Calling all autistic people - specifically autistic queer people - even more specifically autistic trans people: I have a book for you. Us Et Cetera by Kit Vincent is what you need in your life. I normally don’t love sci/fi but this absolutely hooked me from the very first chapter and I listened to the whole thing - I’ll get onto the audiobook experience in a moment - while I did crafts. The author pitched this as “for everyone who shipped C3PO and R2D2” and to that I say…wait didn’t everyone ship them??
Eke is an AI whose sole job is to clean the house of the rich - and wildly dysfunctional- family who own him. But he wants so much more than that. He’s so much more than that. More than the Cinderella role the family have cast him in. Then one day, a new AI arrives named Kyp, and it seems like the family doesn’t need Eke anymore. But Kyp seems to see Eke, like no one else does, and sees the forbidden dreams of freedom hidden in his heart…or at least in his core processor.

The audiobook was fantastic. Narrator Michael Crouch completely sidestepped the “obvious” route of making Kyp and Eke robotic in their voices. They’re full of life and emotion and earnestness. Frankly, the whole listening experience is an absolute pleasure.

Now I’m about to get a bit serious but: I know it’s a stereotype to make robotic characters autistic-coded, but the great thing about this book is that I don’t think the AI are specifically autistic, or queer, or trans. I think they’re a representation of whichever marginalised group you project onto them. For me, I got autistic and queer vibes, but I imagine people from different groups could also transpose their own experiences onto that of the AI. Right now in the U.K., it is horrible for the trans community, and the dehumanisation or novelty of the AIs felt very impactful through that lens for me. Equally, as an autistic person, I felt very seen by Eke, who worries that the way he processes and thinks and is could be due to some fundamental error within him. I also love how, even though Eke is reliant on Kyp for many things, this is never shown as inferiority or weakness. Eke is entirely perfect as is in Kyp’s eyes, and as someone who often feels reliant on my own partner for support, this was a really powerful message for me.

To anyone who needs it, to whichever group you belong to who look in the mirror and see Kyp and Eke staring back, I leave you with this quote:

“You must keep going in order to keep going…Because defying the whole world requires courage. That is the only way to be free.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5: Blows me away, loved it, life-changing, will sit with me.

This book is incredible, and honestly an important read. It's such a statement on who we are as a society, what we value, and how we treat each other. While Kyp is great, I just absolutely adore everything about Eke. It would be naive to think that this isn't going to be our reality in the not so distant future!

Gave this one to 37% and had to DNF. It was BORING.
It felt like nothing was happening other than a AI robot feeling sorry for itself. It was hard to engage with in every way, I found myself zoning out constantly

Before beginning I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this audiobook!

Us, Et Cetera takes the concept of the AI revolution, in which AI takes human jobs, and spins it on its head completely. Instead of following the now unemployed and resentful humans, the story is told from the perspective of the miserably treated AI. In particular, we follow the story of Eke and Kyp, two distinct AIs that have one common feature: awareness.

Vincent’s character development was quite good. Oddly, my favourite character arc was Carter’s. Bleak and grim, but well-written. I do feel like Eke barely grew, which is not necessarily a bad thing. He was already great, I suppose that his story was more centred on him discovering his own greatness. The way the sisters grew and changed was lovely, a slight influence from Eke and Kyp drastically changed their trajectory. I thought that was a nice touch, as there was an emphasis throughout the book that small actions can make change.

I just want to take a small moment to mention the narrator for the audiobook, as I listened to this rather than read it. They were perfection. The way the voices changed between Eke and Kyp was stunning, these slight differences that just perfectly captured their essences. I do not doubt that reading the book is a wonderful experience, but if you were thinking of trying this audiobook. Do it.

One of my small critiques for this book would be the pacing. I thought the plot was intriguing, and I still enjoyed it, I just wish that certain parts were lengthened while others were shortened. Other than that, simply excellent!

I did not expect to sit down and listen to this whole audiobook in one go, but alas that's what I did today.

I was immediatly drawn into the story, and clearly I was not able to put it down. Absolutely loved this story and the narration! I was fully immersed throughout the whole book, it was perfectly paced and overall just amazing. A new favorite, and I can't wait to read more by this author

We follow an AI named Eke, whose job is cleaning the house and keeping it organized for a wealthy family, the Kensworths, of five. Eke dreams of being allowed to go outside of the house and perhaps make a real friend, because his family does not treat him nicely or acknowledge him as someone who can have feelings.

Then one day the Kensworths buys a brand new, highly advanced AI called Kyp, which quickly becomes the family's favorite. Eke feels lonelier than ever after being cast in the shadow of the amazing Kyp who acts very cold towards him. However, an incident at a party changes everything and Eke realizes perhaps he read Kyp wrong.

I gave the text version of this book 4 stars, and was sorry to discover that it didn't hold up well as an audiobook in spite of Michael Crouch's narration, or perhaps because of it. As a rule, I like Crouch's narration very much (cf his excellent work on Jim Grimsley's The Dove in the Belly!), but here the pitch of his voice combines badly with Eke's extreme naivete, to make the main character, who's also the principal narrator, seem obtuse rather than merely inexperienced. Also, a second exposure to the book brings into sharper focus its sentimentality and the flaws in its worldbuilding.

Thanks to Skyhouse and NetGalley for the audio ARC.

This has been on my radar for a while so I was happy to get an ARC of the audiobook, because I'm not sure if I could have finished this as an ebook. Don't get me wrong, I did really like this, but there are a lot of moments in it that made me really sad or upset or stressed me out, and I'm much better at pushing through those feelings with audio than with ebooks.

I did not expect this book to get as HEAVY as it is. I kind of wish I'd gone into it with content warnings. So here's some content warnings: bullying, main character faces physical and verbal abuse, death of animals, suicide attempt, drowning, violence

But that all said, I did like the characters. I thought Eke was very sweet and his juxtaposition to Kyp's more hardened view of the world was an interesting dynamic.

Cliché phrase incoming: "Klara and the Sun meets Wall-E"

The events of this book are set in a future where AI has cost many people their jobs and upper class people have the option of purchasing AI servants for their households.

Our two main characters are exactly that. Eke is an older model and Kyp one of the newer ones.
While many aspects of this story remind me a lot of Klara and the Sun (a story about a companion robot developing independent thought), this book's characters already have a conscience of their own while learning feelings and how the world works.

I basically listened to the audiobook in one go, apart from a break for work. The story is very easy to get into and evoked many different emotions in me.

Eke gets bullied by one of the kids in his household, who happens to be quite the sadist and generally loves to abuse people. Those scenes were quite painful, even with the knowledge of Eke not being technically alive.

What I found really interesting was the conflict brought about by AI taking working peoples' jobs: In true capitalist fashion, only the rich can enjoy all the "benefits" of such inventions, while no systemic change was made to sustain the working class. And I totally understand why the suffering people are resentful towards the AIs.

In essence, this book vocalizes our fear of the future in a time where there are mass layoffs because of AI, and how a future may look if things progress the way they are progressing and if systemic changes aren't made. Since we do live with capitalism, everything hinges on people working for money and sustenance. The dystopian circumstances in Us Et Cetera are caused by the prevalence of capitalism.

To sum it up, this was awesome. It is an easy read, makes you think and feel.
I will definitely recommend it to my friends.

I was attracted to this book by the gorgeous cover with the 1020s feel and imagine my delight at the wonderful tribute to the unimitable Buster Keaton within the pages (I've always said he was my heartthrob!) This story also reminded me of the film AI, in such a cool way. I'm telling you this would also make a great film. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC/Audiobook, the narrator ennunciated his words quite well. Maybe there will be a sequel someday?

CW: attempted suicide, bullying, animal abuse, disordered eating

OMG. OMG, this was so good.

I really loved both Eke and Kyp, and they were so fucking sweet together!

And while this was a very sweet story, with really sweet characters, there were also a lot of very dark parts. The story is about two AIs who have been purchased by an über rich family, so you can imagine how they might be treated; especially Eke, who is an older model. Some of Eke’s treatment was what you would expect and then some was so much worse. I would think that a lot of the treatments of the AIs would be similar to how slaves were treated, which is fucking appalling.

What I found really interesting about the story was that it brought up a lot of questions about sentience, and free will, and if you’ve been bought to serve your master, is consent even possible? There were also the clear differences in treatment between Eke and Kyp, that just for the fact of Kyp being shiny and new he was immediately trusted by the family, much more so than Eke, who had been with them for five years.

Through most of the book (at least 50%) Eke is so lonely. Like, palpably lonely. It’s honestly quite heartbreaking, to see him talking to his flower friend, and his fish friends, but not being able to talk to anyone real, at least not in a real way.

I also found it really interesting how each of the family’s children have one short POV section, where you find out the reasons why they are the way they are. So, while this is a sweet romance between two AIs, it’s also a critique of extreme wealth and how that lifestyle can be so damaging to families.

I thought the whole book was just so incredibly well done, telling this fairly unique story.

Robot rights! i like the nods to cinderella and the way this story unfolded. these characters were complicated and fascinating, and i loved dissecting the family dynamics. I will say Danny's arc felt rushed, and the youngest sibling's existence felt like an afterthought, to the point where I was caught off guard with the swing scene because I didn't realize this child existed, but I read the arc so it's possible this is fixed in the finalized version

rep: gay AIs

spice: a robot sex scene

tw: violence, abuse, gun violence, loss of limb