A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.
Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.
But even an animate …
Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.
A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.
Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.
But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.
There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up.
No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.
Each element is pristine and sun-baked here, like the setting: reluctant detective on the murder case, wealthy aesthetic recluse, mundanely dystopian AI. And as spare translucent noir, I enjoyed it.
This is a book I wanted to read immediately when I found out it existed, because I very much liked Arkady Martines two earlier, totally different novels. Then I found the book actually didn't exist, or only kind of. It was printed but is out of print and the e-book is not available either, as the rights according to the publisher now have reverted to the author.
There seems to be a new edition coming at the end of the year, but right now the only way to access the book legally seems to be to listen to the audio version through a streaming service which I'm not going to subscribe to, even if I was into audio books, or to learn French, which might prove even more time-consuming than waiting for the new edition.
In the end I did find a way to access the book anyway, and I …
This is a book I wanted to read immediately when I found out it existed, because I very much liked Arkady Martines two earlier, totally different novels. Then I found the book actually didn't exist, or only kind of. It was printed but is out of print and the e-book is not available either, as the rights according to the publisher now have reverted to the author.
There seems to be a new edition coming at the end of the year, but right now the only way to access the book legally seems to be to listen to the audio version through a streaming service which I'm not going to subscribe to, even if I was into audio books, or to learn French, which might prove even more time-consuming than waiting for the new edition.
In the end I did find a way to access the book anyway, and I was not disappointed. The writing is exquisite as is the world building. However, the ending was somewhat unexpected and abrupt, I would have hoped there was more to tell. Who knows, maybe threre will be?