Semi/Human

Semi/Human

Robots are in. Humans are out. Can one teenager steal her way to a better future?

By Erik E. Hanberg


Pen Davis just lost her internship to a robot. As supercomputers take over all the jobs in the world, the lonely teen doesn’t see a future. Desperate to escape the coming robo-pocalpyse, she devises a plot to steal millions from her former boss. It’s payback for laying her off, and the only way Pen can see how to scrape together enough cash to survive.

But her plan takes a crazy turn when she fumbles the hijacking of a self-driving truck and accidentally sets it free.

Stuck with a semi who practically wants to be her little sister, Pen tries to make the best of it. She uses the semi to rescue quiet James, who is interested enough in her that he’s willing to join her crew, even though he’d prefer not to do anything actually illegal. When she convinces James and the truck to help her, the plan fails spectacularly and her mismatched team is torn apart.

Will Pen claim the riches of her dreams, or will a unique friendship give her something money can’t buy?

Semi/Human is an action-packed science fiction adventure. If you like quirky characters, hilarious road trips, and awesome high-tech heists, then you’ll love Erik Hanberg’s fast-paced caper.


Note: if you want to watch clips of the real-life robots and drones that inspired the action sequences in Semi/Human, check it out here. If you don’t want anything spoiled, though, you should skip the videos and come back later to check them out.


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Praise

Enjoyable SF with an irresistibly clever heist story and compelling ideas. As he did in his Lattice Trilogy (2018), Hanberg deftly combines convincing high-tech (plus some surprising low-tech) touches with believable, sympathetic characters. Pen’s humorous, wry narrative voice is entertaining, the characters are well drawn, and the heist adventure is both complicated and exciting. But the novel goes deeper than that; its concerns couldn’t be timelier, as millennials see their own prospects dwindle while those who already have it made exhibit little sympathy. Also thoughtful is the book’s portrayal of an intentional community of the dispossessed, which offers an alternative to the have/have-not struggle.
-- Kirkus Reviews

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