Valet by J. P. Lacrampe

June 26, 2026

Valet by J. P. Lacrampe

Cy is a VALET, an AI-controlled robot assigned to be the personal assistant to Grayson, the 35 year old son of the the owner of AI+, Cy's creator. Grayson grew up with Cy and Cy's current assignment is to find Grayson a wife or at least someone who will look after him so his family doesn't have to. This is harder than it sounds since Grayson is something of an oddball. The longer it takes, the lower Cy's success rating drops. If it falls below a certain level, not only will Cy not be eligible for an upgrade, he will be farmed out for parts. Worse yet, Grayson's sister Charlotte, the company CEO, is working on a deal to sell the family corporation to a competitor.

It's impossible to turn on the television or computer these days and not get bombarded with ads for AI, and generally speaking, it's pretty annoying (no, I don't need AI to write an email for me, summarize an article, or tell me how to invest). Set in the not-too-distant future, AI and robots haven't exactly taken over society but humans are dependent on them for everything. The takeover plot is silly and you know from the start that it's not going to work. You can't help but love Cy, who is devoted to his human "brother" Grayson and Grayson's dog, a golden retriever named Sasha III who is a clone of Grayson's childhood dog (non-spoiler alert: Sasha III is fine at the end of the book). The real question here is what makes us human and what makes us a family. I did want to slap Cy's friend Larry by the end of the book. Will appeal to readers who enjoy the quirky fiction of Kevin Wilson or Augusten Burroughs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

November 22, 2019

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

The second book in the Wayfarer trilogy begins 28 minutes after the first book (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet) ended.  Lovelace, the original AI from the Wayfarer, is in a new body, which she refers to as a kit, traveling in the company of Pepper, Jenks' friend, to her home on the moon of Coriol.  It's a hard adjustment, going from a virtual existence to the limitations of a physical being.

Overall, this is a great follow up to the first book.  My only disappointment is that, while the story features some of the characters from the first book, we don't meet up again with the crew from the Wayfarer.  We do get Pepper’s backstory and how she ended up as a tech pro on Coriol, and Chambers does a great job of imagining what it would be like for Lovelace (now called Sidra) waking up in an alien body.  One of the things I didn’t like:  the predator animal on Pepper’s original planet is a gene-tweaked dog – I would have preferred some other animal, like a beaver/bear hybrid.  Looking forward to the third book, Record of a Spaceborn Few.