The Alchemy of Stone (Audible Audio Edition) Ekaterina Sedia Eileen Stevens Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The Alchemy of Stone (Audible Audio Edition) Ekaterina Sedia Eileen Stevens Audible Studios Books
Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart - literally.
The Alchemy of Stone (Audible Audio Edition) Ekaterina Sedia Eileen Stevens Audible Studios Books
The attributes of robots that are usually emphasized in fiction are super-human strength, speed and intelligence. That’s why it is curious to find a story that exposes the fragility of machines and their reliance on humans for maintenance.The Alchemy of Stone is set in a steampunk city on the brink of a civil war, and divided between past and future, poor and rich, science and magic, represented by the factions of the Mechanics and Alchemists. The protagonist Mattie is an emancipated robot that works as a alchemist, so she is truly divided between these worlds of science and magic.
Although Mattie is emancipated, her creator still insists in holding the key to her heart, and she needs him to literally wind her up like a clock, as well undergo minor repairs, like when she breaks her porcelain face, loses an eye, etc. It reminded me of a destructive relationship that the victimized party can’t seem to escape.
The problem I had with the book is that I had a deep antipathy towards the heroine, who was a bit of a drama queen for my tastes. All the human struggle was lost to me as the omniscient narrator got into looong rambling about what the lady felt or didn’t feel. Things got worse when Mattie got involved with a renegade mechanic. A love that culminates in one of the most bizarre sex scenes I have read, as the romantic interest circled with his tongue her – in this case very literal – keyhole.
The book does bring some very interesting ideas in the world creation front. Several fantasy elements are thrown into the steampunk setting. The city is guarded by living gargoyles that are turning to stone because of a plague, and their monologues bring a sense of decadence, sadness and end of a culture. A very interesting character is a smoker of souls who inhales the spirits that haunt the living, but got addicted to opium to try and endure the endless talking of the dead inside him.
The book also ends kind of abruptly, perhaps because I was more interested in the political maneuvers of the background than with Mattie’s story itself. Baring the chick lit tone that didn’t appeal to me, I enjoyed very much the setting and how the book emphasizes the frailty of an automata instead of bringing another super-robot.
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The Alchemy of Stone (Audible Audio Edition) Ekaterina Sedia Eileen Stevens Audible Studios Books Reviews
This story engaged me from the first paragraph all the way through to the last. It sucked me in, and I found myself wanting to read more.
I liked the main character, the automaton Mattie, but from the get-go, I either disliked or was ambivalent toward most of the other characters with the exception of Niobe and the soul-smoker.
With only one exception that I can think of, all the other characters in the book only wanted to use Mattie to further their own selfish goals. The gargoyles wanted her to find a cure for their affliction. Iolanda wanted Mattie's access to Loharri. Loharri created Mattie and wanted her to be a combination (sex) toy/companion/housekeeper. The soul smoker wanted her around because she was the only one he could talk to given that she was immune to the effects of his "profession." Beresta's ghost wanted Mattie to find her son, Sebastian. Niobe befriended Mattie because she was the only one who would talk to her, and then used her knowledge to gain favor with Iolanda.
Only Sebastian seemed to want nothing from Mattie, but he was disturbed or perhaps disgusted by what she wanted to give to him, and was driven away.
Mattie's emancipation was a cruel joke. She was emancipated in name only, but still remained a mere tool to be used by everyone in her life. Perhaps the cruelest twist of all was that her programming required her to return to her creator periodically even though she came to despise him.
In the end, Mattie got nothing in return for all that she did except for the gargoyles' (futile) attempts to find her key so she could be revived. But revived for what?
I'm sure I could go on about the metaphors, blatant and not, that are explored in this book. But I won't, because that's not why I enjoyed it.
As I said, I very much enjoyed the book in spite of what sounds like a very negative review above. The writing is very good, and I thought the world in which the story took place was interesting enough that I'd like to see more of it, but perhaps this microcosmic view is all we should see.
Because the story wasn't about plot/events. It wasn't about settings. It was about Mattie. And I liked her character. A lot.
I was at first disappointed by the ending, but now that I reflect on it, I'm glad Sedia didn't pander to the readers who only want 'happy' endings. The way this book ended was far more realistic, in my opinion, especially given the tone of the rest of the story. Sometimes, you don't get what you want OR what you need.
I couldn't care less about the politics or the other events that are going on in the background of the story. In that respect, this book reminds me a small bit of the movie "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," in which two minor characters from Hamlet wander around for our amusement while "Hamlet" takes place in the background. In the big picture of the political upheavals and the revolution going on, Mattie is a tiny speck of insignificance. But by focusing on her life and having her take center stage, Sedia relegates the important world events to mere background window dressing.
And I kind of like that. )
This story will stick with me for a long time, I believe.
The Alchemy of Stone is more fantasy than sci-fi and may not appeal to hard-core sci-fi readers. I didn't find the luddite rebellion, proletariat uprising, or the conflict between the alchemists and Mechanics especially engaging. For me the story is all about Mattie, the female automaton who (yes she is a who) seeks full autonomy, that is, to be human. Mattie is especially captivating as a mechanical girl who is more humane than most humans. I was less interested in how the social conflicts that surround her are resolved than in her quest for autonomy. She is an extremely sympathetic character. In addition, the story is very poetically written, reminiscent of stories written by Ursula K. Le Guin.
If you are looking for another feminist story that is more sci-fi than fantasy, one that is lively, dark but not bleakly so, and offers provocative insights into AIs and robots (good, terrifying, and infuriating), then I recommend Frank Kyle's newly published post-apocalyptic novel Her Quest (Her Quest). It’s a story about a young girl, Elen, who lives in a society managed by an AI called Computer and its remotes. Like Mattie, Elen seeks freedom, but she is also on a quest for knowledge. She is not a robot but there are plenty of robots in the story. Today there is a lot of talk about how we should fear artificial intelligence. One of the themes of the novel is that human intelligence hasn’t done such a great job. (In the Alchemy of Stone Mattie seems wiser than most humans.) What Computer does that humans fail to do is to take the best and most humane ideas that humans have come up with and use those ideas to manage Usatopia. To Computer, not to follow those ideas is illogical.
The attributes of robots that are usually emphasized in fiction are super-human strength, speed and intelligence. That’s why it is curious to find a story that exposes the fragility of machines and their reliance on humans for maintenance.
The Alchemy of Stone is set in a steampunk city on the brink of a civil war, and divided between past and future, poor and rich, science and magic, represented by the factions of the Mechanics and Alchemists. The protagonist Mattie is an emancipated robot that works as a alchemist, so she is truly divided between these worlds of science and magic.
Although Mattie is emancipated, her creator still insists in holding the key to her heart, and she needs him to literally wind her up like a clock, as well undergo minor repairs, like when she breaks her porcelain face, loses an eye, etc. It reminded me of a destructive relationship that the victimized party can’t seem to escape.
The problem I had with the book is that I had a deep antipathy towards the heroine, who was a bit of a drama queen for my tastes. All the human struggle was lost to me as the omniscient narrator got into looong rambling about what the lady felt or didn’t feel. Things got worse when Mattie got involved with a renegade mechanic. A love that culminates in one of the most bizarre sex scenes I have read, as the romantic interest circled with his tongue her – in this case very literal – keyhole.
The book does bring some very interesting ideas in the world creation front. Several fantasy elements are thrown into the steampunk setting. The city is guarded by living gargoyles that are turning to stone because of a plague, and their monologues bring a sense of decadence, sadness and end of a culture. A very interesting character is a smoker of souls who inhales the spirits that haunt the living, but got addicted to opium to try and endure the endless talking of the dead inside him.
The book also ends kind of abruptly, perhaps because I was more interested in the political maneuvers of the background than with Mattie’s story itself. Baring the chick lit tone that didn’t appeal to me, I enjoyed very much the setting and how the book emphasizes the frailty of an automata instead of bringing another super-robot.
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