5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and interesting, May 1, 2011

By N. M. Legel “Author of Deadly Vanity” (Phoenix, AZ) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: His Robot Girlfriend (Perfect Paperback)

This short story is a fun read and I, personally, love that the author took inflation and commercialism into account when building his vision of America in the not-so-distant future. There are a few conflicts going on in this story that I would love to have seen developed further, but that is to be expected in a story this length that is trying to cover as complex a concept as falling in love with a robot. I can definitely say that this story is worth the little money it costs and I have since purchased the sequel to this story and I am looking forward to reading it.

Review by: A. M. Harte on Jan. 06, 2011 :

Middle-aged widower Mike Smith teaches by day and vegetates in front of the TV by night. His life is dull, uneventful. But the humdrum routine is broken when he sees an ad for a Daffodil robot and, on impulse, he splurges on a sexy female robot that can be anything and everything he wants it to be. Mike’s life will never be the same again.

His Robot Girlfriend is set in a not-too-distant future where androids are commonplace, working as waiters, cleaners, gardeners, and more besides. The world is interesting and realistic; the author has put careful thought into the small details, which makes it all the more believable. While I found a few of those details niggling — such as TVs being called vueTees — for the most part the setting of the novel is very immersive.

It certainly helps that the characters are likable: it isn’t so difficult to empathize with Mike’s life as a middle school teacher, and Patience (the android) has an endearing, quirky personality — although I must admit a large part of her charm comes from the fact that she’s not human.

But perhaps the characters are too likeable. Far from being an exploration of the moral issues behind androids and human/robot love, His Robot Girlfriend is a light-hearted romance about two nice individuals whose only wish is to please the other. Of course, given the differences between them (and Mike’s stereotypical maleness), making each other happy is no easy task.

I have to confess that I wasn’t expecting a romance, which somewhat coloured my impression of the book. I was a little disappointed that the novel did not cover any of the expected android themes in any depth, besides in small scenes such as Patience being offended when a waiter calls her an ‘it’, and her not being allowed to gamble in Las Vegas. The concept of the story is interesting, but there is so much more it could offer.

I suppose the main critique I would have of His Robot Girlfriend is that there wasn’t much substance to the plot. While I enjoyed Allison’s vision of a possible future, the story lacks conflict; the two potential challenges Mike would have had to overcome were quickly resolved, and my expectations that the story would develop into something fuller were not met.

Allison’s writing style is perhaps a little choppy, and takes some getting used to, but overall I was impressed by the quality of this ebook. For something free, Wesley Allison has produced a respectable book, and I would be curious to check out his future releases.

In sum, I enjoyed reading His Robot Girlfriend for its unusual vision of the future, although the plot itself is a little thin on the ground. It’s a light-hearted, quick read (I raced through it in one sitting), and I’d recommend it to fans of fluffy HEA science fiction romance.

This review by quillaja was recently posted on Feedbooks.com.

This book was ok. I really was looking only for something short and moderately entertaining (though something more would also have been welcome), and “His Robot Girlfriend” delivered that for free.
One of my criticisms are that after the robot girlfriend arrives, most of the story revolves around buying her clothes and having sex. I can’t understand why this robot needs so many dresses and shoes. Apparently robots are programmed to be insatiable consumers.
My second criticism is that there are some typos, grammatical errors, and things that seem like incorrect technical wording. The typos and grammatical mistakes might just be in the feedbooks version, but the technical mistakes are probably not. For example, the robot implies that her experiential memory can’t be damaged or erased because it’s “write only.” If it’s write only, how does she access it? Also, though I never heard of “write only” memory, because it can be written to, one could still erase or damage it by writing bad or null data to it.
Thirdly, I know the girlfriend is a robot, but does she really have to act like the perfect female slave that waits on her man hand-and-foot, takes care of him, and satisfies his every sexual desire? She really doesn’t have much personality of her own; she simply behaves exactly as Mike wants her to (except when it comes to exercise, I guess). The fact that she babies Mike so much makes me dislike him for being such a helpless man. Someone reading this from the feminist perspective would have a great time ripping the story to shreds.
Anyway, it’s a decent quick read if you’re looking for some mild entertainment.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to read my book. A few answers to some of your comments.

One of my criticisms are that after the robot girlfriend arrives, most of the story revolves around buying her clothes and having sex. I can’t understand why this robot needs so many dresses and shoes. Apparently robots are programmed to be insatiable consumers.

Yes, I can see how that might bother some people. My idea was that having a robot would ultimately be something like having a really big Barbie doll. Check out the Barbie aisle in the toy store– lots of clothes and shoes. The story was originally very sexually explicit and I rewrote it to be less so, but there is still just as much sex as before, just less graphic.

My second criticism is that there are some typos, grammatical errors, and things that seem like incorrect technical wording.

I’m very embarrassed about the typos! Believe me, I have spent many hours editing and have had several others editing for me as well. This is a problem that most self-published authors, without the benefit of professional editors, face. It’s hard to edit your own writing, since you tend to skip over words without even realizing it, since you know what is there. I am going to go back again though, and when I find those typos or errors, I will fix them and update the file here.

As for the technical aspect you mentioned– write-only memory. Yup, that was just a mistake. It should have been read-only. I may go back and fix that, or I might just leave it to confuse the techies.

Thirdly, I know the girlfriend is a robot, but does she really have to act like the perfect female slave that waits on her man hand-and-foot, takes care of him, and satisfies his every sexual desire?

Well, the story is essentially a male fantasy play.

She really doesn’t have much personality of her own; she simply behaves exactly as Mike wants her to (except when it comes to exercise, I guess).

She is a robot.

The fact that she babies Mike so much makes me dislike him for being such a helpless man.

I can see that. Still, speaking as a man, that is probably the most realistic part of the story.

Someone reading this from the feminist perspective would have a great time ripping the story to shreds.

While I tried to make a few social comments in the story, I would be the first to say that it’s not that thematically deep. I doubt there is much femenist criticism to be done beyond what you have said about Mike above. Still, if someone writes a college paper on my book, send me a copy of it, and I will send you an autographed paperback.