This was a multi-layered and pretty confusing tale that I'm not 100% sure I understood, but I enioyed the ride nonetheless. There was a lot of humour in the narrative and I particularly enjoyed the bodies each digital being chose for themself. I thought Haunt was a good point of view character and the plot was interesting throughout. Overall I had a good time with this one but I don't think it will leave a lasting impression.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

‘Rosebud’ by Paul Cornell is a science fiction novella about a crew of digital beings figuring out their existence.

The crew of the Rosebud are currently an odd assortment of beings, including a balloon, a ball of hands and a swarm of insects. They have been condemned to this survey ship for three hundred years. When a mysterious sphere approaches, the crew must investigate and what they find will possibly change everything.

I think I appreciate where the author was going, and I liked the bizarre nature of the story, but the story was a bit too abstract and lost me along the way.

“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.” Although they’re not human, at least not in their current form, they’re most definitely people. And they’re fanatically devoted to The Company, which for 300 years has placed them out in the back acres of space. When they come upon a mysterious black sphere, they arrive at a plan, after much squabbling: to capture the object for the Company, thereby earning lots of praise.
But the object is not what anyone might expect; it has the ability manipulate probability and time-lines, thereby controlling the crew of the Rosebud by selecting the futures with the most benign outcomes. As the crew attempts to understand what’s happening to them, their own pasts are revealed, as well as the less-than-benign nature of the Company.

I loved how the crew figures out that their memories are unreliable and what the object doing. In the end, however, I found the “universe-changing” revelations opaque. I wanted to like and understand the story, but ended up just not getting it, which is never a good feeling to leave a reader with.

I saw this book described by one of the early reviewers as “a scream disguised as a giggle” and that’s a pretty apt description. This book is a short, fun sci-fi novella that focuses on the 5 AI aboard the Rosebud. They get called in to investigate a suspicious black orb that suddenly appears and causes their ship to malfunction. Naturally, they decide to investigate the orb only to discover some big things about life as they know it and the oppressive regime of “the Company”.

You know that episode of Futurama where Fry is stung by the space bees and the whole episode kind of goes back and forth between reality and dream? This is very that. There’s a lot of back and forth between what has actually happened and what the crew are made to believe has happened. It actually made it a very fun read. There was never a dull moment, especially with the brief glimpses into past lives of the 5 beings condemned to the Rosebud. This is the kind of book that you can fly through in a couple of hours. I don’t read very much sci-fi, but I enjoyed this.

My key complaints were that sometimes it was a bit too confusing for its own good. And that I wish we could’ve learned more about the Company. The bits and pieces we got were so interesting that I wanted more!

Though, as it is, I think this is a great little novella that is good for anybody who likes a quick mystery with a speculative/sci-fi twist.

This is such a quirky little book, and it took me a while to get into a flow with it but ultimately it packs a lot of interesting ideas into a very small number of pages. I enjoyed the characters and their dynamics and banter, so I would recommend this to those that don't mind putting a bit of work into acclimatizing to the writing style!

Thanks so much for the review copy!

I did not finish this book so I have no thorough opinions regarding this. Hopefully I will for when I decide to come back to it. I was just sent this galley by Tor Dot Com! Thank you again for my copy!

In this science fiction novella by Paul Cornell, he uses sentient digital beings to explore what it means to be human, the nature of time, God, and identity. The unusual, quirky characters resonate with humanity and their emotions, both fears and hopes, will fully engage your every sense as you navigate their world. Whether they begin as human or as other, their identities and nature are truly what makes this story unique and intriguing. 

Part of what makes the story so fantastic is Paul Cornell’s use of voice. His exploration of the plot is both elegant and multi-layered. The voice is distinctive for each character but he also uses the point of view to keep the reader grounded in the imagery and in the plot. The imagery and voice kept me immersed in the novella, barely coming up for air until I finished. The ideas aren’t not new, reminiscent of the concept introduced by Socrates but it is a very original presentation. And I love the element of deja vu used throughout the novella. 

If you like original ideas in science fiction or any of Paul Cornell’s previous work, I highly recommend this novella. His characters are odd but interesting. The story is an immersive, elegant and multi-layered approach to the truth of humanity and identity. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rosebud is a word that is unfathomably ingrained within my psyche, even as someone who has never seen Citizen Kane. I am both at once entranced by it, yet so utterly helpless to explain its allure. So, upon seeing a book with the title Rosebud, by Paul Cornwell, I had to pick it up. I barely even read the synopsis before asking for an ARC, that’s just how deep that word runs. When I finally got to the novella, I experienced the same set of nebulous feelings. I both admire it for what it achieves and reaches for, while being put off for what it ultimately is.

Rosebud is the story of five AI personalities trapped on a spaceship the size of a pack of gum. They are all under the purview of the all-powerful Company, a purview defined by their 300 year long prison sentence. During their service, they encounter a spherical object in the outer reaches of the solar system and are subsequently tasked with its retrieval. Their ship has other plans and malfunctions, giving the digital crew a chance to push their boundaries a little. So they do the right and proper thing and survey the object themselves, hoping to bring back their findings to the Company for its benefit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this black sphere also has its own designs, and may just reveal existential truths that neither the crew, nor the Company are prepared for.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Rosebud. They were so mixed, I read the whole thing through twice, re-reading several of the chapters three or four times,in an effort to understand what was going on, and if I was missing something. The novella moves so fast, one has to slow down to take it all in. The dialogue is rapid fire and intermingles with the point of view character’s observations. Time is a nebulous concept for these tiny AI programs, so even the events are happening within fractions of a second. It’s mind boggling to take in on a single read, and luckily it’s short enough that a second or third read through would take less time than a three hundred page story.

I’ll start with the negative, as that was mostly my first experience. I did not care for the pop-culture references. I rarely find them engrossing. I was not a fan of the dialogue. I can see how someone might find it funny, but it was a bit tedious for me. Normally, a character like Bob, an angry balloon that consistently swears, would have me chuckling at his ineptitude, but something just peeved me about him. The descriptions of the digital physical space inhabited by the characters were off putting, and I found Cornwell relied too heavily on the physical descriptions to demarcate individual characters and digital spaces that felt confining to the imagination. I imagine it’s particularly hard to realize five distinct characters within a span of one-hundred or so pages, but the shortcuts had me questioning who was doing what and when. It didn’t help that the main character, Haunt, was pretty bland on their own, sticking to the description of goth. The rapid pace of the story smashed against the characters, making the weirder events feel dreamlike and unnecessary – at least for Haunt. The other characters, namely Huge If True and Diana, felt the most coherent of the bunch, which was helpful in understanding the climax.

I also found the commentary of “humanity bad” overly general and tiresome, even though it was just a few flippant remarks. After my first reading, my final thoughts were along the lines of, “this is just a better, slightly woke version of the Bobiverse if it collided with 2001: A Space Odyssey.” And I’ll be honest, I can’t tell if I think that’s a good or bad thing. It just sort of is.

On re-reading the story though, I found Rosebud a little more interesting. I was able to pull back from a majority of the shenanigans and see the characters a little more for who they were. There were added layers to some of their interactions, especially when you consider their identities and how they were cultivated. Some of the AIs in this book were once people, and their service to The Company on this spaceship called Rosebud is their sentence. What stood out to me the most was the way Cornwell differentiated those who were once human, against those who were always programs. It wasn’t nearly as strong as I would have liked, but the intent is tangible. Haunt still feels flaccid, in the way the other characters don’t, but they feel designed that way. As if they’re supposed to be cool and detached, but it’s not good. Huge If True is determined to reclaim his life, Bob is just meant to be an angry troll, Diana just wants to be herself and Quin, well Quin is a swarm.

Cornwell places them in a situation that is just positively dark and delightful. The object they encounter has a passive defense system that operates in the realm of quantum mechanics that is as clever as it is jarring to the reader. Not only does it affect the characters, but Cornwell realizes it within the narrative itself, creating a sense of confusion as events replay themselves depending on how the crew interacts with the object. This is all set up for searching for the meaning of identity in a world consumed by The Company, sprinkled with a history of blatant transphobia (this bit is in universe, not Cornwell’s beliefs). Cornwell attempts to deconstruct the notions of identity, especially in the vein of artificial vs natural identities. This itself is posited through short explorations of gender and sexuality, notions of which are explored through Diana, Huge, and Bob’s respective pasts. Cornwell opts for a “what really is the difference?” ambiguous approach that feels appropriate and earned given the nature of the novella, and leaves the reader with a stunning and mortifying ending.

Personally, I wish Rosebud was a wee bit longer so the ideas could gestate within the story a little more. Like I said, it’s a fast read, giving one the opportunity to really dissect it with subsequent reads, but it only reveals so much. I wanted some of the critique, especially the bits aimed at The Company, to feel a little more pointed and built up within the context of the story. A lot of the book relies on passive knowledge and feelings by the reader, making it perfect for those who have that frame of reference, but a little shaky for those who aren’t in the mindset. I enjoyed it much more on my second go around after picking it apart, but still had trouble with it on the whole.

Rating: Rosebud 6.5/10
-Alex

An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

Published by Tordotcom on April 26, 2022

The five crew members of the Rosebud are artificial intelligences taking the forms of (respectively) a goth, an aristocratic scientist, a swarm of insects, a half-tiger person, and a body creation artist (and his family, all waving their hands at once). Humans in physical bodies wouldn’t fit on the Rosebud because the ship is tiny. Some were human once. Bob was made to believe he was human, but he was created as a Russian bot to troll social media. Quin is a product of insects’ foray into AI, an experiment that didn’t go over well with humans, leading to hive burnings that are part of Quin’s ancestral memory. This is a recycled crew that, to some extent, is grateful to have a continuing digital existence.

The Company dispatched the Rosebud in the distant past to send rocks on a path that will take them near Earth, where other ships will mine them for valuable ores and minerals. The crew has a vague understanding of Earth. At least when they were created, it was a repressive place where transgenders had to identify themselves with pink and blue badges.

The Rosebud has detected a sphere that must be another tiny ship because it is too smooth and regular in appearance to be a rock. Is it a pirate ship? Is it the product of alien technology? The greatest fear of the Rosebud’s crew is that the Company will come to investigate the sphere and, in the process, learn that the AIs haven’t been following protocol. In the absence of updates, they have started to experience the horror of freedom. They kind of like it and don’t want the Company to mess with it. They regularly profess their loyalty to the Company, their gratitude that the Company saved them, in the hope that the Company will not decide they need to be reprogrammed.

The crew decides to conduct its own investigation, traveling to the sphere in artificial bodies that include a tiger-man, a wasp, Dracula, the body once inhabited by the aristocratic scientist, and Bob Ross (the TV artist who, older readers might recall, once taught viewers to paint). After they make contact, they experience moments which their memories and their memory backups seem to diverge. They develop a theory about alternate futures and altered pasts based on entangled particles and probability waves, an aspect of theoretical physics that fascinates me despite my utter inability to wrap my head around it.

The story makes clever use of theoretical physics, eventually making the reader understand that the past is whatever you want it to be, at least if you know how to control entangled particles. Paul Cornell leaves it to the reader’s imagination to fill in much of the story, including the origin and role of the mysterious Company. That’s not a problem for science fiction junkies, as a powerful Company, a private enterprise that functions as a (or the) government, is a fixture of futuristic fiction.

The theme of AIs who aspire to some sort of personhood is another fixture, but that’s not actually what’s happening in Rosebud. Some of the AIs are based on people who once lived and none of them really aspire to be human. They’re just happy to have developed their own personalities and, in that limited sense, to have slipped the Company’s yoke. That’s an interesting idea. Cornell develops the idea about as much as it needs to be developed to tell a story that comes to a satisfying resolution — or at least one that satisfies the characters, bearing in mind that aliens who control entangled particles, like writers, can create any ending they want, including one that makes everyone happy.

RECOMMENDED

I didn’t quite know what to make of Rosebud, honestly. It has a slightly weird format with some odd sort-of-ish time travel stuff going on, plus it’s written in a very stream-of-consciousness sort of way with an oddball cast that change how they’re represented a couple of times. I felt like I could do with a dramatis personae or something to help me keep track, and I normally stubbornly ignore those. Like, Bob is a balloon (seriously), but also a tiger… and Huge If True is a whole mess of hands, but then also Bob Ross? Etc, for each character.

It also has this whole subplot about the whole world being awful for queer people, including flashbacks to a trans woman being made to dress as male in public while being sort-of-but-not-really executed and tortured, which… is mentioned somewhat in a content note at the start, so I can’t say I wasn’t warned, but it sits funny because it’s off-hand, somewhere in the background of the story. Partly that’s in the same way that Brexit is in the background of the Lychford books, for instance… and I do get the urge to write about the way the world is right now (especially in the UK) to comment on it, but it didn’t quite work for me.

It didn’t quite come together for me, I guess; I did like the ending, and thought there was a lot of cleverness going on, but I spent too much of it not really engaged with what was going on because I was having trouble keeping track of characters.

This was one weird novella! As my first Cornell book, I was originally a little taken back by it but I went with it and you know what, it wasn’t a bad story at all. I liked it quite a lot!

It had some funny moments including Bob Ross and Dracula, as well as a balloon-turned-tiger in outer space but really in a digital world. Overall, it was a little too short for me to love it but at the same time, I believe a longer story would have been too much to like it at all.

If you’re into weird sci-fi that has a bunch of ideas about the world but that don’t want to go too deep into it and will let you make up your own mind, this is probably the one for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor for sending me a copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

I don't think I quite understood all of this book...but I'm also not sure I'm supposed to understand all of it. And I'm not even sure if that sentence made any kind of sense.

I will say I did enjoy the process of reading the book and being caught in this weird novel space adventure. It did keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what would happen and wanting to see how they would figure out what was going on and resolve the issue.

It was bizarre and funny and makes you stretch your brain as far as it can possibly go! I liked that the characters felt human even if they weren't technically, and I loved that it made such commentary on the human condition and the way we relate to the world around us.

I'd say if you're a classic sci-fi fan, definitely make sure you check this one out!

Rosebud is such a bizarre little story! I won’t lie to you, I am still not sure I completely get it? But I enjoyed the characters, and the commentary, so overall it was a win. I don’t usually like not knowing what the heck is happening in a book, but I think this one was more or less supposed to make the reader feel that way, so I was able to live with it. In other words, it didn’t necessarily make me feel stupid just because I didn’t wholly get it, and I am a fan of that.

The five consciousnesses that compose the crew of the ship are not there of their own free will, but they are forced to work for the powerful Company for hundreds of years. And we find that they have been conscripted into this existence because of their identities. Those identities seemingly didn’t jibe with whatever the Company deemed acceptable, hence this punishment. It is obviously upsetting and wildly unfair, but the author does a tremendous job of making you feel how unjust this is, which is the commentary I am here for.

I don’t want to say too much, because at its core, the story is certainly a mystery. The reader is uncovering facets of the world and the crew just as the crew is. They have forgotten so much of their pasts, and as they seek answers about the unknown sphere, they also seek answers about their own lives and their own world. They do so with a lot of humor and heart.

Bottom Line: A delightfully kooky ride with a lot of serious commentary to boot.

This is a short book, but there's a lot in it. I think I'll have to read it again to really absorb it all. On the surface, it's the story of a spaceship crew who encounter something completely new, but beneath that it has so many layers. This is very different than Cornell's other books.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Please consider picking up Paul Cornell's Rosebud for those seeking a book that will force creative and thought-provoking conversations. It will do all of this and so very much more. It takes identity, humanity, and other concepts.

Who better to run a ship off on an extended mission than five sentient yet digital beings? These five have been working together for centuries – three of them, to be specific. Yet the latest survey they are on is going to change everything. And everyone.

What they are about to find will change the very nature of their beings. It will make them question themselves, their identity, and what it means to be alive. And that is only the beginning.

Rosebud wins the award for being the most unique novella I've read this year. And that's saying something because I've read a few that previously held that title. I love that it made me stop and think while picturing a different form of reality.

This is a bizarre read, but I mean that in the best of ways. It has personality, quirks, flaws, and out-of-this-world concepts. I think readers who enjoy deeper and grittier science fiction novels will enjoy this read.

Rosebud does what science fiction does best – it tackles heavy and difficult to articulate arguments and puts them into a more digestible format. So if you're looking for a book that will make your brain work, consider checking it out!

Rosebud is a sci-fi novella that takes place in a pebble-sized spaceship somewhere around Saturn in the far future. It’s manned by consciousnesses of what used to be humans—except for one of them who is an AI construct—and they’ve been there for hundreds of years, working for a corporation that apparently rules the earth. They are happy to serve.

Then they encounter something unexpected: a pebble even smaller than their ship that emits no light and blocks their communications to earth. The crew sets to explore. Or do they? Or have they? Or did they lose communications after all?

Who even are they?

Told in the point of view of Haunt, an AI construct of computer games presenting as a goth made of smoke, this is a story about time. Whether or not it’s real, simultaneous, and/or malleable—and who is there to alter it. The alien pebble takes the crew, Diana, Huge, Bob and Quin to their pasts (Haunt doesn’t have one), and the reader is shown in a few short pages why the humanity and the crew are in their current state (a human woman, a ball of hands, a balloon, and a swarm of insects, respectively, except when they’re not).

This wasn’t an entirely easy novella to get a hang of, but it was interesting and even amusing at times. The ending is good, though the reader is left to make their own conclusions about what it means. Is this a one-off event, or has the crew been stuck for centuries with the pebble, constantly altering the state they and the past are in. And does the answer even matter.

I felt pretty conflicted about this one. On one hand, there were things I really liked. I thought the concept and its execution was pretty original, and I <i>really</i> enjoyed the character dynamics.

However, I didn't vibe with a lot of other parts. The madcap-ery reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide and Space Opera, but didn't quite land for me. (I think I may have enjoyed it more in an audio format, similarly to Space Opera.) It was pretty confusing, especially since the characters' embodiments & backgrounds weren't easily differentiable. Also it whizzed along a bit faster than I'd have liked -- I definitely don't think this could have been a novel, but I wish it had been a tiny bit longer, just 25-50 pages more, so I could feel more grounded and a tad more explained.

Also, the way it handled transphobia (particularly against trans women) felt kinda weird to me. It was clear that Cornell is strongly denouncing the (British) transmisogyny that is becoming alarmly rampant in today's society. But as a trans person, the way it was exhibited was extremely upsetting -- first with us learning that trans people (trans women in particular) are illegal in this world, and second by showing us the public humiliation and murder of a trans woman, the past self of one of our main characters. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Negative for sure, but I think because good intentions were a little clumsily executed. (I did very much appreciate the list of cw's at the front of my copy.)

All in all, I think it's worth a try -- I do feel like this was a case of this not being the right book for me. Don't know that I'd recommend it, but I do think it's worth giving a shot.

Rosebud is a dystopian locked-room SF time-bending mystery novella by Paul Cornell. Due out 26th April from Macmillan on their Tor/Forge imprint, it's 112 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats, it makes it so easy to find info with the search function if needed.

Above all, the author can write. I unhesitatingly recommend his media output to anyone and everyone because, at the end of the day, whatever he does is more-than-competently written. That being said, this is one that readers will love or hate. It's admittedly somewhat difficult reading; there are representations of an end-game reality where the conservative capitalists have "won" and the end result is not pretty. It's also quite cerebral. I am maybe slow, but it took me til about 30% in to have an inkling of what was really going on. I was also uncomfortable with representations of torture (attack and ritual torture of non-binary and trans characters) and the weighty dystopian melancholic dread of being able to draw distinct correlations between where we are *now* and where the protagonists in the story find themselves.

This is a story which not only invites but almost requires more thought. It's slick and thought provoking. I found it effective and moving. I suspect many readers will consider it pretentious and overwrought. It's only 112 pages, so it's a quick read, either way.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Bob Ross and Christopher Lee (dressed as Dracula) floating through the void of space together was not a mental image I ever thought I would have... until I read this book.

This novella was absolutely bonkers but in all the best ways. The characters were so off the wall, and I can honestly say I've never read anything similar to this particular cast. They provided so much quirky humor while also exploring some incredibly deep themes related to identity, personhood, and the potential outcomes of current/impending social and environmental upheavals. It really made me stop and think, and I even teared up at a couple points where the story and characters had me in my feelings. The plot was super timey wimey and difficult to follow at times, but it all ended up making a certain sort of sense in the end. I was having so much fun with these characters that I didn't really care anyway. If you like your science fiction wacky, full of interesting ideas, and with a generous helping of fascinating social commentary, you will probably enjoy this novella. It was a short read but has the potential for a big impact. Therefore, I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review a copy of this book!
I am a huge fan of surrealist and bizarre sci-fi, so I liked this a good amount. I would compare it to the Hitchhiker's guide, so if you like that you'll probably get a kick out of this work. This work is a novella, so be prepared for a faster paced and short piece of writing rather than the longer more drawn out exposition and conflict that you'd see in a work of greater length. Honestly, though, I think the novella length worked for this idea and this setting. Too much of the whimsical sci-fi can get confusing and bogged down; abstract stuff like this is better in bite-sized pieces, imo. I appreciated the parallels drawn to current society and the conversations on capitalism and trans identity, even though it could feel a bit disjointed at times. I think, too, that the non-linear-ness of this book made it a bit of a mental tongue-twister at times but I did still really enjoy it. I do not think this will be for everyone, as I can see people really not liking it or understanding the gimmick of bizarre. whimsical sci-fi.