#BlogTour ‘Set My Heart To Five’ by Simon Stephenson

About the book…

’A beautiful, funny, heartfelt analysis of what it means to be human’ Simon Pegg

A story of loneliness, love and loose connections, Set My Heart to Five is a hilarious, touching, dazzlingly perceptive debut novel, and a profound exploration of what it truly means to be human.

10/10 Jared does not have friends.
Because friends are a function of feelings.
Therefore friends are just one more human obligation that Jared never has to worry about.

But Jared is worrying. Which is worrying. He’s also started watching old films. And inexplicably crying in them. And even his Feelings Wheel (given to him by Dr Glundenstein, who definitely is not a friend) cannot guide him through the emotional minefield he now finds himself in.

Soon his feelings will send him fleeing across the country, pursued by a man who wants to destroy him and driven by an illogical desire to share pathogens with the woman who bamboozles him the most.

And Jared cannot!

Because feelings will ruin your life, especially if you aren’t supposed to have them…

Hugest of thanks to Midas Pr, once more, for inviting me on the tour for ‘‘Set My Heart To Five’, which is out now in hardcover and ebook editions, and, shortly in audiobook as well!

Interspersing a film script of Jared’s life with his internal dialogue, the reader skips forward in time to 2053, when robots are grown (to the optimal of 43 and ‘live’ until they run down a set amount of years).

Humans have declared the jobs which robots can and cannot do-surprsingly to Jared, because humans are inexplicable, they prefer a robot to human dentist whereas a doctor is ont he list of jobs a human can do.

As Jared says, they prefer a bedside manner to an accurate diagnosis, which is inexplicable to an automaton who deals in facts.

That being said, the inexplicable begins happening to Jared.

He wakes up before his alarm goes off and lies there, waiting for it to chime.

A sum appears in his number cloud, which, when analysed, appears to be a countdown, in the number of teeth he will see, until he is deacitvated. And every day that number gets smaller.

Discussing this anomaly with his fellow professional, Dr Glundenstein, he is diagnosed with depression. This is a further anomaly(Jared cannot get annoyed as he does not have feelings). The prescription? Dr Glundenstein sends Jared to the cinema.

And so begins a bittersweet deconstruction of the human condition, told through the eyes of a robot.

From his first movie, ‘Love Story’, he is enamoured of what he is watching, even if he is mightily perplexed, and starts writing his own screenplay in order to see how a simple motion picture can wring tears from a machine.

I can see from other reviews where the voice of Jared could be considered annoying, he has catch phrases and repeats things in such a way that it could go from cute, to grrr, quickly. But the naivety and pure joy he brings out of the pages of this book,is so worth sticking with. Human beings also have their anachronisms which make them so identifiable-the over use of the word ‘like’ for example, is one which continuously annoys this reader!

When reading his observations of the illogical nature of reactive humans, it really makes you aware of how out of despondancy, creativity can flourish. I really enjoyed the wry humour which came through so well, Jared’s voice feels like it has been around forever,yet is smart and fresh and new. And yet, it cannot truly be explored as his ‘own voice’ as if he is discovered to have developed the ability to cry or feel, he faces incineration by the Bureau Of Robots.

But using Dr Gludenstein’s Feelings Wheel, Jared begins to identify more and more of the things he is not supposed to have. Where will it end up? Has he been around humans too long? Is he a glitch in the Matrix or the future of robotics?

The title of the book refers to a joke that Jared tells-again not because robots ‘get’ humour but because humans do-about the robot circuitry being a development of a toaster’s. The early ones he explains, were literally toasted and destroyed-the worst thing a robot can conceive is being useless!

Fun and totally seeable as a future movie, I enjoyed this book and found it a breath of fresh air in the midst of reading lots of murder mysteries. If you fancy taking a break from your normal reading, this is a good book to choose.

About the author…

”I’m an author and screenwriter (and once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away I was a medical doctor). I am originally from Edinburgh in Scotland but currently live in Los Angeles, California. I’ve had stops in Glasgow, London and San Francisco along the way.

I like all kinds of books and most kinds of movies (except horror, urgh) and love just about everything that has four legs except the chairs in my dentist’s waiting room. My spirit animal is P22, our local friendly neigborhood mountain lion. I have not yet seen him, but live in daily hope.

My first book, Let Not The Waves Of The Sea’ was a memoir about the loss of my older brother, Dominic, in the Indian Ocean tsunami. The title comes from Khalil Gibran’s book ‘The Prophet’, and a particular passage that resonated with me. People have told me that book is more uplifting than it sounds, but you can of course decide that for yourself if you wish.

My new novel is called ‘Set My Heart To Five’, (that title I made up all by myself!) and it is the story of a dentist android called Jared – a ‘bot’ – who begins to experience feelings. The story unfolds in 2054, in a world where we humans have managed to lock ourselves out of the internet by forgetting the names of our favorite teachers and first pets. It is kind of a love letter to feelings, to the movies many of us grew up on, and the American west. So hopefully there is something for everyone….”

Twitter @TheSimonBot @midaspr