Disappointed

The narration made this one hard for me to assess. While the narrator’s voice was pleasant, her cadence was completely off and she emphasized the wrong word in almost every sentence. It’s possible that was deliberately done to reflect the AF’s non-human-ness, but I found it so off-putting it was all I could do to get it the end of the recording. This was compounded by the inconsistent English accent for two of the characters.

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9 people found this helpful

Careful... Spoilers ahead

The first half of the book had so much potential by exploring the world from the perspective of an AI Humanoid Doll thing; the Artificial Friend or AF. I quite enjoyed the learning journey from the perspective of a new "life" form and how it tried to understand how the world worked and how people interacted with one another. But it kind of stalls out and the AF doesn't really make any profound discoveries. The naiveté of the AF is interesting enough, but no lessons were learned. I found the religious undertones to be disappointing; the idea of faith (in The Sun = A God) and personal sacrifice (the AF gives up some of her life giving fluids) and unwavering devotion will allow for miracles (the real life friend is saved when The Sun is allowed to save her). It all kind of made me sick to my stomach really. I was hoping for something more real, something grittier. An understanding that life isn't fair, and that worshipping a God, or Sun, and making sacrifices in the name of that God isn't the answer. But according to this book, it is. At least it comes across that way.

The moral of Klara and the Sun; sacrifice to your god, and your god will perform miracles to save your friends.

Hated it.

The performance was mostly alright but the character voices were sometimes hard to distinguish and was confusing at times. The off kilter vocabulary of the AF got tired after a while though. The AF was supposed to learn as it interacted and it seemed to be just as naïve in the entry as it is at the end when it slowly fades away.

There are plenty of other flaws in the story. Characters and locations are somewhat random and meaningless at times. And the story doesn't explore at any great length the hinted at components and aspects of a future society with AI and genetic manipulations and a marginalization of the poor as they are replaced by AI entities. Lots of allusions to a potential rebellion, and a new type of Class based worth but nothing really explored.

2 stars for the story because the idea was interesting, it just didn't go anywhere, or rather, where it did go was so disappointing.

1 star for overall because of the huge letdown at the end.

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6 people found this helpful

disappointing

The story has a very interesting premise, but the story strains credibility in many ways. When a robot is supposedly renowned for the ability to learn and adapt very quickly, so much so that someone could consider having it replace a real person, yet it continues to refer to phones as oblongs...and living rooms as 'the open plan'...despite living with family members and surely hearing the correct names for things, it seems very odd. The AF remained too child-like and robotic for the story to really hang together.

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5 people found this helpful

A modern masterpiece

Loved the new Ishiguro novel “Klara and the Sun”. The mood is very similar to “Never Let me Go” which is also an excellent book but somehow more refined and lovely. Five Star Plus+

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4 people found this helpful

an exceptional piece of fiction

A profound, sophisticated, and truly moving masterpiece. Excellently performed. A tour de force that has second listen written all over it

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2 people found this helpful

You're Going To Love Klara

January 2022 | 4/5
The title that showed up on more best reads of the year lists in 2021, stars an artificial friend named Klara.

A robot that observes humans in an effort to provide their human friend with everything they could ever need.
Klara is adopted into a family that has lost one child, and is to be the AF of the families other sick child, Josie. Through the eyes of Klara we learn about love, loss, and what it means to be human.

Klara (and I assume the other AFs) worship the sun that gives them their power. So when Josie's condition worsens, Klara sets out to ask the sun for help.

Fast forward and we meet Klara again, in a landfill, no longer able to move but still in the sun's light. And the owner of the shop she was purchased from visits for chat.
This book was deep. And lovely. And innocent. And beautiful.

This is my first Ishiguro, but I've read that it would be better to start with a more popular title.

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1 person found this helpful

Passable

It was fairly good, but simultaneously lacked any significant tension, and I wasnt really drawn in by the characters.

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1 person found this helpful

A beautiful, poignant story.

Klara and the Sun invites you to reflect on many things. The role of technology in our society, what it means to care, and the power of belief.

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Klara and the Sum being Less than its Parts

- there’s so, so much filler. This story could’ve easily been a short story, but instead dialogue repeats ideas over and over again, and then has scenes repeat them over and over until you start to wonder if the author thinks you’re stupid or something.

- the dialogue is awkward and, though the characters are meant to be English speakers, one even from English, their syntax is very Japanese and isn’t how a native speaker would communicate. It’s like a poorly translated manga, relying on filler words and odd structure that lacks depth or subtext. So much of it is “Is that so? I see! As you know…” That could work for a robot, but all the characters speak in this repetitive, boring and unnatural way.

- Dull, dull, dull.

- I like the central premise of a robot who creates a religion and tries to influence the world through that, rather than her assigned role. But that premise isn’t really explored, and Klara has no arc or introspection on that topic. She never faces a real challenge nor price for her beliefs, not even skepticism. At one point she has to give something up to achieve what she believes in. I kept waiting for that sacrifice to really hit her and cause a domino effect that would lead into some interesting problems, but all she gets is a little light-headed, despite the big deal made about it.

- the voice does a great job, but reading such dull, repetitive text as slowly as she does makes it even worse. She also gives Josie a very dislikeable voice, which I assumed had something to do with where the character would go - but no, you’re meant to really like and invest in a kid with a valley mean girl accent. It’s not a bad choice, considering there was initially some tension there, but it’s still an unpleasant sound that kept me at arm’s length from her.

All in all, one of the worst reads I’ve had all year.

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Could be so much more

There’s good ideas, characters, plot point, story, development…and yet it seems to lead nowhere, nothing happens, nothing concludes, nothing astonishes… it was good but I don’t understand what I read. Could have been so much more

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