Kathryn Moon (1)

This novel certainly lives up to its unusual premise, exploring the complexities of sexbot life from a variety of different angles. It asks a lot of questions that I find really intriguing, like what it's like to have a mind that can be programmed and reprogrammed, or how you come to terms with every emotion you feel being designed for commodification. The universe constructed in this novel is full of strange and wonderful people, giving the reader the sense that there's a lot more to explore there. Overall, I found it quite charming.

I did have some problems. This was my first (and probably my last) why choose/reverse harem novel, so my complaints will probably sound very prosaic to why choose enjoyers, but I'll share them anyways. All five love interests have some kind of character progression. I like that the author gave them all arcs--but because there are five of them, most of them only get two or three scenes to themselves, which is not sufficient for constructing particularly depthy or complex arcs. I realize that in erotic romance character arcs aren't necessarily the point, but I really would have preferred to see the two more interesting love interests fleshed out more, instead of it feeling like they were fighting the other three for page space.

Related to the arc problem, I really like how different all of the love interests are at the beginning of the novel (it's fun that they're literally different models of android), and I like all the different dynamics they develop with the main character--so I find it disappointing how similar their dynamics with the lead became over the course of the novel. Falling in loving changes all the love interests in the same way ( their code starts glitching, they get protective and exclusive, they agree to become mates and she tattoos them), and after mating, the main character treats them all in the same way, so four of the five mostly just fade into the group by the end, providing banter in the background. It's like there's no more time for the individual characters after their arcs get resolved, which I think is a shame. However, I get the sense that this is common for why choose novels, so I won't hold it against this book too much. Overall, it's a pretty fun read.… (altro)