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Title details for We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker - Available

We Are Satellites

by Sarah Pinsker
Bernadette Dunne
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
"Taut and elegant, carefully introspected and thoughtfully explored."—The New York Times
From Hugo award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.

Everybody's getting one.
Val and Julie just want what’s best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all. 
Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.  
Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 11, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593347249
      • File size: 362916 KB
      • Duration: 12:36:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 14, 2020
      Nebula Award winner Pinsker’s cold and cerebral latest (after A Song for a New Day) revolves around technological haves and have-nots who are divided by class, disability, and ideology. Teacher Val and political staffer Julie come from underprivileged backgrounds, and their marriage has immersed them in suburban life, with two kids and a money pit of a house. Enter the Pilot, a new technology for enhancing brain function via a stimulating implant. It quickly becomes a fad: first Val’s wealthy students and then Julie’s congressman boss sport the Pilot’s tell-tale blue lights at their temples, and soon David, the couple’s teenage son, has one. The family, though, shies away from the implications of his enhanced capabilities until he announces his decision to join the military’s new program for people with Pilots. Meanwhile, David’s sister Sophie, whose epilepsy makes her ineligible for implantation, must confront being a have-not in a neural-enhanced world. It’s a slow-developing narrative, marred by slight characterization and check-the-box inclusion of topical issues. Pinsker raises fascinating questions about technology that will appeal to fans of hard science fiction, but the story itself too often reads like dry reportage. Agent: Kim-Mei Kirtland, Morhaim Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Bernadette Dunne's energetic narration is a good match for this thought-provoking sci-fi novel about the consequences of Pilots, new brain implants designed to increase one's focus. The story is told through the points of view of four characters: teacher Val, who doesn't want a Pilot; her wife, Julie, who loves hers; and their two kids--David, whose Pilot malfunctions, and Sophie, an anti-Pilot activist. Dunne's natural, forthright tone makes it easy to sink into the story, which unfolds over many years. She conveys the various struggles of the main characters; her voicings of Sophie's youthful optimism and David's Pilot-induced frustration are especially good. The accents she uses for secondary characters are sometimes forced and awkward, but her ability to bring the main characters to life makes this an engaging listen. L.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      July 1, 2021

      When teenaged David, hoping to improve his grades, asks his two mothers for a Pilot, a device that improves mental processing, he begins a journey that will divide his family. Julie, a politician's administrator, is intrigued by the Pilot device and finds its electric blue LED implanted on the right temple strangely cool; eventually, she gets one for herself. Her wife Val, a teacher, is opposed. David's sister Sophie can't have a Pilot implanted because of her epilepsy, and she's rightfully mistrustful of Balkenhol Neural Laboratories, the corporation that developed the implant. Bernadette Dunne brings a slightly pedantic quality to her narration. VERDICT Fans of hard science fiction set in the very near future will enjoy this familiar exploration of a piece of technology that creates its own challenges, bisects society, and carves a huge divide between the haves and have-nots.--David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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