Francesco Verso

E-Doll

Mondadori, 2009    [SF, Ita, J2]

–––––––––––––––––––––––

«“Dead woman, cuddled in fetal position. Blood-bath, fluids everywhere. I’m going to face an unpleasant morning... Were you a call-girl? One inclined to anything? Even to be considered a plastic doll?...”

The detective’s finger-tip skims a round surface. Goes along it up to the cylindrical prism of the heart-pump... “Damn! I was thinking... It isn’t a woman, instead.”»

But what else may be the victim, if it isn’t a woman? The answer is beyond the border of human, and is contained into an abbreviation that may be read ‘e-doll’ or ‘idol’. They serve as a way to live excesses without exceeding them, to exceed limits without unnecessary deaths. This once, unfortunately, the experiment has gone tragically wrong.

–––––––––––––––––––––––

The idea behind this story is both strange and fascinating. Since humans can’t overcome their need for sex excesses, androids very close to human perfection are built, and are expected to be the target of any human perversion. They’re self repairing tools, and their availability eases human vents, freeing them from guiltiness.

Unfortunately, the author is both wordy and pedantic, and he keeps alternating lively situations to boring computer science and cheap introspective philosophy lessons, thus often changing a potentially challenging story into a tedious reading.

A real pity. And a waste.