4,4 stars

I really dislike the Goodreads rating system, sometimes. Currently, this book has an average rating of 3,6 which to me, on this site, points to this being at best a mediocre book (possibly because of all the over hyped books getting undeserved rave reviews and as such distorting the system) which to me is not the case. Goes to show I should just trust the synopsis and try and avoid looking at the rating before hand.

I can't help but love these gems of books that I have hiding in my own shelves waiting to be discovered. Speak is a book I bought a few years back from a book sale without any previous knowledge of neither the author nor the book in question. It might even have been one of those books I picked up from a selection just to qualify for free shipping or some such. I picked it up from my shelf this time around, because it was short enough to be read in an afternoon. So it's safe to say I didn't really have high hopes for the book.

However! I found myself really loving this despite myself. Especially considering it had some of my least favorite literary things, like a (partly) historical setting, multiple narrators, multiple timelines, and a very open ending. Maybe it's just a question of the writing being very much up my alley.

I felt the characters were very well crafted, and they all had very distinct voices. Most of them weren't particularly relatable or likeable, but they were all very human and real. Easily the most painful parts were Turing's letters, considering they stem from the life of an actual person, whose life was so tragic. I feel like I need to pick up Turing's biography as soon as possible.

One aspect that I also enjoyed were the different mediums for the narration. In addition to Turing's letters, there were the IM discussions between a teenaged girl and an AI that were part of the evidence in a trial, as well as the diary entries of a 13-year-old girl who was wed against her will in the 1600s and who was traveling to North America with her family, including her new husband. The man on trial was writing his memoir in prison and an estranged couple were talking to each other indirectly through letters/entries. All the formats really brought to life the common need to communicate that lives in all of us, and the ways in which, when you are lacking someone to talk to, you find a way to talk to yourself.

I'm actually still quite surprised at how much I enjoyed this reading experience, and I feel like I'll have to re-read this book someday. I read this in one sitting, which is quite extraordinary foe me, considering how character driven the story was and how little actually happened. ( )

This book is a mental puzzle where the reader follows six narratives that gradually form a complete picture. The interwoven stories are set at different times and places. We track Mary Bradford’s journey across the sea in the 1600s. She keeps a diary that is later being analyzed by Ruth Dettmann. We follow Alan Turing’s life in the early to mid-1900s, as he develops early computing technology. Ruth’s husband, Karl, creates the first interactive conversational program that enables a computer to mimic basic human sentences. In the 2030s, we read Stephen Chinn’s memoir about the development of a unique algorithm which can simulate sentient behavior. The dolls that use the algorithm are eventually widely marketed, and unexpected consequences ensue. Finally, we have a transcript that documents a young girl’s obsessive attachment to her realistic doll, called a Babybot.

This book has a relatively complex plot and can, at times, be a little difficult to follow. But once all the pieces start coming together, it is easy to appreciate the author’s creativity and expert crafting. It examines the psychological effects of technology and artificial intelligence, including addictive behavior and withdrawal symptoms. Each narrative is related in a different format – diary, letters, memoir, interview, and transcripts. The Dettmanns have escaped from Naziism so there are tie-ins to how eugenics contributed to mass suffering.

This book asks many pertinent questions regarding artificial intelligence, and the effects of technology, and is based on current research as well as observed phenomena. The storylines are intricately connected. They examine memory, identity, and what it means to achieve “being.” It is a touching and engaging speculative novel that spans centuries. It features interesting characters rising to the challenges of their times. I loved it and look forward to reading more from Louisa Hall. ( )

Both humans and computers "speak" to us in this interleaved story which includes people whose speech is inadequate to connect well enough to those for whom they care. And some who find fear of or attraction to artificial speakers. The reaction against AI that is the force encompassing the later 3 narratives is unexplained in its severity or ubiquity, no part of the USA being in step with any other part. The Alan Turing letters are very poignant, though having a historical figure shuffled among fictitious ones is a bit disorienting. No position on the self awareness of any AI in the story is overtly given beyond the speech of the artificial entities being as coherent as the other voices. ( )

This novel is a dystopian meditation on language, artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human. It uses an episodic plot, told in five voices, including one historical figure, Alan Turing. Each is distinct, but their contributions are linked by many motifs (ocean, stars, pets, the Fibonacci sequence).
The overall dark tone makes Turing’s sanguine belief that the more human we make thinking machines, the more human we will be, seem naive. Instead, it is the fear (fulfilled in the world proposed in this book) that humans would feel threatened by such machines and not treat them well that comes to pass. ( )

Turing stole the show
but what happened to Mary?
Not much is resolved. ( )