Hum (2024) by Helen Phillips

 Book Review

Hum (2024)

by Helen Phillips

  I like American author Helen Phillips- I read her 2019 book, The Need and enjoyed it. I thought it was a good example of a way domestic fiction: A book out the difficulties of raising children, can be made interesting by the use of techniques drawn from speculative fiction: Throw some robots on top of that tired domestic routine!   This is the same kind of deal- Mom has just been laid off from her job in a decrepit future metropolis where the AQI makes outside a no-go.  The kids are shuttled from in door location to in door location and Mom and her task-rabbit husband live in a windowless box apartment.  Life is grim.  Mom agrees to undergo anti-surveillance facial modification surgery in exchange for a healthy payment and she uses part of it to buy her family a three day trip to the walled botanical garden in the heart of the city.

   The "Hum" of the title are future ai powered androids that serve as replacement humans in various capacities- mostly as representatives of the future government or minders of the public peace.   Although the over-riding theme is still the difficulties of being mom in the present/future world, the speculative elements make it less tedious than a book sent in the present or recent past that deals with the exact same subjects.