kerstin Steel Guardian — Cameron Coral
Steel Guardian was a delightful read about a bot and a baby on a quest for some goddamn answers. The prose was clear, sharp, and packed a punch, and not once did I feel like it dragged. The bite-sized chapters really helped me blast through it in a couple of days.
I don’t read much sci-fi; my go-to genre is dark fantasy, so never did I think I would spend my Saturday evening cheering on a CleanerBot with a baby, lol. To completely contradict myself, I’ve also been binging The Murderbot Diaries, so it was fun to go from one awkward bot to another—the key difference being, Block does not have the tools or programming to protect himself, let alone an infant. This often leads to hilarity, creativity, and more problems.
It was endearing how easily stressed Bot is, lol. I mean, who can’t relate to this situation: you are drowning in your to-do list, so you just uh… start cleaning things? I can see how some people might call him too human in this regard, but I don’t know. He’s a CleanerBot tasked with protecting a baby from combat droids. Emotions or not, I think his programming would get overheated.
It’s hard for me to call a book set in a post-apocalyptic AI-versus-human world cozy reading, but well, there you have it. I really enjoyed Steel Guardian and would recommend it for sci-fi fans looking for a quick and cozy read.
