Welcome to Gapfest reads for June 2024.

I'm David Plotz, one of the hosts of the Slate Political Gap Fest.

Annie Bot.

What a book.

I tore through C.R. Greer's novel, the story of a sex robot or android.

We'll get into the terminology in a minute named Annie and her growing recognition of her own self, her consciousness.

This is not a new theme. It's as old as Frankenstein, as new as Clara and the Sun. But holy

moly, this is a gripping book. It is sexy about sex. There's a lot of interesting sex in the

sex robot book. And it is deep about what it means to be human. Sierra joins me from her home in, I don't even know where, Sierra. Welcome to Galfest Reeds.

Thank you so much, David. I'm so happy to be here. And I'm connecting with you from Connecticut.

Thank you for this joy of a book. I love world building, and I especially love subtle world building.

And you do it so well in Anibut. Can you tell me some of the key features of the world we arrive at where we meet Anibot?

What is Stella Handy? What are Cuddle Bunnies and Abigail's and nannies?

Well, Anibot is the story of a very advanced female robot named Annie, who's custom designed to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug.

And he purchases this robot because he's lonely.

And there's this company Stella Handy that produces

companion robots and they come in three different modes they can be Abigail's to help out

around the house and cooking they can be nannies to take care of people typically children

but they could be people of any age and then cuddle bunnies who can provide intimacy.

When Doug decides to advance Annie to become autodidactic,

at that point he has to choose one of those three modes to put her in.

And he decides to put her in the cuddle bunny mode for the intimacy.

...