Emily Eternal

I really wanted to like this book. I like the premise. But when you have a computer program rewriting human beings DNA in split seconds, over Wi-Fi, halfway across the globe, with no explanation of how, no nanites, no actual mechanism to do so, I just can't hold it suspension of disbelief long enough to enjoy the story. There were too many things like that, times I threw my hands up in the air and shouted that's not how that works! if you have no technical or computer science background, you may be more comfortable with how these things are glossed over and be able to immerse yourself in the story. But I just couldn't do it.

** I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I really wanted to enjoy Emily Eternal because the premise sounded really interesting. An artificial consciousness trauma counsellor trying to figure out their purpose during the end of the world. But there was so much I didn't like about the book which overshadowed it.

Firstly Emily's characterisation which was downright weird. It felt like I was seeing the story through the eyes of a teenager. This came across as a serious story written (I'm guessing) for adults. Then you have Emily with all sorts of interesting quotes like “I've felt no return to my expanded (and totes goddess-of-information-like) abilities”.

If you like YA romance books I guess you'll like this because thats basically what it is. Emily isn't like other girls (literally). And she gets her totally hot boyfriend. The whole intimacy thing between Emily and ?? (I'm going to say Kevin) was really weird. Emily doesn't physically exists, she's like a hologram projected onto the character's brain. But they manage to have sex. I'm not going to ask how.

I think the most annoying part of the plot was how it set up the rules for how the world works and then proceeds to break them. Even though Emily is a trauma counsellor she can manipulate cells and DNA. But apparently curing cancer is a step too far. In the space of two chapters she also taught herself how to swim and fight. Don't even ask me how the story ends because I read the ending three times and I still couldn't tell you.

The world just didn't seem believable. Too many science things were explained away with its basically just magic. I've literally read stories about moving an entire planet which felt more believable than this because it was grounded in science.

Basically its like Seveneves. If Seveneves was a YA fantasy book rather than hard science fiction.

This book at times required a weird amount of suspension of disbelief on my part for a large portion of the plot points and the “physics” of how things happened. That being said I really enjoyed this book. The concept and the plot beats were really fun. I love AI concepts in general and this one was really entertaining.
If you can get past the idea of an AI scanning dna with a blue tooth espresso machine and see the good parts - check this out.