OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile
Hall’s work is less a novel than a collection of diaries of a half-dozen people whose lives stretch from the 1600s to the near future. Their writings explore the nature of intelligent thought, communication, and what it means to be human. Seven narrators portray the characters—and one robot—with varying styles and quality. Some are intriguing and endow characters with personality. Others literally “read” the entries with little passion. The core of the story is the development of a “baby bot,” an intelligent robot that is both a toy and a friend to children. Eventually, the robots are destroyed because children prefer them to family. The other characters in the audiobook somehow contribute to the eventual creation of the robots, even if only philosophically. M.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
05/25/2015
Spanning nearly 400 years, the uneven latest from Hall (The Carriage House) merges truth with fiction to relate the history of MARY3, an artificial intelligence software found in a doll banned for causing mysterious ailments in children, and the imprisonment of its developer, Stephen Chinn, in the year 2040. The novel unfolds through epistolary means: Chinn communicates to the reader via memoir; Alan Turing, the novel’s lone nonfictional character, is responsible for much of the original concepts behind artificial intelligence and is depicted through his correspondence from the 20th century; Karl Dettman, the developer of the original (but fictional) MARY talking computer in the 1960s, and his wife, Ruth, who aims to turn MARY into MARY2, a thinking machine, also converse with each other through letters, in the 1960s; Mary Bradford, an early pilgrim from England to Massachusetts, subject of Ruth Dettman’s academic work, and namesake of the MARY computer, is represented by journal entries from 1663; and MARY3 finds voice in court transcripts presented at Chinn’s trial in the year 2035. Throughout, Hall aims to write about both technology and the preservation of memory. Characters claim that, in order to understand one another, they must “ several time periods in mind at once.” But while some story lines prosper, others—the Turing and the Dettman sections, in particular—strain under stilted structures. Characters rarely speak to each other (except in letters, many of which never get replies), resulting in some flat passages. (July)
New York One
Hall’s empathy suffuses each character’s voice, and the letters from Turing are especially touching.
New York Times
[A]mbitious… The novel’s conceit might appeal to fans of David Mitchell, though Ms. Hall is mostly interested in plumbing the sensitive depths of her characters rather than tightening the screws of a mind-blowing schematic.
Tampa Bay Times
Speak is a poignant reminder that language has mystery, and that questions of authenticity will always be with us.
Los Angeles Times
In Speak, distinct voices from distinct eras ponder human connection… Call it the influence of David Mitchell or Hari Kunzru, but Speak is a kaleidoscope of a book… it is a novel that wants to raise big questions about how we know one another and ourselves.
What You Should Read This Summer Based On Your Zod Bustle
Enter Louisa Hall’s remarkable July novel Speak, which features not one, but five narrators: each inhabits separate geographical and temporal locations, but all reflect, in some way, on humanity’s relationship with artificial intelligence.
Salt Lake Tribune
Speak leaves its conclusions to its readers, to flip back and forth among the characters’ differing points of view and decide for themselves - and is all the more engaging for it.
Austin American-Statesman
Louisa Hall grapples with what it means to be human and how artificial intelligence will fit into those definitions in her ambitious new novel… It’s a complicated but compulsively readable tale, blending the voices of people who wonder whether they’ll ever be heard or, more importantly, understood.
NPR
Stunning and audacious… It’s not just one of the smartest books of the year, it’s one of the most beautiful ones, and it almost seems like an understatement to call it a masterpiece.
Bustle.com
[A] stunning new novel... Comparisons to Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, and Helen Phillips will abound, but the remarkable Speak is a unique creation that stands on its own.” -Bustle
Elle
While the novel’s ambitions are high-concept, Hall’s narrative is notable for its persuasive heart… Speak gazes boldly forward and lovingly back in order to report on the nature of what it means to be human now.
New York Post
Hall delivers a dystopian A.I. novel with real heart and soul. Told through 17th century diary entries, letters by Alan Turing, court transcripts in 2040 and instant messages between a bot and a young, brokenhearted girl, this book is strange, beautiful and unputdownable.
Booklist (starred review)
Hall subtly weaves a thread through a temporally diverse cast of narrators. Like all good robot novels, Speak raises questions about what it means to be human as well as the meaning of giving voice to memory.
Philipp Meyer
SPEAK reads like a hybrid of David Mitchell and Margaret Atwood; a literary page turner that spans four centuries and examines the idea of who and what we define as human. Louisa Hall has written a brilliant novel.
Emily St. John Mandel
SPEAK is that rarest of finds: a novel that doesn’t remind me of any other book I’ve ever read. A complex, nuanced, and beautifully written meditation on language, immortality, the nature of memory, the ethical problems of artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human.
Library Journal
★ 06/15/2015
Hall's ambitious second novel reads like a cross between the BBC show Black Mirror and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. It's told in different voices from various time periods, but the main narrative takes place in the near future. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been advanced to create realistic "baby bots," which serve as the companions of human children living in mysterious "developments" until they become too attached. The creator of the bots is in prison, telling his side of the story. His precursor, a programmer from the 1960s who created an earlier version of the AI, is writing letters to his wife, who is translating the journal of a pilgrim to the New World. Mary, the name of her pilgrim, is also the name of the AI. We also hear from Alan Turing, through letters to the mother of his deceased best friend. Even if this sounds confusing, it isn't. Hall capably weaves the stories to form a beautiful rumination on the nature of memory and the frailty of human relationships. VERDICT There's something for everyone in this novel, which moves at a fast pace but goes in depth with each character's moving struggle to be heard Recommended for readers of literary fiction, sf, or historical dramas. [See Prepub Alert, 1/5/15.]—Kate Gray, Worcester P.L., MA
OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile
Hall’s work is less a novel than a collection of diaries of a half-dozen people whose lives stretch from the 1600s to the near future. Their writings explore the nature of intelligent thought, communication, and what it means to be human. Seven narrators portray the characters—and one robot—with varying styles and quality. Some are intriguing and endow characters with personality. Others literally “read” the entries with little passion. The core of the story is the development of a “baby bot,” an intelligent robot that is both a toy and a friend to children. Eventually, the robots are destroyed because children prefer them to family. The other characters in the audiobook somehow contribute to the eventual creation of the robots, even if only philosophically. M.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
