Ben - and son (James) reviewed Troofriend by Applebaum Kirsty
TrooFriend
5 stars
Childrens book - James is 11.
He said to rate this 5 stars (though I think The Hobbit is much better)... I would give it a 3-4 star rating (I want him to rate 'enjoyed this' books around 3 stars).
However, it's an easy read. It's a fairly basic children's story based very loosely on the I, Robot idea.
The main thing which James found he had to read on for was the fact that the main character developed traits which made it clear that it was not simply Artificial... so it was very thought provoking. The reader is also the AI narrator too.
The writing is okay, not stellar. At first it appears that many 'interesting' vocabulary is italicised, but that's done inconsistently... so I'd definitely rate it as adequate, but not high quality for language.
There are also some 'holes' in the story (for me, not for James) - one being that such a device would cost more than a car, yet this is forgotten and doesn't factor into any decisions.
Overall - enjoyable read with interesting ideas which will stick with the reader, satisfying ending.