Review of Terms of Service

[Josephe-Anne]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Terms of Service" by Craig W. Stanfill.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four meets Disney’s Tron: Legacy in this futuristic dystopian novel. Terms of Service by Craig W. Stanfill follows the story of Kim, an AI (Artificial Intelligence) trainer. Kim is getting fed up of her mundane existence in the middle tier of society, but things change when her best friend, Shan, comes back into her life. After a fun bike ride through the park takes an unexpected turn, their lives will never be the same. There are forces at work and alternative lifestyles that they never knew existed. These revelations make them question everything they thought they knew about the world. When given the choice to live a difficult life of freedom or a morally bankrupt life of luxury, what will Kim decide? Either way, she will be bound by each company’s terms of service as they all run monopolies in various sectors.

The cover design features two identical young men with bright red hair. With their backs turned, they are standing in front of several skyscrapers as an ominous gray sky looms overhead. Concentric circles consisting of the numbers one and zero are overlaid on the image to illustrate the technological aspect of the book. The story is written from the third-person perspective of a narrator, and the main themes are post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction, social experimentation, corruption, greed, and friendship. There are mild descriptions of violence and copious descriptions of sexual activity as well as alcohol and drug use. Borderline profanity is also used. So, this novel is not suitable for children.

Kim is the main character in the story. She is a very intelligent person, but the trauma of being ripped away from her mother as a child has left her emotionally scarred. She often seeks to drown her sorrows in vodka. Luckily, her friends are always there for moral support. Shan, her best friend of all, has always been good company through thick and thin. However, Shan’s adventurous side often gets them into trouble. Keli is another companion from Kim’s schooldays. Intuitive and compassionate, Keli is the only one of Kim’s friends who is a “birth-giver.” Kimberly comes into play a bit later. She is Kim’s AI doppelganger. Kimberly is programmed to be kind and helpful, but she is bound to do the AI Company’s bidding no matter what. Then there is the unscrupulous head of the AI Company, where Kim works. Known only as “the Director,” she is ruthless when it comes to accomplishing the company’s goals.

I like the author’s frequent use of onomatopoeia, including words like feep, ding, and pop, to describe the sounds of Kim’s appliances. Also, Kim’s monotonous life is relatable to many people. Mr. Stanfill does a good job of illustrating the problems associated with casual sex and the emptiness that a person feels after a one-night stand. He was also quite clever as he created new names for the days of the week, calling them Oneday, Twoday, Threeday, etc. Additionally, I was entertained by Kim’s comical love-hate relationship with her refrigerator. She often argues over what the appliance selects for dinner. As I mentioned before, the story is similar to the plot of the Tron: Legacy movie because just as Clu is Kevin Flynn’s AI counterpart, Kimberly is Kim’s counterpart.

However, I had two issues with this novel. First, even though I realize that the author was trying to drive home a point, I think that there was too much sexual content. Second, there is a bit of confusion regarding the biological sex of the characters. In Kim’s society, female pronouns are used to describe all human beings, regardless of whether they are male or female. While it is clear that Shan and Keli are both women due to descriptions of their bodies, Kim’s anatomy was never described in the text. This made it difficult for me to imagine Kim’s appearance as I read. So, even when I finished reading the book, I still wasn’t completely sure whether Kim was actually a man or a woman. Additionally, due to the cover image’s depiction of two identical men, I couldn’t help but wonder if those men were Kim and Kimberly. The Director’s biological sex was not apparent either.

For those reasons, I have decided to give Terms of Service by Craig W. Stanfill a rating of four out of five stars. Overall, I enjoyed this thought-provoking book, so I could not give it a lower rating. From virtual reality interfaces to the social credit score system, this story presents a plausible prediction for our future society. Furthermore, the editing was flawless; I did not find a single error in the text. I recommend this book to adults who enjoy science fiction novels and analyses of human behavior.

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Terms of Service
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