Eros, Philia, Agape

Asimov set the entire basis for Robots with his Three Laws. He then wrote a brilliant piece of robot work called 'Bicentennial Man' where a Robot with an elastic brain realises that he wants to be free and sets about a path that takes him 200 years to realise that dream.

Rachel Swirsky writes a brilliant story about a family torn apart by one member leaving the family. As you read the story you empathize with both parties and feel the pain of the woman left behind to deal with the questions and queries of her young daughter. At its core 'Eros, Philia, Agape' is a love story dealing with the pain of growing apart. The only difference is that the 'male' member who has left is a robot in search of his identity.

Adriana is an upwardly mobile, successful woman living with her emerald macaw Fuoco, gifted by her father. The same father who sexually abused her in childhood - a fact that others in her family do not agree to. She hates her father but loves the bird as that is her only companion. Till one day she takes a drastic step and buys herself a robot with an elastic mind - a mind that can learn and change its personality based on what Adriana likes. With the entry of Lucian, Adriana finds love and companionship and secure enough to get a child of her own.

Lucian, Adriana and Rose are a regular family with a highly jealous bird as their pet. Fuoco cannot accept that Lucian is now closer to Adriana than he was and resorts to drastic acts of self mutilation till a stage is reached where he has to be put to rest. A chance statement by Adriana makes Lucain realise that he too is nothing but a toy for Adriana and hence starts his quest for self-identity. Little does he realise that Adirana really loves him but its too late. Lucian sets the wheels in motion and decides to leave.

The story takes you through the breathtaking emotions of betrayal, sadness and frustration that Adraiana feels as she loses touch with herself and realises the perils of life ahead without Lucian. Rachel also introduces you to Lucian's side of the story and his attempts at self realisation.

Set in about 90 pages the story takes you through a labyrinth of emotions and you wish for a happy ending.

You can read it here at http://www.tor.com/stories/2009/03/eros-philia-agape

I rate it 3/5.

My Man Jeeves

It would be presumptuous of me to write a review or a critic of P.G.Wodehouse. His writings have been revered by many and the tongue-in-cheek humor is something that authors aspire for even today.

Its an interesting thought that while I am a voracious reader of book, I never picked up a PG Wodehouse even though many of my friends are ardent fans of the author. It took an iPad and the free book for me to read the first Jeeves book.

'My Man Jeeves' is a collection of eight short stories introducing Bertie Wooster, an epitome of a rich feeble minded Englishman with too much money and time on his hands and his 'manservant' or butler Jeeves, the person whom he most depends on. While most of the stories focus on the interplay between Wooster and Jeeves the collection also introduces you to another character, Reggie who can be thought of as a prequel to Bertie Wooster but without Jeeves at his side. Needless to say the Wooster/Jeeves stories are what makes this collection a classic.

For a first time reader the writing introduces you to the English humor and Queen's English (I learnt quite a few new words in this book). As you read the simple stories you revel in the fact that you know what solution Jeeves will present to the problem at hand but you enjoy reading on how it is presented and accomplished. You wonder how Wooster did not think of the solution and realise that he does not need to when he has Jeeves around. You wonder at how Jeeves even decided on what dress Wooster looks good in and snigger when sometimes Wooster does not agree with the selection only to realise his folly later.

The stories are simple, brilliant, immensely enjoyable and with caustic humor built in. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a paid version of entire PG Wodehouse collection on my iPad.

Rating? Do I need to but its 4/5 only because I wanted all of them to be Wooster/Jeeves stories.

First Flight

I've recently got an iPad and the first thing I did was downloaded the iBooks application. Then I proceeded to search for free books that I could start reading. I love sci-fi and so that genre was my first stop.

I saw a four star rating for the short story 'First Fligh' and while I downloaded it I was skeptical about the rating given by others given that this is a free story. But I was pleasantly surprised. 'First Flight' is a 2010 Locus award winner and deserves the recognition. In a short span of 30 odd pages it captures the essence of a beautiful story with a clear beginning, a wonderful middle and an expected but refshing ending.

At it's essence 'First Flight' is a time travel story. Mary brings out the essence of time travel and deals with the complexities of this idea in a beautiful simplistic manner. No large quadratic equations and time travel morals here. It limits itself to the fact that you can travel only to the time that You have been alive and hence limits you automatically to your lifespan. A beautiful way to avoid you wanting to visit the Dinosaur age or bring back an Ugly Neandrethal kid that you might love.

So we have an old woman sent back in time to capture the historic third flight of the Wright brothers. The flight that stayed up in the air for over 18 mins and was the genesis of the idea that long distance air travel was possible. Of course the story can't be that simple and so we have the protagonist taliking to a boy and then disappearing on him. Therein lies the problem because you can't change history and so you have to go back to the exact time and explain the disappearance to the boy. The story deals with that conundrum while at the same time exposing one of the Wright brother to the advanced technology.

Does the boy understand the explanation of time travel given by a haggard old woman? Does the Wright brother accept the advanced technology? How does that impact the airplane thought? Mary deals beautifully with the thoughts and weaves history into mystery, nostalgia, maturity and benevolence to come up with a cracking Horton story.

I'm glad I downloaded this one and rate it 4/5 like a lot othes only because I would love to see this idea developed into a longer novel.

Here's to the iPad for this wonderful story.