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[quote=Anonymous]I enjoyed it but it has not stuck with me the way Never Let Me Go does. I think Klara's much more limited understanding and awareness is an interesting literary device (I liked how much of the book kind of reveals itself as you go -- he leaves a lot unexplained so that you can uncover it along with Klara, which was an enjoyable experience), but it made for a less emotionally rich reading experience.

In a way this reveals what I think is a major ethical difference between human cloning and AI. A human clone is a human. They have a human experience. AI, even if sentient and feeling, is not human. So where the ethical issues in Never Let Me Go were extremely immediate and poignant to me, I felt they were less obvious in Klara and the Sun. Yes I felt sad for Klara at parts in the book, but I don't think she experienced even the worst parts of her experience with a depth of sadness that made me think "this is wrong." Even at the end, I felt like I felt worse for Klara at having been discarded than she felt for herself. Her emotional range as AI was so much more limited and just not human.

But the fact that I can even draw these comparisons and think of these characters as real in this way is a testament to Ishiguro, who I truly do think is a genius. I also loved Remains of the Day, I think I might want to reread it because it's been so long. I never attempted any of his other books but now I'm interested.[/quote]

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