Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all picks have just appeared on book shelves.

A Rising of the Lights by Steve Toltz

Summary: When Rusty loses his job to an AI system, a friend finds him a new role as an oracle to the young. But how can he advise anyone on what it means to be human when artificial consciousness appears within reach?

I’m thinking: No.

Good Boy by Michelle Wright

Summary: Cookie, an inmate in a minimum-security prison, is serving the final months of his sentence when he signs up for a rehabilitation program for abandoned dogs. He’s assigned Nigel, whom he renames Good Boy. Cookie has his work cut out preparing him for the behavioural assessment that will decide whether Good Boy will be up for adoption or put down. When Cookie realises that Good Boy is almost certain to fail the test, he must decide how far he’ll go in his bid to save him.

I’m thinking: Maybe.

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon

Summary: In a self-running, smart house, a young and sentient Roomba listens as her owner, Harold, reads aloud to his dying wife, Edie. Mesmerized by To Kill a Mockingbird and craving the human connection she witnesses in Harold’s stories, the little vacuum renames herself Scout and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. But when Edie dies, Scout and her fellow sentient appliances discover that there are sinister forces in their midst which seek to remove Harold from his home.

I’m thinking: Yes.