In the Lives of Puppets: A No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and ultimate cosy fantasy

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This fantasy/sci-fi mashup novel contains plenty of humor and heart. It asks interesting philosophical questions about humanity, many of which we glean through the eyes of robots. It’s a story of forgiveness, found family, and what it means to love unconditionally. It has accurate, positive queer representation, which is something the author, TJ Klune, always strives to provide. Some of the details are deliberately counter-realistic to illustrate some unspecified point about the need for organic relations between sentient beings. Most notably, the family repair Hap with wood so that he looks more like a puppet, while both Hap and Gio have had their batteries replaced by a complex wooden gear system finished off with a drop of Victor’s blood. And blood also stands for some ineluctable humanity that some in the book prize and others, dangerously, hate. In a small home, built into the branches of a tree, live a human named Victor and three robots. These are a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, a small vacuum desperate for love and attention, and a fatherly inventor-android named Giovanni Lawson. Together they’re a family, hidden and safe.

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots - fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe. Nonetheless, Vic and Hap’s tentative exploration of something that is brand-new for the both of them is very charming.I will still count this as a win for ace representation because Vic is at least portrayed as having emotions, which a lot of ace characters are not. I didn’t expect to emotionally identify with robots, but I found myself weeping as I read the last few chapters. (Although, really, are you surprised?) The ending is bittersweet, but hopeful enough to be somewhat satisfying. I will admit that this isn’t my favorite book of Klune’s. But I do think it’s an enjoyable read. In a machine-controlled dystopian future, Victor Lawson lives in a treehouse in an Oregon forest with his dad Giovanni. Vic is human, and Gio is an android inventor who raised Vic from infancy. With all the recent discussions about Artificial Intelligence, the idea of robots developing emotions is one that should be considered. (And often is, let’s be real here.) The robots that make up Victor’s family experience sadness, loyalty, bravery, determination. They are every bit as human as the human they protect. It very much reminded me of Humans, in that it explores love and friendship between humans and androids and delves into how much humanity can be in a machine.

As with many excellent dramas, everything changes when a stranger enters their lives and how we view the outcome depends on whether Victor is named for optimism or irony. The adventures of the book hinge upon the family’s discovery of an extremely handsome android almost dead in the Scrap Yards. They save his life and his presence heralds the end of a temporary idyll. Whether it is the arrival of the android, Hap, or the drop of Victor’s blood on the Scrap Yard floor, something in that discovery attracts the outside world, and the gears of plot begin to turn. From New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, In the Lives of Puppets is a queer retelling of the Pinocchio tale, inviting you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune is published by Tor Books and will be available April 25 wherever books are sold. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans. The rest of the unconventional family must travel across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommissioning. Or worse, reprogramming. Along the way, Vic must decide if he can handle his feelings for Hap – even if they come with strings attached.An epic quest of rescue and discovery [with] the author’s trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness.” — Library Journal, starred review He’s adorable,” Lemoine claimed in a pre-election interview, calling the far-right libertarian “the most wanted man in Argentina right now”. Gedan believed there would be “a lot of buyer’s remorse in Argentina” if Milei pursued even a small fraction of his ideas. Those ideas include legalising the sale of human organs, dramatically slashing social spending, downplaying the crimes of Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship, and cutting ties with Argentina’s two most important trade partners, Brazil and China. On the campaign trail, Milei vowed to abolish Argentina’s central bank and dollarise the economy, and brandished a chainsaw intended to symbolise ferocious cuts he believes will help stabilise the economy and “exterminate” rampant inflation.