Book Blog: Machinehood by S.B. Divya
I review everything I read and post reviews on Goodreads and LibraryThing. That’s not enough. Good books are meant to be shared. Therefore, I’m spotlighting some of my favorite reads here on my site.
Machinehood by S.B. Divya
out now in print and ebook; BookShop, B&N, and Amazon [affiliate link]
From the Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya, Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy.
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process.
All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week.
Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight.
Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want?
A thrilling and thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?
I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley.
The year 2021 has just started, but I already know this is one of the best new science fiction books I will read this year. It’s that good. Divya has created an utterly immersive future that is plausible and spooky all at once.
Welcome to a future Earth where designer drugs help people work and think faster in order to keep them competitive with advanced machines. Everyone has personal drone clouds that broadcast their activities to the world, with strangers casting money into their tip jar for deeds done well. Welga is a tough woman working in higher echelons of security when a client is killed by a new terrorist group. The Machinehood is demanding rights for bots–or else they’ll shut down the pill trade and tech networks, essentially ending modern civilization. Welga tries to find out who and what the Machinehood really is, even as her own health begins to shatter. This is a read that ponders some very deep philosophical questions: what is a machine? what is sentient life?
Some scifi books with advanced tech this deep are so full of jargon they lose me within the first chapter. This book didn’t. Divya builds details at the right pace. This isn’t a book just about hard scifi, though. It’s packed with genuine heart. Every character feels complex and realistic, as does the incredible diversity of ethnicities, religions, and genders. With the stakes so high and the plot so deep, I wondered if everything could pull together in the end–it did. The ending is satisfying and strong, and left me a little sad that it was all done.
Truly a stellar work, and the first one to go on my novel award nominee list for 2021.
Read MoreBready or Not: Triple-Chocolate Brownies
These Triple-Chocolate Brownies are loaded with three kinds of chocolate, cocoa, and a unique blend of flours: all-purpose along with chickpea flour.
What does the chickpea flour do for the recipe? Well, it handles moisture differently. That makes these dense, moist, in a texturally more complex way than the usual all-wheat-flour brownies.
The flavor is also more complex. Soon after baking, these brownies taste almost like they have breakfast cereal mixed in. You can tell something is different.
Like a lot of chocolate baked goods, though, these taste better after a day. In these brownies, that means the complicated flavors deepen. They taste more chocolaty, more delicious.
If you don’t want to fuss with a big bag of chickpea flour, check out your local grocery or natural goods stores that have flours in bins. In the Phoenix area, that includes Sprouts and WinCo.
Once you make these brownies, though, you may want to make them again soon, so maybe a larger amount of chickpea flour isn’t a bad thing.
Modified from February 2020 Bake from Scratch/Bob’s Red Mill lesson.
Bready or Not: Triple-Chocolate Brownies
Equipment
- 9×13 baking pan
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate divided
- 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips divided
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, cubed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup chickpea flour
- 1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder sifted
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 4 large eggs room temperature, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 325-degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- Using a double boiler on the stove top or a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, melt together 1 cup of dark chocolate/semi-sweet chocolate chips, 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, and butter. Heat until it can be stirred smooth. Remove from heat and stir in all of the sugar. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together both flours, cocoa powder, salt, and espresso powder. Set aside.
- Return to the chocolate bowl. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients, and follow up with the rest of the three kinds of chocolate chips. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
- Bake until the center passes the toothpick test, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely at room temperature or speed the process in the fridge. Use the foil to lift the contents onto a cutting board. Slice into bars.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to a week. Like many chocolate baked goods, these brownies will actually taste better after the first day as the flavor intensifies.
OM NOM NOM!
Poetry reading and interview on YouTube: “A Purring Cat is a Time Machine”
Todd Sullivan is accumulating a wonderful number of author showcases and interviews on YouTube, and included me in his series on How to Read Poetry. I read my poem “A Purring Cat is a Time Machine,” originally published in Daikaijuzine, and then answer some interview questions on poetry. Enjoy!
Read MoreBready or Not: Apple Slice Tray Bake
This Apple Slice Tray Bake would simply be an Apple Cake to most Americans. Whatever you call it, it’s packed with apples and delicious.
This is third consecutive recipe I’ve modified from the Bake from Scratch Magazine July/August 2020 Ireland-themed issue. I still have a few more things I want to try in the coming months, too!
I’ve found that French, Irish, and British apple cake recipes tend to be lighter on sugar and spices than typical American recipes. The focus is really on the apples.
I used Honeycrisps here, which are one of my favorite apples to eat outright or bake with! Two big apples will work.
This bakes up light, lofty, and cakey, with a sugar-crusted top and a lovely flavor of apples throughout. The pieces freeze and thaw very well, too, meaning you can enjoy this like it is fresh but spread over days or weeks!
Bready or Not: Apple Slice Tray Bake
Equipment
- 9×9 baking pan
- uneven spatula
Ingredients
Apple layer:
- 2 large baking apples Honeycrisp work well
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon white sugar
Cake:
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter (2 and a half sticks) room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or substitute vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 9×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray.
- Peel and core the apples, then slice to about 1/4-inch thickness. Place slices in a large bowl and toss them with lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon white sugar, until apples are coated. Set aside.
- In a big mixing bowl, beat butter and white sugar for several minutes, until blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing in well and scraping bowl afterward. Add vanilla. The batter may look curdled, but that’s okay.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
- Spread about half of the batter into the pan, using an uneven spatula to form an even layer. Arrange apple slices, flat side down, to cover the batter entirely. Top with the remaining batter, using the uneven spatula again to even out as much as possible. Sprinkle turbinado sugar all over the top.
- Bake until the middle of the cake passes the toothpick test, which will be from 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cover pan with foil about halfway through to prevent it from browning too much.
- Let cool in pan for an least 10 minutes, then use foil to lift cake onto a cutting board. Slice into squares. Tastes best warmed and at room temperature. Pieces can also be shrouded in plastic wrap and frozen for later enjoyment.
OM NOM NOM!
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