NEW SCIENCE
FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of
Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
June 8, 2017
Patterson Writes
Silly SF
A Review of
James Patterson and Emily Raymond Humans, Bow Down (Little, Brown, & Co., 2017)
373 pp $12.99
ISBN: 978-0-316-34696-2
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
James Patterson is not only one of our
nation’s most prolific authors, he also writes in many different genres. I believe that the book under review here is
the first silly science fiction he has written. Unlike hard science fiction, it is permissible
for silly sf and sf opera to be lacking in verisimilitude. In this particular story the supposed robots,
unlike real robots, are depicted as though they possessed human desires, in
particular the desire to be despotic rulers.
In hard sf, such as those in the books in Isaac Asimov’s Galactic-Empire/Foundation-Universe
series, there is no such danger; rather, the danger is for man to become overly
dependent upon robots, i.e. to become robot-addicts! Patterson’s story is great for fun reading,
but Asimov’s stories show us what we really need to worry about in regard to
robots! Realistically, therefore, there is no need to
worry about a robot-run dystopia; the dystopia we DO need to worry about is one
about over-dependency upon robots! But
if you want some humor, read Patterson’s book!
