Bindery Books
424 Pages
Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so different from anything I’ve read that it just sticks out in my mind. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove is one of those books. They say that there are no new ideas under the sun when it comes to plots, only different characters and settings. This book, however, seems to twist genres together to deliver a new masterpiece. This one just about jumped off the shelves at the Lockport Public Library into my hands.
The main character of this book is Demeter, a self aware artificial intelligence that runs a transport ship between planets. Her passengers keep dying, which could mean that she’ll be reprogrammed. She does not want that. She must team up with some of her own AI minions as well as some unmentionable monsters to find out what’s knocking off her passengers. Revenge is not a part of Demeter’s programming, but she's ready to give it a try. She must stop an ancient monster.
This novel is part science-fiction with a big dose of 1950s horror and murder mystery mixed in. It is a blending that seems on the surface to be tenuous. However, Truelove masters this quite ably. This book is unique in so many ways. Near the beginning, I thought I had the whole thing figured out. How wrong I was. This novel has many levels, and each one melds into the others, while at the same time throwing feints at the readers.
The relationships between the characters, both natural and artificial, are a study in what friendship really means. You don’t always have to agree with each other, but you can still be friends. This is showcased perfectly between Demeter and her medical AI. Although they are artificial, they are examples of friends that we have in our everyday lives. Lately, it seems that we have an “all or none” attitude when it comes to people we associate with. We will never agree completely with someone else. That idea has been lost. Truelove revisits that with this book, reminding us that, yes, we are allowed to disagree. Sometimes, it’s even needed.
I had a lot of fun reading Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove. It was so different than most things I read. I found that refreshing, as refreshing as I found her approach to this mixing of genres. There were moments where I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I had to re-read earlier pages to make sure I didn’t miss anything. There were moments that made me laugh and moments that made my heart start to race. It was just about perfect. I couldn’t get enough of this book.
Craig Bacon wants to write a sweeping epic that is satirical, lyrical, and poignant all at the same time.