Michelle Herbert reviews Emily Eternal by M. G. Wheaton…
Emily is an Artificial Conscious (AC), which she explains is different from being an A.I.! Emily was created to help people with PTSD and other psychological problems and has slowly begun interacting with the world around her. Emily is looking forward to the day she is unveiled to the wider world so that she can help more people. Except, and this isn’t a spoiler, the people of Earth only have six months before the Sun goes supernova, and when this happens it will have a catastrophic impact on all living things.
It isn’t hard to like Emily, she comes across as a fully formed character, who has had to learn about what makes a human, including time and structure as part of her programming, and this allows her to understand humanity and makes her better able to help individuals. Emily has a job as part of the team that created her, she keeps to the same schedule as they do, including times to sleep and eat. Emily is part of their world, rather than apart from it. Emily is treated like a member of the team rather than a tool that they have created. Interacting through a patch on each team member, this allows her to communicate with those who have the patch on, as well as being seen by them.
The book is split into different parts; the first part is getting to know Emily and her hopes of how she can help humanity. In the second part, Emily has lost everyone and everything she knows and believed in. Emily is connected to a man named Jason, but their relationship is tenuous and they have to learn to trust and work together. They are joined by Mayra, who is a sheriff that Jason knows who helps them work out a plan to do this. This section feels more like an action/adventure story with very high stakes. I really enjoyed how these three get to know each other and their backstories help you get to know them throughout the chaos of trying to figure out what happened to Emily’s team.
With the world about to end, Emily is seen as a Hail Mary, as she can digitally copy everyone on Earth and store them safely in the hopes that they can have a life after death. Emily would become a digital ark, although she would no longer exist. Part three is a heavy hitter, as Emily finds out that humanity really is screwed. This part feels like a roller coaster, as Emily keeps learning new truths, as well as being confronted with scenarios that she never had to consider. As she realises that she may not be the only Artificial Consciousness out there. Emily has to learn to deal with betrayal and being used, as she realises how little choice she has in the matter of what happens to her.
This book leads you on a very emotional journey as well as diving into its sci-fi/thriller nature. To put this into context, there are a lot of questions you are confronted with, such as: Is this a novel about the end of the world or the self-actualisation of an artificial consciousness? This can also be seen as a survival story both on the small and large scale. Emily Eternal poses many questions including: is the most logical answer also the most humane? Can Emily make a difference to whether humanity can survive past the ending of the sun, or is she being humanly unreasonable by thinking this is a possibility? You would have to read the book to find out. Overall I thought this was a really intriguing story that I look forward to reading again.
It isn’t hard to like Emily, she comes across as a fully formed character, who has had to learn about what makes a human, including time and structure as part of her programming, this allows her to understand humanity and makes her better able to help individuals. Emily has a job as part of the team that created her, she keeps to the same schedule as they do, including times to sleep and eat. Emily is part of their world, rather than apart from it. Emily is treated like a member of the team rather than a tool that they have created. Interacting through a patch on each team member, this allows her to communicate with those who have the patch on, as well as being seen by them.
The book is split into different parts, the first part is getting to know Emily and her hopes of how she can help humanity. In the second part, Emily has lost everyone and everything she knows and believed in. Emily is connected to a man named Jason, but their relationship is tenuous and they have to learn to trust and work together. They are joined by Mayra, who is a sheriff that Jason knows who helps them work out a plan to do this. This section feels more like an action/adventure story with very high stakes. I really enjoyed how these three get to know each other and their backstories help you get to know them throughout the chaos of trying to figure out what happened to Emily’s team.
With the world about to end, Emily is seen as a Hail Mary, as she can digitally copy everyone on Earth and store them safely in the hopes that they can have a life after death. Emily would become a digital ark, although she would no longer exist. Part three, is a heavy hitter, as Emily finds out that humanity really is screwed. This part feels like a roller coaster, as Emily keeps learning new truths, as well as being confronted with scenarios that she never had to consider. As she realises that she may not be the only Artificial Consciousness out there. Emily has to learn to deal with betrayal and being used, as she realises how little choice she has in the matter of what happens to her.
This book leads you on a very emotional journey as well as diving into its sci-fi/thriller nature. To put this into context, there are a lot of questions you are confronted with, such as: Is this a novel about the end of the world or the self-actualisation of an artificial consciousness? This can also be seen as a survival story both on the small and large scale. Emily Eternal poses many questions including: is the most logical answer also the most humane? Can Emily make a difference to whether humanity can survive past the ending of the sun, or is she being humanly unreasonable by thinking this is a possibility? You would have to read the book to find out. Overall I thought this was a really intriguing story that I look forward to reading again.
Michelle Herbert
