Interesting concept, but poor execution. I quickly lost interest with the story and chose not to finish it.

3.5 stars.

An Uncertain Grace is unlike any I have read before, mostly because it isn't in my usual genres. That being said whilst I did find it highly unusual, I quite enjoyed it. The novel isn't broken into chapters; instead, it was broken into five parts, each about a completely different character (Casper, Ronnie, Cameron, M, Liv).

This is Liv’s story, even though it’s only told from her perspective in the final part. This book highlights Liv’s various achievements and career highpoints, from the beginning where she experiments with the creation of virtual narrative, to the creation of collective consciousness, creating AI’s to assist with rehabilitating sexual predators, gender transitions to neutral before finally transcending and becoming a part of the system herself.

The novel starts with her ending her old university professor and lover, Casper, how she experienced their relationship, making him come to terms with the fact his version wasn’t the only version. I did like how his arc and how experiencing Liv’s memories made him rethink doing it again with a new student. Also opening with this story lets you know that this is going to be an interesting book.

Ronnie’s chapter was probably the strangest, a convicted pedophile is chosen to be a part of an experiment where his mind is joined with a jellyfish to see if it will change the way he feels about children. I just don’t understand the theory behind this or how it would work. Also, the ending was extremely odd.

This was a conflicting chapter to read because of how upfront the sexual aspects were. Cameron is a synthetic boy created for hebephiles, so it made me somewhat uncomfortable reading about how much Cam expressed that he enjoyed his sessions, as it was his purpose. The ending was super ambiguous which I didn't like too much because it left way too many questions.

The chapter about M felt a bit flat, I didn’t think it had much point except for showing the major jump and how old Liv had become. I did think the gender-neutral thing was very interesting and wondered if one day that would become a reality and the description of what it did to the genitals was intriguing But I just didn't feel super connected or affected by the story. It felt quite filler.

It was interesting being told Liv’s story through the perspectives of those she interacted with, it was a unique way to go about it. In the final section we get Liv’s point of view told, this is after her body has passed away but her mind now lives on. How and where are never fully explained nor is what Liv’s job actually is. I just assume she is some kind of story collector, where she logs the stories and sensations of herself and others to create things like what she gave Casper. Her mind being uploaded was interesting, but the fact her mind still craved desires and sexual encounters was odd, especially because she was earning an income … as a mind. Her relationships that happen in this chapter were quite odd, and I’m not sure how I felt about it. I became curious wondering if this will become a part of humanity in the (probably distant) future.

Overall An Uncertain Grace was quite an interesting albeit very odd book, that dealt with the future of narrative, artificial intelligence and the role technology and science will play in the future in behavioural analysis.

It's been quite a while since I so thoroughly enjoyed a collection of short stories. Considering they are classified as erotic, the detail put to speculative fiction was outstanding. These make the reader completely reconsider sexuality as a whole while taking him on her on enthralling experiences. They are all connected by a common denominator and are chronologically order, taking the reader on a trip where we see the world changing, along with the characters.

The first story introduces us to a uni English literature teacher who is presented with a work by a former student. This is not just any work though, it's an interactive narrative where the reader not only does what the author wants but also feels exactly what the author wants him or her to feel. I absolutely loved the way the author transcribed this idea to her story and we get to watch a fairly normal guy coming to terms with the fact that he might just be despicable.
I have a feeling woman and men will have different reactions to this story. Some of the scenes were so raw and yet I felt emotional. This was quite brilliant.

The second story comes from a different place. It is actually a sci-fi experiment.
What if you could merge with other beings?
The way the concept was introduced was quite astounding. You cannot help to relate to this guy, even though he must have done something really bad to have gone to prison for that long. Still, his childhood memories as well as his longing for them make him a person, and one with feelings, and you cannot help to relate.

The third story is about a robot who looks and feels human and was created for a unique purpose - to study hebephiles, people who are attracted to adolescents. Some scenes are difficult to take in as they are quite disturbing - even though you are seeing things through the eyes of Cameron, the robot. You can feel his own struggle to try and understand how a normal 13-year-old would react, so that the data collected during the experiments is as accurate as possible. And yet he cannot help but think of his place in the grand scheme of things.

The fourth story is less about sex and more about gender. It's getting easier and easier to transition between both sexes, and even staying somewhere in the middle. These are the sexual experiences of one such person who wants to transition to centre - neither man or woman -, while trying to deal with her feelings towards her sexuality, her partner, and her mother.

The final story is about a woman who lived well into her one hundreds and still remembers a time when fish weren't practically extinct. This one explores life after that and what you could experience in such a state.


Reading what I wrote above, I cannot help but feel my descriptions of the stories are very diminishing. The fact is I felt enraptured by them. At times disgusted, others excited and always curious to know what came next. I am not too sure about the Liv character, it did not struck me as believable that she is described as a teller of stories and yet we see her in scientific roles. But I do know I enjoyed this immensely and highly recommend it.

<i>Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.</i>

Bizarre book just didn't get it
I like this genre but found the story very difficult to comprehend
Well written just not my thing

One of the cleverer and more interesting books I've read in a while. Marketed as "erotic science fiction" but what it really does is turn a lot of conceptions of mind, literature, sexuality and identity upside down. Well written, thoughtful and thought provoking

It is not very often that I am intrigued by a synopsis and then lose my interest throughout the book. Unfortunately, An Uncertain Grace, is one of them. The idea really is very interesting, but the realisation is just terrible in my opinion. As a look into the other reviews it seems you find this book a totally awesome book, or you despise it like me.

The first story was still a bit interesting. We meet an older professor, who has the habit of picking up young students. With a special suit from a former student Liv, who he also had a relation with, he can experience the relationship through her eyes. And then you can see what a different point of view they had in their relationship.

The tone, in which the story is told, however is rough and unfocused. It's a bit of word vomit being thrown out there. There are all kinds of thoughts jumbling over each other in different phrases and from different perspectives (him and her). So it is very confusing to read.

The second story was even worse, where we are meeting a convicted guy, who is engaging in some kind of experiment (conducted by the same Liv). Here, he becomes part of a jellyfish population (in his mind)?! Well, that was my cue, that this was definitely not a book for me.

So, I'm sorry, but only 2 stars from me. And they are mostly for the idea of the stories, not the actual writing. With a thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Captivating. Really well written. I didn't realise it had separate stories inside, but I still really enjoyed it.

I am so conflicted in my personal feelings for this...well all it can be called is a journey. They style, pacing, and writing were all really well done in my opinion. So well done that I can;t call this less than beautiful. I didn't want to put it down because Kneen was able to transport me to this unusual distopian and I wanted to know more. Through the backgrounds of multiple narrators this picture of our world is painted that made me so sad and in awe. But not only this interesting background setting, but the character's stories that we are introduced to evoke so many emotions that I rarely ever feel. It was a really weird, not so nice experience.

The characters were brought to life in the text, through the writing, but also because of how shocking the subject matter was as well? I went into this knowing it was erotica, but it was not at all what I expected. This novel is totally fucked up. But beautiful? And not because of what happens, oh god no, but because of the very interesting overarching message of where our world might be in a few years and how these characters were just...living these shitty shitty lives while barely having time to acknowledge their changed earth.

An Uncertain Grace displayed human kinds selfishness so well, but it also displayed so many other complex emotions and made me feel so conflicted. My face was constantly in a state of disbelief, for these characters and the lives they live. But at the same time I was in awe of the prose and the raw emotion Kneen was able to conjure.

It was so beautiful.
But I say that not wanting to say it, because it could also be so unpleasant at the same time.

The erotica was overdone, in my opinion - not a genre I read. However, I took a chance and checked out this book due to its touted intertwining of philosophy, gender, and technological impacts on the future. Wow. I worked for many years in the domestic abuse field and have a high bar and finely-tuned ear for issues of gender and power, as well as explorations of different forms of interpersonal abuse, many of which have a sexual component. In addressing these issues this book is first rate - doing what narrative fiction does best: giving us a memorable story on which to hang a deepened understanding of a core human pattern of relating or life experience. Each of these stories is distinct and memorable. I wept at the end of the second and walk away permanently moved by the imaginative light shone by Kneen in all of them. I am particularly interested in issues of climate change and uses of technology. In this regard, the second and last two stories knock these issues out of the park. We don't have enough frank yet sensitive addressings of the accelerating losses related to climate change. These stories could serve a purpose of helping people move imaginatively through grief. A writer has to write what they feel called to write. Still, I'm sorry the overt erotica is likely to limit the audiences this reaches. On the other hand, maybe the promise of erotica will inspire some to pick up the book.

Parenthetically, the last story and thus the furthest in the future has the protagonist struggling over the use of the preferred pronouns "they/them/their," as though it's a new thing. I recently saw people in the States wearing buttons alerting folks to their preferred pronouns, so it's already standard practice in some quarters. I guess if this is the least realistic thing I found in a science fiction book, the author has done well!

I chose this book because:

I’m really interested in sci-fi such as with the short story collections Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Tbh, the blurb of this book kind of reminds me of the short story “Migration” from Weinstein’s collection, where sex is experienced in the virtual world. An Uncertain Grace poses a world of virtual reality that is so out there; it intrigues me.

Upon reading it:

Things were happening but I wasn’t connecting with any of it. Usually when I read stories that are obviously fictional, I look for that grain of truth that gets exaggerated to prove a point, to show something universal, to feel things, to show what it means to be human, beautiful and/or flawed. However, I didn’t get that from the first two parts of the book. It just felt very strange to me, and perhaps for that reason, disjointed and difficult to get into, for me personally.

The synopsis of this book had me intrigued. It sounded like a fresh idea, and one I might enjoy. I was wrong.

The book lets us know immediately that it is written in first person, present tense, as if that weren't obvious, What follows is very confusing and disjointed. I had a terrible time trying to find anything to enjoy. LOTS of vomiting. That never sets well with me. Who wants to read about that?

So the story proceeds from being rather harsh and cruel to just plain boring. There just isn't enough to grab onto, and there is nothing to relate to. I will say that having a character view his own actions from a different perspective is an interesting concept, and it is for that reason that I am not giving it only one star. That idea is original and warrants a star. Unfortunately it's the rest of the book that falls way short of being enjoyable or even interesting. There is so much attention to irrelevant detail, I couldn't take it. Who cares??!

I hope the author finds an audience for this book that accepts it far better than I did.

What a shame that this book has so few reviews, but how grateful I am to have discovered this little gem! As a fan of relationship-based science fiction, this novel is right in line with my particular set of interests. Kneen's exploration of the evolution of sexuality as it is affected by future technologies is fantastic in that it feels so realistic and visceral, yet she never crosses the boundary into gratuitous sex or pornography. My favorite of the stories was the first, Caspar, as I found the concept of the intermingling of VR technology and life writing/memoir to be fascinating and something I have never read/seen in SF. It's the type of scenario which is ripe for an episode of Black Mirror, so I'm surprised it hasn't been used more. I also enjoyed Kneen's metafictional approach throughout the novel (and especially in Caspar's story), occasionally reflecting on writing and each of the stories being constructs-- e.g. Caspar's own pondering of his life story, "If I could tell this story in third person, past tense, I would foreshadow the delicious transgression of our sexual relationship", and later "How is this story 'written'? And what part of it is authored? What percentage comes from the reader?". I also love that Liv is woven throughout, herself a biographer/biological engineer, analyzing and writing the life stories of AI bots like Cameron, with the final story in the novel being told in her post-mortem POV.
I could go on and on analyzing the experimental storytelling employed by Kneen, but alas, I'll end my review. An Uncertain Grace is a great little book that takes risks and explores interesting themes, which I would highly recommend to fans of relationship-based, soft SF, or fans of feminist literature.