THE MECHANICAL

In order to prepare for our future Robot Overlords, during the next few weeks I will feature books with a Robot or Machine Intelligence theme.

– Tyson

THE MECHANICAL
by Ian Tregillis

MY NAME IS JAX. That is the name granted to me by my human masters.

I AM A SLAVE. A Clakker, a mechanical man, endowed with great strength and boundless stamina, but beholden to the wishes of its human masters.

Jax remembered what happened to the last Clakker to say no. They had called him Rogue and demon-thrall, melted his body to an alchemical slurry and incinerated his hard-won soul in the hellish forges of the Clockmakers Guid.

Rogue. That’s what they’d call Jax, too, if they caught him. They’d condemn, damn, torture, and melt him. BUT I SHALL BE FREE.

This new novel from Ian Tregillis asks us to think about what we mean when we speak about souls and free will.