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    The Machine
    The Machine
    The Machine
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Machine

    Written by James Smythe

    Narrated by Emma Gregory

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award 2014, this is a Frankenstein tale for our time from one of the UK’s brightest new literary talents.

    Vic returned from war tormented by his nightmares. His once happy marriage to Beth all but disintegrated. A machine promised salvation, purging him of all memory.

    Now the machines are gone, declared too controversial, the side-effects too harmful. But within Beth’s flat is an ever-whirring black box. She knows that memories can be put back and that she can rebuild her husband piece by piece.

    A Frankenstein tale for the 21st century, The Machine is a story of the indelibility of memory, the human cost of science and the horrors of love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 10, 2017
    ISBN9780008223229
    Author

    James Smythe

    James Smythe has written scripts for a number of video games, and teaches creative writing in London. His previous novel was The Explorer.

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    Reviews for The Machine

    3.5/5

    42 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is a dystopian novel. Beth, the main character, has lost her husband. Something happened in the war and now he is a vegetable. She seizes on an idea to restore him. She buys a Machine on the black market that will restore his memory bit by bit. Laura, her fellow teacher, warns her against playing God. The novel has a Frankenstein overtone. Is the Machine the monster or is Vic, the husband she is restoring, the monster? The story wrestles with various themes: what is intelligence? can you just restore the good memories? are you human if that is all that is restored are your good memories? what if the person restored cannot control his impulses? The writer writes in the first person and does not put quotes around dialogue which is disconcerting. The book has a surprise ending which is suggested earlier on. The book takes place in a dystopian future in England after a war. For unexplained reasons the weather is hot and uncomfortable due to some unfortunate climate changes. Since "Beth" is the book, the main question for the reader is do you identify with Beth. Would you have attempted to rescue Vic? Would you play God like Beth in order to rescue your loved one? Perhaps one major criticism I have is Laura, her antagonist, seems to be a stock Christian character and not well-developed. The Machine is actually more well-developed than Laura.
    • 4/5
      Beth wants her marriage and husband back. Returned from war mentally damaged, she agrees to let the Machine heal him by purging his memory of the horrors of his experience in the war. Complicit in the treatment he now remains in a home for those left in a 'vacant' state following the treatment. Machines were scrapped following the controversy of the side effects after use. Beth has a plan and buys an Machine illegally to restore Vic her husband.

      I like how Smythe has set this story on the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth because it brings a realism to the tale as I know both areas well.

      This is a complex book written in simple layers using language that makes you think about its meaning. It questions the mind and memory, it brings a fear of the future and how in creating 'healthy' minds danger of what could be created instead.

      At first I was eager to rush and read the story, but Beth draws you into her world slows you down and then I wanted to explore the tale more thoroughly.

      The environment, society and personalities are depicted in such a plausible manner that I could almost feel the tiredness of such heat and the hopelessness of daily life.
      Smythe gives lines that are simply perfect such as the school trip with reluctant teachers and pupils to:
      "the Barrage Exhibition Centre, built in what used to be an art museum above a McDonald's"
      This is such a brilliant line. (There is a real Museum of Communism which is next door to a casino and above a McDonald's in Prague that I have visited!)

      I can completely identify with Smythe's vision of the future and his irony.

      The final chapter of the book is a surprise and worth the read.

      I would recommend this book as an excellent read, one which will leave questions in your mind after you put it down.