Mechanize My Hands to War

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Pub Date Dec 17 2024 | Archive Date Dec 03 2024

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Description

"Wagner wows in this nuanced look at the implications of AI on humanity...sharply imagined and all too plausible." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The emergence of artificial life intersects with state violence and political extremism in Erin K. Wagner’s rural Appalachia, where startlingly intimate portraits of survival and empathy bloom against a stark backdrop of loss.

September, 2060: Adrian Hall, acting director of the ATF, is holding a press conference. Yes, Eli Whitaker, anti-android demagogue, remains at large, and yes, he is recruiting children into his militia — Adrian is careful not to use the word army. She is careful all the way through the conference, right up until someone asks her about her personal connection to Whitaker; about Trey Caudill, his foster son.

July, 2058: Farmers Shay and Ernst, struggling after they discover their GMO crop seeds have failed, hire android employees: Sarah as hospice, and AG-15 to work the now-toxic fields. Under one roof, four lives intertwine in ways no one expects.  

July, 2060: Special Agent Trey Caudill is leading a raid on Eli Whitaker’s farm when an android, call sign Ora, shoots and kills a child.

March, 2061: Ora sits in a room. He has been there for seven months, resisting diagnostic tests. He is drawing on the walls, scratching his artificial skin, tracing something over and over and over again with a tired metallic finger. There is nothing wrong with his circuitry, so why does Ora feel so broken?

Unflinching yet understated, making expert use of its nonlinear form, Mechanize My Hands to War is at once a study of grief and an ode to the power of self-determination.

"Wagner wows in this nuanced look at the implications of AI on humanity...sharply imagined and all too plausible." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The emergence of artificial life intersects with...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780756419349
PRICE $28.00 (USD)
PAGES 320

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Average rating from 8 members


Featured Reviews

This was a hell of a read and one I'll be highly recommending come this winter. We get a speculative future war that looks at the potential future splinter point of those pushing for the "feds" not to be trusted (which we are unfortunately seeing play out currently IRL via people attacking FEMA workers attempting to help communities in the wake of Hurricane Helene) and also examines the idea of free will via androids, androids built for combat, and child soldiers, and all the ways parameters can go horrifically wrong. You also get what feels like little side stories throghout that end up being examined via multiple POVs and all interconnecting with the larger goings on. Pick this up this winter and enjoy.

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This ambitious book pays homage to Phillip K Dick and some of the best Southern Gothic.

This books could fill in the missing pieces between the bell riots and a robot controlled future.

You may or may like the narrative roshomon style of showing the same scene from 2-3 points of view.

This book was interesting and entertaining and feels like a realistic extrapolation of our current technology.


This book was an eARC from netgallery.

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