We Are Satellites
Ratings13
Average rating3.9
From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.
Everybody's getting one.
Val and Julie just want what's best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all.
Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.
Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.
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I had wrongfully assumed that We Are Satellites is hardcore sci-fi. With space shuttles and planets and all that. It's not! It's about the wives Val and Julie and their kids David and Sophie and how it affects their family through a decade or so after a device (and this is the sci-fi part) called a Pilot that's basically a brain implant that makes you focus better becomes available. Everyone gets a Pilot because if you don't, you get left behind (and discriminated). But is it the miracle solution it's made out to be?
Our family of four consists of a parent that's pro Pilot, one that's against. A child that gets a Pilot and a child that can't get one because of health issues. It's bound to cause a bit of family drama, yes?
I really enjoyed this book and how it explores the consequences of this Pilot device. I love the characters. I love that it focuses on the family aspect. I wish I'd read it sooner (and I would've if I'd known it wasn't hardcore space sci-fi... but that mistake is entirely on me)!
3.5 rounded up! I didn't read the reviews that warned me this is more family drama than sci fi! Oops!! This was like a family saga (skipped through the year etc) and it was engaging but I wish we got more satisfaction out of the resolution out of the sci fi/political part. It was VERY much in the background
Plausible near-future Science Fiction that reviews the impact of a technology like Elon Musk's Neuralink might have on our society and those who cannot participate, as well as the dangers of giving corporations like that too much unchecked control. Themes include LGBTQ and disability, and it's refreshing to see an unconventional family (Sophie and David have two moms) at the center of this story, without the story being about that.
