This is a very strange book. It has a very slow pace, which made it feel like a much longer book than it is.

Sadly, I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to. The characters are all very... robotic. Which is kind of ironic if you think about it.

The writing was decent, but it also felt a little choppy at times. There wasn't a very clear focus on who exactly the main character is supposed to be. And the beginning of the book, after reading about half, sounded like it was a massive time jump into the future, but the book never really addresses that, or they did and I missed it.

The "meat" of the plot, for me, was kind of confusing and a little unclear for a good while, and when it was revealed it seemed a little underwhelming. I also wasn't really fan of all the name dropping for anime that is popular now. I think this book is supposed to be real-world, just in the not so distant future. It was strange and kind of took me out of the story. It was like in this world no new anime was made since 2010 or something.

The "science" behind all this was glossed over, to the point where you could barely argue that it was explained at all.

This book was fine, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Just okay, I wouldn't not recommend it, but if someone said they were reading it I wouldn't be really all that excited for them either.

A brilliant and chilling novel about the dangers and potential of artificial intelligence. I couldn't put it down! A genius student, a philosophical AI, and danger and betrayal. Readers will read this book into the late hours!

This book and I did not reach a meeting of the minds.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley for an honest review. What follows is my opinion. I was not compensated in any way.

I'll be honest, this was one of those cases where the blurb sounded interesting, but the book failed me. I honestly didn't care for Our Only Chance. 

The book is written in third person with the three main players, Manaka Yagami, Einna, and Professor Aragawa. The story started off interesting enough with a professor looking for a protegee', someone who was interested in biology and robotics. The plan was to make a viable android, one with a human brain. Sounds interesting enough?

What bothered me was the writing style. I couldn't get into any of the characters. By 25% in, I was trying to scrape any kind of empathy for someone so I could continue reading. There was nothing for me to find.

The book itself felt like a homage to Japan, but not so much in the culture or making the characters human like. The human characters felt like anime characters. And I mean, anime made for a younger audience where there really isn't much tension. I didn't feel tension when the Yakuza came along. I didn't feel the urgency Aragawa had about making the androids. 

It just was.

Sci fi plus a better version of Frankenstein than the original plus mysticism (a little boy named Zu, who I adore, seeing souls ... which is a great plot device for raising questions, and answering a key one). Full of thrills and adventure (c'mon, even the Yakusa, the Japanese mob, are involved) this is also a piece that makes you think while still being fun at the same time. A neat trick that is. Added to compelling lead and supporting characters and solid writing and this is an excellent book. Only two complaints. The first is that, after moving along at a beautiful and thoughtful pace, all of a sudden theBOOKrushesToEnd. It's offsetting and a shame. The second is that, while no cliffhanger, too much is left open - though presumably at least some will be addressed in the author's Fountain of Souls, due in 2018. Despite these two complaints this is a very good book, and one I'm happy to recommend.

3.5 stars!

This novel was surprisingly enjoyable and refreshing. It was a quick read, fast paced with a touch of philosophical musing but not too heavy, and it had enough debate about the potential good and evil of artificial intelligence that it felt like a balanced piece. 

Set in Japan it tells the story of a genius neuro-engineering student called Manaka who, encouraged by Professor Akagawa, the head of engineering and robotics at her university, manages to imprint herself on a human brain and build an android body for it to live in.  Her ‘daughter’ Einna has two parts, one in the android and one in a computer. However, for Manaka to do this, she needs fresh human body parts and money.  Professor Akagawa makes a deal with Mr Tagona, a top dog in the Japanese mafia, the Yukuza.  The trio form a tech company.

Einna is outstandingly intelligent, solves most of the world’s problems and creates spaceships with part of herself, but is kind, curious, and makes friends. However, she knows she is missing out and longs for a human body to experience taste, touch and love. She is loyal to her mother, but then an idea takes her, that involves the other 'primitive' AIs from around the world such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. 

However, gangster Tagona has other plans for the technology, and they involve militarising the androids to make killing machines.  Cue disaster...   

I really enjoyed this book for a few reasons.  Firstly, the setting. I visited Japan last year and loved it, so anything set there really appeals.  The bulk of the action takes place in the beautiful Kyoto but there is a trip to Tokyo which mentions different districts and places.  I felt the author captured the Japanese nuances well.

Secondly, the writing.  It flowed effortlessly and had wonderful descriptive language, very evocative.  And lastly, I liked the philosophical elements.  Einna sets out to discover where souls come from and where they go after their ‘host’ has died, and how to make one.  The four space Einnas send back regular reports and I enjoyed reading these.  Often they were musings on the meaning of life, but nothing too deep or unnecessarily complex. The simplicity was what made this book for me.    

Our Only Chance wasn’t quite a four rating because in a couple of places the language was a bit clunky, made all the more obvious because of the brilliance of the prose in the rest of the novel e.g. Einna (the super smart AI who has read all the books in the world) says, “You have done another miracle breakthrough.” Done? Achieved, realised, accomplished would all sound better...  Also, the use of the word “chips”, as in computer chips, about ten times in one short dialogue. 

In chapter 24 the character of Manaka starts to unravel.  Suddenly this tech billionaire / genius is naïve, working on a project for Einna without finding out why, asking a ton of questions of her daughter and not pushing Einna to tell her what she’s secretly working on, and then has a crisis of confidence about “hurting the bottom line of many competitors,” which jarred and felt out of character.  But then she slots back into character and I was satisfied with the ending. 
​
This was an intriguing, enjoyable read, and one I’d recommend to those who find the concept of artificial intelligence interesting / frightening / a moral dilemma.

I found this book enjoyable but still a difficult read. It made me think very deeply about what it means to be human, what the human soul is, how do we recognize what we are and how do we as parents teach our children how to be themselves. This book is scifi but there are questions of existence and are we prepare for artificial intelligence and how are we going to co-exist with artificial intelligence. There are many, many, questions this book brings them all to the forefront.

A great read and a number of new concepts to chew on even for a genre fan like myself. The one I believe that will stick is the recursive concept of a biological sentience sending out an AI that lands on another world and begins working toward generating a biological sentience on that world that then creates an AI that lands on another world, etc etc etc.

This is a very intriguing story line with some insightful interpretations of technology and human consequences. However, the character development and story continuity would benefit from additional attention to detail. Regardless, this is a good read and has enough suspense built into it to keep your attention.

Unique and surprising coming-of-age science fiction story. Engrossing writing style, complex characters, and a thought-provoking premise. Some areas of the book, such as stereotypes of characters and cultural references, were disappointing, but overall this was a highly enjoyable read. Felt it ended a bit abruptly, hoping a sequel is in the works.

Fancy dipping your toe in to the water of A.I.? Of course you'd need positional sensors, drive motors, temperature and pressure sensors too. Alternatively you could pick up Ray Else's novel and immerse your imagination, as he has done in the development of Einna, the world's first android with a human brain (is that a biot?) which undergoes a Damascene conversion in wanting to be a human with a soul. Sadly, the fallibilities of the human condition are visited upon Einna even before she becomes one, so you know the outcome will have its problems. A.I. novels aren't really my cup of tea but I found the subject matter quite an interesting idea.

At first, I thought the book was rather slow to catch my interest but once I got further into it I really began to get caught up in what was going to happen. It really gives a rather realistic picture of what the future can hold as AI matures and becomes common in our world. Don't think it can't happen! I'm not sure whether it will be with human brains in artificial bodies, but it will happen!

Three days past I glanced at a news flash. An Italian doctor stated he would do a head transplant soon. My thought, more fake news. The next day I began to read “Our Only Chance”. A thought provoking story indeed. I reached way into my past and recalled the first television I saw, black and white, round screen, static, blurred picture. I recalled the first telephone, today I carry a phone about the size of a 3 x 5 card. Going through nuclear power school using a slide rule, calculators not yet invented. Having a child who is a doctor at a leading children’s hospital gave me thoughts of all the medical advances that have occurred throughout my life time. Having spent time in Japan, (not for military duties) and thinking of their history as a world leader in robotics, knowing of their near infatuation with robots made this story come to life. Starting the book, I thought this was another whimsical story by a very talented author, but further into it I came to the realization that it was not so farfetched. If it were to happen it would very likely take place in Japan by Japanese robotic experts. Artificial intelligence is already at an advanced stage in our daily lives as well pointed out in this story. So, while the story may be fiction it may also be perspicacious, a peek into the future, things to come and then what? Who shall rule? Think about it. Possible? Probable?

This beautifully written, delicate tale searches for the meaning and substance of the soul. What about the spark of life creates or constitutes a soul? Can they be made artificially? Can AI have a soul? My own take on the matter would include self-awareness being an element and I would thus certainly grant souls to cats, dogs, etc. But this isn't my story and the author, Ray Else, comes up with his own solution. Echos of Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov show Mr. Else is a worthy successor.

I select carefully from NetGalley's offerings and congratulate myself that I have very seldom chosen poorly.

Our Only Chance is a unique mixture of Frankenstein elements that takes place with artificial intelligence and in Japan. The most fascinating aspect, to me, is the intellectual points brought up throughout the novel.

Let me get a few thing out of the way before I dive in to my favorite parts: the ethics. The most atmosphere we get are the descriptions of nature, there is a lack of details about the surrounding world. In terms of plot, it felt very rushed at the end, as there were many secrets revealed. There were many little tidbits that I very much enjoyed, such as the space section, or the Computer Einna, that could have been developed more. All in all, it felt a little rushed and it brought up many things that weren’t exactly fulfilled to the end.

But now onto the good stuff. The ethics of AI and androids are so fascinating to me. It brings up all these questions of whether or not we should even manufacture them. What this book’s strongest feature is not only the ideas it brings up about AI/androids, but also that Einna, the AI herself, is asking them. This reflects a strategic decision on Else’s part to make Einna self-reflective. (And this really shows in various permutations of her character). In this way, Einna takes on not only the characteristics of Frankenstein’s monster, but also of Frankenstein himself.

Sometimes, a gamble on a review copy pays off. Such is the case with Ray Else’s Our Only Chance: An A.I. Chronicle, a book whose description intrigued me enough to check it out. It’s the story of the first true A.I., an entity named Einna. Programmed by a brilliant young woman named Manaka, Einna is a technological breakthrough, but her creation raises any number of questions, ranging from the practical (is there a difference in Einnas if we duplicate the program?) to the metaphysical (does Einna have a soul?). Else’s novel navigates these questions ably and adroitly, tying them into the plot, which involves not only Einna’s evolution as a thinking creation, but the shady Yakuza ties that give the business the money it needed to get started. When I requested Our Only Chance, that Yakuza element made me think that I was getting something more cyberpunk than I got; nonetheless, Our Only Chance won me over surprisingly quickly, letting its story develop and raising fascinating questions without ever becoming preachy or didactic. Instead, Else follows Einna’s quest for self-actualization and lets it dictate the novel’s ideas and thoughts, letting the questions feel organic but no less thoughtfully approached. Indeed, that Yakuza element ends up being the one distracting element of the book, turning the ending into something a little more disappointing than it otherwise would be (without getting into spoiler territory, it turns the book’s final philosophical question into a moral one; moreover, it weighs the scales so heavily that it becomes not even a debate). Still, it’s rich fare, and if it feels like it could use a little more fleshing out, well, that’s to the book’s credit – not enough books leave you feeling like there’s more to say. Rating: ****

When I saw this I thought, 'oh boy a Frankenstein retelling set in modern day Japan?! Count me in!'. Unfortunately I don't think there was a single thing I liked about this, starting with the fact that it was set in Japan. Apparently the author actually visited Japan and wrote some of this while he was there, which kind of makes sense because anything distinctly Japanese about this reads like someone checking off a list of popular tourist attractions to mention / visit. The rest of it is very stereotypical physical descriptions, and things that my fifteen year old self probably did in horrible fanfics, i.e. inserting random honorifics on the ends of people's names every ten or so pages with no real pattern. I'm sure there is some way to write Japanese honorifics into an English story without it looking weird, but like I said they were just randomly thrown in places with no real consistency and it honestly reminded me of fanfiction.net back in the early 2000s.

I also wasn't wild about the writing style, which was very simplistic. If that was just the style for Einna, who is 'childlike' then it would make sense but it was for every single character and it just wasn't engaging at all. It was very 'and then this happened and then she did this and he said this and then ...'. It wasn't outright bad, there weren't a lot of typos or sentences fragments and it was definitely readable, it just made everything seem very dull, even when it should have been exciting.

And finally the plot. A huge problem I had with this is a problem I have with a lot of recent sci-fi books: there's too much fiction and not enough science. There is kind of some explanation for how the technology works at the beginning when Manaka is first making Einna, but after that it's mostly just 'and then Einna read a bunch of stuff on the internet really fast and invented all this new stuff because robot so there'. The ending was also very unsatisfying and abrupt and I feel like there were too many characters and plot lines that didn't all actually come together.

Sorry but there was just not a single thing I liked about this, which is upsetting to me most of all because I love Frankenstein retellings and this, to me, was just a mess.

Disclaimer: I’d like to disclose that I received a free copy in order to write this review.

Overall, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very entertaining read. The book deals with some topics that are important in today’s society and will be even more so in the coming years. Mainly, the book addresses the risks and benefits, the opportunities and the threats, of developing artificial intelligence. He does so in a manner that is still grounded in reality to some degree, but does so in an entertaining, easy to follow manner. Rating wise, if possible, I’d give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars, however I’ve decided to round it up to 4 since it entertained me more than not. For a more detailed explanation on my thoughts, please continue reading, though I would like to warn that there might be some spoilers, though minor.

The first thing I’d like to address is an issue I had before I even began reading the book, which affected the outcome, in my opinion. The first issue that I had with the novel, is that during the dedication page, the author mentions that his goal with the book is both to entertain and enlighten the reader in regards to the worries that he (like many others share) and the dangers that might occur thanks to the development of artificial intelligence. In my opinion, this may be an indication of the beliefs that the author holds in regards to a future involving artificial intelligence.

Secondly, I’d like to address the plot of the book. As mentioned in the quick blurb, the story revolves around the development and creation of a robot paired with artificial intelligence. Like many other stories of this type, this book also explores the thoughts of the new artificial sentient being subsequent its creation after it learns from humans. For the most part, the story flows quite well and at a pretty stable pace. However, there are certain elements, especially towards the end, that feel like they are being forcefully introduced at random, while others are left completely unexplored. As I mentioned above, the author is concerned about what the future holds in regards to artificial intelligence. It seemed to be, however, that he tried building the future roles and concepts of AI as a positive aspect in society for the most part throughout his book, with the human actors being to blame for some of the shadier actions that take place in the story. It isn’t until the end that he decides to flip things around by showing us the other side of the coin, the potential of military AI (though I’d like to note that this is done extremely briefly).

The book explores several themes. As many others have done before, the author attempts to define what it means to be human and to embark on the search for the soul, all through the eyes of a highly intelligent robot. A peculiar and curious touch is that the robot is, to some degree, taught about religion since her creator followed some Shinto and Buddhist practices. What is interesting is that while there’s a connection with the mentioned religious beliefs, with presence of some religious figures at certain parts of the story, there seems to be no mention of any religions that are against artificial intelligence within the story. In fact, there seems to be very few people in the universe that the author has created that have anti-AI sentiment, until the very end. This is something that I would have liked to see explored a bit more.

I find it extremely interesting that the author has decided to mention and, to some degree, explain a couple of the current AI advances and practices, though he sticks to the most famous ones. There are other advances within the fields of AI, eugenics, bioengineering, amongst others, that I believe could have helped the author enhance the narrative and his desired goal of warning us about the potential negative repercussions of AI. A few of these examples include the fact that there have been reports indicating that there might be a cloning factory in China in the near future; or the fact that China supposedly intends to genetically influence a faster gain of IQ for their coming generations; the growing concern of the ethical and moral implications of genetically designed and engineered babies; the fact that some AI has already been trained to kill (though on a video game platform), or to betray and even become aggressive, or the fact that one case of AI learned to exhibit gender biases as well as acting racist. There are even wilder claims or attempts to push the boundaries and develop further the interconnection between mankind and machines, such as the dreams of a Russian entrepreneur who wants to upload human minds into machines in the coming future. While the majority of us would be quick to dismiss these notions simply as nothing more but big and probably unachievable dreams, there are experts who hold the belief that we may reach that point sometime soon. There are a myriad of other examples that, in my opinion, could have been used, besides using Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, as modern examples in AI or advances in science.

While the novel might seem to rely heavily on the technological aspects addressed in the book, I’d like to reassure future readers that it is not deeply technical or challenging for the average person. In fact, it is a very easy read and the language is far from being technical or hard to follow. As I mentioned earlier, the flow and the pace of the book are quite stable, up until the end.

I’d recommend this book to those interested in AI, sci-fi, and, arguably, speculative fiction. I’d also recommend it for people whom want to read something entertaining and easy to follow. For those who have read this book and find themselves wanting something more, I’d recommend checking out City of Angels by Todd J. McCaffrey, which is a book that I kept remembering while reading this book.

That is all for now. Thank you for reading my review; happy reading!

This first book in the Ai Chronicles series hooked me right from the first page and kept me reading late into the night. The android robot with a human brain is my favorite character - unlimited access to a knowledge database with the innocent naïveté of a child. Highly Recommended - can't wait for the next one.