Quick Book Review: The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke (DNF)
February 15, 2013 9 Comments
This book sounded just the thing for me: an SF story about artificial intelligence and how close it can get to human intelligence. Unfortunately, I could not get into the story, so I abandoned the book after I read about a quarter of it.
In a new future, Cat, a young girl, is given a robot as a tutor. He was build to look like a human and adapted by her father, a cybernetic scientist. At first, she doesn’t realise he’s not human, and really, it doesn’t matter, she loves him.
As she gets older and develops love affairs with boys and men, she can’t forget about Finn, the robot, who is still living at her parent’s house. But his love for her is programmed and not real.
There are hints of a Disaster in the past, after which a new, high-tech society has been created. But not everyone is keen on technology which they claim caused the Disaster in the first place. They frown upon the existence of robots such as Finn.
The story felt like a YA story, although it is not meant to be one. The writing is not very demanding and there is just the single storyline (I’m not saying all YA is like that, but it’s maybe more likely to be like that than adult books).
I didn’t find the story very engaging or exciting. It’s a kind of and-then/and-then story, very linear. It also skips years very abruptly at times, moving from one period in Cat’s life to another one.
I would have loved to know more about the society they were living in, the Disaster and the anti-automaton movement. Maybe this was further explained later on in the story. In the part I read, I found that kind of information rather sparse. Instead, the book focused mainly on Cat and her boyfriends, and of course, Finn. It felt more like a love story than a more general science fiction story.
This was obviously not the book for me, so I gave up after 110 pages.
Rating: No rating, did not finish the book
Number of pages: 416 (read to page 110)
First published: 2013, February 7th
I got this: from the publishers via Netgalley (ebook)
Genre: science fiction
About Judith
Leeswammes' Blog 
I hate it when a book not only misses expectations but I feel a desire to step away. Sorry it didn’t work out but good for you for letting yourself not finish. Why force yourself to read something, take the time from life… that you don’t enjoy.
Definitely, Mari. I know there are so many good books around, I won’t want to be stuck in one that I don’t enjoy!
Sorry you didn’t like this one Judith. I agree with the above comment. There are too many great books out there to spend much time with the not-so-great ones 🙂
Indeed, Jennifer. Still, it’s a pity. I had good hopes for the book.
Sorry you didn’t like this book. I’ve done this with a few books – stopped reading them
Mel, I think it’s better to stop than read on when you’re not liking a book.
This sounds so interesting but yours is not the first negative review of it I’ve read so think I will be giving it a wide berth!
This is a book I’m interested in reading but it’s not at the top of my list. Sorry to hear you didn’t like it.
Good premise, but when you said “and then and then”, your giving up made a lot of sense. Still, you reviewed what you read and it was interesting to read that.