A Guide to Movie Based Video Games, 1982–2000 by Christopher Carton

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pen & Sword in exchange for an honest review.

As a video game researcher, I am always on the hunt for books about games. I love to learn and I was very excited when I saw this book available. The title tells you exactly what you are in store for-a guide to movie-based games created in the pre-2000s era.

I will admit, this book wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped. I think not being alive when these games came out (for the most part) limited any kind of nostalgic enjoyment I could get out of it. I found some sections interesting (such as the Disney and comedy movie ones) but there wasn't a lot of commentary about the games themselves, which meant that if I didn't care about the intellectual property then there wasn't a whole lot to keep my interest.

Having said that, I think this book is very informative and seems pretty thorough. I imagine anyone who has nostalgia for these games would get a lot more out of it than me, and I am very excited for the next instalment which will cover the games I played myself. I recommend it for anyone who is curious what games exist from this time period, or for someone looking for a trip down memory lane

Overall Rating:

.5

The Smart Wife by Yolande Strengers & Jenny Kennedy

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher MIT Press in exchange for an honest review.

The Smart Wife was a little disappointing to me. It looks at the concept of 'smart wives' through a feminist and sociological lens, discussing the implication of giving devices such as Alexa female voices. I found the idea of this fascinating as it's not something I've really thought about before and that in itself indicates how it is worthy of analysis. Why should robot servants have primarily female voices? And why don't people question it?

Sadly this book didn't really discuss these elements beyond the surface level. I appreciate that there haven't been any studies or detailed experiments about this topic, but the book felt a bit empty without those. I was looking forward to finding out what the public opinion was on these devices and whether those with a female voice are viewed differently or not, but there is almost nothing of that nature included. Instead there is some speculation but the bulk of the book seems to just be discussing different devices without much of the feminist angle applied beyond the basic concept of 'these devices are sexist'.

One chapter I did particularly enjoy was the section on sex robots. This did go into deeper discussion and I think it was the best chapter because of that. It explored some frankly quite disheartening statistics and what these might mean for the wider world. It was well-crafted, informative and gave me a lot to think about.

Overall, I think this book has a lot of promise but sadly it didn't do exactly what I expected it to. It lacked that depth to really hold my interest, but I think it is a fantastic introduction to the topic and I look forward to what else the authors (and other researchers) will do in this area. If you are intrigued by the subject matter, this is still well worth the read. Just be aware of its limits and enjoy it for what it is.

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You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Voracious/Little, Brown and Company  in exchange for an honest review.

So fun fact: I am on a PhD program currently with 9 other students and about 5 of those students are doing hardcore AI projects. Personally I know nothing about AI and whenever they would talk about their research, I would automatically switch off. However, this doesn't build the best working relationship so I thought I would try reading around the area so I could at least carry a conversation with them.

This book is AMAZING. Honestly, it is written in such an engaging and accessible way that me, the anti AI queen, could not put it down. Firstly I should clarify what this book is not. It is not a deep guide to how to create or work with AI systems. Instead what it is is essentially an overview of what AI means, how it functions (on a very accessible level) and the wonderful mistakes the systems make. One of my favourite parts of this book is all the examples it gives of things generated by real life AI systems and they are hilarious! I was laughing so loud on the bus that people were giving me weird looks.

In terms of the layout, each chapter flows very naturally into the next one. I've already mentioned that I think it's accessible but things really are broken down very clearly. Shane has a fantastic style of prose which is informative but engaging, and I didn't even zone out once which is impressive for even the most interesting of nonfiction books. The text is also peppered with frankly adorable drawings (see the one on the cover) which really helped bring the information to life and added to the overall feel.

Overall, I am blown away by this book. I thought it would help with my PhD but I had no idea how much I would enjoy reading it. I have already bought a copy for a friend as a birthday present and I would recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the topic. It really does teach you more about how the world works and I feel like I will definitely read more about AI in the future because of it.

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