Electric Blues

By: Shaun O. McCoy

Narrated by: Gabrielle Olexa

Meet Arty PA3025.He’s a robot, and he’s depressed. Unemployed and horribly obsolete, his future looks bleak - and that’s just what he tells his programmer-cum-therapist, Knickers.

But then he meets Madeline, an ornery senior with a pair of arthritic cats and a fear of modern electronic accoutrements. They team up, an outdated robot and a senile old woman, to begin together a quest for relevance in an all too cold and uncaring world.

©2010, 2013 Shaun McCoy (P)2013 Shaun McCoy

Interesting

Any additional comments?

Fancy a fast fix of sci-fi?
Look no further

This is a great short story that shows how machines who analyse all they do can still be more human than the humans who are caught up in their own little world, and forget about those who produced us.
Why do we do it???
Mostly because we are caring for those WE have produced.

Well I'm of to call my parents.
Enjoy

A unique & compelling sci-fi audiobook

Title: ELECTRIC BLUES

Author: Shaun O. McCoy

Type of Book: Audiobook - Unabridged

Narrator: Gabrielle Olexa

Length: 1 hour and 13 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

Release Date: November 2013

Publisher: Sisyphean Publications

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

~ I received a free copy of this audiobook through AudioBookBlast dot com in exchange for an honest review.


PA3025 is an obsolete robot who was created to be a PA (Personal Assistant). Yes, he's a robot ... and he's depressed.

His "therapist" - a man named Knickers tells him that he needs to volunteer his services to someone who could never afford an actual personal assistant.

This is how he meets Madelaine, a partly-senile, half blind, old-school technophobe with two arthritic cats.

Madelaine nicknames PA3025 "Arty" and the name sticks.

Arty helps Madelaine and Madelaine helps Arty and together they try to find meaning in their lives.

This audiobook was very different from other robot/android stories that I have read and/or listened to. Yes, it is technically a Science Fiction story, but it is more a story of what it means to be "alive" and the importance of purpose rather than the action/thriller type of story that is typical of the Science Fiction genre.

Narrator Gabrielle Olexa does a 'spot-on' job as the voice of Madelaine. She is very believable as an elderly woman and her performance of Madelaine perfectly captured the nuances of an aging woman. The only small issue I had with the narration was that using a female narrator as the voice of Arty was a bit confusing. Until Arty's "gender" was revealed I believed that PA3025 was a female robot model. Gabrielle Olexa was excellent as the voice of a robot who operated on logic and lacked emotion. She was convincing in her lack of emotional inflections.

I feel that a rating of 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is well deserved for ELECTRIC BLUES.

I do want to comment on the audiobook cover. Cover art is the first thing a potential reader sees when deciding whether or not to pick up a book or audiobook to read the back cover. If the artwork is not relevant to the story or does not somehow reflect the audiobook's genre, it is possible that potential readers are lost simply because they never bothered to read the book's description. I think this could easily happen with ELECTRIC BLUES. The saxophone on the cover leads potential readers to think this book is about music.

Great story that is perfectly narrated!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed listening to Gabrielle read this excellent story. She did each character justice, while not distracting from the story itself. This is a well written story and I plan to listen to it again soon!

a definite listen!

Would you listen to Electric Blues again? Why?

I would listen to Electric Blues again right before I listen to the sequel, so I could remember how everything went down.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Arty, because that is how i feel about myself.

What about Gabrielle Olexa’s performance did you like?

Her granny voice was stupendous and she makes me all tingly inside.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! I would of listen to this all in one sitting if it was 16 hours long.

Any additional comments?

Great listen. I cannot wait for further books done by these 2.

More than expected!

Arty is an obsolete model of personal assistant droid, specifically model PA3025. Employment has become increasingly difficult to come by as newer and faster models become available. So, he’s on the government unemployment which means he has a case worker, Knickers. And Knickers has a subtle plan to get depressed Arty back into the swing of things.

I stepped into this story not expecting too much. I figured it would be a light-hearted lunch listen. What I got instead is so much more. Most of the story is told through the droid’s eyes and it was very interesting to watch Arty go from an initial wish to switch off (or terminate) to a place where he felt useful and needed.

Knickers uses a parable to get some points across to Arty. Extra points to the author for mentioning the old computer game Galaga, by the way. In fact, the entire story, Electric Blues, is a parable for modern human life and anyone who feels obsolete. This is done in a very clever way. I was sucked into the story and the characters long before I saw what the author was doing.

Another crucial character is the aging Madeline. Arty takes up volunteer work, per Knickers direction, while he continues to search for a job. Madeline is his first stop and in her daft way she takes him on as a personal assistant. She doesn’t have much interest in modern tech and being able to interface with such tech through the very accessible and people-friendly Arty makes her life much easier. Through this relationship, Arty grows as a character.

Now toss in snippets of a court case that attempts to define sentient life and you have plenty to think about. These little snippets were well placed throughout the story providing little breaks between scenes and raising some pretty interesting questions about what constitutes legal, rights-holding life.

All in all, I was very impressed with this story. I hope that McCoy makes more of his work available in audiobook format!

I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from the narrator (via the GoodReads Audiobooks group) in exchange for an honest review.

Narration: At first I wasn’t sure why the author picked a female narrator for this book as nearly all of it is told through Arty’s voice. But then I realized that Arty is an it, not a he or she, so it didn’t particularly matter. Gabrielle Olexa did a fine job sounding like a stiff PA3025. She managed to keep a monotone voice for PA Arty throughout the tale. She had a variety of voices for the other characters and imbued them with emotion when needed. My favorite voice was old lady Madeline.

Electric Blues on Audible

This story was so different than what I expected! It made me think and look into a deeper meaning of every scene. Thanks for the great story Shaun and the perfect audio voice Gabrielle Olexa! Very robotically done :) and can't believe how well you transitioned the various voices of the story.

Short and sweet

Which character – as performed by Gabrielle Olexa – was your favorite?

Arty

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I received a free audible copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cute,interesting and short story. I already like sci-fi books and with robots in them it adds a hue of humor, something that is hard t o get from all books.

This is about what a robot goes through once it is outdated, although it may seem that robots have no emotions yet Arty tries to survive when high end robots are replacing it. I love the part when it tries to calm the old lady Mrs. Albright when she is crying and Knickers asks it to say "It's okay!" and Arty disagrees saying it's not okay. There are times when it compares outdated robots with old humans and diseases they are suffering from, which somehow tries to convey a message that you don't just give up on anyone just because they are suffering or rather outdated.

The narration was also excellent and it was a good break from the regular sci-fi books you'd read.

Heartwarming Tale - Highly recommend!

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily leaving this review and all opinions expressed herein are mine.

Here, Arty is an outdate PA [personal assistant]. He is depressed but cannot commit suicide as his programming prevents him from doing so. He gets a job to assist Madeleine, an elderly woman with two elderly cats. As he assists Madeleine, he learns about being human.

What a great heartwarming story! I loved the humor and commentary from Arty about human behavior. The parable about the video game Galaga was so perfect and relatable - having spent a bit of time playing this game. The characters of Arty and Madeleine are so endearing. Highly recommend!

The narrator completely embodies Arty with her voice and her narration made this well-written story all the more enjoyable.