Really enjoyed this story, great characters and well written. Would love to see this as a TV show or film.

The only reason I requested this book was that of the beautiful cover but when I learned this was an alternative look at the story of Frankenstein I was hooked and honestly Our Only Chance does not disappoint.

The plot was good, and the science was believable, but I didn't care about the characters. They were two dimensional.

What exactly does it mean to be alive? What exactly does it mean to be human? These concepts have been pondered philosophically for a very long time. Science has offered explanations of both. However, the real question is whether or not science has the right to tamper with basic humanity. OUR ONLY CHANCE is an interesting read, and I've been trying to figure out just whose only chance is meant in the title. Is it humanity's only chance and, if so, for what? Is it technology's only chance to get it right? Or, is it some combination of the two? In novels such as this, there is always the attempt to improve the human condition without fully understanding, or even considering, that every advance has its downside. The dark side of innovation is often catastrophic.

Ray Else has created an atmosphere that conveys the location of the story through use of language. To the Western ear, and perhaps the Western mind, Japan is a place of minimalism and serenity. Else has made use of this notion, quite well, in the crafting of dialog among his various characters, human and otherwise.

Here we have a modern day, technological Frankenstein created by a woman who is both brilliant and naïve. The idea of reviving the dead is universal. Christianity tells us that under the right circumstances we will find everlasting life. Others believe that the soul is reincarnated over and over again, thus achieving something akin to living forever. Lovecraft gave us Herbert West - Re-Animator.

Technological innovation is something we deal with daily. "Hey, Google!" "Alexa…" "Siri…" We talk to our cellphones and they respond with information. Make a call, no problem. Find the nearest fast food place, coming right up. Dig up some dirt on your next door neighbor, maybe not such a good thing. It has been suggested that AIs will one day take over, rule the world, make our lives miserable, and that we 'let' them do it. Automation was going to take away the livelihood of millions… Personal computers were going to give us the four-day workweek… AIs are going to do all our thinking for us… People still work in factories. People still work that old five-day workweek and then some. So, as long as we are able to think, we will.

Although many aspects of OUR ONLY CHANCE should have been compelling, I found that they sometimes fell flat. It was not the page-turner I anticipated. All books are not meant for all readers. Keeping that in mind, this just wasn't really my cup of tea; however, it might just be yours.

Sorry for the inconvenience but I have lost interest in this book, I just can’t get past 50% of the story. I have tried several times to finish reading but I have hit a wall with this one.
Thank you for considering me.

I received this free from NetGalley and the publisher.
I have not read many AI stories, so I was looking forward to reading this one. I enjoyed the setting, having never been to Japan, I liked learning about some of its culture. I did not like any of the characters. They all struck me as amoral people or in one case an A.I., who would do anything to accomplish what they set out to do no matter who was hurt or killed. It was kind of disturbing. Perhaps the next book will have characters who are likable.

This was an interesting read - not something that I would typically go for, but the way the author delivered the overall plotline was good. I didn't necessarily connect with the characters as much as I would have liked for me to really get into the novel, but from an overall standpoint it was an enjoyable read.

This was a fun read and an interesting look at the AI question. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys thinking about the beginning of a world with Artificial Intelligence.

This was just okay. It was pitched as Frankenstein but was more I, robot with a female robot in Japan. I strongly feel that this had so much potential yet something just didn't fit quite right. The image of Japan was extremely stereotypical and sounded like someone googling Japan and writing whatever they saw on the internet and I didn't feel a lot for the characters for some reason. The basic premise and the main theme of AI humanity, kept me reading. I don't regret giving this a chance but this wasn't really my cup of tea.

At first, I was unsure if I would enjoy this book, as it opens like you're reading a cross between a screenplay and a book, but I quickly lost myself in the story. A very interesting story, and one that tackles the question of AI humanity.

While drifting between "genuinely thought provoking" and "beating the reader over the head with obvious metaphor", Our Only Chance is an interesting and refreshing take on both the Frankenstein plot and on the "AI wants to be human" story.
Where the author struggles is not in making the AI accessible and human, but in making the humans so. Our main human character, Manaka Yagami, is introduced to us, literally, in the nude, sexualized as an adult. Her character is then shown in the past, sexualized now as a stereotypical (borderline racist) Japanese schoolgirl - short skirt and zealous focus on schoolwork included.
While the plot eventually deals more with the AI and the implications of her existence, the sour notes the book starts with ends up carrying through the rest of the story, tainting almost every interaction with weak personalities based on vaguely formed ideas of Japanese culture.

I wanted to enjoy this novel. I really did. Alas, I did not.
What pulled me in was "A different kind of Frankenstein." It was more of a different take of I, Robot with a single female robot in Japan.

[SPOILER]
The only Frankenstein mention was when she resurrects cadavers to house herself and the other A.I. programs. I enjoyed reading that part.
[END SPOILER]

I wasn't attached to the characters... The setting seems like a forced, stereotypical version of Japan... The plot split off in a lot of directions and there wasn't a lot that was resolved... There just seemed a lot that this novel needed to work on.

I found reading Our Only Chance to be, quite to my pleasant surprise, something I couldn't put down. Else has envisioned a world in which a young and socially inexperienced child genius, called Manaka, almost singlehandedly brings into fruition the bionic evolution of mankind.

It begins with a gradual build-up of a coming-of-age approach done so well that I couldn't even bother to suspend my disbelief. With small steps, the program that is Einna, slowly and carefully comes to life - in every sense of the word. As this little android struggles to find her purpose in life and all of its upheavals, the search for her own soul becomes the centerpiece of this force that drives her as she searches for her own soul.

Of course, if Einna can't find her soul she'll just make one.

Influenced by strong Asian themes, Our Only Chance is a very interesting take on the concept of artificial intelligence. Plagued by the sinister Tagona-san and his shady dealings in the background, you being to wonder what lengths he'll go to in order to have his own personal army of androids.

All in all, this was a very entertaining read.

This book has promise and needs a second book to fill it out. It would work for most ages, and could be a good film with some assistance. It is a bit disjointed, but I have seen some movies that are as well. They just don't become my favorites.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

The legalities: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a fascinating story. It’s fun, thoughtful, suspenseful and it is also a great moral tale. Einna is an Artificial Intelligence Robot built by her “Mother,” Manaka to enhance the lives of humans and humanity. She has a human-like brain that can learn, but like most activity of humans, things go skidding out of control and disaster looms. Einna is a teenage robot!! Imagine a teenager with all that intelligence, but still a youngster.

We find Einna involved in a secret project that she is keeping from her mother, while her mother, Manaka, deals with gangsters and a project of her own. This intelligent tale of technology of the future is fast paced, filled with interesting turns and hard to put down. I want to know more about Manaka and Einna.

Not my type of book, I tried to start it but just couldn't get into anything about this book!

This book was a very well written book and I felt like I was in the lab when it was taking place. I do like Manaka and her relationship with Eina since she does have the motherly personality and really wants to know what Eina is really doing. I hope we get to see these two in more books since I would like to see the next one show more of them. And if it was animated into a movie I would so see it on a big screen with audio description.

I liked this take on the creation of androids and artificial intelligence. Einna intrigued me, so much feeling in her, I'd want to be friends with her. With the setting in Japan, I got a stately, paced vibe from the storytelling. And the involvement of a high end "mob boss" type was inevitable. But that gave the story a real world connection. This really could be our future.

Manaka Yagami is the first female tech millionaire, and she had started as a grad student interested in imprinting memories onto brains. One of her supervisors drafted her into his project, and soon the world's first AI was born. Einna is like Manaka's daughter, and she wants to make sure that the Yakuza can't use her tech for untoward purposes. Einna, however, has plans to better mankind and be more human.

The themes in the novel are very poetic, but I found it hard to get past the language style. Sentences are broken up and choppy, often fragmented thoughts, and it was difficult to get a feel for any of the main characters. Perhaps Manaka is supposed to be more standoffish, but it was difficult to care about her struggles. The background characters and Einna were more engaging, and their sections of the novel did seem to flow a lot better.

There isn't a neat ending to the novel, so it almost feels like a let down at the end. All of the characters had their own agendas, even Einna, though her naivete means that she has good intentions behind them. She doesn't explain herself, and the very dry tone of the book is a stark contrast to the sudden chaos at the end. On top of that, it all came to an abrupt stop. I'm not sure if this is meant to have a sequel, but I don't find the story engaging enough to read a follow-up.

I received a free copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Our Only Chance is the first book of a series about an android named Einna, who was created by the scientist Manaka. In the modern world of Japan, Manaka industries have taken over almost every corner of the technological world, thanks to her Einna's ability as an AI to construct mind-boggling leaps that mere humans couldn't figure out themselves. But what Einna is truly searching for is a way to become a human herself in this modern day Frankenstein, amidst the turmoil brought on by competitors, the yakuza, and even her own mother.

Since this story was advertised as a "Frankenstein retelling," I felt compelled to read it. I love retellings and seeing the way someone can twist an already famous work into their own piece. Granted, I haven't read Frankenstein myself (yet) but I know enough about it from movies and discussions to understand the basic story. I was also interested in this book because it was set in Japan. I love anime and manga, so a book set in the place where those things originate definitely has my interest.

Unfortunately, this story just...didn't really impress me. I almost clocked it as a DNF because the middle section was going nowhere real quick and I was finding myself slugging through it.

The beginning was good, giving us the initial setup as to how Einna came around and how the world reacted to her and her technological advances. It was interesting to read how the yakuza became involved with the project as a whole and how certain characters were caught between a rock and a hard place.

I liked the ending, where things went wrong for our characters and all of the secrets were revealed. And it was open enough so that the continuation would be warranted.

But everything in between was stilted and boring. The writing style was too expositionary for me to deal with. The author told me what emotion the people were feeling more than I actually felt it through the characters. My sympathies for the characters and their dilemmas were borderline nonexistent. By the halfway point, I found myself not nearly as invested as I thought I should be in regards to the overall story.

I only felt somewhat sympathetic towards Einna, who seemed to be the only one with a noticeable goal. Everyone else's motives were almost on the backburner half of the time until the author felt like reminding the reader that there is some kind of actual conflict in-between every other science project.

There were a lot of weird elements introduced that the author tried to piece together into some conglomerate rock that was the overall plot, but some of it felt like filler while other bits felt contrived and forced. They mostly came out of nowhere and added only a spritz of interest.

Overall, I like the setting and the general concept. The execution of it, though, is a bit rough for me to handle. It started out strong, but then somehow exhausted itself during the middle section.

This gets a low rating of two out of five from me, and I don't think I'll pick up the series. There wasn't enough for me by the end of the book to make me want to read the second one, even with an exciting and open ending.