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Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Genre(s): Non-fiction, science/technology

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Pages: 306

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Thank you to University of Pennsylvania Press and NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

Artificial Life After Frankenstein explores Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, its impacts on literature, and how the story compares to political and ethical decisions today. Looking at topics such as genetic modifications, machine learning, and the fears of artificial intelligence in our future, Bottling uses literary examples inspired by Frankenstein to explore these scientific, political, and upcoming subjects.

Review

Artificial Life After Frankenstein is a book that I was easily drawn to on subject matter alone. I’ve been wanting to revisit Frankenstein for quite some time now. Additionally, my main scope for reading classics right now is exploring both gothic novels and early science fiction, so many of the novels I have yet to read were published around the time of Mary Shelley. I also studied Computer Science and school and now that I’ve been in the workforce a few years, I spend much less time reading academic works on the subject. So Artificial Life After Frankenstein was this fantastic combination of passions for me that I didn’t think was very common. 

Regardless, I think anyone who’s remotely interested in the subject will have an easy time reading this book. While Artificial Life After Frankenstein is written more academically, it’s definitely an accessible read for those that are unfamiliar with these concepts. 

The introduction to this book was interesting as well as it explores the origins and definitions of science fiction. This is something I’ve been reading about myself in the past few months, so it was nice to get an abridged history and some of the figures that helped shape it and coin terminology.

While reading this book, I found a combination of books that I have both read and have yet to read. Regardless of the context used, Botting was able to explain these books’ connection to the thesis without spoiling anything to readers (although books are often about the journey, aren’t they?). This definitely added a lot of books on my list that I’m interested in reading, from classic to contemporary science fiction. 

Despite my continued interest throughout Artificial Life After Frankenstein, I did find at some points that there were discussions that strayed a little further from the thesis. Since I’m interested in these topics regardless, I didn’t mind that certain sections felt like they strayed too far off the track. If you are as invested in the subject matter as I am, you’ll likely feel the same. 

All in all, Artificial Life After Frankenstein was a book that I’m glad to have read. I love the idea of comparing early science fiction literature to modern issues, and I love how this book discussed two of my passions and brought them together in such a cohesive way. This is definitely something to consider picking up if you’re interested in either Mary Shelley or her contemporaries, the growth of science fiction, or modern technological dilemmas and ethics.