Kelleher’s incredible talent and imagination have produced an outstanding exploration of AI, and a view of the results when controlled by a lust for power.
This is a superbly crafted novel in four parts, that introduce the passing of time, with two amazing leading characters - one a young orphan girl, the other a Droid, whose paths intersect with life-changing outcomes.
Guido is the friendly Droid guide, that leads hikers through the Wilderness Park.
On a day like any other, he is warned to escape into the mountains before the Enforcers arrive.
They are neutralizing all the Droids by order of the ruler, Brother John, who, having destroyed Jiacimo, the designer of the Androids, and the entire ruling council, has taken the place of leader.He has ordered all AI that can live independently, be destroyed.
The Enforcers do their job well. All the Droids that Guido had previously encountered, were no more.
Then Guido is no more.
The orphan Verne, a malnourished teen, enters the picture. Taught to steal by her father, she has become an accomplished thief, but courageous, strong and fearless, with certain ethics that are never compromised under any condition.
Chosen for a robbery by a Client, the item she must steal is a small laser gun, the last remaining one from the killing of the Droids, owned by the oldest surviving Enforcer.
Things go haywire. The Client escapes but Verne is caught. She insists the laser was in the Clients’ possession at the time he was blown up in his boat.
She has hidden it in a place that a search doesn’t find.
Questioning why the value of the laser is worth a person’s life, Verne escapes.
The forest is the only place to which she can retreat. Although hunted by a helibird, she unknowingly ends up in the place where the Droids were neutralized fifty years ago. Their broken parts askew in piles.
Searching for shelter in a devastating storm, and using the laser for light, in a dilapidated shack she discovers Guido.
He has been in a deep state of unconsciousness since the neutralizing. Guido is the last of his kind. The Lastling. A laser shot starts him up again. Together they keep moving as the Helibirds dog their trail. Always the guardian and the guide, Guido cares for the weakened Verne though terrible days when weakness threatens her life.
A strong bond is formed between them.
Freedom doesn’t come easy. The two encounter countless life-threatening situations, and unfortunately the elderly Enforcer, owner of the laser gun.
Guido is now damaged from the fired helibird they used to escape. Verne must remember that violence and Enforcers are close companions.
Guido, programmed never to harm anyone, now has the laser in his possession.
He has bargaining tools that humans don’t have.
The climactic end closes a fabulous read.
The Afterword gives a better understanding about the dangers of AI; in the lack of knowledge that surrounds it, and the destruction of humanity that can easily be engineered by an uncontrollable lust for power.
Title: The Lastling
Author: Victor Kelleher
Publisher: Christmas Press, $ 19.99
Publication Date: 4 April 2025
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780648815488
For ages: 10+
Type: Science Fiction
