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frend, by Jonathan R Miller
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After suffering a traumatic event that lands her in the hospital, Anomie makes a decision:
She’s finished with the human race.
At the urging of a stranger, Anomie volunteers for a series of surgical procedures to replace most of her natural, organic body with powered prosthetics — transforming her into something decidedly different, a human-machine hybrid — in the hopes of joining the Frend Program, an unusual matchmaking service that provides hybrid companions for a group of software-based beings known as the Lumen.
As Anomie delves deeper into her new life as a Frend, she encounters a group of humans dedicated to destroying the Lumen, and when the group’s charismatic leader recruits her to join their cause, Anomie finds herself caught between worlds, embroiled in a conflict between two opposing forces, as she struggles to unravel a mystery that cuts to the heart of her identity, her nature, and the true extent of her capabilities.
At once thrilling and moving, thoughtful and quirky, Frend is a story of transformation, the unceasing drive to belong, and the struggle to liberate oneself from oppression, both internal and external. Frend explores themes such as forgiveness, race relations, survivor’s guilt, recovery from trauma, and what it means to count oneself as a member of humanity.
- Sales Rank: #2648341 in Books
- Published on: 2014-10-10
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .58" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
Review
"Miller's skillful economy of language and penchant for playing the cards close to the vest -- or chest plate -- works to his advantage as the tale picks up momentum/mayhem and puts an intriguing, nonstereotyped lead character through pitfalls and deadly perils of parahumanity. Ghost in the Shell fans will have a blast." - Kirkus Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A great sci-fi novel exploring the limits of humanity...
By Jem
*I received my ARC copy of "frend" from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program. I was in no way compensated for or coerced into writing a review, good or otherwise, based on its cost of nothing to me. Honestly, it's just not in my nature to give a book five stars only because I've borrowed or stolen it from friends and family, it has to earn its rating regardless of price.*
It may seem, based on my shelves at Goodreads, that I'm an indiscriminate sci-fi reader. While that's true in the sense that I'll try nearly anything in the science fiction genre, when it comes to rating or reviewing a book, I can be very hard to please, depending on what I'm looking for at the time. Based on the summary of "frend", it's definitely something I would have picked up anyway, and enjoyed the crap out of it.
I'll skip the summary you can read above and try to review it in a way that makes sense.
Imagine if Lost and Battlestar Galactica created an AI/Donnie-Darko-type movie written by Philip Dick and directed by Stanley Kubrick. I finished reading it several days ago and, although my initial reaction was "OK what the eff did I just read?", tumbling the story around in my head for forty-eight hours has brought me to the conclusion that the ending, like the aforementioned shows and films (as well as Buffy and Angel), was an ending to the only story that mattered, and not necessarily the one I was following or most invested in.
Immediately, the story is introduced by a persistent narrator, an emphatic narrator insisting that the story is hers, how she chooses to tell it is her choice, and it's a story of becoming. As though she already feels, knowing how it ends, that she must be on the defensive from the start. What we learn, we learn from her. What's important is what she tells us, and if she doesn't think that the origin or even the explanation of the lumen are important, then it's just their existence and how it relates to her that we need to hear. We learn as much from what she says as we do from what she leaves out, and any story about becoming must necessarily be about un-becoming, the things left behind as well as those newly embraced.
To become a frend is to un-become human, at least physically and at least at first, and the first seventy pages detail the painstaking and slow process of physically becoming a frend. The story would never have worked if she had just woken up one day in her new Cyberman-type body: it's the process, the loss, the tedium and work--this is the bridge connecting her past to her future, and it's the process and the time that matters. And to be honest, these scenes made me uncomfortable. Not squeamish, but more like when I really think about the fact that my earrings are pieces of jewelry inside my skin, that surface piercings are rubbing against muscle; the introduction of foreign parts and the loss of a human body, and what makes someone human when the human body is 99% replaced with machine? It was the kind of discomfort that makes me think, and I hadn't read anything that made me ask questions like this in a while.
Anomie is absolutely invested in becoming. And what she learns is that it takes more than accepting and acting on an idea to move on. With her new body and new life comes a new name, but after her time with a lumenate, learning to be a frend, questioning what it means to be human, she goes back to her old name. She can't go back to her old life, and that's not what she expects. Instead, she must learn to control the imbalance, find where on the spectrum of human and machine she chooses to fall, and commit to that.
The ending doesn't answer the questions I had, but they're questions that *I* had, that fell outside the story that Anomie was telling. This means that my unanswered questions weren't the point. It's taken me a long time to trust storytellers when their endings surprise or confuse me, but I've come to accept that if an ending isn't an ending for me, I was paying attention to the wrong parts of the story; rather, the story I thought I was following wasn't the one the storyteller was telling. This is a story of becoming, of control and choice. It questions the limits of humanity in the way only great science fiction can.
I'm giving it five stars, for several reasons. First, I love Anomie. Despite not exactly knowing her motivations (an insistent yet reticent narrator), her growth is visible. Her penchant for italics and outbursts drops off gradually, and I can understand her confusion and her desire to be in control of her own life. Second, reading the process of becoming a friend made me more uncomfortable about my own human body than I have been in years. Not in a self-loathing kind of way, but in a way that made me question the limits of myself, physically, and the limits of my mind to process my physical body. It actually made me stop reading and put the book down to consider what I just read and how I felt about it, and I've only ever done that with VALIS. Third, the ending. I've said what I can about it and I don't want to inadvertently spoil, so I'll stop there. Of course there are other themes, both subtle and more complex, and the lumen are their own unique class of "alien", but I'll let you discover them for yourself.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Disturbing and thought provoking
By Emily Cargile
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I was initially interested in reading this book when I read the description about a girl "voluntarily undergoing a series of surgical procedures to replace her natural body with powered prosthetics." She did this in order to become a companion to a lumen. I was totally unprepared for how the description of this change would really make me feel. A good bit of the book is devoted to the process which she underwent to become a frend. I found myself truly disturbed and unsettled by the concept of sawing off arms and legs in order to replace them with prosthetics, having internal organs removed, having the few remaining bones plated with metal (or something). I can't imagine the kind of state you would have to be in to make that kind of decision. Just thinking about the LOSS was overwhelming. The loss of your actual body, the loss of your humanity.
After years of physical therapy, Anomie went under contract with one of the lumen. Her time spent with the mysterious robotic lumen was both bizarre and deeply disturbing. As Anomie began to rediscover her reasons for undergoing the change, the pace of the book picked up and she started questioning a lot of things about both her human friends and the frends/lumen.
I really did enjoy reading the book, although I will admit that the ending left me feeling a little empty. Like I was not completely sure what the message was supposed to be, maybe "take responsibility for your actions?" There are a lot of questions I was left with. Another thing that bothered me was the extreme use of language in this book. It was a little distracting at times.
Overall, it was a good book and a FASCINATING concept that I would love to see expanded upon.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
An Amazing and Intelligent Story! I Highly Recommend to EVERYONE!
By Amiesbookreviews
FREND by Jonathan R. Miller
I was the lucky recipient of a paperback ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of this book from the Goodreads Giveaway program at www.goodreads.com/giveaway
Firstly, I have to mention the cover. It is gorgeous. It is mysterious, exotic and artistic and makes you curious as to what the book contains. In my opinion this is perfect. It accomplishes exactly what a great book cover should.
From the book cover:
"After suffering a traumatic event that lands her in the hospital, Anomie makes a decision: She's finished with the human race."
I love the quote at the beginning that states: "After all, one of the best distractions from one's own suffering is to bask in the suffering of others, particularly when it exceeds one's own. It's a simple reminder that things aren't as bad as they could be, at least not yet."
Isn't that one of the reasons we read fiction and watch movies and television shows? We watch to escape our reality for a while and immerse ourselves in someone else's world. FREND is the perfect outlet for this and while I am aware that this book is fiction, it also has the ring of prophecy to it.
Imagine being talked into becoming a FREND - A Finite Robotics Enhanced Neurosensory Development, to basically become a robot with a human brain.
This concept is not new and I was expecting a typical robot/human tale where she discovers that she is still human inside despite her outer shell and of course she would fall in love with a human who doesn't care that she is made of plastic and metal. Blah! Blah! Blah! I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. FREND takes off in a completely new and unexpected direction.
Anomie (now known as Ano) signs on as a companion to the Lumen. She must fulfill two years of service and in exchange will be well rewarded.
Her first year is spent with a strange Lumen named Drizz. It is during that year that Ano meets up with a group of humans whose sole purpose in life is to destroy the Lumen once and for all.
"Anomie finds herself caught between worlds, embroiled in a conflict between two opposing forces, as she struggles to unravel a mystery that cuts to the heart of her identity, her nature, and the true extent of her capabilities."
This book captivated my imagination from the very first page. Not only did the author manage to grab my attention immediately, but also held it right to the last page.
WHAT I LIKED:
I really liked the fact that after Anomie chose to undergo her transformation, the author explained that it took 4 years for the full process to be completed and for her to actually be able to control her new body. This makes the procedure and outcome much more believable. To replace every body part with prosthetics and then to establish the neurological connections necessary to control them would realistically take time.
I loved the high tech aspects of this book and the diversity of the characters.
I found the writing to be the perfect mix of science and humanity. I found myself pondering the ethics of robotic prosthetics and how far is too far to go in the search for prolonged life.
RATING:
If it were possible to give 6 stars, FREND would rate that highly. As it is, the highest rating I can give is 5 out of 5 stars.
This book is a futuristic, technological thriller with a decidedly human core. It explores the human psyche and exactly what it means to be human, as well as many other issues such as discrimination and race relations.
This book is a MUST READ. I recommend this to anyone and everyone from ages 14 to 114.
More Information About This Book:
Find out more about this book at: http://www.jonathanrmiller.com/index.php/frend-2015
You can see this review and many more on my blog at amiesbookreviews.wordpress.com
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