Automatic Eve

by Rokurō Inui, Matt Treyvaud (Translator)

The political chess game between the shogunate and the empress has a new piece—a self-aware, autonomous entity named Eve.

A mighty shogunate ruling the land from Tempu Castle. An imperial line of strict female succession. Caught between these two immense powers, the sprawling city of Tempu is home to many wonders—not least a superhuman technological achievement in the form of a beautiful automaton known as Eve. When a secret that threatens to shake the imperial line intersects with the mystery of Eve’s creation, events are set in motion that soon race toward a shocking conclusion. A new, astonishingly inventive science fantasy masterpiece of historic proportions.

Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Japan, Fantasy, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2019

Reviews

[Silvia Moreno-Garcia]

I'm going to give you the Hollywood elevator pitch in order to secure your attention: This is a Japanese steampunk novel for fans of Blade Runner. Full review at NPR: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/24/753469...

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like a manga without the pictures. There may be a great story in here but I couldn't get past sentences like "His blood boiled." I feel a little disconsolate about that. I used to be able to read any old trash with pleasure, but something changed, just after I became self-aware, around the age of 51.

[Eliza Rapsodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siempre estoy dispuesta a leer y descubrir libros que no sería fácil llegar a ellos si no conozco nada del autor. Este titulo lo encontré navegando en Edelweiss+ y me llamó la atención por su portada y sinopsis. Es una pena que no esté en español, ya que fue traducido del japonés al inglés, pero si pueden leerlo por favor háganlo porque, ya les voy avisando, me ha gustado mucho.

Japón feudal. Un joven samurai visita a una prostituta de la que está profundamente enamorado. El quiere que ella sea libre y está dispuesto a pagar para que lo sea, aunque sabe que ella está enamorada de otro hombre. En una competencia de pelea de grillos en honor al shogun, el joven conoce a Kyuzo Kugimiya, un hombre solitario y taciturno con un talento prodigioso para crear objetos mecánicos. Entonces  el samurai le encarga a Kyuzo una tarea que parece imposible: crear una autómata, una réplica exacta de la mujer que ama. 

Automatic Eve es una novela de época con elementos steampunk que se torna un tanto confusa al inicio. El libro está compuesto por una serie de historias cortas, pero a partir de la segunda es que te enteras que todas están interconectadas y desde diferentes personajes se va hilando una trama común. El personaje de Eve es la que une todas las historias y se van formando unas tramas paralelas en las que los autómatas y su naturaleza tienen gran importancia en el juego de poder en el que shōgun quiere apropiarse del poder de la Emperatriz.



No sabía que esperar de esta historia, pero me ha sorprendido muy gratamente. No solo es una novela con una dosis de misterio e intriga que se va desvelando poco a poco a medida que las tramas se van juntando, sino que también plantea preguntas válidas para sus personajes y para el lector: ¿Son la máquina y el humano tan diferentes? ¿Los objetos con forma humana pueden tener alma? ¿Qué es el alma, a fin de cuentas?  Preguntas como estas rodean la creación de los autómatas y su parecido casi imperceptible con los seres humanos, lo que hace la línea entre lo humano y lo no humano demasiado estrecha y borrosa.

La novela trabaja muy bien con estos temas y se hace muy entretenida. Tiene momentos de humor muy conseguidos y una ambientación muy lograda. Hay un par de personajes bastante bien perfilados  y realmente te traslada a la época y a ese Japón feudal en el que la robótica existe. Tal vez los personajes no sean tan sólidos o redondos, pero creo que son interesantes y llevan muy bien el interés de lector. Hay varias sorpresas y giros bastante bien logrados que por supuesto no voy a detallar para no arruinarles la sorpresa. De la traducción no puedo opinar mucho ya que leí una copia anticipada, p ero creo que los términos que no se traducen del japonés no minan la comprensión de ciertos pasajes.

Este libro ha sido un soplo de aire fresco y me ha encantado descubrir a este autor. Sin duda me ha gustado mucho este libro y voy a estar pendiente de los libros que publica esta editorial y los próximos trabajos de Rokurō Inui.

******** REVIEW IN ENGLISH *******

I am always willing to discover books that it would not be easy to find if I know anything about the author. I found this title navigating on Edelweiss + and it caught my attention. It is a pity that it is not in Spanish, since it was translated from Japanese into English, but if you can read it please do so, because let me tell you here in a nutshell: I really, really enjoyed it.

Feudal Japan A young samurai goes to visit a prostitute he truly loves. He wants her to be free and is willing to pay for her indenture, although he knows she is in love with someone else. In a cricket fight competition made in honor of the shogun, this young man meets Kyuzo Kugimiya, a lonely man with a prodigious talent for creating mechanical objects. So this samurai entrusts Kyuzo with a task that seems impossible: to create an automaton, an exact replica of the woman he loves.

Automatic Eve is a historical novel with steampunk elements that can be quite confusing at the beginning. The book is a group of short stories, but when you read the second one you find out that they are all interconnected with a common plot, Eve's character is the one that unites all the stories and several plots are running at the same time in which the automatons and their nature have great importance in the power game in which the shōgun wants to hold the Empress's power.

I love to say that I was pleasantly surprised with this book. The plot has a great way to weave mystery and intrigue that unveil gradually as the character get together, but it also raise valid questions for its characters and for the reader: Are automatons and humans that different? Can human shaped objects have a soul? What is the soul, after all? Questions like these surround the creation of automatons and their almost imperceptible resemblance to human beings, which makes the line between humans and automatons too narrow and blurred.

The plot itself and the short stories are really entertaining. It also has moments of humor which I appreciated. There are a couple of good characters and the writing really takes you to that feudal Japan. Maybe not the characters are as round or interesting, but I think that is not a great issue. There are several surprises and twists quite well done that I will not talk about because spoilers. I cannot comment much about the translation since I read an advanced copy, but I believe the terms that are not translated from Japanese are just a handful and it is not a great problem to understand what they refer to (I used Google and learned more).

This book has been a breath of fresh air and I really enjoyed it. I will be checking out the books that Haikasoru will publish next and also upcoming works by Rokurō Inui.

I received an E-Arc copy by Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.

[Ruthsic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warnings: physical violence (including partner abuse), gun violence, torture, mutilation, mentions of human sex trafficking, sexual assault (groping), mention of suicide

Rep: The setting is medieval Japanese, with Japanese characters

Automatic Eve kind of confused me when I first started the book, because according to the index, it was separate stories and from different characters; but as I went through each story, the connection between them made sense: it was Eve, the automaton that is a mystery who is the thread between the stories and the catalyst for a couple. It starts with a samurai who has a mistress in the capital of the shogunate, and wants to free her from the Thirteen Floors, a brothel that caters to the almost every clientele, high or low. He comes to know of an automata engineer, Kyuzo through the cricket-fighting tournaments, and approaches him to build an automata replica of her. Creepy, I know – but the story has a twist, and then another twist. And the next story goes on about a sumo wrestler, who gets caught up in a gangster’s schemes and pays for it. But from the third story, the connections start making sense – Eve, and Kyuzo, have had their hand in several of the stories surrounding the capital and there’s a larger secret being concealed by the imperial household which the shogunate wants to get their hands on. The push and pull of power between these two organizations ties into the history of the imperial bloodline, as well as the rebellion that took place 30 years ago, and the characters of the story are caught up in the flow. Along for the ride in this crazy journey is a shogunate spy, who finds himself in the middle of the storm when he starts a little investigation. He crosses paths with the important characters enough times to become one himself.

A theme of the story is how do you distinguish between what is real, what is human, and what has a soul (if you got Ghost in the Shell vibes, same) and what is the identity of a thing. No one encapsulates this question as much as Eve, who is not-human and yet so much like one that she has gravity around her. Kyuzo himself questions the possibility of how to totally replicate a human experience into a machine, and even with Eve’s human-like quirks, he is not entirely convinced of an ensouled automata. It is an interesting bunch of stories, for sure, as they explore the meaning of love and caring beyond the human experience, but also have kind of a creepy vibe and a healthy dose of fear about the technology. I must mention, though, the overt and subtle variations of violence against women, or even the creepy way of waking the female automata made me deeply uncomfortable; the first story, especially is heavy with themes of female disempowerment and sexualized violence. As for the story arcs, they are unpredictable a lot of times, and is an entertaining read which kept me on my toes; I pretty much read this straight in one go. The ending is, well, satisfactory for character arcs, because they are mostly concluded with each story or by the end; if you are concerned about the politics that drive the story arc, well, they had sort of an open ending?

Overall, it is an engaging set of sci-fi stories set in a historical setting.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Haikasoru, via Edelweiss.

[Corrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Automatic Eve by Rokurō Inui, translation by Matt Treyvaud.

What is real, what is human, and what has a soul?

The sprawling city of Tempu is home to many wonders—not least a superhuman technological achievement in the form of a beautiful automaton known as Eve. When a secret that threatens to shake the imperial line intersects with the mystery of Eve’s creation, events are set in motion that soon race toward a shocking conclusion.

This superb collection of 5 interwoven stories was a wonderful mix of fantasy and science fiction in a feudal Japanese historical setting. Highly imaginative and richly detailed, it doesn’t get much better than this. Treyvaud’s smooth translation made for an easy read. I absolutely loved it!

Themes: Tempu, Kyuzo Kugimiya the refinery assistant, Eve the automaton, cricket fights, the Thirteen Floors brothel, Tentoku the sumo wrestler, bathhouse, Jinnai the shogunate intelligence agent, Conch and Taiko, the Sacret Vessel, the hundred-prayer stone at Nakasu Kannon, Kasuga lady of the innermost sanctum, the empress.

5 Stars

[Alan M · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘What is a soul?... What is the difference between a person and something identical to a person in every way?’

This is a wonderfully different, slightly bonkers steampunk novel from Japanese writer Rokuro Inui. But the thing is, it all makes sense in the world of the novel, and that is what makes it so involving. It seems, initially, like a series of short stories – certainly the first two appear to be unconnected – but as the book develops all the strands start to come together in a story of power and authority in samurai Japan. As the book progresses we get cricket-fighting contests, sumo wrestlers, spies, conspiracies, and a body kept in a box that people keep mistaking for a stool!

This is a world where master craftsman Kyuzo Kugimiya has learnt from his master Keian Higa at the Institute of Machinery, and now lives a life passing on his craft: the world of the automaton. He lives with one of them as his daughter, Eve, and it is these central characters who continue to appear throughout the story and who drive the plot forwards. Along the way there are love stories that are forever doomed to be, and above all the inner workings and secrets of life in imperial Japan, with an Empress who may or may not also be an automaton, and a scheming shogun determined to seize power. Inui creates such a complex inter-connected plot that draws the reader in, and has created characters that really develop.

For fans of Japanese literature, in all its forms, this is a definite recommended read. It is certainly also for the wider reader, and with a current crop of novels focusing on the issues of AI and robots, this is an excellent addition. At its heart the book is about questions of what it is to be human - what it is to have a soul, to feel emotion and to love – and also how technology can be used by the state in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine. It is at once a piece of historical fantasy and a meditation on humankind. For me, never having read steampunk before, this was a terrific introduction to what the genre can achieve. This book deserves a wider audience than I fear it will get – read it if you can!

[Nadine in California · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the title of this book irresistible, and the story followed suit. It's been labeled Steampunk, but I think of it as Steampunk-lite; other than the existence of hyper-real automaton (not wide-spread), the setting is an engagingly atmospheric ersatz medieval Japan, just as Game of Thrones is ersatz medieval Europe. The first two chapters feel like stand-alone short stories, but the following chapters begin to tie everything together. This serves the book better than a more linear structure - it heightens the mystery and drama of the characters and makes the tale more interesting. All the elements of medieval Japanese sci fi fun are here: shoguns and empresses and spies and ninjas and samurai and bath houses and brothels and cricket-fighting. But it's not all kung-fu entertainment by any means - the characters aren't cardboard cutouts. Tentoku broke my heart and hearing Eve say "It's not a stool!" made me smile everytime.

Addendum: Did I say cricket fighting was fun? Not exactly what I meant - animal fighting is horrendous. I'm morally inconsistent when it comes to insects.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic and innovative read! The details are a perfect mix of fantasy and science fiction elements combined with some cool historical-cultural details that make the story feel grounded and yet quite unique. Hard to believe cricket fighting would be such an exacting way to encapsulate the overall atmosphere of this one, but it does, and beautifully. The balance between real and artificial has never seemed so delicate, or tenuous. I enjoyed every single page of this one, especially the Japan-themed aspects that were intricately woven throughout the tale. There are some heavy questions uncovered in this highly imaginative book, none more profound than the origin, or existence?, of the human soul. Inui has crafted a mosaic novel unlike anything I have read in a while, able to be appreciated simply for its fabulous style, but equally, or possibly more so, for its substance. Superb!

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

When does something you create become a life of its own? What makes something alive? What makes us human, and where is the line between a replica of a human, and a human? Automatic Eve refreshed my love of steampunk sci-fi, after burning out a little on robot sci-fi recently, and I will be quite happy to dive back in. All of these stories stand well on their own, the dynamic between the cast helps emphasize the themes of the stories, and the interconnection made the entire book so enjoyable. I didn't expect some of the turns and twists that occurred, and frankly, I will be thinking about them for a while.

[ポピ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

So basically, to make a robot come to life, you have to grab it's boob.

Wtf. Lol

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Automatic Eve, by Rokuro Inui
Translated by Matt Treyvaud

This collection of connected short works centers as much on the idea of what life is, or what souls might be, as it does on the plot of a secret creator of clockwork people in a fictional version of Japan.

The titular character is one of these clockwork people, who moves alongside the people of Tempu City like one of them. Her nature, and the secret of her creation, is central to a mystery that permeates this fictional Japan back to its very roots.

This work walks the tightrope linking philosophical rumination and fun fiction quite well. The conceptual heart never overshadows the action and characterization, making for a fun read that still takes time to ponder its oplwn assumptions.

Treyvaud's translation is smooth and apt. It deftly navigates a couple of tricky issues with kanji-based naming play, and maintains the nuances of archaic social roles without stooping to awkward honorific use. It's an easy read with no missteps.

[Olivermagnus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found Automatic Eve a completely confusing book. My goal this month was to read steampunk books set in countries other than Victorian England so I was excited to find one set in Japan. It's a complicated group of stories featuring Eve.

It is set in a steampunk version of Edo-period Japan. A young samurai visits a prostitute with whom he is deeply in love. He wants her to be free and is willing to pay for her to be so, even though he knows that she is in love with another man. He meets Kyuzo Kugimiya, a lonely man with a talent for creating mechanical objects. Then the samurai entrusts Kyuzo with the job of creating an automaton, an exact replica of the woman he loves.

Eve's character is the one that unites all the stories. Each chapter tells a different story, but bit by bit you see them overlap and it's all comes together in the end. The problem for me is that I just wasn't interested in the stories.

I still thought it was a very original concept, I have never read anything like it but I could see it being an interesting movie.

[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere between short stories and a mosaic novel, this is steampunk set in Edo-period Japan. The first few stories engage distinct cultural elements and develop disparate styles as a result: a star-crossed romance with a courtesan, a sumo wrestler caught up in organized crime, shogunate spies, imperial intrigue. These final two win out, reoccurring in the later chapters which pull together the overarching plot; unfortunately, the style and protagonist are both lackluster.

Meanwhile automata run through the work, always as supporting characters but thematically central in the question of personhood: is a machine that acts human and appears human essentially human? I wish these questions were less blatantly posed and more thoughtfully answered, ideally by elevating the automata to central roles. This is inventive, tropey, distinctive--but slight.

[Neil B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clockwork-punk edo period story about clockwork maidens and an imperial shogun conspiracy set mostly at a bathhouse? Yup. Is it a great book? Nope. It is worth the read if you are in the mood for this type of story? Yup. It is a 'cozy' read? absolutely not.

It reads as a collection of 3 or 4 separate stories all tying back to the mysterious Kyuzo Kugimiya. It is a translated book so sometime the grammar and sentence structure is a bit rough but the story flows through the descriptions. I wouldn't call anything that happens a major plot twist and there are no 'Aha' moments but it has a solid end. Also be warned there is lots of cricket fighting which is historically accurate but the detail of describing the fights and crickets is lost in the cultural translation of this book.

[Mary Wyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read. I felt like I was watching a Japanese movie (that wasn't an anime).
Starting with seemingly random stories, then bringing it closer to the point of complete connection, Mr. Rokuro Inui wove this story with ease.
My favorite character was Jinnai. I liked Eve and Kyuzo too, but Jinnai beat them with performing awesome samurai feats with a bit of shinobi in the mix.
I don't know what else to say, other than, if you like Japanese literature, automatons, and intricate storytelling, then this is the book for you!
Enjoy :)

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the initial press blurbs described this as "Blade Runner but in Edo-era Japan", but with the amount of political intrigue involved I would say it's more Ghost in the Shell. Like those other headline sci-fi works, this is ultimately a story about what it means to be human and whether a being that is constructed can be human. It initially starts out as some seemingly unconnected stories but merges in the end into a bigger unified narrative; still a quick read.
The translation seems quite competent though I have not read the original Japanese.

[Taina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historiallista scifiä, jossa vanhan keisarikunnan liepeillä elää ihmismäinen robotti (romaanissa "automaton") Eve. Katanat viuhuvat ja ruumiita tulee, kun keisarikunnan juonet ja salaisuudet paljastuvat ja Eve tuntuu olevan mystisesti kaiken keskiössä.

Eniten tykkäsin vanhan Japanin kuvauksesta, jota kirjassa on paljon. Kokonaisuus oli kuitenkin todella pirstaleinen, juoni häilyvä, ja kuten joku arvostelussaan kirjoitti, teos tuntui mangalta ilman kuvia.

Enkä muuten jaksa lukea kymmeneen kertaan naisrobotin ihanista nänneistä tai ruusunnuppuna avautuvasta suusta.

[Roisin · Rating 3 out of 5]

whatup i have a cold this time
it was alright. there's an interesting book in here about how all cyborgs are female, and how they are treated like objects (pretty much like all the human women in this book). Unfortunately its trapped in a book about mostly men. Can't work out if the intention was to always have one main protagonist - in which case, why are the first few chapters other guys- or if its to only see snippets of Eve.
Lots of mentions of how men think the cyborg woman are pretty (although if they KNEW they were ROBOTS, would they still love the women?!?!)

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a review that said this book read like a Japanese manga without picture. I can see that and to me that's not a bad thing. I like manga. I thought the story was told so that it didn't need the pictures. The words were enough. The Renegade Geppetto chapter was not as well written as the others. Choppy sentences. Grammatical error's. Almost like someone else wrote it.
On the whole I liked it and have a longing to rewatch my Rurouni Kenshin videos and reread the manga.

[Groucho42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translated set of short stories. They seem to mix feudal Japan with steampunk. The first story was a tragic love story that was kind of interesting. The second was about a young Sumo wrestler and didn't interest me at all. If the translation is any indication, the author is a good writer. It's just that the stories didn't interest me enough to continue.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general I had mixed feelings about this book. I certainly enjoyed some aspects of the story (especially the cricket fighting and some scene depictions) but found some of the structure of the book to be disjointed and confusing at times. Some of the writing and character development fell flat for me as well, though it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly why.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Japan, in a feudal type society with advanced clockwork mechanica. The story was well put together and moved briskly, weaving at first unconnected stories into a larger web of characters following a single plot. It was a little difficult to keep track of all the characters because of this, but ultimately the story was enjoyable and easy to read.

[Christopher Spears · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on a whim and was pleasantly surprised! The book description mentions Bladerunner, but I think the story has more in common with Pinocchio. I really enjoyed the steampunk medieval Japan setting. This is the third book I have bought from Haikasoru imprint, and so far, I have enjoyed every one.

[Leanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Was this book a slow start for you or were you sucked right in?
Once I started reading I easily lost myself in the story, but I only picked it up so that I could participate in the J-Book Club discussion. That's one of the reasons I enjoy being a member, I'm encouraged to read books that I otherwise would've skipped!
2. How would you describe this book in one sentence?
Eve, an autonomous humanoid hidden in plain sight, shapes the imperial history of feudal Japan.
3. What star rating would you give this book?
Three stars. Although I longed to unravel the mystery of Eve, it was difficult at times to keep up with the numerous characters and plot points across chapters.
4. What made you interested in picking this book up (or what made you hesitant to read it)?
I was hesitant to read this book because I doubted how the author could believably incorporate Artificial Intelligence given the time period. To my surprise, the origins of the technology were not merely glossed over and as a result I did not feel like there were glaring plot holes.
5. Favorite Quotes:

[Tycho Toothaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it. I was surprised by how foreign the storytelling was--I realized I'm used to Western patterns and it felt very distinct from that. I recommend reading it relatively quickly--each piece is important to the whole.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super weird but I liked it a lot - lots of plot twists that kept me up late to find out what really happened. Final scene had some anime charm to it which was cute. Nice to read a classic page turner!

[transfict.honnomushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, such an amazing and different world. Found it hard at first as each chapter tells a different story but bit by bit you see them overlap and it's all comes together in such a good way. This would make a brilliant film.

[Michael Scott Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Novellas woven into one Incredible Story

Automatic Eve is a collection of stories that all fit together in a wonderful way. I devoured this book over 2 days, and will be buying another just now by Rokuro Inui! Excellent storytelling, Arigato Rokuro!

[Macha]

3 and a half stars. in an alternate steampunk version of Japan, automata have been invented, and now they threaten to destabilize the throne. a neat premise, exploring what a soul might consist of between gears and springs. pretty wooden writing, at least in this translation, though.

[Helen Park · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my fav, did;t finish