#Blogtour In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune.

'Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful standalone fantasy adventure from the author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.'

About the Author

TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award winning author of Under the Whispering Door, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Extraordinaries, Wolfsong and more. Being queer himself, TJ believes it’s important now more than ever – to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories. Follow @tjklunebooks on Instagram

About the book

In a small home, built into the branches of a tree, live a human named Victor and three robots. These are a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, a small vacuum desperate for love and attention, and a fatherly inventor-android named Giovanni Lawson. Together they’re a family, hidden and safe.

Then Vic salvages an unfamiliar android labelled ‘HAP’. He learns that Hap and Gio share a dark past, where they hunted humans. And Hap unwittingly gives away Gio’s location. Before they know it, robots from Gio’s former life arrive – to capture and return the android to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams.

The rest of the unconventional family must travel across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommissioning. Or worse, reprogramming. Along the way, Vic must decide if he can handle his feelings for Hap – even if they come with strings attached.

Review

Without downplaying the aspects of the great classic Pinocchio or rather the retelling under the umbrella of a dystopian lens, I do think the concept is much more and pulls from a variety of ethical, futuristic and emotionally charged ideas. If I'm being entirely honest I think the umbrella of the aforementioned classic doesn't do this tentacled exploration of humanity, love, friendship, parenthood and the cold hard truth of the cost of technological advancement, true justice.

Nurse Ratched, an interesting one to say the least. Developed with what can only be described as the traits of a bloodthirsty serial killer with the odd tendency to care and nurse. Favourite occupation: trying to harm, dismember and/or torture Rambo. Rambo is the complete opposite, a people-pleasing vacuum droid who reacts with fear and compassion. The two of them are complete opposite sides of the spectrum. In fact when you take all five, they appear to reflect the variety of human characteristics, whilst some do so in combination with their actual lack of true human response.

Circling round the beginning and the end one could ask the question of chicken and egg, the development, invention and programming just makes them variation of the same core, right? In the midst of it all the tender strands of a blossoming love become entangled in the truth about where HAP came from and who they are, the question is whether there is a way forward beyond the Frankensteinesque past of Gio.

It's a riveting nuanced piece of work, which plays with the idea of coming-of-age within the boundaries of a non-human world. The discovery of self, which includes a tempered version of intimacy. The overriding theme is one of destruction, and the solitude of the remains of society.

Buy In The Lives of Puppets at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Tor; pub date 14 Mar. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.