Katie M. Flynn

A haunting glimpse into one possible future.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley.)

"Where I live now is a blank space. I imagine you live somewhere similar. I can fill it with light, with sorrow, drench it in horror, erase it all with an ocean roar. I can fill it with memories, you putting on your sister’s clothes, Lea! I can remember her name—I don’t know why. There are washes of gray nothing where whole years should be, but I remember thinking show more something bad would happen at that house party."

"Standing on the cliffs, holding that shovel in my living teenage hands, the hot feeling of anger. We were just girls—what was I so angry about?"

The Companions imagines a future San Francisco that feels all too possible; one shaped in equal measures by disease and capitalism (or are they just one and the same?).

Ravaged by several successive waves of a mysterious and highly contagious virus, the citizens of California are under quarantine. In San Francisco, residents are confined to crowded high rises; children attend school online and socialize in carefully planned and closely supervised play dates in their buildings. The internet is many peoples' only link to the world outside their tightly sealed towers.

And then there are the companions: when people die, they can opt to have their consciousness downloaded into a semi-immortal body. But this comes at a price: companions are the intellectual property of Metis, the giant megacorp that birthed the companion technology. For a hefty fee, the grotesquely wealthy can remain in the custody of their descendants; the less fortunate belong to Metis, to rent out as it pleases. The bodies used to house the companions' consciousness run the gamut, from beat-up, trashcan-shaped robots that sport hooks for arms, to lifelike human bodies capable of regenerating skin. Distribution is predictably class-based.

When I read the synopsis for The Companions - a sixteen-year-old murder victim turned first-gen companion goes rogue in order to hunt down her killer - I was hooked (sorry Lilac, no pun intended). However, this plot point primarily serves as a jumping-off point for a much larger story: about technological developments, corporate greed, unintended consequences, and cultural backlash. As much as I wanted to delve into story about robot revenge, I still greatly enjoyed the end result. (Unmet expectations aren't always a bad thing!)

The narrative unfolds from the alternating perspectives of a whole host of characters, all of them bound by Lilac's rebellion:

* There's Lilac, of course, who wakes in her Rosie the Robot-esque body to find that she's been requisitioned as the plaything of a teenage girl named Delilah.

* Nikki, Lila's childhood best friend (and secret crush), whose unknown fate haunts Lilac decades later.

* Red/Mrs. Crozier, the teenage girl who killed Lila in a fit of jealousy, now a lonely and bitter old woman who lives in the Jedediah Smith Elderly Care Facility.

* Cam, one of Red's caregivers.

* Gabe/Gabrielle, an orphaned street kid in San Francisco who ekes out an existence as a semi-professional thief.

* Diana, one of the scientists who developed Metis's companion technology.

* Kit, an illegal companion duplicate.

* Rachel, a companion recruited as a mercenary.

* Jakob Sonne, an actor with dangerously independent ideas of his own.

* Mrs. Espera, ex-wife of studio exec Sydney Espera and mother to their adult daughter Isla.

* Rolly, the son of a farmer named James, who turned to disposing of companions for Metis after he lost much of his land after the quarantine.

* Andy, Rolly's brother, who goes missing for a time when he's kinda sorta kidnapped by a pair of companions.

While Lilac's escape from Dahlia's custody does set subsequent events into motion, the story becomes so much bigger than one person. Lilac's singular act of rebellion inspires insurrection in others - sometimes with disastrous results. There are bombings and terrorists attacks and recalls. Acts of stunning inhumanity, as well as tiny moments of kindness and bravery.

Despite its somewhat diminutive size, The Companions is an ambitious book: it dares us to contemplate what immortality might look like, given our current sociopolitical climate. How might such a promising technology be twisted against us, made dystopian? How can we stop this happening? Can we, even?

Read it if: you rooted for the Cylons in BSG.

Read it with: Arwen Elys Dayton's Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, which is grander in scope yet has a similar vibe.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2020/03/03/the-companions-by-katie-m-flynn/ show less

When I began The Companions, I thought I knew what the basic plot would be. Like the TV show Humans and other novels about AI servants, this one would revolve around an individual/family who engages lovingly/cruelly/carelessly or combinations thereof with the “robot” Artificial Intelligence humanoid. However, after the first chapter, “Two Years Since the Quarantine Began,” I discovered this novel went much deeper into the vagaries of our humanity. Wait, did I say quarantine? I had show more put down the book for a few weeks, and now the setting is unnervingly eerie. The child whom the first viewpoint Companion interacts with has daily home sessions of “School, “Exercise,” “Shop” and “Socialize” on her screen. When she is done with these, she has her Companion to keep her occupied.

The novel isn't about the quarantine, though. That just sets up the need for many Companions, and thus because downloading one's consciousness into a new body when one dies is scientifically possible, those who die and do not have a family member to become their custodian are leased, as Companions, to wealthy family who need their children entertained. The storyline moves along swiftly and suspensefully as we learn that the young girl's Companion Lilac was killed and she has somehow countermanded her programming and fled to find her killer. Other viewpoint characters (Companions and living humans) continue the plot as we move into the third year of the quarantine, then jump to three months after the quarantine has ended (whew!). The other main characters' lives are also intriguing and suspenseful, including an actor who was uploaded illegally into two bodies at the same time for nefarious reasons. Shades of Altered Carbon there.

Katie M. Flynn shows us the lone-range consequences of extending lives and enslaving people. I was enthralled by the insights and repelled by the inhumanity of the Companion business. show less

So this was a REALLY WEIRD book to read right now. I wonder what the author is thinking these days?
I enjoyed this book, but the experience of reading it was definitely weird. No we don't have Companions (see below) but the whole quarantine thing is not feeling like sci-fi right about now. Which made reading this kind of neat, and kind of just weird.

This novel takes place in near-future California (50-100 years in the future?). There are 2 things going on. First being a multi-year quarantine show more due to deadly viruses. Really. As the story continues, the quarantines have ended, but people are occasionally still nervous.

The second is that people's memories/knowledge can be extracted from their bodies at death (provided the paperwork is signed!) and placed into fabricated "bodies" or even just screens. This way their knowledge is not lost. But they are also not 100% the same. These Companions are then leased--by the wealthy who use them for child care or other services, or by their own families.

So within the world we meet a lot of people--Lilac, a companion who was killed at age 16 by a female rival (Red). Gabe, who we meet as a 9-year-old whose mother and sister were killed by a virus, and who lives with "the doctor" informally, as a helper/thief. Nat, a young man who also works for the Doctor. Jakob, a movie star who does not realize he is a Companion (his studio arranged this). Cam, a young woman who works at the retirement home Red lives in in her old age. Rolly and his brother Andy, who live on a farm with their father in Del Norte County.

All of these characters' paths cross, some know each other better than others. All intersect in this world of viruses, Companions, leases, and the crime that comes with the creation of Companions.
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Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout for providing me with an egalley of this book. show less

The Companions by Katie M. Flynn is a recommended dystopian science fiction debut novel.

When a highly contagious virus results in people being placed under quarantine in their sealed high rise towers, the Metis Corporation creates "Companions." Companions are the consciousness of a dead person uploaded into a robot and kept in service to the living. Companions range from the early, simple can-like robots to a body-like machine covered in skin. Usually families pay for custody of the show more Companions of their dead loved ones, but less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death. All companions are the intellectual property of the Metis Corporation. Essentially they have created a new class of people who exist without legal rights or true free will.

Lilac is a very simple robot, one of the early models, leased to a family to be the companion to an adolescent girl, Dahlia. As the narrative begins, Lilac is telling Dahlia her story, the events leading up to her death, while being careful of Dahlia's mother, who hates Lilac. This is when Lilac discovers that not only can she remember her life, she can defy commands, so she runs away to search for the woman who killed her and find out what happened to her best friend. This sets off a chain of events and introduces us to several different characters which will be followed for decades as the plot unfolds.

The character-driven narrative is told through the point-of-view of these eight different figures - some human, some companion. The connection between the characters is Lilac. Her movements link them together as she is part of every story at some point. One of the better developed characters is Gabe, who we meet as a nine-year-old orphan who is street smart and able to hide out in the streets. There is a lot of personal growth and emotional depth to her characterization. However, not all eight of the main characters are that interesting or, really, add a significant layer of depth to the plot.

Part of the problem with the plot is a lack of a specific focus and it feels unfinished. If the focus of the novel is to tell Lilac's story, as it sets out to do at the beginning, and bring closure to her questions about what really happened to her friend and to the girl who killed her, then it does that, but hardly requires the whole novel for the revenge/redemption story. If the purpose of the plot is an introspective look at what makes us human and how human rights are granted, then the focus of the narrative should have been better focused. And it must be said that the world building is not quite as developed as I was hoping for at the start.

I was hooked at the start and had high hopes for The Companions, but, after I finished the novel, I thought it needed some more work. While the writing is good and it presented an interesting idea, the follow-through with each character and the final denouement was a letdown.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/03/the-companions.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3213379277 show less