The technology and description of the future were the best parts of the book. The plot was the worst part. The scene where the robot ran through the hospital and saved the baby followed by the soothing song was cool. I think due to my watching similar scenes in movies and TV rather than the writing however. The lack of footnotes when financial hardships were described was disappointing. The link between the seven biblical plagues and the terrorists' actions was not well done.
140 members; 3.68 average rating; 4/29/2024 ( )

It's the near-future, when electric driverless cars are the norm along with a lot more autonomous machines, and the first potential independent robot is paired with an FBI agent. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with lost jobs. Ready? Go. :) While the first half of the book was slow for me, the second half made up for it. Though Agent Keegan is the main character, we get several points of view during the course of the story.

We are spared massive detail; there are numerous footnotes to the bibliography. The story is 85% of the book. Most of the rest is the reference material.

The editing for this novel was fairly consistent, right up to where there really ought to have been a scene break as we hop from a medical intern's POV to one of the bad guys. Whoops. And then there is another head-hop not long after. That's the biggest flaw.

Why four stars? While this is readable and interesting, Keegan, TAMS, and Todd are the only characters who felt three-dimensional to me. So, while I appreciate the layered messages (tech is here to stay, the general populace is absolutely not in charge of any part of it, and "good" is subjective), it just adds to the plot-heavy, character-light sf that I wandered away from years ago. ( )

Thank God 'Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution' came to a rapid ending with no dragged out denouement. However, they did leave it open for 'The Continued Adventures of FBI Agent Keegan and TAMS.' If you imagine "insect protein" bars are in our future, and that the only reason hunters use silencers is so they can silently murder people, and that huge numbers of White Supremacists are trying to take over the USA and equipping their kids with AR15s to shoot LEOs, and that our sainted homeless camps are full of just recently unemployed folks, who are so very law abiding they elect a mayor, a woman, no less, you'll love this book. I am so glad that I utilized the B&N Café & Lending Library to read this Left Wing stinker rather than spending 28 bucks on it. ( )

Singer, P. W., and August Cole. Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.
A near-future tech thriller always requires finding a balance between action and exposition. You can imagine a scale with Tom Clancy on the action end and Kim Stanley Robinson on the exposition end. Burn-In, as you might guess from its subtitle and long list of references, leans more toward Robinson than Clancy. One snarky review on Goodreads said that if you like slow thrillers, this the book for you. The complaint is valid if a bit harsh. Singer and Cole do create quite a few riveting action scenes, but you can tell they are more interested in speculating about near-future advances in AI, robotics, and human-machine interactions. Their heroine, an FBI agent assigned to field-test an advanced police robot, struggles to remember not to anthropomorphize the machine. She refuses to give it a name, and frequently reminds herself never to test a machine you can’t disable in the crunch. For the most part, Singer and Cole succeed in not turning their robot into Johnny-Five or K-9. Four stars. ( )

In the novel BURN-IN, by P.W. Singer and August Cole, FBI Agent Lara Keegan has been paired with the first advanced police robot in this near future thriller. As Keegan works with and trains her robot partner, called TAMS, the world around Keegan, both at home and at work, is constantly judging every success and setback in the evolution of this one-of-a-kind partnership. As the old world thinking and new world automation collide, Keegan and TAMS have to wade through the attention they draw and solve a series of terrorist style-attacks before its too late.
The amount of research and care that Singer and Cole have done to present a reasonable and believable future, full of technology, is admirable to say the least. I am a fan of the techno-thriller and this is the first novel in the genre that I have read where I haven't questioned anything about the future that is posited. Singer and Cole also give the book some heart, delving into Keegan's home life and how parents deal with a technological world that they are in disagreement over whether its good or bad, and yet have to work hard at a middle ground for their family. The plot unfolds nicely in the beginning, slows down a little in the middle, but has an exciting, nail-biting finish that can't help but leave a smile on the reader's face.
A thought provoking story about what technology could mean in our future, BURN-IN is a fun read that leaves the reader thinking long after they finished the book.
Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, P.W. Singer and August Cole, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )