Rose/House by Arkady Martine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
Rose/House is a tense Sci-Fi Techno-Mystery by Arkady Martine. This novella was originally published in 2023, but has been recently re-released by Tor.
The edition I read came in at 115-pages. With this being said, I’m not going to go into too much detail about plot.
In short, this novel features an AI house, not a house with AI capabilities, but a fully-AI house. The designer/creator/architect/inventor/owner, whatever designation you choose for him, died over a year ago.
As far as anyone knows, the only other person allowed inside Rose House is the creator’s former protege, Dr. Selene Gisil.
When the local policewoman, Detective Maritza Smith, gets a call from Rose House saying that there is a dead body in the house, she’s shocked.
The creator is gone and Dr. Gisil is overseas. Who the heck is the dead body, and how did they even get in there?
Maritza is dispatched to investigate, but if she’s able to get into this fortress of a house, will she be able to get back out after? The house is being less than helpful, so that outcome is definitely unclear.
This was interesting and unlike anything I have read lately. I enjoyed the 1st-half more than the latter, but still found the concepts compelling throughout.
From the moment I started learning about Rose House, I didn’t want Maritza to go in. Who cares about the body? Rose House acted deceitful and it creeped me out.
To be fully transparent, anything involving AI actually creeps me out. It’s like one of my biggest fears, pretty much in any iteration. I have nightmares about it.
At first, I’ll admit, I was thinking the writing felt a little choppy, but the further I got in, the more it made sense for the story. The feel of it is actually a bit robotic, which makes sense considering it centers around a fully AI house.
I feel like for me, the length was its biggest drawback. I wanted to know more about everything, all the concepts and all the characters. Martine gave me enough to want more, and that’s a good thing, however, as far as my experience goes, I can’t rate it any higher.
Nevertheless, it’s good and I recommend it for any Sci-Fi fan, in particular if you enjoy stories featuring AI. Also, I did appreciate the blending of Mystery into this Techno-heavy setting. It was unsettling.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to picking up more from this author!