The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole - Audiobook Review • Ana's Attic Book Blog

The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Narrated by Regina Hall, Mindy Kaling and a full cast of 8 Narrators

SciFi Futuristic Romance

I loved the cover of this audio-first (or only) release with star narrators, and thought The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole looked unique and fun. I listened to another book recently that included a humanoid robot and it didn’t quite work for me, so I thought I’d try this in the hopes that it makes up for the last one.

Taking place in a dystopian-type future, Trinity Jordan works from home as a virtual driver for The Hive, which seems to be like a Big Brother governmental entity. She is also working from home because she is recovering from some type of accident that reveals itself later in the story.

Trinity is trying to get better, but her neighbor’s sexy-but-strange nephew just moved in and is distracting her. Li Wei (pronounced Lee-way, which is what I thought it was the whole book until I read the blurb for this review) is a biosynthetic humanoid (a human-looking robot), and we, as readers, know it, but it takes a while for Trinity to realize. But when her neighbor ends up in the hospital, Trinity steps in to help Li Wei learn to be human.

I loved how Li Wei grew and changed. If you have ever seen Data in Star Trek TNG you will relate. His computer-like responses in a human body seemed funny and that was my favorite part.

“You shouldn’t touch a baby’s face.”
“He touched my face first,” he explains. “It is impolite not to return a greeting in the language of the speaker.”
I suppress my laughter and take another tack.”You might spread germs to him.”
“I do not carry any germs. I scrubbed my body with disinfectant 22 minutes ago making it an inhospitable environment for bacteria.”

At first I had some difficulties following the story because we weren’t given all the information, but once I got into it, I started enjoying the ride. It was interesting being in this futuristic world. When the book turned into a scifi adventurous spy story I started to lose my way a little again and ended a little bit confused.

The Narration:

With some big-name narrators including Regina Hall and Mindy Kaling, I was expecting The A.I. Who Loved Me to have some amazing narration and production, which is why I listened. I did love the integration of sound effects, and I liked how Regina added a POC to a SciFi novel (not common at all), but I found her narration to be a bit dry and often felt like she was reading and not acting (though it did improve as I listened). Also this was a strange combination of dual and duet narration, making the same character (notably Penny) be acted by different actors in certain parts which had me a little confused.

Likes:

A very cool concept with great world-building.
I love the cover.
A racially diverse cast of characters and narrators.
There were some serious social issues woven into the story that basically illustrates how the mistakes we make now will affect the Earth in the future.
A full cast recording.
I loved how Li Wei developed and grew and became more human-like throughout the story.
There were some really fun moments.

Dislikes:

I felt a little lost a few times when listening.
Though I loved the full cast recording, I had a few issues with the narration (see above).
I never really felt the connection both between the characters and as a reader.

The Down & Dirty:

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole was unique, diverse, entertaining and subtly addressed some important social issues. I enjoyed the listen. Did I love it? No. But I never once wished it was over. I found I had difficulties following some of the story and had some issues with the narration that confused me more than a few times. But I am glad I listened, and I am considering listening to more in the series as they release.