The Stories of Ibis

Book arrived eariler than expected, which was a welcomed surprise. Product is as advertised, I definitely recommend this seller. Thank you.

4.5 Stars.I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. The manner in which the author set up a rumination on how humans would relate to androids and AI was not only entertaining but also enlightening. There has been much discussion recently about AI and whether or not humans can survive after machines become aware. Many pundits have offered their opinions, but in reality, no one knows. The main android in Yamamoto's tale relates various old AI stories to a human in order to lead him to the truth. Each tale approaches the question of human-AI co-existence (or not) through different perspectives. Each is riveting in their own right, but when taken together with the overarching story, the whole becomes greater than its parts.

This was one of the first books I read on my kindle, I got it only because Amazon recommended it to me. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. The short stories are so well done that you forget that they are part of a larger story. In addition the overarching story stays important throughout the story and it never forgotten. The ending, in my opinion, was surprisingly twisted and did not end as I though it would.I enjoyed this book very much and was surprised that it did not have as many reads as I thought it would have.

I bought this book a year and a half ago. it wasn't perfect but i remember being good,it''s strange. Imagine if the animatrix segment of robots went for an anthology view of it. You love scifi you'll probably like it

Really reAlly good I have missed excellent science fiction and this helped fill that void! I hope the author has more novels.

Really a series of short stories that are there to bring home various points. Some of them are better at that than others, but in general there was a feeling that something significant was being said in each. The framing scenes were pretty weak and obvious in comparison, but they didn't need to be all that strong to make the whole thing work. I gave it 3 stars because of the variation in the effectiveness in the stories. It did have some very interesting ideas, most of which will appeal to the geekier set, about robotics and ai and their relationship to human civilization and the individuals in it.

Excellent book and translation. You wouldn't know that the book wasn't originally written in English by just reading it.If you like stories about androids and AI this is a must-read.

What an under-appreciated gem! It's a phenomenal take on artificial intelligence like nothing else I've seen before or since and inspired me to go into Computer Science. Could not recommend more.

The future. A young man is captured by the robots who now control the Earth. Particular interest is taken in him by Ibis, who looks like a beautiful woman on the surface but constantly reminds him that that is not what she is. The young man hates robots, for they have stolen the Earth and brought humanity low, and so gently Ibis wooes him, in a reverse of the Arabian Nights, with tales of Artificial intelligence and its interaction with humanity. What is her ultimate goal? Why is this young man so important?That's the framework for this book, another sterling entry in HaikaSoru (an imprint of manga publishers Viz). It's an odd admixture of short story collection and novel, containing as it does stories that have little to do with each other in terms of producing a single world, but everything to do with each other thematically. The novel's confession that these short stories are untrue is part of a wonderful metafictional conceit that forces the reader and the narrator to confront the human interaction with fiction and whether that's good or bad and what it ultimately means about people. As such, much is made of what is truth and what fiction means, which gives the narrative depth and provokes thought.It certainly is more lively than the first couple of short stories which seem slightly... amateurish? Old hat? This may not be fair, as we're dealing with translation so cannot be sure that all the implied meanings of the original text are coming through, but there is something slightly fan fiction-y and too on the nose about the first stories. As the novel continues, though, the writing becomes more assured and complex, and with clever sleight of hand, Yamamoto manages to wind the fictions into the "reality" of the framework narrative as it refers back to the stories.The stories themselves:1.) The Universe on my Hands is about role players who run a fiction ring based on a ship that feels very Star Trek-y and how a murder in the real world encroaches on the crew's experiences and how they react.2.) A romance in Virtual Space deals with a girl who spends a lot of time in the virtual world and how it gives her strength in the real world when she meets someone online.3.) Mirror Girl is about a toy that becomes a friend and how the current obsession with the inanimate could have unforeseen repercussions.4.) Black Hole Diver is about the possibility of using a Black Hole as a gateway to another universe and mankind's need for challenge.5.) A world where justice is just is about a special girl who starts getting emails from a doomed world. It doesn't take long to guess the twist but it is the way the story is resolved that's so interesting.6.) The day Shion came is about the creation of an artificial caregiver and how her uncompromising apprehension of the world in terms of logic comes to have an effect on other caregivers and the residents of the care home they work at.7.) The final story is Ibis' own story and tells how the world of the novel came to be, while pulling on strands from all the other stories here.There is a good amount of emotion, optimism and intelligence in the writing here. It does, at times, feel a little unoriginal, particularly in the early stories, but as the short stories become longer, almost novella length, Yamamoto is more able to paint a picture of the world and what the people in it experience and it becomes more satisfying. The author's background in videogames certainly comes through as all the stories play in the hinterland of consumerism and mankind's relationship with product and particularly electronics. He doesn't shy away from the more negative aspects of current behavioural trends, though it's obvious where his sympathies lie. And most intriguingly all the stories except the framework narrative are told from the female perspective (more or less).I'd be interested to read more of Yamamoto's fiction, particularly his more longform work as that seems to be where his strengths lie.

One of the best books I’ve read on the way humans and machines are likely to be able to co-exist. Also pretty unsparing about some of the less admirable aspects of the human psyche - unsparing and accurate.

Beautiful, gentle stories told by an android AI to a human after the downfall of the human race give us a look at our own failings through the mirror of machines and how they could be better people than we are.Interesting to read alongside The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang.

La historia trata un futuro distopico en el que la Inteligencia Artificial ha dominado a los humanos. El libro contiene varias historias cortas que tratan fuertemente el Existencialismo, la Moralidad, el Objetivismo y la Muerte. Estos temas constantemente siendo abordados desde el punto de vista de una maquina y no un ser humano lo que resulta interesante.Buena lectura, poco corta.

原作が気に入ったので、どのように訳されているか気になって購入しました。購入を検討している方はおそらく原作を読み終わった方でしょうから内容については省略します。文構造は易しいですし、SF小説特有の一般語彙から離れた専門語もほとんどなかったので、原作を読まれた方ならスラスラ読めるはずです。「宇宙をぼくの手の上に」はネット上で無料で読めるようですのでためしに読んでみてください。原作と違う雰囲気で読めるし、英語の勉強にもなって、非常に満足でした。もちろん星５です。（The Stories of Ibisの英題ではアイという単語の多義性が失われているのは少し残念でした。まあそういう違いも見どころのひとつということで）