MOLLY DEAR: The Autobiography of an Android

by Stephen Fine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 14, 1988

A robot Candide? Well, that's the intention here: screenwriter Fine's first novel. Molly Dear begins life, in 2069, as a mindless P9 automaton, a Household Domestic android with a perfect humanoid body grown from a sort of fungus (?). She is the slave of the Locke family of the Los Angeles Islands. Prodded by ""Gev,"" the Universal Governor (a computer that directs all P9s, now throwing off its own controls), Molly becomes self-aware, and, in a mental turmoil, goes haywire. She's sent for rehabilitation, then is sold to a nunnery, where she turns out to be pregnant (!) by daddy Locke. Imprisoned and isolated, Molly gives birth; mother and child are rescued by Tad (son Locke; he's wildly in love with Molly); and then Tad and child vanish in a storm. Molly, washed up on the beach, passes for human and is picked up by local pimp Roland Sax, who markets her as a high-class hooker and drag pusher. Before too long, Molly casts off the drug-crazed Roland in favor of Eva, another hooker, with whom she lives in sexual bliss. With their list of clients reaching up to the ever richer and more powerful, things look rosy for Molly and Eva--until Eva discovers that Molly bleeds sap. Thereafter Molly's adventures continue on the Moon, on Mars, and in space, as she dedicates herself to android liberation. Humorless, despite the hardworking capers; and whatever attractions remain are crashed flat by the monumentally dense and unwieldly prose. Only for robot-ravenous readers equipped with rock drills and blasting caps.

Pub Date: Nov. 14, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION