How do you feel about automated tills at checkouts? Convenient, clunky, or impersonal? Technology is getting able to do a lot of tasks that in the past were the cornerstone of workers. As the twenty first century rolls on I think automation will have a larger impact on our lives – look at the vanishing og the high street stores as we go online. This will have an impact on people for whom these jobs. This is the subject of Eli Lee’s novel A Strange and Brilliant Light but one that sadly left me cold.

In a near future alternative country automation is on the rise and Tekna has a new startling plan – an automated intelligence named an Aut that will make the coffee and serve customers. This will have an immediate impact on it’s baristas who are no longer required. Into this mix are the ambitious Lal who wants to work for the Tekna corporation, Rose who used to be Lal’s friend works in a cafe where this aut will now be found and Lal’s sister Janetta who works on making AI ever more human. These women are about to face these social changes head on and decide where their land goes next.

Unfortunately, I grew very disengaged with this novel. It felt less interested in the role of AI and more in the three characters growing up and getting more independent and the AI felt a side issue for most of the story. The plot for quite a short novel crawls and doesn’t really get anywhere fast. Lee has some lovely moments of writing but this story isn’t tight enough in subject mater or plot to make it real. By making the whole setting a country that doesn’t exist felt a strange choice that added little to the tale – this could easily have been set in the UK and may have been better to have done so explore social impacts. One other issue is the characters all tended to sound exactly the same. It ends in a moment of freedom and change but I never feel the consequences for this world – everything is distant and remote. What was worth saving from the march of AI?

I was sadly not enchanted by this story despite the issues involved being ripe for exploring. Lee has talent but I don’t think the story held up enough to help me recommend it.

Very thought provoking especially as artificial intelligence is developing so quickly in reality. Compelling questions raised about how our relationships with technology are changing our lives and where that might lead to. made me think about all aspects - ,oral, economic, ethical, impacts. Powerful stuff.

A strange and brilliant light. I really struggled with it and very sad to say I didn’t finish. Sorry not for me.

This is literary dystopian Sci-Fi. The author basically discusses the advantages and disadvantages of AI taking over our world. It’s interesting, but it was a very slow read for me, especially as I didn’t like any of the charcters.

This is a book of ideas, and as such it doesn't take place in our world. We are pretty reassured early on that whatever world it is set in has Ice Cream, Ice Cream shops and its relationship with automation is probably not that far off the one on Earth. This is a book about the coming of artificial intelligence, and what that will mean to the world of work. There are three main characters, representing three classes, a shop worker (ice cream worker) who is made redundant by automation, a middle manager who is working her way up the corporate ladder making people redundant to make room for automation, and a researcher who is about to crack the code of emotional artificial intelligence. The corporate climber and the out of worker used to be best friends, and the the climber is the sister to the researcher. It would all be a little bit too schematic if Lee hadn't done a good job of fleshing them out and getting into their heads, they are all scared, neurotic, lonely and searching.

There side-plots here also to make this all feel more real. The families have back stories, a history of Union work which may or may not be what it seems. The unemployed woman has a relationship with a firebrand Union leader and discovers he patronises her as well as the rest of the labour movement (this also leads her to be a thinker). The corporate climber is the hardest character to sympathise with, and she is the one left with the (unresolved) moral dilemma at the end, to pass the code for true artificial intelligence to her corporate masters or destroy them. The university research is also bereft, out of love, looking for something about emotions in her work when she has little herself.

As I said this is a book of ideas and some of those ideas are extremely relevant. There is a relatively nuanced discussion of Universal Basic Income, and the idea of who owns artificial intelligence - if it can be owned. The anonymous location and the structure of the book may make it feel a little like a detached place to have those ideas, but in fleshing out its three female leads it becomes as readable for the soap opera as the science fiction. Highly recomended if you like big ideas, the future of labour politics in an automated world or ice-cream.

(Content warnings: drug use, death of parent, grief, sexual content)

I... have very mixed feelings about this book, because the premise was really promising, and I think it covers some really fascinating concepts and themes, but the execution of it is... hm. well! Not Great, imo. Like, I don't think I would've finished it if it weren't an ARC from Netgalley - and I AM glad I did, bc I think the ending of the novel is actually really solid and narratively satisfying, concluding the character arcs quite well (though it could've been build up to more in Lal's case, honestly). Still, that doesn't make up for how I spent the majority of the book alternating between bored and frustrated.

The idea of a transition point between current society and a world where most jobs are done by auts and the societal&economic tensions that would arise in such a transition? SUPER fascinating in theory. As is the potential introduction of conscious AIs. But the book never really delved into those as much as I wished except maybe at the very end, and I was rly disappointed how little auts actually featured in the story. Seriously, for the majority of the novel all the interesting stuff just got sidelined for the sake of things like irrelevant romantic drama I could NOT bring myself to care about. Especially since none of the characters are particularly likeable, which, considering this is a primarily character-driven book, is Not Ideal. And they weren't even unlikeable in an interesting way, they just felt... kinda flat and boring and passive.

(Also, I kept waiting for the fact that Lal essentially got all her ex-coworkers and friends fired (and then had the audacity to have sex with one of them? and proceed to ghost him???) to come up, but it somehow... never... did? like. i am genuinely baffled there was never any sort of repercussions for that, no narrative follow-up?? NOTHING? bruh. okay.)

So. yeah. Unfortunately this book did not live up to my expectations 😔

(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC)

I don't think I would have finished this if I hadn't had it as a review copy. All the characters seemed emotionless and dry, with no agency at all. Maybe this was how it was supposed to come across, but when it was all three main characters it made the whole book dull and feel pointless. All the unhealthy relationships were obviously unenjoyable to read about and with no healthy ones to dilute the misery. The auts weren't really a big part of it, there was a lot of following irrelevant and meandering day-to-day lives of the main characters. I feel like the auts could have been replaced by any other ethical issue and it would have read the same.

I was really excited to get started on this novel, as the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) is something I’m very interested in, especially when it comes to the philosophical debates surrounding it. Lee tackles the ethics of the subject brilliantly, however as a whole the novel didn’t quite grab me.

This novel has three protagonists: Lal, her sister Janetta and her best friend Rose. I really enjoyed the fact that we got three different perspectives on the way this society works and the different opinions of the ‘auts’. We have Lal who is happy to work for Tekna, the aut manufacturer who is slowly replacing all the workers with auts; Janetta who is working on a Ph.D. surrounding creating ‘conscious’ auts and then Rose who has a deep mistrust and dislike for auts and the fact people are losing their jobs to them. In each of their chapters there are moments of real insight and gripping plot. I loved how we saw Lal slowly become even more indoctrinated into Tekna and Rose becoming more involved in political movements. However, I felt that they could have been developed more as I found by the end of the novel that I didn’t know much about them nor was I that attached to them.

Whilst Janetta’s work on developing emotional intelligence in auts was incredibly interesting to me, I was quite disappointed when the character that appeared to be quite determined and driven in her work suddenly became obsessed with dating again after her break up. I really liked the inclusion of the lesbian relationships, I was just a little disappointed how dependent Janetta appeared at times as it felt quite out of character. Although Lal doesn’t have a relationship the way Janetta and Rose, sort of, do the occasional scenes where a romantic interest is presented didn’t quite fit for me. Rose’s seemingly one sided relationship with Alek, on the other hand, worked really well into the story and we got to see Rose grow from it which wasn’t the case with Lal and Janetta.

The world that the characters inhabit has the solid foundation for a really interesting concept. Throughout the novel we do get pieces of information here and there regarding the government and the rise of the auts but it would have been nice to see more of it. The contrast between the offices of Tekna and the political meetings which Rose attends did a lot to bring extra depth to the world. However, I would have liked to have seen more descriptions of the different locations we were introduced to to help further understand why certain characters react the way they do upon hearing where Lal, Janetta or Rose is from.

Overall, this is a novel that has a lot of interesting ideas and one that will most likely appeal to those with an interest in AI for the philosophical aspect alone. However, with the lackluster characters and slightly off, and at times confusing, pacing meant that the worldbuilding and concept didn’t shine as brightly as I was hoping.

A Strange and Beautiful Light follows three women as their world moves deeper into an AI revolution, and each are faced with choices to make as the world changes around them.

This novel caught me by surprise - I went quite slowly through the first few chapters, and then about a third of the way in was just completely gripped and couldn’t stop reading. I work in tech, so it’s always interesting to me to read fiction that deals with a lot of the themes we work with every day. The way each of the women the story is focused on deal with the changes in front of them were an excellent representation of many of the decisions we may well have to make in the next few years.

I enjoyed this so much, and I would love to read more from this world and this author.

Whilst certainly imaginative and speculative, A Strange and Brilliant Light never quite managed to wholly grab my attention, although I still enjoyed the context and the interlaced characters.

The story follows three distinct opinions and experiences relating to artificial intelligence (or 'auts' as they're known in this book).

Lal is an ardent, focused admirer of the Tekna corporation and is desperate to pursue a career in 'business'. Janetta is her older sister - a dreamer in a different, apparently solely focused on her research and PhD studies in emotional intelligence in auts, but desperate for the romantic love that she has finally been able to explore. Rose, Lal's best friend, worshipped her trade union leader father before his unexpected death, and is now beginning to explore her own fears around the auts replacing the 'expendable' workforce and what their rollout will mean for her own family.

The focus in this book is around AI - the admiration that Lal has for Tekna, only to find more of the truth about how they are rolling out auts across their organisation. But her sister, with whom she can't identify, despite their similarities, admires the auts academically. She believes that one day there will be an AI majority but, in order to protect humanity from their inevitable revolt and uprising, she needs to be able to understand human emotion and to programme then to adapt emotionally and to relate to humanity, in order to protect them.

Rose is probably the most fleshed-out and relatable character. She has her own strong, informed opinions, but founds herself swept up and caught up in the opinions of the vocal men around her - first her father, then her older brother, and then her new boyfriend and meeting group leader Alek. Her anger and frustration at being unheard is clear, even if she doesn't quite realise it herself.

What's clear throughout, however, is that in a world where there is still very much a 'working class', it is this group of people who will lose their jobs and their livelihoods with the introduction of a well-programmed, willing artificial intelligence. It is this group of people who have the most to lose. And, despite Lal, Janetta and Rose's differing opinions, this is one background that they all share.

However, this is not necessarily a tale of thrilling corporate espionage or working class activism. It's very realist in some ways, as it's as though AI has come to our own world. But if you're expecting a fast-paced, story, this probably isn't the one for you. Janetta experiences perhaps the greatest development as a character, as she begins to realise her own interests, but I wouldn't describe this as a necessarily character-driven novel either. In some ways, with a reduction in the amount of backstory or number of characters, this would make a great spec fic novella, but as a full-length novel I personally found it dragging at times and, by the halfway point, still being unclear where it was heading.

That being said, it presents issues of political, social and moral philosophy in an interesting and engaging way and - if that is what you are looking for - the you won't be disappointed.

I've given this an average rating of 3.5 stars.

I received a copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest reveiw

It should be called A strange and largely unreadable book. The writing is awful, there is no world building for something that obviously takes place in a fantasy world that world largely remains a strange and unwieldy mystery.

The characters were plastic fantastic and I lost interest around 30 %. I read every word but my POV was not altered.

My thanks to Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books for a review copy via NetGalley of ‘A Strange and Brilliant Light’ by Eli Lee in exchange for an honest review. As I begin reading on its publication day, I complemented the print edition with its unabridged audiobook edition, narrated by Tamsin Kennard, to allow for an immersive experience.

This is a literary science fiction novel set in the near future. It explores responses to the AI revolution through the perspectives of three women. Of course, robots, androids, and artificial intelligence have long been important themes in SF. We now live in a society in which various forms of AI are increasingly present in our daily lives, including the ‘digital assistants’ in our homes and pockets as well as various software applications.

In this near future technological advances are causing large numbers of people to lose their jobs to auts, as artificial intelligence units are called in the novel. There is a great deal of social discontent as many feel robbed not only of their livelihoods, but of their hopes for the future.

The three main characters are Lai, Janetta, and Rose. At the opening of the novel Lia is the manager of a coffee shop in which its parent company, Tekna, are introducing auts to work alongside the human staff. There are rumours that more auts will be introduced in the near future. In addition, Lai feels constantly overshadowed by her brilliant sister, Janetta, whose Ph.D. is focused on making auts empathetic.

Janetta is extremely focused on her work. Yet following the breakup of her relationship with Malin, the woman who had introduced Janetta to her adventurous side, she is feeling quite vulnerable.

The third woman is Rose, Lal's best friend since childhood, who also works at the coffee shop. . Rose comes from a family with strong ties to trade unions. Her own sense of purpose is awakened by her relationship with Alek, a charismatic up-and-coming politician. As always I am cautious about spoilers though will say that later events in their lives as well as the wider world combine to herald in a new era for humankind.

‘A Strange and Brilliant Light’ is primarily a character-led novel that also considers political and philosophical questions about the nature of AI, its relationship with society and the economy. The scenes in which activists destroy auts reminded me of the actions of the 19th Century Luddites, who protested the Industrial Revolution by breaking into factories and destroying the looms and knitting machines.

I am quite pro-AI and undoubtedly this perception added to my appreciation of the novel. I found that I could relate to all three women in different ways, though Janetta was my favourite, partly due to the nature of her work yet also her personality.

I certainly felt that this was a beautifully written, thought provoking novel. I found it an impressive debut and I will be interested in hearing of Eli Lee’s future projects.

On a side note, I felt that the cover design of a bird perched on the robotic hand was very evocative.

A Strange and Brilliant Light explores the effects of artificial intelligence on the future of work and our sense of purpose and is a provocative, thought-provoking slice of speculative literary fiction that follows three young women on the threshold of a completely new kind of world. It's a character-driven novel that centres on three decidedly different female characters each from a working-class background - Lal, Jeanetta and Rose - who must tackle the trials, tribulations and realities of perpetual modernity as well as the constant and unnerving threat of AI overtaking everyday humanity. Lal can be cantankerous, bossy and annoying but she dreams in technicolour. She is prone to being a people pleaser and wants the best for her family but underlying issues slip from under her facade from time to time revealing her intense feelings of worthlessness and she has always been the black sheep of the family with her academically gifted sister taking most of the praise from her parents. This nagging inadequacy eats away at her from within when it dawns on her that the capitalist economic system is broken, that we are all slaves chained to our corporate masters and she ponders the ramifications of constantly trying to streamline production meaning that soon people will be replaced by robots.

Janette, Lal’s talented sibling, also considers the role of AI but she believes they should be created as sentient entities and that they will make the world a better place for us all. They should feel emotion and empathy so that when they evolve into conscious beings they don't attempt to become overlords. Rose is Lal’s best friend, a passionately political woman who’s spent the last decade putting the world to rights in remarkable ways. Lal and Rose have been best friends since childhood, and work together in a coffee shop, but Lal’s ambition drives a wedge between them when she lands a job with Tekna, the corporation behind the system of robotic devices known as “auts” that is putting baristas, waiters and clerks out of a job – soon even human management won’t be required. Meanwhile, Lal’s sister Janetta, a brilliant grad student, may be on the brink of creating conscious, thinking auts. This is a compelling, prescient and completely absorbing novel packed with eloquence and meticulous research; at its heart it is an exploration of whether we as human beings have the ability to be symbiotic with AI.

It's fascinating, powerful yet full of nuance and weaves important ideas into an engrossing novel. It primarily explores the loss of jobs and therefore economic freedom of those who rely on their employment to feed, clothe and shelter their family and exactly what devastation would arise should it become automated. Except it isn't just about automation. Artificial intelligence is a slippery slope, a topic that tugs at you insistently. One day you’re hearing about job losses and the next you’re onto the Singularity. It's an intimate debut that asks some big questions about the way society is heading and a deep dive into the way technology can have both negative and positive effects on those around it and the ramifications and solutions we need to both think about and prepare for when this eventually occurs. Thankfully, the author couldn’t help but salt her version of the future with a bit of utopianism, a reflection of the glowing screens all around us and their endless, untold promise. Highly recommended.

Like a lot of literary novels, the intent can often lie in the unsaid. Literary speculative fiction is a side bar for me; a genre I read selectively but so far have enjoyed quite a bit. A Strange and Brilliant Light is very much a character driven novel, a slow unfolding that seems at times to flounder yet ends up finishing on a note of significant impact that makes all that came before it all the more complex and far reaching.

Each of the women are realistic and relatable, although I liked Janetta the least and Rose the most. Lal, I was in two minds about. Her situation was difficult; when you’re supporting your family, it’s not so easy to be idealistic. Whist this novel had a futuristic feel, it still also felt contemporary, giving the reader a sense of unease and trepidation. Automation is already in our society – virtual assistants are the first port of call for online customer service help lines within corporations nowadays, as just one example. Many aspects of this novel felt impending, particularly the rapid rate of change and the lack of regard for workers in the face of a burgeoning profit margin.

I enjoyed this but recommended it to those who like literary fiction of the sort where much of the story is given over to character introspection. It’s a thought-provoking novel, one that would make for a good book club discussion.


Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.

If you are looking for an active AI revolution scifi story, best turn around now. A Strange and Beautiful Light is a character driven story that takes a look at the consequences of AI use on people. The moral implications,and what is good and bad.

It makes the book an interesting read with questions about the politics that would be needed around AI use and the effect this will have on the day to day lives of people. What about freedom when the government gives you money? And can we really use AI when we give them a concience? Not only that but we explore the lives of our three female mc's. How does it personally affect them and what role do they play?

I sometimes struggled with this book. It was boring in places, the AI revolution being a backdrop for the lives of these women. Who I unfortunately didn't much care about. And if you don't much like the characters in a character driven book than it falls down a lot with that. I thought I would have liked Lal at the start but she took such a sharp turn as a person and the way she treated those around her. Somewhere she said she was close to her sister when they neither have any idea what is actually happening in each others lives. Rose on the other hand seemed judgemental but grew out to be the character I did like best. She questioned and tried out things. Learned and was active with so many things. Janetta was a wet potato, a smart one at that.

I do wonder if this kind of a plot would have perhaps been more powerful as a shorter story. The point that the author wants to make through these characters and the open ending are great and thought-provoking. But the length took away from some the punch by dwindling in the lives of the women. I also wondered why they were so adement that concious AI would kill them if they couldn't control them when the AI had never given them any reason to think that.

Even so, if these kind of thought provoking books interest you I do think that it is a great one to read.

4,5* rounded to 5.
An interesting book that talks about topics that will be at the centre of the political discussions in the next year.
AI is already here, we met AI when we use chat bot or when our preferences are analysed by algorithm.
It's terrifying and fascinating at the same considering that some AI programs were already to auto correct their code.
This story is about algorithms, data, technical aspects but it also about political solution and the impact on people life.
Lal, Janetta and Rose are three women who share a common past. Lal and Rose were friends, Janetta is Lal's sister.
They shared a lot but their ideas and life view are totally different.
I didn't like Lal as she reminded a number of people I met and who were totally sold to an enterprise philosophy.
I loved Rose and Janetta. Rose is full of life, Janetta is the mind that must come to term with the impacts.
It's thought provoking book, disturbing at times as it talks about a dystopia that could be our future.
This is a debut and I think that author will surely grow into an excel author.
I think that the plot drags a bit or the tone is a bit too preachy.
The last part was exciting, fast paced and I loved it.
It's a thought provoking and gripping speculative fiction, highly recommended.
Many thanks to Jo Fletcher Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

With thanks to Netgalley, Quercus Books, Jo Fletcher Books and Eli Lee for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting speculative piece that looks at the displacement of workers in the face of technology and explores the loss and loneliness attached.

Set in the near future where auts (Androids and AI tech) are taking people's jobs, extreme capitalism has hold, and a rebellion is quietly underway.

You may start this book with the expectation that the technology is front and centre - it isn't. The core of this book is about relationships, about purpose and feeling the lack of it, about emotional connections and loneliness. The main protagonists are very different from one another - Lal follows the corporate line, and has wanted to be the manager of a Slurpees Cafe since she was young. She's happy when she achieves that dream, but then when she is promoted even higher and out of her comfort zone, she becomes very isolated and lonely. Her sister Janetta is a tech whizz, but suffering from relationship issues; she feels abandoned by her girlfriend who wants a more open relationship. She tries to seek purpose on a spiritual trip, but ends up thinking about the moral ethics of creating sentient auts.

And Rose was Lal's best friend but the pair share very different views on the taking over of AI tech - Rose joins the Union resistance, and wants to find a solution for the displaced workers.

I enjoyed this book, the effect on society and the working class, and the ethics was what kept me reading. But it took a few detours, one was the complex relationships Janetta had, the need for love and validation and mental health issues she was suffering with, the other was a deep sense of loneliness that Lal felt and also the anxiety she developed when working at Tekna. That's not to say I didn't like these aspects but it slowed the middle of the book down.

The Union side of things was interesting, and the philosophical questions asked by Rose about source gain (universal income) and later about the ethics of enslaving auts once made conscious.

A Strange and Brilliant Light by Eli Lee follows the lives of three women in a world similar to ours where machines are taking over jobs
Lal is a coffee shop manager eager to rise in the ranks and work for Tekna, a powerful technology company akin to Google. Unlike her childhood best friend, Rose opposes how the tech companies are destroying livelihoods by automating more and more jobs. Janetta, Lal’s sister, is a brilliant PhD student working on making AI conscious.

I have to admit being confused about where the overall story was going. I enjoyed discovering each of the women’s story, but the disparate story lines didn’t make sense to me until the very end when I felt the author rushed to tie all three paths together.

The best part of the story had nothing to do with AI: it’s about how these three women deal with living in a world where their thoughts are not valued (most often by men). I relished watching their self confidence grow in spite of the capitalist and misogynistic society they are immersed in.

I would recommend this read if you enjoyed the likes of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I want to start by saying I think the themes of this book and the ideas that it explores are both fascinating and a little bit terrifying. I don't think this was the first time I've seen 'the world is being overtaken by AI' as a plotline but I think this is the first time it's felt real and also imminent. These aren't hyper-intelligent robots coming down from secret labs high in the mountains to overthrow humanity, they're there to make your coffee and they're putting someone else out of a job. I mean we've started to see it in places already!

So as someone who had recognised this as a growing...thing but hadn't really considered the potential ramifications of life where this is becoming more normal I found this book interesting. I liked that we got to see some of the benefits and pitfalls of this kind of change and I very much appreciated that for the most part the bad guy is capitalism (always a win for me).

I also appreciated that this book featured a lot of women in science - always something you like to see. I thought that this also did a good job of showing women in positions of power that weren't scientific - just women doing things, it works.

I think that, for me, this was a bit too much of a bleak book to be something I would want to re-read or to lend out to people. I like more of a balance between joy/hope and despair/apathy and I think this book leaned a little bit too much towards the despair/bleakness for my personal tastes. It wasn't necessarily that it felt imbalanced or like the focus was pushed too far one way in an artificial sense, it was more that this whole topic is quite depressing and I may not have been in the right place for that at the time.

All told I think this is a well written, thought provoking book that I suspect will only become more and more relevant as time goes on. I would recommend it to those looking to explore these ideas but I would have something happy on deck to bring you back up once you're done.

I received a free digital review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

The premise of this book really intrigued me - in a future world where AI is becoming prevalent, how will people react and respond and what lengths will we go to to work with / against them?
The story focuses on three women - Lal, Janetta and Rose - whose lives are connected and become both more and less intertwined as the story goes on. Sisters Lal and Janetta are not close but both work within the realms of AI technology, Lal as an employee of a huge AI Tech company and Janetta who is completing her PhD studies in advancing empathetic conscious Artificial intelligence. Rose and Lal have been friends for a long time but their relationship is hurt when Lal leaves to go work for the tech company while Rose's career is put at risk by the very AI 'Auts' that Lal's new employers produce, and who Rose has a huge issue with. So far, so good.
Each woman has her own story, as well as the elements where she is connected to the other protagonists, but none of them felt developed enough for me; huge emotional and relationship decisions seemed to happen in the space of a few sentences, or else were referred to pages later and had me checking back to see what I had missed. As the story went on I so badly wanted to really care about what the women were going through but I struggled. The story also became more convoluted while also being a bit repetitive, and by the end (which was a good, discussion-enabling ending to be fair) I was not really worried about what happened.
I wanted to love this, and there is promise there, but it just was not for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.