---
product_id: 221518565
title: "Machines Like Me: A Novel"
brand: "ian mcewan"
price: "KSh7187"
currency: KES
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/221518565-machines-like-me-a-novel
store_origin: KE
region: Kenya
---

# Machines Like Me: A Novel

**Brand:** ian mcewan
**Price:** KSh7187
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Machines Like Me: A Novel by ian mcewan
- **How much does it cost?** KSh7187 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.ke](https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/221518565-machines-like-me-a-novel)

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## Description

Machines Like Me: A Novel

## Images

![Machines Like Me: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81V1m3EaXwL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Really an Amazing Writer - Literature with a Great Plot
  

*by M***D on Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2024*

For me, McEwan is never a quick read but the writing is so good, modern literature, that it is well worth the moderate pace.  So well written, and this time with a bit of science fiction - a very modern plot complete with social upheaval surrounding the protagonist.  One of his best, I think.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    How much like you are machines?
  

*by S***N on Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2019*

Regardless of the country and time you’re from, you are sure to experience time-space cultural whiplash in McEwan’s latest novel. It’s both dystopian and alt-history. I know that dystopian is supposed to take place in the future, but, instead, McEwan’s convoluted setting this time is in the 1980s London. A very advanced 80s where Alan Turing survived, Tony Benn died (in the Brighton bombing!), JFK survived Dallas and Jimmy Carter beat Regan and was still president. The latter two factoids don’t impact the story but just give a little more alt-history for the context of the author’s setting. And, yes, robots that look like humans and have a bit of dramatic whimsy are the antagonists created by the protagonists.Charlie is a well-educated but aimless 30-something who earns his money in day trading—usually losing on schemes—has a bit of a shaky past with his law degree but is honestly open and vulnerable in a fetching way, to love. He decides he loves his roomie, a PhD candidate and history major, Miranda, the most enigmatic woman he’d ever met. He was likely attracted to her air of secrets. Charlie takes an inheritance and spends 89 thousand pounds on Adam, a robot who looks good enough to be human, and meant to be programmed by the owner to have whatever characteristics you decide to give him. Thus opens the whole theme of morality and technology and the intersection of the two. And what happens if you let your brand new love interest program half of Adam by herself?Don’t wait for me to tell you—go read the book! As always, McEwan never disappoints on prose, dry wit, a trough of sentimentality when it comes to romantic love, and the bittersweet shakedowns. It also addresses the limits of consciousness in AI. OK, and that topic has been explored by many other authors in thousands of books, so this wasn’t the reason I read it. I knew that McEwan’s story would be as much philosophy as conflict, and perhaps I’ve heard similar debates and ideas about robots before, but I wanted to observe how McEwan executed his characters and themes as well as story. He’s never a lazy writer, and his ambitions are typically within his sphere of confidence. It wasn’t my favorite McEwan—that spot goes to ATONEMENT. And at times I felt that the author was too restrained, and the liftoff was denied to us as readers.So, Charlie’s voice sounded a bit dour mixed with hopeful and careless optimism, especially when faced with Adam. Those two definitely had a friction that didn’t work. I think McEwan wanted us to explore how Charlie and Miranda could be a successful couple when they both programmed Adam (but didn’t share the characteristics they programmed into Adam). As the reader, we didn’t know any more than those two—even less, because Miranda’s choices aren’t transparent.Is Adam actually a combination of the traits they entered, or did he have his own consciousness arising from the two? And, if he didn’t have his own consciousness, what is the difference between having your own consciousness and simulating it? I like how McEwan provokes the reader to speculate, but then again I was a little disappointed in how it remains unanswerable. However, as always with his novels, there’s a bit of a jolt to the denouement—something that pushes you in a lane you weren’t ready for—at least, in one aspect. But there are other parts of the climax that are standard for this kind of novel about robots.This isn’t a spoiler, but I was especially impressed by Adam’s considered thoughts on vision and death. He compared it to our peripheral vision and awareness. “The odd thing is, there’s no boundary, no edge…There isn’t something, then nothing. What we have is the field of vision, and then beyond it less than nothing.” “So this is what death is like. The edge of vision is a good representation of the edge of consciousness. Life, then death.” There are other nuggets like this that I enjoyed.My biggest complaint is that Adam didn’t really get under my skin, not as a robot or not as programmed—that, of course, should have been conveyed through the actions, reactions, and interactions between Miranda and Charlie. I thought that McEwan succeeded in somewhat closing the loop and leaving an opening to ponder, but as much as the characters were organically comprised, occasionally it felt stilted. The momentum was halting, and the alt history of the British politics didn’t tie in enough specifically—only in a general way of social sciences. But, I’m glad I read it and I was certainly engaged until the end. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be programmed by humans?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Clever, entertaining and thought-provoking
  

*by R***K on Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2019*

The novel is set in strange version of 1982 London, in which the Beatles are still together, England loses the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher is the outgoing PM but in which many of the technologies of the current and future eras simultaneously co-exist.  The story centers on Charlie Friend, a 32 year old general failure who buys one of the first 25 extraordinarily advanced, human-like robots offered for sale (using the proceeds from the sale of his late mother’s house).  Adam is the humanoid robot Charlie buys, and Matilda is Charlie’s 22 year old neighbor upstairs with whom he falls in love.  The plot and sub-plots (some less plausible than others) are well-summarized in other reviews.It’s not one of my favorite McEwan novels (for those, see among others Atonement and Nutshell) but confirmed my belief that even a middling McEwan novel is much better-written and more clever, entertaining and thought-provoking than the large majority of other novels.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Machines Like Me: A Novel
- Vintage Lessons: the Sunday Times bestselling new novel from the author of Atonement

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*Product available on Desertcart Kenya*
*Store origin: KE*
*Last updated: 2026-03-06*