Review of Terms of Service

[Tshepsyt]

[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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Would you live in a world completely governed by artificial intelligence and corporate monopolies, a world where one minor divergence from the outlined set of rules put forth by said monopolies results in immediate, swift punishment? I for one would not, but that is the world our protagonist, Kim, finds herself in. In the fictional world of Terms of Service: Subject to Change Without Notice by Craig W. Stanfill, AI is everywhere, AI governs everything, from the food you eat, and the people you date to your spot in public transport, nothing gets past their ever-watchful eye and the companies that make use of their services. Kim lives an ordinary, mundane life in a world where everyone is mundane and ordinary. Waking up to go to her dull job at the Artificial Intelligence Company, checking up on her friends on the social platform chit-chat and engaging in mandated activities as is expected from an individual who has no individuality in such a society, yet she yearns for more, always hoping to get that promotion at work, or having more of a physical connection with her friends, things that seem to scream of individuality. Will she break the mould and assert her individuality, or will she succumb to the lull of a society that advocates unity, community and equality?

What I liked most about the book was the fast pace of the second and third parts. Enough detail was given to help the reader understand the current trajectory of the plot yet not so much that it derailed from the progression of the plot, we were no longer being helped assimilate to the new world but rather thrust into its daunting implications and harsh truths that were veiled both from us and the protagonist. I also liked the nuance and care that was taken in the first part to introduce the reader to the world as well as familiarise them with what is the norm in said world, what is considered acceptable and socially correct, as that is always needed for one to fully grasp the consequences of the actions taken by the protagonist. I liked how Craig was able to take heavily theorised fields like artificial intelligence and virtual reality and condense them into readable, fun and easily understandable themes in the book that one was able to grasp without much need for googling or knowledge of said fields.

Some negatives I picked up are that although the first part takes great care to introduce the reader to this dystopian, alien world, it does so at a truly repetitive and really slow pace and borders on redundancy in some cases like how the first few chapters dealt with exposing the reader to how a typical day for Kim looked like. There were some instances when Kim’s thoughts were written as she thought them and I found that it really took me out of the story, both for their uncommon occurrences and how they felt jarring to who Kim was set up to be. I also found the lack of different views of the story limited it. It would have been nice to get different views from Kim's as such a world impacts different individuals in exponentially different ways, and as I believe the message was that humans do and should have individuality, I found that Craig missed out on an opportunity to show just how different and yet similar humans can be.

I rate this book four out of five stars for the above-stated reasons. I would have given it a 5-star rating irrespective of some of the above-mentioned negative aspects if it had more than one point of view as I believe the opportunity to express that humans should be allowed to exercise their power of choice, and as such be unique, was not fully taken advantage of. It was well edited as the errors I found did not hinder my enjoyment of the book.

I would recommend this book to any science fiction, drama and thriller lovers as it scratched those itches for me. I would not recommend it to young readers as I believe there are many instances of sexual encounters that I do not believe children should be exposed to at an early age. I would also recommend this to any avid AI fan and philosophical readers out there as it possesses questions I believe do not have simple, universally accepted answers.

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Terms of Service
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[Navera A]

I have read and reviewed this book myself, and I loved reading your review! It was indeed a very interesting concept to read, especially during the current era of AI in our own world. Thanks for the great review!

[Tshepsyt]

I have read and reviewed this book myself, and I loved reading your review! It was indeed a very interesting concept to read, especially during the current era of AI in our own world. Thanks for the great review!

Thanks for the reply, yes, it is very intriguing and sheds a light on a somewhat controversial subject in real life. I'm excited by the current trajectory of AI currently and really cannot wait to see what else we can cook up.