Letters to Our Robot Son (Cadance Bell, Ultimo)

Letters to Our Robot Son is the fiction debut of memoirist Cadance Bell (The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody), a mercurial science fiction novel about a robot who awakens without memories and wanders into the world with nothing but an endless supply of optimism and curiosity to sustain him. Set in a post-human (but importantly, not post-apocalyptic) New South Wales, the story follows Arto, the primary character, as he explores his surroundings, searching for his history and purpose. While Arto is piecing together his story, readers – who possess more context than this robot – will also be seeking answers about what happened in the world. The novel begins in Arto’s first-person point-of-view, but a shocking event midway through shifts both the reader’s understanding of the world (and its future) and the narration itself. With arch commentary on corporate greed and humanity’s drive for hierarchy, Letters to Our Robot Son will likely appeal to literary fiction readers wanting to engage with science fiction conceits rather than keen science fiction fans, who might find the pacing slow and details sparse. Readers who enjoyed the delicate use of horror in Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea or the speculative fiction elements of Laura Jean McKay’s The Animals in That Country would be ideal readers for this novel.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kate Cuthbert is the publishing director at Books+Publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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