Titus G wrote:

Moriarty wrote:
snip

This is amusing in some ways. For instance, Klara is solar powered: to >>recharge she simply has to stand in direct sunlight. It never occurs to

her that this is not how other beings - such as humans - get their
energy. Klara's relationship with the sun is a major plotpoint and the >>source of the title.

There was a short story I vaguely remember in which the whole population >>was powered this way and there was competition to spend time in the sun >>resulting in a hierarchy of control and conflict.

In summary: I really enjoyed this book and I shall read more Ishiguro. >>"Never Let Me Go" seems to be another SF offering from him, so I'll

track it down.

Whilst "Never Let Me Go" was alright, I far preferred "The Remains of
the Day". Far more engrossing for me. I have not read Klara...

In "Schlock Mercenary" there is a subspecies of human modfied (for some reason..) to include chlorophyl in their epidermis. It turns out they
can't completely subsist on sunlight (and water presumably), but being
in the sun too much makes them fat.

(Mild spoilers only)

This book was a Christmas gift from one of daughters. Now aged 23, over
the years she has recommended I read the following list of excellent
books:

Holes - Louis Sachar
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
Fan Girl - Rainbow Rowell

She hasn't got a 100% success rate as she also recommended Twilight. As >Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I could at least
console myself that it would be well-written, even if I didn't like it.

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. One thing I really liked about it was that
it was very much "show, don't tell". Ishiguro takes that maxim and dials
it up to 11.

The novel is written in first person POV by Klara, whose full name is
Girl AF Klara. The back cover blurb told me that AF stands for
"artificial friend" and I don't think it's ever explained in the text
itself. Klara has no need to spell it out and so we, the readers, aren't
told either, although it is fairly obvious from early on that Klara is
an AI.

Other oddities like that crop up two. Klara talks about seeing "boxes"
and I initially has no idea what she meant until about page 100 when I
read:

"The Mother leaned closer over the tabletop and her eyes narrowed till
her face filled eight boxes, leaving only the peripheral boxes for the >waterfall, and for a moment it felt to me her expression varied between
one box and the next."

It then occurred to me that Klara's vision was some sort of limited >resolution input arrangement. This was never verified because Klara had
no reason to comment on her software/hardware, but I think I'm right.
Another author would have put in an explanatory sentence, something
along the lines of "I'd heard at the shop that the new Series 4 AFs were >supposed to come with enhanced visual sensory equipment." But Ishiguro >doesn't do that.

That can make it a frustrating, but rewarding, read. Another are where
we, the readers, are left to hypothesize with limited data is the nature
of the society itself.

For instance, AFs had been developed because children are raised in
isolation from one another. But Klara never had reason to ever wonder
why this was the case, it simply was.

Similarly, some children are "lifted". It's clear from context that this
is some sort of genetic enhancement, but why or how, no explanation is >forthcoming. Klara never has any reason to question how the world works,
she simply observes and accepts it.

This is amusing in some ways. For instance, Klara is solar powered: to >recharge she simply has to stand in direct sunlight. It never occurs to
her that this is not how other beings - such as humans - get their
energy. Klara's relationship with the sun is a major plotpoint and the
source of the title.

The society is described at goodreads as "dystopian", but I don't agree.
It was certainly different and there was a sub-class of "have nots" who >seemed, based on Klara's limited observations, to be those whose jobs
had been taken over by AIs. I don't think that makes it dystopian,
merely realistic.

In summary: I really enjoyed this book and I shall read more Ishiguro.
"Never Let Me Go" seems to be another SF offering from him, so I'll
track it down.

-Moriarty

The novel is written in first person POV by Klara, whose full name is
Girl AF Klara. The back cover blurb told me that AF stands for
"artificial friend" and I don't think it's ever explained in the text
itself. Klara has no need to spell it out and so we, the readers, aren't
told either, although it is fairly obvious from early on that Klara is
an AI.