Although this book stands alone, it was still kind of another one of my series-sampling audio listens because I had read that there was another previously-written book set in the same universe. If I had enjoyed this a lot, I might have planned to go back and read both books in publication order in a print format someday, after waiting to see if the author intended to write more in the setting. I didn’t enjoy this very much though, so I’m really glad I didn’t let it eat into my currently limited print reading time.

Audio Narration
The narrator is Rasha Zamamiri. Her style didn’t work well for me. I felt like she tried too hard to be dramatic, and it didn’t mesh well with how I personally would have interpreted the text. For example, she often made characters sound confused or shocked or amazed when I didn’t think the actual words of the story justified it. I was frequently distracted by that.

I also had some trouble distinguishing character voices. The text was probably perfectly clear if read in print where you can see the paragraph breaks, but it didn’t always identify who was speaking in a way that came through clearly for an audiobook if the narrator didn't use more distinctive voices.

Story
The story is set on Earth in the distant future. Many robots and other mechanical creatures, some of which were sentient, were created to help fight wars in the distant past. Now most of that old technology is broken or lost to time, but there are still some creatures wandering around, including a sentient robot who plays a large role in events.

The story didn’t hold my attention well at all, and it seemed to rely on a series of coincidences. For a while I thought somebody was manipulating events, but I think that wasn’t actually the case. Saleh’s story interested me a little, but it was only a small slice of the book and I wanted more background and details than what was provided. The world-building was interesting and creative, but that in itself wasn’t enough to hold my attention. I might actually have enjoyed it more if it were longer, with more fleshed out stories to pull me into the world more deeply and to give me a greater investment in the characters. On the other hand, if I didn’t enjoy it in this short form, a longer form might have just felt more torturous.

I think I may have missed some things due to inattention, or else not everything was followed through on. For example, it was never clear to me exactly what happened to Elias. I mean, I know the evil lady did something bad to him, and that she was being all sarcastic about telling Saleh she wouldn’t take anything from him that he wasn’t willing to part with, since he’d been in the process of saying goodbye to Elias, but if we were ever told what specifically happened to him, or why she took him, I missed it completely. And I get that Saleh wasn’t allowed to remember what had happened so he didn’t realize anything was wrong, but you’d think Anubis, who was watching in the background at the time, might have asked Saleh about it. But I truly spaced out a lot during this audiobook, so I wouldn’t trust any of my plot-based complaints about the story. All the answers may have been there and I just failed to listen to them.

At least it was short at only a little over five hours. It did feel like an awfully long five hours, though! ( )

Don't be fooled by the subtitle, this one is not about Central Station although recognizably set in the same world. Lavie Tidhar is a very interesting writer and this is a very interesting novel, one whose plot twists in unexpected turns. In a good way, I continue to puzzle over the ending. ( )

“That’s Neom,” Elias said, and the sudden name filled Saleh with a longing he could not articulate.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi, but this book was under 300 pages and the clear reference to the city being built by the Saudi's was enough to pull me in; Neom, a city where the crime is to litter, be poor, or ugly.

In that sense this book is incredibly creative. For the most part I wasn't sure which direction the book would go in. The thing with the robot happens in a subtle way; you think he's a robot who has maybe skewed some of his programming. But even that, which is a bit slow, is interesting. In this glittering city where Mariam still lives working her enumerable jobs, where the policeman feel useless and this sentient robot, already part of the past, seems to be doing something for love.

“Are we really sentient, though?” the robot said. “Or are we only very good at pretending?”

It's also a great book for people who liked Dune or epic fantasy reads like GoT or LOTR. There is a lot of information to process and if I had to process any more I would have given up on the book, even if some things like the virtually bred creatures were a delightful addition to the story. But reading this also reminded me of Walter Benjamin's commentary on the print Angelus Novus by Paul Klee and how much so much is destroyed for the sake of progress; and all that cannot be undone.

The Fondly was my favourite though. ( )

this is a series that owes a whole lot of its soul to fantasy writer Cordwainer Smith, but also to the chaos nanopunk sf of Rudy Rucker; the result is an unlikely but wonderful combination, perfectly realized. it's the same general Middle Eastern location on Earth as Tidhar's earlier work Central Station, in the desert corners of a far future universe of intermingling humans, AI robots, and Others, near a space station that connects to the settlements of the Solar System and beyond. and it's full of endlessly fascinating details (there's even a glossary). may there be many more like this, before he's done. ( )

The war was over. They were free. But the robot was lost.
from Neom by Lavie Tidhar

“This was in the old days, when the robot and its comrades were busy fighting in the endless wars,” when the robot had been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt into a perfect killing machine, sick of the war. Back when it met the golden man, a perfect weapon with a charismatic power, a Messiah weaving a dream of harmony and the end of war. The golden man’s call to “follow me” gathered all the mechs and robots and they moved across the land. And when they were done, the wars had ended, the golden man buried in the ruins. The robots became homeless wanderers across space, antiquities, feared, dismantled for parts. But this one robot remembered its promise to the golden man.

“I remember loving, the golden man said, it said in wonder. “I remember loving and being loved.”
from Neom by Lavie Tidhar

A boy whose city is caught in a never ending explosion joins a caravan to travel to the city. The only thing he has of value is a mysterious artifact. He does not know that it is a vital part needed by the robot, or will become part of a machine that could destroy or save humanity. The boy only knows that he wants to escape Earth and a future “salvaging old tech in the crumbling, rotting, endless maze of kitsch architecture on the Ghost Coast.” He is determined to get to Central Station, the gateway hub to the universe.

Lavie Tidhar returns the world of Central Station with Neom, a mesmerizing read of war’s legacy, and robots and love, a story of destruction that end with hope. Informed by ancient myth and with characters from popular culture– furbys and Pac-mans and Gojira–and with nods to Philip K. Dick and religious traditions, my head was spinning with associations.

The sorrowful robot wonders about its purpose in life; “Now that we no longer serve humanity, who do we serve? How do we live? We feel abandoned, in some way. And we are old. The world has rather passed us by.” It talks to Mariam, a flower seller, who give it a rose, a symbol of love and grief, which it takes on its quest.

Neom is a most unusual story. It is a reflection of the world we are making and the future we may have, and yet even the robots themselves pattern behavior that can save us. Love.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )