10

Year:  2015 (original book) ; 2016 (this edition)

Publisher : Sourcebooks Landmark

ISBN : ?? (ASIN B019HQ2KJ0) 

 

pages 321*

Language : English.

A Robot in the garden was brought to my attention by LucieBulle's book club, that I'd joined last summer (2023). Being late in my goodreads (carried over to bookwyrm) reading challenge for this year, I decided to use every single short book I could find on my TBR to help get as close to my goal, and this hilarious scifi story brought me as near to it as I could, finishing on the very last day of the year, with just over 2 hours margin to my deadline!

Indeed, I started it late last night, and read through most of today - a total of 7 hours of reading brought me to the end, including notes about the author and short interview q&a.

Ben, jobless since he lost his position at veterinary school, and generally feeling a failure and underachiever in life - he's very good at various failings at the start of this novel - doesn't hear his wife, Amy's first announcement that there's a robot in their garden. They'd been experiencing some marital problem, though neither fully acknowledged their lack of communication.  Once Ben hears her, and talks with the robot, Tang, he discovers that he's broken, and decides to find someone to fix him - insisting to Amy and anyone else, that Tang's a he, not an it. 

Travelling with this unique and old fashioned robot instead of an android which is more common in this unspecified future, is filled with unexpected turns of events, mishaps, misunderstandings and, most curiously still, personal growth. 

This is a story revolves around a growing and unique friendship, follows other classic scifi stories about robots and/or androids (here, both appear) and the questions as to their use, are they objects or people. Through Tang's childish tantrums, and Ben's personal growth, we also see aspects of sensitivity, enlightenment and love - all filled with humorous moments. 

The narrative is fluid, and, despite being a science-fiction story with robots, androids and relationships to/with humans, the author didn't want to be too technical and not do justice to the genre, so she kept the technical jargon to a minimal, leaving the readers decide as to some open-ended questions. 

Deborah Install's first novel is a complete success ; the pace in story-telling is wonderfully balanced, never repetitious, and details/ back stories as well as the conclusion are all given in due time, and satisfactorily resolved. 

Notes : I couldn't find my ebook's (kindle) edition ISBN, only it's ASIN displayed in the description. 

Page numbering I used the official info from goodreads, as I read it with bigger fonts on the Tv-screen, using Libbyapp on the Android TV Box, for easier reading.