SF(Science/Fiction) Review: The Stories of Ibis / アイの物語

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Author: Hiroshi Yamamoto
Original title: イ イ の 物語
Translator: Takami Nieda
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese (Original), English (translated)
Genre: Science-fiction
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese), Viz Media (English)
Publication date: 2006 (Japanese), March 2010 (English)
Media type: Print (light novel)
Pages: 465 (Japanese), 466 (English)
ISBN: 978-4-04-873621-3 (Japanese), ISBN 978-1-4215-3440-4 (English)
Literary Awards: Nihon SF Taishō Award 日本 SF 大 賞 Nominee (2006), Seiun Award 賞 賞 Nominee for Best Japanese Novel (2007)

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In a world where humans are a minority and Android creates their civilization, a traveler meets the beautiful android named Ibis. Android is telling him seven stories about human interaction with Android to reveal the secrets behind the fall of human civilization. This story happens for centuries in the future, where the remnants of the human population live wildly in their colonies. They hate Android, which builds their advanced and stable civilization. In this brutal time, our main character is a storyteller who runs from one colony to another, someone who tells the story of the past. One day, he was kidnapped by Ibis, a young girl-shaped Android, and told him about stories written by humans in the past.

The story that Ibis read is seven short stories about artificial intelligence development events (AI) in the 20th - 21st century. At first glance, these stories have nothing to do with each other, but is there a hidden purpose behind the story? What is the actual Ibis destination?

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Simply put, the theme of The Stories of Ibis (SI) itself is 'the power of a fictional story' although its genre is science fiction. As can be read above, the plot of the story of the SI itself is simple: the future world that looks dystopia, the robots control the earth, humans have to run underground and live like rats, and then a man kidnapped by one robot and asked to listen to seven The story. So, do not expect to meet with thrilling or action here in fact though there are robots because the focus of the SI itself is introspection, reflection, and reflection on human relationships and robots.

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Okay, back again to the starting point, 'the power of a fictional story.' Probably at one point, we loyal readers once thought like this: the fiction we always read, to be honest, simple is bullshit - empty-trash. The shroud wrapped, wrapped up, is beautifully painted by imagination and shrewdness like a magician who removes coins in the air. But why can we spend hours and hours reading books on non-living people, people we do not know, and stories beyond the facts. Why can we laugh, cry, even tear in front of lies?

Here, in the SI itself, Ibis also discuss this. He reads seven legendary tales to the main character like expecting something. Without a spoiler, of course, I can not express much more what happened and what the effects of these seven fictional stories are to the main characters, but certainly, the fictional has an influence, and the main character realizes it at the end of the story.

7 fictional stories told by Ibis are:
• The Universe on my Hands
• A Romance in Virtual Space
• Mirror Girl
• Black Hole Diver
• A World Where Justice is Just
• The Day Shion Came
• AI's Story

Which tells about social media and human interaction with AI. The Universe on my Hands and A Romance in Virtual Space mainly shows how human interaction is in the virtual world. These two stories tell the story of anonymous users who do not know each other, who only know in cyberspace. But how their physical intimacy is exceeded by the virtual and even without face-to-face, there is a real feeling of love, a sense of kinship.

This novel can remind us of how to interact with humans in cyberspace.

HUMANS AND AI

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The next 5 stories tell about human interactions and robots with different styles. How the space station fell in love with the girl who committed suicide by throwing herself into the black hole or how Shion, the nurse robot, reached the conclusion about the human being when caring for the elderly, and so on.

Everything is told from the point of view of the robot whose mind is still pure like a baby.

“Where did this baseless fear that robots would attack humans come from? Why were there so many stories about robots and humans fighting? Did they only exist because that was how mankind had always lived? Did we simply see ourselves in these humanoid machines? Were we not simply afraid of our own reflections?”
― Hiroshi Yamamoto, The Stories of Ibis

This is one quote from one of AI thinking in one of the stories that made me think again may be true.

Although these seven stories only tell about it, each story has different feelings, different viewpoints, and different messages that I can not stop reading this book. Honestly, I came to the end of this review still thinking and looking for what the shortcomings of this novel. And it's difficult. As far as the SF knowledge and books I read, this novel is a masterpiece that I can not look for the deficiency.

I really recommend this book for whoever loves to read a SF(Science/Fiction) book.

PERSONAL RATING: 5/5