Hello, everyone!!! Isabelle Knight here again with a book review (not for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday I’m afraid. I reviewed Tui T Sutherland’s Moon Rising for that… And I simply CANNOT wait for next Monday to do this!!! But it’s awesome, you have to check it out!!) of a novel I read and LOVED recently!!! And that novel is The Last Human by Lee Bacon!!!!
Now, if you guys know me, then you know my usual genre is middle-grade fantasy, middle-grade adventure, middle-grade contemporary, or middle-grade mystery. Actually, I don’t think I’ve mentioned the mystery part before, but hey, now you know! Sci-fi is not what I normally read, BUT I am so glad I read this book!!!!! It’s amazing!!!!
So, The Last Human takes place in a sort of dystopian world (is that called dystopian??? I’m not so familiar with stuff like this, sorry!!! I feel like it’s not quite as depressing as dystopian though… Not sure how I’d describe it, but enough rambling!) where robots have taken over and humans have been eliminated. 0_0 Scary word, I know. The book follows 12-year-old robot XR_935 in this world, where humans have been eliminated, and every is perfect – no pollution, no secrets, no war, no crime. And everything just runs absolutely perfectly and smoothly, and humans have believed to be extinct. Or so they thought… Until XR_935 discovers something utterly impossible, a human girl named Emma. And now, Emma has to embark on a rather dangerous journey with XR and two other robots to get to a mysterious point on a map. But rules aren’t supposed to be broken in this world, and humans aren’t supposed to exist. And what will they find at the very end of their journey?
Sounds exciting? It is!!! I love this book so much, and I think it’s an AMAZING one!!!!
One thing I really loved about the book were all the characters. The main character is a robot, but at the same time, they (or it… It feels weird calling a character it…) are just really so relatable and so deep!! And you can really sort of see their internal conflict, and each robot has their own little quirks!!! Ceeron (hopefully I’m getting their name right… Because um… It’s nearly 11 PM here and my brain is just a pile of mush right now) loves human jokes! And none of the other robots really understand any of the jokes! It was so funny to see how they interpreted them. And even though they don’t really understand the jokes, I totally agree with Emma when she said that the three robots should start a comedy group. XD
And I absolutely love SkD!!!!! It’s a robot that doesn’t communicate with voices and all that. It communicates with emojis, which I think is just so cool! All of the characters are just so endearing!!
But I think the thing I love most about the book… It’s not the characters (although they’re so cool!), not the plot, or the setting. It’s the underlying themes.
As I’ve said, I don’t usually read sci-fi, but I ALWAYS read any good book that really touches on the heart of friendship and what it really means to be a good friend, no matter what genre it is. And I think The Last Human showed all this absolutely perfectly! The journey the characters go on is so thrilling and adventurous, but honestly, for me, I think the real adventure is when they learn from each other, grow, and begin to realize what being a friend really means.
And of course, defying the status quo!!! I WISH I could tell you guys more about that, but I can’t. Not without spoiling the book. And I’m a firm no spoilers person!
The book’s idea is really amazing too, and I think while having robots take over the world sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, the book is actually really fun and really hopeful!
The worldbuilding wasn’t too over the top, which I actually kind of liked. It’s sort of simple, but at the same time, not so simple. Hard to explain, but you’ll see once you read the actual book. There are a bunch of different types of robots, and honestly, this is the kind of world that, with the gripping plot and the amazing, fun characters, is hard to forget!!!
Which is good… Because often times, I’ve read books and TOTALLY forgot details of the world. Like Keeper of the Lost Cities. Love the book, it’s one of my favorites, Shannon Messenger is awesome, Fitz Vacker is terrible, but uhhhhhh……. It’s a whopping 9 book series, guys. And nearly each book is 800 pages. AND I don’t have Amazon Kids+ anymore, so I can’t re-read!!! I do have my copy of Stellarlune, though. (hurray for Christmas books!)
But yeah. Overall, I absolutely loved this book, and it’ll be one of the books that will probably stay on my Kindle for as long as I can hold on to it!! I highly recommend this book, and if I had to stick to the usual on a scale from one to five star scale, FIVE STARS!!! I definitely recommend this book to middle-graders who are looking for a fun, quick read with amazing characters, a unique world, and one with really strong themes of friendship! I’d also recommend it to people who are interested in books with aspects of technology in it, but don’t want to be totally overwhelmed with an Artemis Fowl amount of tech gadgets.
I was literally about to type my usual farewell before I scrolled back up and remembered that I promised you exciting author news lol.
So, you just saw this book review of The Last Human by Lee Bacon, and eeek!!! So you know how I sometimes do author interviews? I’ve interviewed Victoria Williamson, Valinora Troy, and Siobhan McDermott, and weeeellllll…
I enjoyed this book so much that I actually reached out to the author!!!!! To do an interview!!!!!!!!! And he replied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeek!!!!!! (happy dance then faints from pure excitement) And we’ll be doing a video call interview this Wednesday!!! EEEEEEK!!!!!! I’m so excited!!! And also totally utterly terrified… 0_0
(breathe, Isabelle, breathe)
But yeah!!! Eeek!!! So excited!!! Although I may or may not be questioning if I sent too many questions…. Hehe… The last interview was 50 minutes. And it was meant to be FIFTEEN minutes long. I don’t think Valinora Troy minded, though. :))
So yeah!!! That is the exciting news and the book review!!!! Thank you guys so so much for coming, and I shall see you again in the next post!!!!!
Isabelle
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