"Dolly" is a 2011 science fiction/police procedural short story by Elizabeth Bear. It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction.
Synopsis
editWhen a billionaire is killed by his sex robot, police must determine whether the robot was a murder weapon, or the culprit.
Reception
editIn Locus, Lois Tilton found the story "rather sad", and noted that the murder mystery "distract(ed)" from the theme of "humans forming attachments to artificial beings".[1] Tangent Online considered it "interesting", and praised Bear for "subversion of the machine's role".[2]
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Paul Kincaid described it as "not a bad story (...) efficiently told, with enough detail of character and setting to reward the reader", but added that he was disappointed by what he saw as Bear's re-use of tropes first developed by Isaac Asimov in the 1940s.[3]
Communications of the ACM included it in an article on the use of science fiction to teach computer ethics, noting in particular its relevance to deontology.[4]
Adaptation
editIn 2021, Apple announced that it had won the right to produce a full-length adaptation of "Dolly", which would star Florence Pugh, and have a script by Vanessa Taylor and Drew Pearce.[5]
References
edit- ^ Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early November, by Lois Tilton, in Locus; published November 5, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ Asimov's -- January 2011, reviewed by Mark Lord, at Tangent Online; published November 14, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ The Widening Gyre: 2012 Best of the Year Anthologies, reviewed by Paul Kincaid, at the Los Angeles Review of Books; published September 3, 2012; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ How to Teach Computer Ethics through Science Fiction, by Emanuelle Burton, Judy Goldsmith, and Nicholas Mattei; in Communications of the ACM August 2018, Vol. 61 No. 8, Pages 54-64; doi: 10.1145/3154485
- ^ Apple Studios Lands Hot Package ‘Dolly’ With Florence Pugh On Board To Star And Vanessa Taylor And Drew Pearce Penning The Script, at Deadline Hollywood; by Justin Kroll; published February 10, 2021; retrieved February 10, 2021
External links
edit- Text of the story, at Apex Magazine
- "Dolly" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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