A precocious young machine finds her humanity in the deceptively cozy dystopian novel The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon (Bootleg Stardust).
In the not-so-far future, a group of smart appliances dutifully serves their aging humans Harold and his terminally ill wife, Edie. The story unfolds mainly through the sensors of Scout, an automated vacuum. She and her friends Watch, the smartwatch who manages the home, Clock, Fridge, and Auto, the self-driving car, don't fully understand the vagaries of human emotion. However, they know Edie's death from cancer means not only grief for Harold but disaster for their household. A technological force known as the Grid rules their world, and it will not allow a lone elderly man to remain in a house as large as Harold's. His grown daughter, Kate, banished from their home by the Grid for hacking into it as a teenager, is allowed to visit to help him downsize, but Harold doesn't want to go. Neither do the appliances. The humans and household gadgets form an alliance to protect Harold's autonomy, but the Grid has eyes and ears everywhere and isn't about to let a couple of humans and a smart vacuum interfere in its plans.
"Futuristic Roomba" must rank high on the list of most unlikely protagonists, but Dixon's characters are calculated to delight without ever tipping the narrative into feeling cynical. The conclusion requires a healthy amount of willing credulity, but readers already charmed by the mechanical cast will likely not mind. This heartfelt fable for the digitally automated age is smart in more than one sense of the word. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads