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    The Mad Scientist's Daughter
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    The Mad Scientist's Daughter
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    The Mad Scientist's Daughter
    Ebook409 pages6 hours

    The Mad Scientist's Daughter

    By Cassandra Rose Clarke

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    There's never been anyone - or anything - quite like Finn. He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is to tutor Cat. When the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOsprey Publishing Ltd
    Release dateJan 29, 2013
    ISBN9780857662668
    Author

    Cassandra Rose Clarke

    Cassandra Rose Clarke is the author of Star Trek: Prodigy: A Dangerous Trade, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Shadows Have Offended, Our Lady of the Ice, Magic of Blood and Sea, Magic of Wind and Mist, Star’s End, Halo: Battle Born, and Halo: Battle Born: Meridian Divide. She grew up in south Texas and currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she tends to multiple cats. Cassandra’s first adult novel, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, was a finalist for the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award, and her YA novel, The Assassin’s Curse, was nominated for YALSA’s 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons and Daily Science Fiction. Visit her at CassandraRoseClarke.com.  

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    Reviews for The Mad Scientist's Daughter

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      SAVE YOURSELF. JUST KIDDING, INTO THE ABYSS WITH ME!

      Did I cry? Ok, I leaked tears through a lot of it, even before the 50-page mark. It's an extremely uncomfortable read. I ugly-cried at 2 parts, but it's fine. This book is totally ok. I should have felt warned, since I read Clarke's OUR LADY OF THE ICE, another excellent novel about androids, robots, cyborgs, and the nature of humanity. Not sure how I skipped this for so long.
    • 3/5
      I'd like to give it 3 1/2 stars - I was sucked into the story and enjoyed it, but somehow it felt YA, despite the cigarettes, sex, and adulthood. I kept expecting more dire consequences for Cat and Finn that never materialized.
    • 3/5
      In short: The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke is an angst-ridden robot love story. Unfortunately, it wasn't the book for me.Don't be fooled by the mention of robots in the summary for The Mad Scientist's Daughter; the story is more of a tragic romance than science fiction. The Mad Scientist's Daughter tells the story of Cat and her relationship with an android named Finn. The story spans several decades of Cat's life, starting at age 8 and continuing to her mid-thirties, and follows her struggle to come to terms with her feelings for Finn. I was surprised at how different The Mad Scientist's Daughter was from Cassandra Rose Clarke's debut YA novel, The Assassin's Curse, which is a book I LOVED. Where The Assassin's Curse was light and fast-paced, The Mad Scientist's Daughter was almost depressing in tone and quite harsh to read in comparison.The source of this depressing tone is Cat, the mad scientist's daughter, and the novel's narrator. She is also the main source of my frustration with The Mad Scientist's Daughter. She is a terribly broken person, struggling to find meaning in her life, and I am sympathetic to that - I am, really. But at some point I just wanted her to take control of her life, rather than drifting through it and letting bad things happen to her. She does do this eventually, but unfortunately very late in the story. Prior to that, she agrees to enter into a marriage she knows will not bring her happiness and that leaves her hollow and miserable. And she returns to an abusive relationship time and time again. She is also a terrible user - using Finn as an object for sex, never once bothering to think how that might make him feel despite her supposed care for him. I was never able to form an emotional connection with Cat.The Mad Scientist's Daughter is above all a romance. An incredibly angst-ridden one, at that. Now, the focus on the romance is an automatic dislike for me as I prefer to read plots where the main source of conflict doesn't revolve around the romance. And throw in the angst into the equation and it was almost too much for me to take. I was bored. The plot DRAGS and though I felt this was a good reflection of the lack of meaning and tediousness of Cat's life, it was still incredibly boring for me to read. I would have liked to explore the world more as I felt there was loads of untapped potential surrounding the ethics and rights of owning a sentient being, and THIS was what I was interested in most.Ultimately, The Mad Scientist's Daughter clearly just wasn't the book for me and my critiques are all reflective of my personal biases. I do still maintain that Cassandra Rose Clarke is a great writer with a talent for enduring romances. I also really enjoyed the subtle world building and the fact that it was light on the science fiction elements. I believe that there are many people that would enjoy and appreciate The Mad Scientist's Daughter more than I did and I hope it finds its audience. Recommended for romance and robot sex enthusiasts.
    • 5/5
      I got an eCopy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. Thanks to Angry Robot and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. Previously I had read Clarke’s young adult fantasy, The Assassin’s Curse, and loved it. This book is very, very different from The Assassin’s Curse; but I still loved a lot.This is the story of a girl named Cat and her relationship with an Android named Finn. While the story explores the whole concept of android rights, and questions about whether or not an Android can have emotions and feelings, that is really not the focus of the story. The story focuses on Cat and covers a long period of time. It starts when she is a young girl and Finn is her tutor and follows her into her adult years.The pace of the story is deliberate, but it is no less riveting for that pace. As I said this is very different from the Assassin’s Curse. It is definitely an adult story (there are sex scenes and swearing). It is more of a science fiction story with a theme of self-exploration. The pacing to the story reminded me a lot of The Time Traveler’s Wife.Cat is a troubled woman and leads a rather crazy and tumultuous life. Her life seems more defined by her ability to float through life without really making any decisions. For large portions of the book she doesn’t really seem engaged and it makes her situation all the more painful and sad to read about. Cat has loved Finn from a young age and is convinced something is wrong with her since she’s fallen in love with something that’s not human.Finn is an absolutely stunning character. He is completely respectful and loving to Cat, but the whole time a question is hovering...is Finn really like this or is he just programmed this way? Finn has a lot of dimension as a character and learning about him and his origins was fascinating as the book progressed. There is a lot of emotional turmoil in this book. Cat struggles to become what her mother wanted her to be and constantly fights her instincts to be an artist. She is constantly at odds with who she thinks she should be and who she is happy being. Cat and Finn dance circles around each other. Cat wants Finn to be human and Finn knows he’s not. There are some truly heartbreaking moments in this book and it is a pretty heavy read at points.The world is also interesting. The book is set on Earth in a future time following some massive war that almost wiped out humanity. This history comes into play when Android politics are discussed, but isn’t the focus of the book. The book is incredibly engaging, beautifully written, and haunting. Clarke does an excellent job of describing the surroundings and the characters. The book really comes alive and is also incredibly hard to put down. You are just constantly driven to wonder: what will happen to Cat? What will happen to Finn? What will happen to Androids as a whole?Overall I just absolutely loved this book. The characters are spot on, the writing is beautiful, the pacing is deliberate but still absolutely engaging. This isn’t an action packed book, but is more that story of girl who grows into a woman and finds herself struggling with society’s expectations both of love and of her life. There is also a lot of discussion about Androids and whether or not they can feel emotions. Although not completely original, it was still a very creative book that was beautifully written. Recommended to those who enjoy science fiction coupled with a life story.
    • 4/5
      This wasn’t what I was expecting. After receiving approval from NetGalley, I was excited to read a Science Fiction for a change. It was a fantastic read, easy flow and a very interesting and unusual take on robotics. I would suggest this is for the older YA genre to adult due to the love scenes and the vivid details. But I loved the whole story behind Cat and Finn, their friendship and how Cat’s whole life is set out before you.One day when Cat was five, she is introduced to her new tutor, Finn. Cat sees him in the light and thinks he is a ghost, but she is not frightened. Cat is an unusual child, she isn’t put into school and has been home-schooled, but now Finn is here to tutor her. You see, Finn is one of a kind; he is a robot, an android, but is not just a computer he has a conscience. This story follows Cat from the first day she meets Finn, through her childhood and into adulthood. Finn is tutoring her and growing and together they seem to be bonding somehow. Cat comes to think of Finn as her best friend. I mean, Cat doesn’t associate with other children; she isn’t put into school until High School. Her parents are getting concerned she is spending too much time with Finn and finally decide to put her into school.Cat is petrified of going to school; what are all the other kids going to think about her and will she fit in? Keeping to herself, Cat doesn’t know what to do, she takes each day as it comes. Finn is helping Cat’s Father (he is the Scientist) and they don’t get to spend as much time together. Cat goes along and experiences all the things teenagers do and if she gets into trouble, Finn is always there to rescue her.The older Cat gets, the more attached to Finn she becomes. She doesn’t understand what is going on and knows that she has to live her own life. Now she is doing her own things and becoming an artist, moved into the city and working. She meets men and enjoys life, but Finn is always there. Cat wanted to experiment one night with Finn and discover how real Finn is in every aspect (wink wink).Still going along and family tragedy occurs, this brings Cat home and her feelings for Finn seem to surface. But Finn is an android, he cannot get married nor have freedom, but the world is changing and with the invention of androids, rights are being fought for their freedom of choice. Cat knows she cannot have Finn and has to find NORMAL as her Mother says. Life still continues and Finn is free! He decides to go to the Moon and work on the Lunar Station, no longer able to stay home and around Cat.Did Cat confess to her real feelings for the android? What does everybody think about THAT? Can Cat ever be happy?This book is about LOVE mostly and family, betrayal, emotion and what happiness means, but so totally science fiction. It is an amazing book and I enjoyed so much that I will be looking for more books by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I haven’t read a stand-alone for a while and it was great for a change. I highly recommend this to all romance readers, this is science fiction, but it is about love.