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Machines Like Me

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Machines Like Me

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Billy Howle
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About this listen

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, read by Billy Howle.

Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.

Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.

©2019 Ian McEwan (P)2019 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Cyberpunk Computer Science Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

Machines Like Me reminds us that McEwan is once-in-a-generation talent, offering readerly pleasure, cerebral incisiveness and an enticing imagination. (Lara Feigel)
[Machines Like Me] is right up there with his very best [novels]. Machines Like Me manages to combine the dark acidity of McEwan’s great early stories with the crowd-pleasing readability of his more recent work. A novel this smart oughtn’t to be such fun, but it is. (Alex Preston)
Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me is a dazzling account of our interaction with technology… He marries a gripping plot, handled with rarefied skill and dexterity, to a deep excavation of the narrowing gap between the canny and the uncanny, leaving the reader pleasurably dizzied, and marvelling at human existence. (Philip Womack)
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too slow would have given up if not an audiobook, maybe too arty for me,.

not for me, rather bland and quite boring.

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Brilliant and typical McEwan book, this time combining alternative history with philosophy. Some interesting thoughts about future, future of IT and politics. Enjoyable performance from Billy Howle.

Thought provoking book

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Excellent narration brings this exploration into what it means to be human and the moral compromises that follow from there.

Thoughtful, disquieting but always engaging.

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A really thought provoking read but with some humour and a play with historical accuracy

Wanted it to go on much longer!

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What is consciousness? What makes us human? Some of the questions thrown up by this book. Set in the 1980s, Ian McEwan reinvents some of the key political moments in British history at that time and lovingly brings back to life the mathematical genius Alan Turin, whose life was cruelly cut short following his hounding by the establishment.

Thought-provoking, entertaining and funny

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As usual this is a topical subject from this author. I found myself quite irritated by Charle's attitude to money when he didn't really have any and his reliance on a very old computer to earn him some!! I became nervous of what Adam might do especially after the arm incident. It certainly made me consider the personality straits I might apply to such a situation and I liked that he let her choose some of them. A mixture of futuristic ideas, humour and sadness.

Creepy but thought provoking

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Enjoyed the story but I don't think Ian McEwan said anything new about AI that hadn't been said before. Wonder if he ever watched "Humans" on tv. Thought the narrative wandered a bit, why did he set it in past years, didn't get that.

Enjoyable but Nothing new

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The story is cleverly set in the past which adds familiarity, but is based on a future technology that we are yet to know. it is thought provoking
I listened to it at 1.4x speed which actually makes the voice of the reader sound like a stereotypical android. a bit like jude law in AI

A compelling story

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This will be studied at universities one day. It is pure genius on the subject of artificial intelligence and consciousness, told through stunning prose. Cannot recommend highly enough

Timeless masterpiece

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Another winner. Along with the usual moral and emotional complexities and dilemmas, I loved the reimagining of post WW2 Britain. Highly recommended.

Classic McEwan

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