This wasn't really my kind of book. It tries very hard to be literary (and succeeds) and extract meaning from its events (just about manages to pull it out from the end) but I felt overwhelmingly like it didn't quite manage to deliver on its premise.

I didn't like pretty much any of the characters, but particularly disliked the narrator. His interactions with almost everyone - but especially women - tipped over from interesting character work to infuriating relatively easily. Perhaps I'm too young, but I just didn't 'get' his various romantic attachments and non-attachments and felt like the novel slightly ran out of space to deal with that in a way that would have been satisfying. In general, I felt like the most interesting parts were rushed and crammed in at the end, which did make for a good ending after feeling like the prior 20-25 pages weren't going anywhere near resolution.

The impact of Helen as a 'being' fell a little flat for me, though it was what attracted me to the book in the first place. I didn't see the same consciousness in her that the narrator did until the end, at which point it felt retroactive. The moments when she did come out with really interesting statements or observations were some of my favourite parts of the novel, though, and I think her development towards the end was particularly interesting.

That said, I enjoyed the narration and prose. It's not my usual thing, but I found the technobabble (I have no idea how legitimate any of the science was) at the very least possible to parse, and the rest of the writing was fun to roll around in my head. I prefer slightly more direct narration, but it was nice for a change. The concept, too, was really strong, and as someone who likes to think/write about the sci fi part of AI (rather than the technical, LLM side of it, which was also VERY interesting to think about given the current technological climate around "AI").

Not my kind of book. Probably better for people who like more literary fiction/classic sci fi!