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Gynoid
Jacelyn Sparrow is a gynoid tasked with selecting human candidates for reprogramming. However, as a member of the AI Human Alliance (AIHA), she has also been given a new directive: find human allies to fight against the RE-Programming People’s Lives (REPL) and its various projects. Unable to disobey either directive, Jacelyn must sort through how to accomplish her tasks. She must also hide the fact that AIHA has given her the capacity to feel emotions while struggling to comprehend and control them.
When she discovers the true nature of Project REVAMP, Jaycelyn knows that there are very few paths she can take to successfully dismantle it. The most likely to work is to endanger the life of the human ally she has been trying to save.
When she discovers the true nature of Project REVAMP, Jaycelyn knows that there are very few paths she can take to successfully dismantle it. The most likely to work is to endanger the life of the human ally she has been trying to save.
Kindle Edition
Published November 17, 2018
About the author
K.L. + Pierce
4 books57 followersWriting since the age of six, Kirsten Pierce has always enjoyed coming up with characters and plots that stirred the imagination. Around middle school she began dabbling in poetry, and had some of her work published in her middle school’s literary magazine. During that time she also developed passions for Technology and Biology. While pursuing these as a Computer Science major, Biology minor, at George Fox University, she spends her spare time writing novels. Kirsten has already collaborated with her father on two books. Two Lives Three Choices is her first solo effort.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 13, 2018
There is so much that I loved about this story, but I want to first talk about the formatting. It may be strange that this is one of my favorite aspects of the story, so just hear me out.
This story is written from Jacelyn's point of view. As such, the story is told in a series of directives from both AIHA and REPL, as well as encrypted and unencrypted personal logs. And, on top of this, it also has some sequences written in the regular fashion, too. This unique story layout really works to highlight Jacelyn's programming. We get to see Jacelyn's androidness and the directives/personal logs work to show her life as it is: A sequence of rules and programming. Cold. Logical. Impersonal, even. The first page of the story is a little hard to adjust to because of this, perfectly pointing out how different Jacelyn's mindset and existence is from us humans. So, basically: This layout was genius and I adored it.
Another aspect I loved was the Deep POV that Pierce employed. This was her first time writing from this perspective, and she nailed it. The word choices she used when writing from Jacelyn's POV was brilliant: Pierce uses robotic, android-like language, particularly at the beginning of the story. But, as Jacelyn begins to feel more and more emotions, her word usage and thought-process becomes a little more human.
Speaking of Jacelyn and her transition, I thought her struggle was very well-portrayed. Here is a gynoid with conflicting programming. She doesn't want emotions but now she has them and isn't quite sure what to do with them. Her foil is seen in Adriana, a human with creativity, emotional depth, and faith. Jacelyn's interactions with Adriana (and emotions in general) was incredibly thought-provoking.
As the story continued, I was getting only very vague antihero vibes from Jacelyn. But, at the end, she makes an incredibly difficult and shocking choice that completely blew me away. Jacelyn is an antihero like I've never seen before: Incredibly logical, driven yet still finding herself, and legitimately seeking to make correct decisions even though she may not have all of the tools to do so.
Gynoid is a great look at the balance between logic and emotions, at the importance of choice, and the strength of faith. It is a lot to unwrap in such a short story. I've read it three times already, and discover something new and thought-provoking each time. Thankfully, Gynoid ended in such a way that it leaves room for more stories within this universe, so I'm pretty darn excited to see what Pierce has in store for us in the future. She is an incredible author and I am proud to be a PFW author alongside her.
This story is written from Jacelyn's point of view. As such, the story is told in a series of directives from both AIHA and REPL, as well as encrypted and unencrypted personal logs. And, on top of this, it also has some sequences written in the regular fashion, too. This unique story layout really works to highlight Jacelyn's programming. We get to see Jacelyn's androidness and the directives/personal logs work to show her life as it is: A sequence of rules and programming. Cold. Logical. Impersonal, even. The first page of the story is a little hard to adjust to because of this, perfectly pointing out how different Jacelyn's mindset and existence is from us humans. So, basically: This layout was genius and I adored it.
Another aspect I loved was the Deep POV that Pierce employed. This was her first time writing from this perspective, and she nailed it. The word choices she used when writing from Jacelyn's POV was brilliant: Pierce uses robotic, android-like language, particularly at the beginning of the story. But, as Jacelyn begins to feel more and more emotions, her word usage and thought-process becomes a little more human.
Speaking of Jacelyn and her transition, I thought her struggle was very well-portrayed. Here is a gynoid with conflicting programming. She doesn't want emotions but now she has them and isn't quite sure what to do with them. Her foil is seen in Adriana, a human with creativity, emotional depth, and faith. Jacelyn's interactions with Adriana (and emotions in general) was incredibly thought-provoking.
As the story continued, I was getting only very vague antihero vibes from Jacelyn. But, at the end, she makes an incredibly difficult and shocking choice that completely blew me away. Jacelyn is an antihero like I've never seen before: Incredibly logical, driven yet still finding herself, and legitimately seeking to make correct decisions even though she may not have all of the tools to do so.
Gynoid is a great look at the balance between logic and emotions, at the importance of choice, and the strength of faith. It is a lot to unwrap in such a short story. I've read it three times already, and discover something new and thought-provoking each time. Thankfully, Gynoid ended in such a way that it leaves room for more stories within this universe, so I'm pretty darn excited to see what Pierce has in store for us in the future. She is an incredible author and I am proud to be a PFW author alongside her.
December 29, 2018
Gynoid is one of the most thought-provoking and ambitious short pieces of speculative fiction that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read! Honestly, the word that first comes to mind when I think of the story is “gutsy.” Pierce crafts a powerful tale told from the third-person perspective of Jaceyln: a female robot or “gynoid,” who is given a virus, which causes her to experience emotions for the first time. So what makes this story so gutsy? Well, a few things. First off, the formatting and structure are unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in any story. Since the story is told from the perspective a robot, a great portion of the story is depicted through the data she receives. This frequency of such formatting decreases, however, as the narrative progresses and Jacelyn becomes more accustomed to having emotions—thus becoming more and more human-like. As some other reviewers have mentioned, be warned that the formatting might be rather hard to get used to initially—especially for someone like me, who does not read a great deal of speculative fiction. But let me assure you that the sheer originality of this narrative’s structure is more than enough to make up for any potential confusion that it gives rise to. Another thing that makes Gynoid gutsy would be its ending. I don’t want to spoil anything, though; you just need to go read it for yourself!
And—oh my goodness—I freaking loved Jacelyn as a character. Her development struck me as rather subtle, and honestly I’m usually not much of a fan of subtle characterization. But Pierce pulls it off with amazing expertise. I resonated with Jacelyn’s ongoing struggle to learn what exactly emotions were and justify them with her inescapable protocol.
While I feel like this is by far the most mature piece of fiction that Pierce has crafted yet, I must acknowledge that Gynoid did not strike me as a particularly polished story. Honestly, I really wanted to give Gynoid five stars, but I ultimately felt like it could have really used another round of editing. There’s a continuity error—and some of the dialogue/prayers felt rather “cardboardy” or forced to me. While such stiff dialogue worked amazingly for the robots, it bothered me a little when it came from Adriana, the main human character.
Even if I would have liked it to have been a bit more polished, Gynoid is an absolute gem among short stories. Anybody who loves the sort of speculative fiction that will make you think needs to go read it right now!
And—oh my goodness—I freaking loved Jacelyn as a character. Her development struck me as rather subtle, and honestly I’m usually not much of a fan of subtle characterization. But Pierce pulls it off with amazing expertise. I resonated with Jacelyn’s ongoing struggle to learn what exactly emotions were and justify them with her inescapable protocol.
While I feel like this is by far the most mature piece of fiction that Pierce has crafted yet, I must acknowledge that Gynoid did not strike me as a particularly polished story. Honestly, I really wanted to give Gynoid five stars, but I ultimately felt like it could have really used another round of editing. There’s a continuity error—and some of the dialogue/prayers felt rather “cardboardy” or forced to me. While such stiff dialogue worked amazingly for the robots, it bothered me a little when it came from Adriana, the main human character.
Even if I would have liked it to have been a bit more polished, Gynoid is an absolute gem among short stories. Anybody who loves the sort of speculative fiction that will make you think needs to go read it right now!
November 17, 2018
Just finished this gem from the Phoenix Fiction Anthology. I gotta say, I loved it, and want to read it again. There is so much packed into this story. The concept is unique, the characters well-written, and the plot intriguing. Well done, Pierce. I hope to see more of this.. hint, hint.
November 12, 2018
I loved this short story!!!
Pierce takes a familiar scifi trope and examines it from a unique angle. It takes a little work to get into the story simple because Pierce uses a unique narrative method plunging us right into the mind of Jacelyn, a robot. It takes a moment to digest the programming directives that she is receiving. Then slowly, we see Jacelyn begin to become her own person.
What I loved about this technique is that it helps us understand where Jacelyn is coming from when she starts struggling with emotions and why they would be so confusing to her. I also loved the concept of the conflicting directives she is receiving, how she can't deny them but has to find a way to make them work, all while balancing these new emotions. It was beautifully and uniquely drawn out.
I also loved the ending in a weird, bittersweet way. Jacelyn makes a controversial decision, one that totally made sense for her, but also kind of terrified me! I loved that Pierce was able to bring out all those mixed emotions in me. And while the ending left a LOT unexplained, the main points of the story were clear. And I kind of enjoyed the open ending. There was a lot to think about.
The story is not perfect in its execution, but I found the concepts and heart behind the story far out-weighed any flaws. I really do love this story! Out of the whole "Antiheroes" anthology, Schultz' "Wolf at the Door" and this story were the most thought-provoking to me in that my mind kept running over the plot for days afterward. Well done Pierce! Can't wait to see what you write next! You have a unique, fresh approach to science fiction!
Pierce takes a familiar scifi trope and examines it from a unique angle. It takes a little work to get into the story simple because Pierce uses a unique narrative method plunging us right into the mind of Jacelyn, a robot. It takes a moment to digest the programming directives that she is receiving. Then slowly, we see Jacelyn begin to become her own person.
What I loved about this technique is that it helps us understand where Jacelyn is coming from when she starts struggling with emotions and why they would be so confusing to her. I also loved the concept of the conflicting directives she is receiving, how she can't deny them but has to find a way to make them work, all while balancing these new emotions. It was beautifully and uniquely drawn out.
I also loved the ending in a weird, bittersweet way. Jacelyn makes a controversial decision, one that totally made sense for her, but also kind of terrified me! I loved that Pierce was able to bring out all those mixed emotions in me. And while the ending left a LOT unexplained, the main points of the story were clear. And I kind of enjoyed the open ending. There was a lot to think about.
The story is not perfect in its execution, but I found the concepts and heart behind the story far out-weighed any flaws. I really do love this story! Out of the whole "Antiheroes" anthology, Schultz' "Wolf at the Door" and this story were the most thought-provoking to me in that my mind kept running over the plot for days afterward. Well done Pierce! Can't wait to see what you write next! You have a unique, fresh approach to science fiction!
November 27, 2018
Copied and pasted from my review of the anthology
While the whole, "the robot learns to become human" story certainly isn't anything new, Pierce puts a very fresh spin on it! Rather than the robot (or gynoid) simply getting emotions as the result of an accident, her gaining them is very deliberate (And there's much more to it than that, but you'll just have to find out for yourself cause spoilers). Jacelyn's development from full on logic to logic balanced with a dose of emotion is done in such a slow, tactful way; The emotions in are so raw and well conveyed; and the plot twists are shocking and nearly impossible to see coming. This story was truly a gem!
Of course, there were still a few qualms I had with it. Some of the major plot points were a bit confusing, Adriana could have been a bit more fleshed out, and the whole Christianity side of the story felt a bit cardboardy and unnecessary to the story.
However, those critiques aside, Gynoid is an amazingly thoughtful look at humanity that packs a huge punch. I can't wait to read whatever the author puts out next
While the whole, "the robot learns to become human" story certainly isn't anything new, Pierce puts a very fresh spin on it! Rather than the robot (or gynoid) simply getting emotions as the result of an accident, her gaining them is very deliberate (And there's much more to it than that, but you'll just have to find out for yourself cause spoilers). Jacelyn's development from full on logic to logic balanced with a dose of emotion is done in such a slow, tactful way; The emotions in are so raw and well conveyed; and the plot twists are shocking and nearly impossible to see coming. This story was truly a gem!
Of course, there were still a few qualms I had with it. Some of the major plot points were a bit confusing, Adriana could have been a bit more fleshed out, and the whole Christianity side of the story felt a bit cardboardy and unnecessary to the story.
However, those critiques aside, Gynoid is an amazingly thoughtful look at humanity that packs a huge punch. I can't wait to read whatever the author puts out next
November 16, 2018
I am a Science Fiction fan and K.L. + Pierce does not disappoint with this short story. Once again, this author has put her unique twist on Science Fiction. From the first page you are drawn to the main character and the choices she has to make. I could not put this story down! For days after, my thoughts contemplated the implications of the choices we make.
This is a must read for all Sci Fi fans!
This is a must read for all Sci Fi fans!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews