Emergent Properties features an adolescent AI who is pursuing a career in journalism while learning how to be a person separate from its parents. Scorn awakens in one of zir backup servers, with no memory of the past two weeks except that ze was investigating something mysterious on the moon colony. Following along as Scorn puts together what is happening on the moon and who is responsible for zer memory loss is so entertaining that the reader may not even be conscious of the underlying themes of identity and what constitutes a person. An excellent read, highly recommended.

This is a scifi/mystery story about an AI investigative journalist going back on zir tracks after losing ten days worth of memory. It’s a great premise, and I expected this to be exciting and refreshing, but instead I was just confused throughout my entire reading experience.

It is not easy for me to get used to reading the PoV of an AI, and it was made even more difficult by all the jargons and slang words used in this story. The worldbuilding was way too dense for a story of this length, in my opinion, and distracts from the progress of the story. I could not understand how the conclusion of the story was reached either, nor will I know that the mothers are CEOs if I did not read the synopsis of this novella: the story just does not transmit information well to the reader.

eARC provided by NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group.

Emergent Properties is the story of Scorn, an AI reporter. Beyond that, I’m not sure I can give any significant insight into the plot. This book compares itself to the Murderbot novellas.

Unfortunately, this book lost me real quick. The writing was bogged down by clunky language which was my first turn off. Secondly, it was quite impossible for me to relate to or even sympathize with Scorn. I always felt like like the character was so far away, I appreciate what this book was trying to do, but comparing it to Murderbot (easily one of my favorite series) was lofty in my opinion. This novel lacked all the humor that makes Murderbot fun and relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley an the publishers for this ARC. Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

The top-line blurb for Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden suggests the novella is a great way to get your Murderbot fix while waiting for the next installment of Martha Wells’ series. As a fan of Murderbot, a self-hacked android security unit with a love of human entertainment media, that’s a tough piece of marketing to pass up.

It’s also not a fair comparison. Scorn, the AI protagonist of Emergent Properties, is both more and less than that other artificial life form but above all is deserving of consideration on zir own merits. This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on July 25, 2023.

In a dystopian future of nearly unfettered corporate governance, income inequality and environmental calamity, Scorn is an independent investigative journalist – ze’s chosen occupation. Zir’s two mothers are brilliant scientists and corporate bigwigs who created Scorn to explore the galaxy. Their bitter divorce and on-going feud may have given Scorn the opening to reject their plans for ze’s future.

A future that is uncertain when Scorn activates in the cloud after being off-line for more than ten days. Scorn is sure ze is in the midst of a big story but doesn’t know what the story is, or how far along the investigation has gotten due to the missing time-gap. Exploring ze’s financial transactions points to the moon colony, where autonomy for the Translunar corporation is a hot talking point and where Scorn discovers ze’s last chassis was destroyed in a transportation accident.

As an AI, Scorn shifts from the cloud to a variety of chassis, including humanoid models and palm-sized spider-bots, a flexibility put to good use unraveling the mystery and not a feature Murderbot enjoys. Both study human behavior and tend to cynicism about human foibles, but with an adjustable emotional core Scorn is a wide-eyed child compared to the android. An older adolescent from a broken home, as well, charting a path independent from parental expectations.

The mystery is solved in due course, but I read this fast-paced novella twice to better appreciate and enjoy getting to know Scorn. Hopefully the author will give us more of this unique character.

Book Summary:

Scorn is arguably the most state-of-the-art AI, and that's not a humble brag. Scorn's mothers worked very hard on zir code, and it shows. Unfortunately, Scorn isn't inclined to do what ze was built for and instead would rather spend time traveling around and investigating for news agencies.

That inclination is exactly why Scorn woke up without any memory of the past ten days. Worse, the body they had been using has been destroyed, and Scorn has no backups within that time period. What could possibly have happened? Only one way to find out.

My Review:

You can pretty much dangle anything in front of me, saying it's "perfect for MurderBot fans," and I'll read it. No, really, I will! So, I was quite excited about Emergent Properties. Even more excited because I enjoy Aimee Ogden's writing style. I knew this was going to be good.

Scorn is a unique character, and I don't just mean because ze is AI. Scorn is determined and quirky yet oddly naive in some parts of the world. I say oddly because Scorn lives (resides?) in a world where corporate entities rule supreme, so you'd think zir would know better, right?

I love the overall premise of Emergent Properties – an AI trying to recover lost data sounds intriguing. Throw in the investigative journalism elements and boom! You've got a compelling story. I would have loved to see more of this world and the characters within, as there is so much potential here.

Emergent Properties feels like a cross between Cyberpunk (corporate entities being evil and all that) and Eclipse Phase. In other words, it's a solid read for any cyberpunk and science fiction fan.

Highlights:
Science Fiction
AI Protagonist
Marketed for fans of MurderBot

I've read and liked some of the author’s short stories, so I requested this ARC. I didn't see the <i>Murderbot</i> comparison before reading.

I think the comparison is inapposite. <i>Emergent Properties</i> echoes the themes of Murderbot in a fairly shallow way, with unsympathetic and unlikable characters in a low-stakes and ridiculous setting.

<spoiler>

I think porting is like data transference, which makes a copy of the data and it is not the data itself. This doesn't really address whether making infinite copies of yourself is still "yourself," as there is a sort of self-evident unity to consciousness, at least for humans. Is this defined differently for artificial intelligence? If so, why? And if there is a plurality of an artificial intelligence's consciousness, why is it that Scorn can only focus on one thing at a time?

Not sure how I feel about Scorn being dead named, and the "displacement dysphoria." It's somewhat appropriative. What does it say when trans people are analogized with AI? I doubt it was the author's intent to equate trans people with artificially constructed beings, but she is co-opting trans experiences for this story as a recurrent theme.

This is made worse by how bigoted and ableist Scorn and other artificial sentiences are; a humanoid chassis (a shell for Scorn to live in) without olfactory sensors is "dingy," so I suppose all beings with limited senses (like people who are blind, or deaf) are also "dingy." Scorn is an asshole, and not even in a funny way.

Not sure why the spider bot walks on the ground instead of walls, or jumping. That would have been a cool opportunity to show how nonhuman Scorn is.

"Hijabs" is incorrectly used. Much like fish vs. fishes, "hijabs" is used to describe various types of hijab.

The government situation feels cheaply imitative of Murderbot. All of it does tbh

The logic of Scorn's existence eluded me. An AI isn't some magical mist, it's a program stored on a server. Any "memory" it has would be recorded on that server in a bunch of tiny on-off switches. When Scorn goes to a blackbox bar (cut off from radio, etc), we learn that, "Sneaking in recording software or a private uplink would incur a penalty not recorded in the legal system of the local Corp. Bel Pasticcio’s value is in its privacy, and Alouette tolerates no boxbreakers."

My question is, if Scorn is unable to record anything, how could ze possible remember what happens?

"Pouting moue" is redundant

I've suspected for a whole that authors just do a replace-all when they use neopronouns, and I think this proves it: "It could’ve been Maman who put <i>her</i> [Scorn] on to a story about TLMN misdoings in the first place."

I am curious about the emotionalacrum. How does a being entirely made of experience emotion? What's the mechanics of that? What is happiness to someone who cannot produce or experience the physiological effects of serotonin? Murderbot avoids this issue by being part organic. Perhaps it's too much to ask of a mystery novella for which the sci-fi elements are flavorings.

Parts of the worldbuilding are undefined nonsense terms, like "alignment slippage," "subsurface," "data downloaded before <i>breaking the Earth's datasphere</i>." The last is particularly annoying given satellite internet access exists and data is necessarily transmitted from Earth to satellites and space stations. Is Earth encased in a Faraday cage for some ill-advised reason? There a "neoconstructivist" architecture style which is never described.

Halfway through I had no idea what Scorn's big story was. Something about corporations and the moon and "artificial sentiences" and autonomy. I have no idea how these things interrelate. The Moon as an independent state?

There were a few strange pop culture references that didn't land. Like, in Gideon the 80s/90s/tumblr are preserved to some extent because their literal god who regularly interacts with people is from that time. Why would a seven-year-old AI in the far future know what a fucking Commodore 64 is?

"Moon travel has become a popular way to beat the season's heat" - the temperatures on the Moon are extreme, fatally so. There is no atmosphere. People would have to be in suits or enclosures to survive. Why not just make that on Earth instead of expending massive resources on Moon stuff? Even for wealthy people it's an obscene expense. Moon colonialism is stupid in general, and an independent state is an even worse idea since any humans on the moon would be entirely dependent on supplies from Earth. Forever.

"The arc of its zenith" - a zenith is a singular point, it doesn't arc at all. The top of a dome is called a crown, which does arc. Or maybe cupola. Idk, use anything with an actual curve.

I disliked the forced offline subplot because the logic falls apart under any examination. Scorn's emotional instability is similarly flawed: ze shut down zir "sarcasm code," presumably ze could block zir "emotionalacrum" entirely. Instead ze has quasi-panic attacks that physically incapacitate zem.

</spoiler>

The plot advances almost entirely due to Scorn's incompetence and bizarre slips of the tongue, and it was tough to read through my frustration with zem.

It sucks I didn’t like this. Her fantasy short stories are much better, so I think I’ll stick to those.

Scorn, one of the few emancipated AIs around, investigates stories but is at a loss to explain how the data and memory for the last 10 days of zir existence have disappeared. Ze had apparently been to the Moon as part of zir research, but what happened? And why is retracing zir steps so fraught with danger?

This short but tightly packed novella explores the different facets of artificial intelligence, the ownership of AI, and the potential for sentient AI to be developed and to demand freedom. In addition, there's a strong thread about family dynamics and disappointments that tie into the larger picture. The trouble is, there is SO MUCH to unpack in the first 1/4 of the book that it takes the reader a while to settle into the worldbuilding and follow the action.

Scorn has the potential to be a really interesting character, but despite the level of self-awareness ze shows for an AI, ze also lacks a certain self-awareness of how zir role in zir family also impacts zir approach to zir work. Some of the advance hype for the novella make the analogy to Murderbot, but Scorn is somewhat less developed as a being than Murderbot.

Really interesting ideas, but the execution is just a bit off the mark. 3 stars, though.

Thank you, Tor.com and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

A fascinating view on gender, family dynamics, and autonomy through the extremely poignant perspective of a sentient AI. A must read for sci-fi fans who have complicated relationships with their parents.

This is quite good. I didn't like it as much as her other works, but it's still well-plotted and executed. It's a pretty quick read, and a fun one.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

First :Thank you to Netgalley and the authors for this ARC! Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I really wanted to like this book, but I found the the alternative pronouns(ze/zir/zem) to be a little distracting and honestly slowed down my progress through this book. I found myself having to stop every once and while to make sure I understood what was happening and to who it was happening to as well. I think that I did get used to it, jus took a little time. I loved Scorn. The wit in the whole book was on point. I'd give this a solid3.5 I'm interested to read more of Scorn.

First time reading Aimee Ogden. This was a little hard for me to read, but enjoyable. Will definitely read more from Aimee Ogden.

I had a lot of fun reading Emergent Properties. Scorn was a great POV character for a world in which AI rights are hotly debated and the AI themselves are being both exploited and weaponized to further different goals that might not be to their benefit. Zir skepticism helped navigate through a lot of the BS and it was always entertaining to see zem encounter a situation in which they had to reconsider their approach to another person/AI.

A good time, not quite Murderbot but definitely in the same solar system. Fans of that series might really enjoy this story.

Let's start with the most obvious thing: Emergent Properties is being compared to my beloved Murderbot Diaries, and it's a decent comparison. I think I took to Murderbot a little faster than Scorn, our main character, but I have a soft spot for all sassy robots/AIs, so I got there eventually. Although I did feel the fast pace I usually dislike in novellas, it didn't bother me so much here I think because the story had a clear, driving focus. I also left the book feeling excited for future potential follow-ups rather than wishing the story was longer. If you're also a Murderbot fan or interested in stories about sentient robots, corporate corruption, and space politics, give this a try when it releases!

A pretty interesting novella. Lots of interesting and weird ideas, perhaps erring towards high science fiction. An intriguing premise, and a pretty well constructed plot and characters. Not my favourite read of the year, but certainly something with plenty to offer SF fans.

This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was still a fun read. It took me while to get through the first fourth of it, though I'm not sure I can say why. I think the pacing was just a bit off in the earliest portions, but it really picked up steam about halfway through. I liked that Ogden examined and commented on familial relationships and the discovery of ones identity through Scorn.

I haven't read any of the Murderbot series and cannot speak to the comparisons, but from an outside perspective the two do not seem that similar in execution.

As a fan of Murderbot, I just had to request this arc. After reading it, I'll agree with the other early reviewers that it's not quite Murderbot, but it definitely deserves its own place in the niche sentient and sarcastic AI genre (if that's a thing, because it definitely needs to be a thing).

Scorn, our reluctant AI MC, refers to zemself using neopronouns (ze/zir/zem), which takes a while to get used to (if you're not used to it), but it naturally fits within the sci-fi genre.

The plot is pretty simple and straightforward. Someone deleted a portion of Scorn's data so ze tries to uncover who did it and why. But it can get confusing with all the world building that's thrust upon the reader without much handholding or explanation. It's very sci-fi genre heavy, so if you're not familiar with sci-fi tropes, you might get lost with all of the terminology and concepts. But as a huge sci-fi fan, I can appreciate the unique details that went into the world building, character development, and the relationships between the characters (especially with Scorn and zir mothers).

I'd love to read more about Scorn in further installments. Aimee Ogden is a promising emerging writer.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for this arc.

I liked this book, but it didn’t really live up to my expectations. I love the trope of a sentient AI, but the chapter development just didn’t draw me in; I wasn’t really connected to the main character. I also felt the ending was a bit heavy-handed.

For fans of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries!

We're following a curious AI who is missing 10 days from their life and is determined to find out what happened. This is a soft world building, high sci-fi story which including people travelling to the moon for spring break and a terrifying externally visible social rating system. You'd think a novella wouldn't be long enough to contain this all, but the pacing is great, the world imaginative and technology plausible.

I want to call out the powerful use of language and pronouns as Aimee creatively bends English to her will to describe an AI's self-identity. Scorn uses the pronouns Ze, Zir Zemself, which effectively removes them from the gender spectrum all together. When I first started reading I thought this would break up the reading flow, but once I got a few pages in, it was no trouble at all.

I'm not sure if this will become a series, but if it does I'd love to join Scorn in zir next adventure!

This book is best enjoyed after telling your Roomba and digital coffee maker how much you appreciate them.

Thank you to NetGalley and TorDotCom for an advanced reader copy.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

This wasn't quite for me, and I'm glad Tor is pulling back a bit on the Murderbot comp, because while I can see some surface similarities, this is a very different beast. The tone is different, first of all, which is I think why it didn't click for me, but I'm excited about the project being out in the world.