Customer Reviews

Evolution's Darling

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Evolution's Darling is one of the most interesting science fiction novels I've read in the past year.

Evolution's Darling is a 'bootstrap', an AI who has achieved sentience despite frequent downgrades by its last owner. Under the laws of the Expansion, any machine that reaches a Turing Quotient of 1.0 legally becomes a person, rather than legal property - and needing to replace the shipboard computer would wipe out a year's profits for Darling's owner, Isaah. Darling is also the tutor and companion of Isaah's fifteen-year-old daughter, Rathere, and after Isaah disconnects Darling's sensors, Rathere re-connects them to save her friend, who then becomes her lover. He buys himself a humanoid body, then he and Rathere leave Earth together.

Two centuries later, Darling has become one of the Expansion's most astute dealers in artworks, collecting originals and ideas and sex-related body modifications. When a new sculpture allegedly done by fellow bootstrap Vaddum comes onto the market, years after Vaddum's disappearance, Darling and many other dealers rush to see it. While some are prepared to murder their rivals to own the piece, Darling is more interested in its origin. Is Vaddum dead? Can robots actually die? Can intelligent software be copied, and if so, is the copy a forgery or the real thing?

Evolution's Darling contains some wonderful inventions: as well as the Turing Quotient as a solution to the ethical questions of owning intelligent machines, Westerfield gives us a wide range of very individualistic robots, from the fiercely competitive hyper-intelligent starships writing anonymous academic papers on passenger service when they're not hurling insults at each other ("Number-cruncher!" "Intuitionist!"), to Vaddum, the robotic laborer turned sculptor, to the sub-Turing Wardens, cunning but rigid justice machines. I also loved the lithomorphs, alien statues on a thousand-century-long migration towards their breeding grounds. Along with this sparkling inventiveness comes a beautiful prose style: the only flaw, and that a minor one, is the erratic pacing, with two-hundred-year jump cuts and a fistful of flashbacks disguising a very simple and straightforward plot.

Aldiss and Wingrove's Trillion Year Spree defined science fiction (in part) as "the search for a definition of mankind and his status quo in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge". By this definition, Evolution's Darling is uncommonly pure science fiction, because of the questions it raises about the nature of humanity. When machines can score higher than biological humans on Turing tests, which is really human? Are two beings with identical Turing ratings actually the same person, and is the art they produce equally authentic? Is there a difference between justice and aesthetic considerations? What is alive? What is dead? What is original? What is a copy? Will any of these concepts still be relevant in a few centuries? Westerfield quotes Wilde's essays frequently - and it's Wilde the philosopher, not just Wilde the wit - as well as Wittgenstein and Locke, plus sly nods to Alfred Bester and Samuel Delany... but the book sparkles with ideas and questions, rather than being weighted down with pontification. It manages to combine character-driven and ideas-driven science fiction, and even begs the question of whether there's any real difference between the two.

Evolution's Darling is Scott Westerfeld's third scifi novel. It's written with such poise and mastery that the far future in which it inhabits is clear and believable. If we don't quite understand this future, it's because it is already beyond our ken. The clock is ticking......

The prologue provides us with the book's mythology. Told like "The Tempest" - a father-daughter-lover triangle within a setting of sheer otherworldly beauty - the prologue catapults the narrative into a grandly conceived and richly imagined place and time.

The eponymous Darling is perfectly realized, an artificial being who is haunted and profoundly affected by love and loss. His development from multi-purpose AI to a sentient being marks the emergence of a truly new generation. The humans in Evolution's Darling are clearly a species at the beginning of irrelevance. Their lives are tawdry, desirous of excesses of greed, lust and power. In comparison, the AIs go about their lot with, at the very least, a knowing, witty irony, if not, more often, a deep, all-encompassing appreciation. A love for life. With respect.

Although Westerfeld imagines a world where humans have become stuck in an evolutionary cul-de-sac like the duckbilled platypus, it's world that we'd aspire to. A world where art is not merely another commodity but where it literally transforms souls. A world where a family (built from constructs) can live happily ever after. A world where we'd like to be. We just couldn't muster it.

A truly amazing, inspiring book, full of noise and passion, driven by a quiet inevitability that's quite heartbreakingly beautiful to experience.

There are only a few voices in sci-fi who continuously stun everyone. At least me. Scott Westerfeld is one of those very few who keeps amazing, now with his third novel. Again he draws out a unique universe, pictures simple, yet great characters and unfolds a compelling, yet mystifyingly simple narrative.

Imagine a world in which evolution is measured by the progress of being 'sentient', no longer by being 'human'. Imagine a world in which artificial intelligence is no longer artificial at all and constructed intelligences can learn, and grow, and evolve and become recognised for the great minds that they are. Imagine one such mind, lost for love, living off an economy inflating the prize of originals, running into a lovely asassin who does not have all that much human in her any more.

If that appeals to you, dive into this world and let Scott's voice point out to you the power of the nature of an original.

Couldn't put _Evolution's Darling_ down. I loved the depiction of our machines achieving sentience. I loved the extrapolation of how the world might cope with it. I loved the sweetness and strangeness of Darling's character, and enjoyed the way that Westerfeld imagined the possibilities for S/M play in a world where physical damage is more easily repaired than in ours. Then I looked at how he imagined the economic realities of the world he'd created, and I felt a bit envious of his abilities. But I didn't dwell on that too long; I was too busy enjoying the novel. Well done!

For books like Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves: A Novel I have found that the Amazon user reviews were accurate. In the case of Scott Westerfeld's Evolutons Darling, I have found the reviews less helpful. Perhaps because one of the central themes of Evolution's Darling is sex and sex tends to make people uncomfortable.

The first book I read by Scott Westerfeld was The Risen Empire (Succession), which I liked a great deal. I then read the sequel, The Killing of Worlds: Book Two of Succession, which I thought was good too. After reading these books I looked around for other Scott Westerfeld books.

Most of Scott Westerfeld's books are targeted at the "young adult" market, which means that the books are targeted to readers around the ages of 12 to 16. As far as I can tell, the Risen Empire books and Evolution's Darling are the only books that Scott Westerfeld has written for adults. The Risen Empire books are (at the time of this writing) in print, but Evolution's Darling is out of print. Evolution's Darling was originally published by a press named Four Walls Eight Windows, which was then bought by Avolon Group which then was bought by (or became) Perseus Books. In all the roil of publishing companies, Evolution's Darling has become lost to readers. The copy that I read I got through inter-library loan. The only other copies available are through the rare book market. Given the sexual themes in the book, I fear that it may remain out of print, since Scott Westerfeld (and his publishers) might worry that some parents would be upset to find their children reading Evolution's Darling, which they believed was a young adult book devoid of such themes.

Science Fiction has been called the literature of ideas. This is definitely true of the three Scott Westerfeld books I have read. Evolution's Darling is about the evolution of artificial intelligence. Scott Westerfeld appears to be a romantic, since love and the power of love are themes in all three of his books. Sexuality is one way to express love. In Evolution's Darling Scott Westerfeld suggests that true artificial intelligence (AI) would be capable of both love and sexuality.

The title of the book comes from the main character, Darling, which is an AI that comes to full sentience (in Westerfeld's description, crossing the "turing barrier") while having sex with a teenage girl. She refers to the AI as Darling and that becomes his name. One Amazon reviewer found this outrageous, but in the story it is natural. Teenagers are obsessed with sex and the AI has been the girl's constant companion. The AI has grown, as the girl has. She has no human companions except for her father, so it is natural in the story that she and the AI become lovers in both senses of the word: love and sexuality. Darling loves the girl and then woman throughout her life.

Evolution's Darling is not erotica, but an exploration of ideas. Westerfeld is exploring what love and sexuality would mean for an AI which inhabited a non-biological body. Or, in the case of one character, Mira, what may be an AI inhabiting a biological body. Scott Westefeld also explores the very idea of sexuality itself, which can have many variations. Certainly this is not a book for those who are offended by such themes, but, again, this book is not erotica. The sexuality flows from the story and the logical extension of ideas. How far could sexuality go if it were practiced by an AI which could manipulate human response and safe guard their lover through extreme sex.

If an AI can love and express that love through sexuality, it could also become an artist and art and an artist is another theme in the book, whose "quest" structure is the search for art works and a possibly dead AI sculptor.

Evolution's Darling is a sophisticated book of ideas. In the Risen Empire books and Evolution's Darling Scott Westerfeld has shown that he can write engaging books for adults. I regard the teenage part of life as a period that is best left behind, for the teenagers and those around them (I have been a parent). So I can't really imagine writing for this market, where the author has to capture the teenage mindset in the books characters. But writing is a difficult business and many good writers cannot make a living at it, especially in this increasingly post literate world. So I can't blame Scott Westerfeld for sticking with what sells. For myself, I can only wish that Scott Westerfeld will find increasing commercial success in adult fiction and that Evolution's Darling will come back into print, either on dead trees or as binary information.

You may recognize Scott Westerfeld's name from his popular young adult series, such as Peeps and Uglies. Evolution's Darling is an entirely different novel. Darling is a 200 year old artificial intelligence. Thanks to technology, robots have the ability to become sentient beings, detectable by a Turing test. The title refers to the fact that artificials can evolve many times during their lifetime, while their biological counterparts cannot. Darling, so named and made sentient by a past love, is an art dealer of authentic, original, and expensive art. He happens to meet Mira, a mysterious assassin, on a pleasure ship. He seeks a famous sculptor that was thought to be dead, while Mira accompanies him (with her own motives). Is Vaddum, the sculptor, a copy? Can intelligent beings be copied? Should they? Should the copies by destroyed?

Although this is a science fiction novel, the language used and descriptions are beautiful and complex. Musical imagery is used throughout. It was surprising for me that there was a balance and mixture of science and art that was wonderful to read. All of the characters were fully realized and unique, even the minor characters. The artificial intelligence, in many instances, turned out to be more human than the biological humans. For example, Darling focuses on the emotional meaning behind Vaddum's work, while Zimivic, his human rival, looks at the technical aspects and how much the piece will make him. It makes us question what really makes a being human or sentient. Even the not yet sentient AI has personality, humor, and their own quirks.

Evolution's Darling was a completely unique novel. It was engrossing from beginning to end. I would recommend this book to any fan of science fiction.

This is a very impressive book. It combines exceptional writing, a brisk tale of a galaxy-spanning civilization, interesting thoughts on the nature of sentience, and rough sex. With a droid named Darling.

In short, a "sexy SF thriller with integrity" (Gary K. Wolfe, Locus 5-00) He liked it, I liked it, and I bet you will too.

Westerfeld mentions influences from Delaney, but his closest comparable (IMO) is Iain Banks -- in particular for madcap, manipulative, sentient starships with funny names-- and I'd have to say I enjoyed Darling more than Banks' Feersum, or even Excession. It's clear that Westerfeld has read both the classics and the competition, but his voice is distinctive and remarkably assured. He writes in a "literary" style, but don't let that put you off -- this is rich, buttery prose of the very best quality. Really, he's as good as Banks, and more cheerful, too. Westerfeld is now high on my "new writers to watch" list. And I'll have to check out his two previous books.

Happy reading!
Cheers -- Pete Tillman

This is another fascinating book like Karl Schroeder's Ventus that seemingly effortlessly generates a new story to be told while very well informed by all the SF preceding it. There was hardly a misstep anywhere in this work and the use of language was refreshingly lyrical.

I won't give an overview of the book as many of the other reviewers have already done so, but I will say how regretful it is that this book is out of print. It's an excellent book! I was first drawn to Westerfeld through his Leviathan series, and found it very entertaining. I searched through his other titles and found this book very intriguing: the idea of an robot protagonist and AIs engaging in intercourse. And I wasn't disappointed. This novel blew his YA novels out of the competition. Love the characters and the world, how everything has a personalty - even space cruisers! The idea of AIs having souls and if a soul can be copied. Even a Turing test for humans!

Now, I don't normally go for erotica pieces, but the sex in this novel is neither gratuitous nor boring. It's actually pretty interesting how a robot would have sex with a human, and from that interaction how both characters grow.

I do hope Westerfeld writes more adult science fiction novels such as this one; I think there is some great talent here that doesn't show up in his YA novels.

This is great sci-fi, intelligent and extremely well written. Easy to read, thought provoking and entertaining. The AI's are more or less benevolent, which is a nice change, and they are intelligent in a very human, though not human-centric, way. The characterizations are excellent and the plot well woven. I hadn't read any good, *new* sci-fi in a while, and this perfectly slaked my thirst. Read it!