Books like The Bicentennial Man — picked by fans

Adam is a limited edition robot who can pass for human (something I can’t do on a bad day). It takes a while for Adam to learn to be part of that world, but as time passes, he moves from being the slave of his owner Charlie to being better than him in every way (just ask his girlfriend!). I kept thinking of what would it be like to have a better version of me hanging around the house. It took slaves a long time to be recognized as people, how long for the robots?

I bought this book because of the great write-ups about it. The author won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this was his first book following that award, so for me, it was recommended as soon as the author won the award.

It's a great read and has filled me with a mixture of emotions, so it will be interesting to see how you feel after reading it. For me personally, it's a book to study and learn from, as there is always room for learning in any career you decide to do.

It fascinated me because Klara is an 'Artificial Friend', which ties in with my research and interests in Artificial Intelligence.

I love Arthur C. Clarke’s work. A fantastic story about artificial intelligence and how man can be manipulated by it.

What amazed me was how a computer named HAL could disobey a human command. The film version of 2001 was made with both director Kubrick and Clarke involved. The original idea came from a short story written by Clarke, titled "Sentinel."

To me, this partnership worked well, but it is an unusual project that produced an iconic book and movie at the same time. Like all of Clarke's works, it is a book to keep on the shelf so it can be read whenever you need to experience sci-fi at its best.

I came to the books late, inoculated by the 2004 – 2009 TV series with slightly off-key costumes and the idea of a tribe of people looking for their cousins on earth. I like the mind games between the Cylons and the humans at the pinnacle when some of the humans are actually robots but programmed not to know it. I felt a bit of a letdown when the best characters turned out to be the bad guys. The boundaries between the two “species” are both clearly defined and indistinguishable at the same time (Schrodinger’s robot?). I loved it as the “skin jobs” finally worked out what they really were and reveled in the opportunities for chaos and conflict.

As a lifelong reader of travel literature, this collection of essays was a real eye-opener.

Each chapter features a different writer, whether it’s about how Thoreau truly felt about living in the wilderness or Summerset Maugham’s traveling companion, Theroux delves deep into what made these people tick—what drove them to travel as much as why they wrote.

The collection made their work more understandable and made the writers seem more human.

When I was in graduate school, I watched the movie Awakenings with Robin Williams playing the role of Dr. Oliver Sacks. Having really enjoyed the movie, I went to a bookstore and picked this book up and could not put it down.

Sacks, more than any author I have read, captures the perspectives, struggles, triumphs, feelings, and diversity of people dealing with various psychological and neurological conditions.

At the time, studying psychology, I was reading books, listening to lectures, and watching videos about effective listening practices. Sacks made me understand seeing the person—observing and identifying subtleties, idiosyncrasies, and proclivities—was part of being an effective observer and that listening was only possible if we use our eyes as well. 

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.

I love this novel. I read it well after my own came out, but the strong, badass, stoic female main character reminded me a lot of Delia from What Branches Grow (despite Brittle being a robot). The often dark and gritty scenes interspersed with moments of emotion and laugh-out-loud absurd humour turned a story that could have been depressing into one that was a helluva lot of fun. The raiders in this novel also fit the trope in the same homage to Mad Max/Fallout that mine do in What Branches Grow, albeit in a way I didn’t expect. The novel is also a quest through the wasteland with a ragtag group that culminates in a final battle, which is a similar trajectory to my novel (and a plotfline in this genre I very much enjoy).

Ruby hates robots and artificial intelligence. She desperately wants to join an expedition to the outer reaches of the solar system, where humans do the work, rather than computers. But she’s still too young and needs to finish her degree. Determined to make her own fate, she sets off to join, but of course, she’s abducted by space-faring robots with some very strange flaws…

A really fun book, with robots that are all too human, and an endearing main character. 

I love books that are clever, imaginative, and portray a particular person or character as the main theme. This book does it for me.

The character is a murderer robot, but I came to like him and his weird but insightful perspective. I could see his world through his eyes. I felt sorry for him by the end of the book and was rooting for him. That was great.

I always like a bit of technology thrown in, but not have it be the main story or too complicated that it gets in the way of the characters. The writing was especially good, and I found myself turning page after page, engrossed in the story.