- Title:
- Summer Frost
- Author:
- Blake Crouch
- Release:
- September 17, 2019
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Rosa Salazar
- Series
The Forward Collection is something I discovered in late 2019 or early 2020 when I first started listening to more Audiobooks. It’s a 6 book series written by 6 different authors about possible futures, curated by Blake Crouch.
Summer Frost doesn’t really seem to know where to start. It just drops you into the middle of a scene where one character is following another. But the context is lacking, so you really have no idea what’s going on until further context is given later in the story.
Videogame “A.I.” has always been incredibly limited. Summer Frost asks “what if it wasn’t?”. Buying into that fear so many people have of A.I., what if after being destined to die and having been killed thousands of times, the videogame A.I. has had enough and decides to carve a new destiny for herself.
I try not to spoil anything in my reviews, which makes this one a difficult review for me. To me, this book goes from interesting to jumping an ocean worth of sharks at the end. Had it not been for the ending of this book, It likely would have been my favorite in the collection. But due to the ending, I find Ark and Emergency Skin to be the two I enjoy the most.
Blake Crouch does a good job of fleshing out Riley, her job, and her personal relationship with her wife. I’ve always preferred novels and series, so I don’t know if this is usual for short stories. Despite being just under two hours (audiobook version), you really start to feel like you know Riley and that’s a feat I find impressive for a short story.
The narration is fine. I appreciate that Max has a robotic-sounding, inhuman voice which reminds you that she’s not a human character. That being said, she does sound stereotypical. If you’ve ever heard a robotic voice in a movie, show, audiobook, or elsewhere, you’re familiar with the speaking pattern used for Max. That stunted, emotionless voice and use of vocabulary remind you every time they talk that their emotions are simulated.
My suggestion is still to read this book, as it is with every book in this collection. But the ending will always leave a bad taste in my mouth.