The Mad Scientist's Daughter

Oh, you wanted a review on this? Too bad, I'm too busy feeling horribly depressed, lost, and sad.

Why depressed? Because holy hell, talk about two individuals who are star-crossed. Cat is one wayward(?), disoriented(?), and absent(?) character. There seems to be a disconnect between her inner world and the outer. Finn, at first, doesn't have the ability to connect. Cat tries to force this connection, or maybe it was forced on her. Which is where my lost feelings come from.

Why lost? Like I said, I can't figure out if Cat is complacent or at fault for this relationship with Finn. I kept thinking back to a line from The Time-traveler's Wife where Clare says to Henry "I never had a choice." She says this because she met Henry as a very young show more girl and had him in her life from then on. The same is true of Finn and Cat. It is so hard to write about Finn, I want to say not only was Cat growing up and learning adult emotions but also Finn. But is this true? The author inserts things here and there, like his eyes vibrating, when it seems he starts to feel or "question", but it's stated it is impossible for him until Cat's father overrides some programing and implements a "feelings" program. Which leads me to why I feel sad.

Why sad? Because Cat and Finn's relationship is so contrived, forced, and created. However, the emotions feel and read REAL. Is Finn the choice for Cat because she has grown to love him, he is all she has ever known, or she is comfortable around him because she has problems with her own emotions and human interaction because she grew up with a robot? I'm circling myself. Ugh, I just don't know. There is also a non-ending that adds to the sadness as you wonder what the culmination can be for these two. (If there is ever an epilogue or mini-sequel about Cat's death and Finn living through it, I will SAD-read the ever loving hell out of it)

I guess this was the point of the book, to make you question the human experience and can it be "created". So yeah, read if you feel like a dystopian, what does it mean to be human, how do we connect with each other, is this healthy, and want to feel sad when you're done reading and questioning everything. show less

A slow and melancholy romance set in a post-apocalyptic America a few decades from now. The destructive event that has reduced the world's population remains a background item and there is no action-packed hero-quest/fight against ultimate evil. Instead, what we are treated to is a rather myopic slice-of-life tale that, despite the lack of blistering action, reads quite compellingly. Talking about the central theme of the story would constitute a spoiler. Suffice it to say that this is a vivid character study that plays against a rather bleak, but well-rendered future. Probably not a re-read type of book for me but I do plan to try other titles from Clarke after this first experience.

Took a bit of a gamble on this one, my first read of 2020! Publishers be aware: covers do matter, even for Kindle books - my copy has the cheesy image of a woman with a grid pattern covering her skin, which makes the book look self-published and nearly put me off. The more arty looking illustration of a figure walking along a road beneath the moon would have won me over quicker.

Superficial judgements aside, I loved the story, even though nothing much happens - but a novel set in a dystopian future about artificial intelligence has already ticked two of my fictional boxes, so all that is left is for the characters to be engaging, and I'm sold! A young girl called Cat, raised by her two cyberneticist parents in a world partly run by AI show more after a series of environmental 'Disasters', is given an android 'tutor' to homeschool her. From the age of five, Cat gradually begins to bond with Finn, an advanced model who looks almost human, until they become friends and eventually she falls in love with him. She is bullied at high school for being the 'mad scientist's daughter' because there is an ongoing battle about what rights androids should have, and what defines sentience, and at college Cat is more artistic than her scientist parents. She has various boyfriends but always feels the strongest bond with Finn, who has been designed to resemble a human in every way, shall we say. And that's the plot, really - I thought there was going to be a huge revelation or a battle over Finn's future, but no. Cat experiences loss, love, marriage and parenthood, with Finn always in her heart.

Despite the very ordinary story with a cliched view of the future, Cat and Finn really do make this a fascinating study of both human frailty and artificial consciousness. Cat is emotionally distant from her friends and family, only truly bonding with Finn and her son, but I found her very relatable, if not likeable, and Finn is a perfectly inscrutable android who doesn't want to be human. Cat's father, the mad scientist, was also endearing to the point where I teared up at one point. The atmosphere is also very effective, with scorching hot summers, isolated properties and 'bots' as the new oppressed people.

Definitely recommended, but maybe for readers who favour characterisation and the (non)human condition over thrills and spills. show less

I don't know it is a new thing or not, but these last few years there have been several books with settings that would place the book in the science fiction genre, but are so focused on another element of the story (love, grief) that I wouldn't classify them as pure science fiction. And that is a good thing, because it makes science fiction so much more accessible to a broader crowd of people. 'The Mad Scientist's Daughter' is one of those novels, focusing on love and life in a fast changing, near future, earth much different from ours.
Like I said, it is the (near-)future, and a great (natural) disaster has happened a few decades ago. However, mankind is not set back that much with regards to technical advances, and so show more robots/androids/automatons are becoming more and more normal. In the house of Cat, there lives a very special robot, called Finn, that is more like a human than any robot ever made. Her father brought him home when she was five, and since then he has been her tutor and friend. The book follows Cat in her life, from a little girl of five to a grown woman, and her feelings for Finn. These are influenced by the feelings of the public of ever more advanced robots in daily life, accumulating in the granting of basic rights to these robots.
I loved this book. I loved the characters, mainly Cat and Finn, and I loved reading about the struggles Cat is going through, because they felt very real. I can see someone reacting that way to the changing world around her, and I could even get into Finn's character. Yes, this is a book about robots and a future earth, but to me it was very mild science fiction. These elements were in the background of the story, the main part is the changes and feelings our main characters are going through. A great read and I wish I knew of more books like this one. Five out of five stars. show less

It was well-written and Cat was a fascinating character. Being inside her head was always interesting. And her relationship with the android, Finn, set across a backdrop of technological and human (android) rights advances, was as wonderful as it was sad. Basically this book is a love story. Parents for children, people for themselves.

This would have been a four-star book. Except for the scene at the very end, maybe 94% or thereabouts. Where Finn has just disclosed how painful it was to him when her father shut him off and altered his programming without his permission. Cat's response? To use the secret program the grad students had prorammed in him and give him an orgasm without his permission. WTF, Cat? Telling him he had this show more capability he'd never known about would have been a nice thing to do. If you two were in the middle of screwing and he wanted to orgasm, sure. But immediately after he tells you about violations and betrayals. Argh. This action made me think that despite all she'd said and thought, that Cat hadn't learned a damn thing. And that ruined the ending for me. YMMV.

Also, TW for Domestic Violence show less

Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews

No summary could do The Mad Scientist’s Daughter justice. Look up there. That is an awful summary. I don’t want to read that book. That makes the story look like it’s about Finn and the fight for robot rights. Now, those are certainly in the book, but The Mad Scientist’s Daughter is about Caterina Novak, Cat for short, growing, learning, changing, learning she’s changed in the wrong ways, and growing some more. It’s about love and loss and death and life and humanity. It has more in common with David Nicholls’ One Day than Asimov's I, Robot.

The book is divided into 3 parts, Cat’s childhood, young adult, and adult lives. When Cat is five, her father brings home a show more strange man whom Cat thinks is a ghost. He is, in fact, Finn, a mysterious android who her father adamantly did NOT create, but will be staying with them. Through Cat's childhood, she and Finn bond as he becomes her tutor and later her best friend. Cat’s parents, reclusive scientists, fear she’s becoming too close to Finn and needs more human companionship. They are right.

For a book that deals with a lot of ethical questions regarding humanity and servitude, it really does gloss over the complete inappropriateness of a girl falling in love with an authority figure she’s known since she was five. From puberty until her late thirties, Cat lusts after Finn and the feelings are returned. It makes the first sex scene pretty icky, particularly due to Cat’s emotional state at the time. That’s not to say their love wasn’t sweet or hot, but there’s always an undercurrent of inappropriateness that no one but Cat’s mom comments on.

Cat undergoes a lot of trauma over the years and it doesn’t make her a very nice person. She is selfish, unhappy, and deeply flawed. Basically from high school until the last hundred pages, I didn’t like her at all. But, unlike many other books with unlikeable protagonists, I felt like her final redemption was well earned. She seemed to want to change, understand why she was wrong, and came to it in a believable way. I read the last section, her thirties, though a non stop wash of tears as every bad thing that can happen to a person came to pass. Even the ending is heart-breakingly bittersweet. Some parts do feel a little manipulative and, again, Finn and Cat’s last love scene has an icky undercurrent, but so much of the writing is beautiful, it’s easy to give the flaws a pass. show less

I got an eCopy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. Thanks to Angry Robot and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. Previously I had read Clarke’s young adult fantasy, The Assassin’s Curse, and loved it. This book is very, very different from The Assassin’s Curse; but I still loved a lot.

This is the story of a girl named Cat and her relationship with an Android named Finn. While the story explores the whole concept of android rights, and questions about whether or not an Android can have emotions and feelings, that is really not the focus of the story. The story focuses on Cat and covers a long period of time. It starts when she is a young girl and Finn is her tutor and follows her into her adult show more years.

The pace of the story is deliberate, but it is no less riveting for that pace. As I said this is very different from the Assassin’s Curse. It is definitely an adult story (there are sex scenes and swearing). It is more of a science fiction story with a theme of self-exploration. The pacing to the story reminded me a lot of The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Cat is a troubled woman and leads a rather crazy and tumultuous life. Her life seems more defined by her ability to float through life without really making any decisions. For large portions of the book she doesn’t really seem engaged and it makes her situation all the more painful and sad to read about. Cat has loved Finn from a young age and is convinced something is wrong with her since she’s fallen in love with something that’s not human.

Finn is an absolutely stunning character. He is completely respectful and loving to Cat, but the whole time a question is hovering...is Finn really like this or is he just programmed this way? Finn has a lot of dimension as a character and learning about him and his origins was fascinating as the book progressed.

There is a lot of emotional turmoil in this book. Cat struggles to become what her mother wanted her to be and constantly fights her instincts to be an artist. She is constantly at odds with who she thinks she should be and who she is happy being. Cat and Finn dance circles around each other. Cat wants Finn to be human and Finn knows he’s not. There are some truly heartbreaking moments in this book and it is a pretty heavy read at points.

The world is also interesting. The book is set on Earth in a future time following some massive war that almost wiped out humanity. This history comes into play when Android politics are discussed, but isn’t the focus of the book.

The book is incredibly engaging, beautifully written, and haunting. Clarke does an excellent job of describing the surroundings and the characters. The book really comes alive and is also incredibly hard to put down. You are just constantly driven to wonder: what will happen to Cat? What will happen to Finn? What will happen to Androids as a whole?

Overall I just absolutely loved this book. The characters are spot on, the writing is beautiful, the pacing is deliberate but still absolutely engaging. This isn’t an action packed book, but is more that story of girl who grows into a woman and finds herself struggling with society’s expectations both of love and of her life. There is also a lot of discussion about Androids and whether or not they can feel emotions. Although not completely original, it was still a very creative book that was beautifully written. Recommended to those who enjoy science fiction coupled with a life story. show less