Summer Frost

This is, hands down, my favourite of the Forward series. Looks like I saved the best for last, and I'm so glad I did!

Summer Frost is the story of a video game NPC which has gone rogue and developed into an AI. She's tired of being killed and decides to take matters into her own hands to acquire freedom. When one of the developers finally manages to isolate her, the duo have an extremely fascinating conversation about life, existence, and the world as viewed by an artificial intelligence - a conversation which ultimately leads down the path toward growth, exploration, and unimaginable discovery.

Eventually, the NPC-turned-AI - Max, as she was named - develops her own vision of self and eschews the human constructs of gender. Choosing a gender neutral voice and eventually an androgynous appearance, Max becomes not the conventionally hyper-attractive woman of the game's design but instead a being with no gender and no interest in the trappings of human obsession with the topic. They - as Max chooses to be called - grow closer to their creator, Riley, who in turn dedicates her life to developing and training this fascinating, spontaneous AI.

Along the way, Riley struggles with balancing work and family while Max grows and flourishes far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. At once, this is a compelling and beautifully-written delve into character-driven fiction and a well-developed science fiction story. It has everything I could possibly want from this type of book and tells the story with the precise right amount of words. Never once does it linger too long on any one thing, nor does it skip over anything vital to the story. Despite having such a short length, it feels as if the reader has spent as much time with Riley's work and family as Riley herself has.

The story drug a bit in the first half of part one, I'll admit - if only because I'm not familiar with the type of scenery being described - but once it picked up, everything remained in full motion. Along with what I took as little nods toward The Matrix, Summer Frost also contains LGBT representation in the form of the main character, Riley, who's married to another woman and the aforementioned discovery of Max's nonbinary gender identity; these things all brought a little joy to my day as I read through. Like sprinkles on a cupcake, however, they weren't necessary for the story to be good. By that I mean: this isn't a story which uses pop culture references and inclusion as a means of skirting by with a half-baked story and using the Fannish Love Points and Representation Points to still get good marks. No, the little references are so subtle I wonder if perhaps I even imagined them and the representation is an important part of the story but by no means the only thing going for it.

Overall, Summer Frost is just an absolute gem of short-form science fiction. I never once predicted how it would end. (Or, rather, I had some predictions and all ended up being inaccurate.) I never once grew bored. I was along for the whole ride, and I enjoyed every second of it. Anyone who loves tech-based science fiction should give this one a read; I don't think you'll regret it.

Now, to add more of Blake Crouch's works to my Want To Read shelf, because I'm completely convinced of his writing skill.