2 Books Like All Through the Night

I came across this book by accident when I was researching the life of an amateur astronomer called George Denton Hirst and heard that his family, mainly his parents, are mentioned in this book.

Finding this book was an unexpected pleasure. Rachel Henning was an Englishwoman who first sailed to Australia in 1854 at the age of 28 to join her brother, who had arrived a year earlier. After a short return trip home, she settled in Australia permanently. In her letters to her sister back in England, she not only describes society life in Sydney, the main city, but mainly the difficult existence on her brother's various sheep stations. Rachel writes well and reading her fascinating depictions of the people and happenings around her, reminded me of reading a Jane Austen novel.

A badass woman whose not quite a woman. I was absorbed in this speculative sci-fi tale. It’s an easy and quick read yet the characters are well enough developed that I became furious on the protagonist’s behalf. I liked that it had me asking many questions on the grey moral landscape that is robotics and artificial intelligence. 

I found the protagonist relatable in spite of the fact she wasn’t human. She was programmed to please a man, yet discovered a form of self-actualization through reading. Her growth as a character was refreshing and I was rooting for her the whole way. Under a desert sky as sweat trickled down my back, I couldn’t move, I had to keep reading.