It is an odd fact that most speculative fiction involving robots or artificial intelligence seems to assume either malign intent on the part of the human-created species or that these beings run amok in some way or another. This book in no different in this regard, though since it was written in 1980 I suppose we must give Tevis the benefit of the doubt for prescience rather than imitation. Still, I find it disturbing that almost no one seems to be able to envision a future in which we are in a positive alignment with our mechanistic humanoid creations.

In the world of Mockingbird, the artificial intelligence creatures were designed to provide for every comfort the humans of the world might want and then left in charge so we could get on with the wonderful future. The problem being that their instructions may not have been quite specific enough, not to mention that any glitches in the system or bugs in the software were left unrepaired. We find ourselves in a world in which human no longer read or even know how and they have little or no contact with one another to preserve their Privacy, one of the values assumed to be paramount in this new, dystopian world.

The good news is that Mockingbird is nothing short of brilliant in execution. Tevis is a master, best known for [b:The Man Who Fell to Earth|396329|The Man Who Fell to Earth|Walter Tevis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320467516s/396329.jpg|313881] but this book is, I would imagine, a fitting companion to the earlier book (which I have not yet read). The story is compelling, which is quite a feat when you are writing about humans at their most disengaged and robots at their most disaffected. Tevis dips into a bit of mysticism at one point, but does not allow our protagonist to wallow in it, seemingly content to show us one direction in which human civilization might go. Overall, this is a fine if dark read and a superb addition to the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre.