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  • Machines Like Me

  • By: Ian McEwan
  • Narrated by: Billy Howle
  • Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (179 ratings)

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Machines Like Me

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Billy Howle
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Publisher's Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, read by Billy Howle.

Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.


Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.

©2019 Ian McEwan (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

Machines Like Me reminds us that McEwan is once-in-a-generation talent, offering readerly pleasure, cerebral incisiveness and an enticing imagination. (Lara Feigel)
[Machines Like Me] is right up there with his very best [novels]. Machines Like Me manages to combine the dark acidity of McEwan’s great early stories with the crowd-pleasing readability of his more recent work. A novel this smart oughtn’t to be such fun, but it is. (Alex Preston)
Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me is a dazzling account of our interaction with technology… He marries a gripping plot, handled with rarefied skill and dexterity, to a deep excavation of the narrowing gap between the canny and the uncanny, leaving the reader pleasurably dizzied, and marvelling at human existence. (Philip Womack)

What listeners say about Machines Like Me

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Just incredible

The modern-day Frankenstein. Brilliant in every way. Thank you Ian McEwan. An excellent performance from Billy
Howle too.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting read

I found it unsettling that historical events and context are adjusted to what could have been, but the premise and narrative were enough to keep me engaged and keep me thinking about it for some time to come.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional

Enjoyed this immensely. Ian McEwan is a master craftsman and Billy Howle's performance is absolutely spot-on. My favourite listen on audible so far. Intend to read it now and recommended also for Book Club.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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An AI robots love and devotion

Great book about a robots love for a family and how AI can't quite cut the mustard. Beautifully written and intellectually stimulating as always.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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a brilliant author

...whose stories always leave me feeling slightly unsettled, but this is the point. Mr McEwan writes every sentence to the fullest relevance.
Machines Like Me deals with AI, a triangulated relationship, threatened by the installation of another, against the backdrop of a slightly altered post-war/late 20thC Britain. A sort of "what if humans had been able to run with advancing scientific ideas earlier...?"

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Peters out

Loved the idea and story setup which kept the reader guessing....but then it just seemed to loose momentum. Bit of a disappointment

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A compelling read

What an excellent book. On of the most engaging and thought provoking novels I have read in a long time. A beautifully eloquent text that keeps you thinking. Amazing.

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Gets you in!!!

I’m not a sci fan but really enjoyed this book.
Strange as it was it kept me listening all day as I didn’t all sorts of boring things. I was a bit miff d when it finished! Good entertainment!

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Excellent, could not stop listening.

I enjoyed every second of this book. Fantastic story. Well read. Kept at a good pace , no time filled mamby pamby.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

This book did not go well with me

I found that the various subplots did not gel well with each other, and at times I was fairly bored with the story.
The book rambled in parts.
I normally love this author, but I thought this book was a bit second rate.

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