Marina Lostetter has been on my watch list since Noumenon. She has genuinely interesting ideas within the science fiction space and approaches the darkness of the void with a strong sense of humanity. When Activation Degradation was first released, I wanted to step back into the emptiness with her, but I found myself turned off by the marketing focus on it being like Murderbot (I see why that would make that move; it just didn’t entice me). But I decided to get over myself and give it a shot, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Unit 004 has just been constituted and wakes up on its station orbiting Jupiter. Aliens are attacking the mining operation that supplies energy to Earth, and it’s their task to help defend it. Along with three other units, it mounts a defense against the attackers. In a brazen attempt to mortally wound their ship, it rams into their vessel, accepting the sweet embrace of death. But instead, unit 004 wakes up and finds itself face to face with other robots like itself. And since they aren’t actively dismantling it and are instead helping unit 004 recover from its injuries, it chooses to wage war on them from the inside and find out exactly what they mean to accomplish by attacking the operation. Without contact from its handler, unit 004 is on its own. Can it save the mining station that supplies Earth with approximately eleven percent of its energy needs?
Activation Degradation is a fun, weird little book that charmed me despite my reluctance to a perceived coziness (strictly from marketing). It has a hostility to it that made the narrative and inhabiting Unit 004’s mind an enjoyable romp. Lostetter, writing from Unit 004’s perspective, warps the reader’s brain to understand how the unit sees the world. Its encounters with the aliens are a potent mix of sweet and stressful. The other robots’ actions towards it are caring and open, while Unit 004’s responses are skeptical and cynical. It’s a unit that was designed for offensive measures, and its every thought contains a paranoid aggression that made me both chuckle and turn the page in curiosity. The unit’s perspective felt like a caged animal ready to bite back at any perceived slight, tempered by an intelligent need to play along to do the most damage to the alien invaders.
One thing I have always enjoyed about Lostetter is her ability to throw caution to the wind and lean into her weirder instincts. The Noumena Trilogy is a testament, with Activation Degradation continuing the tradition. While this book was more limited by its linear narrative, Lostetter gave herself a few nooks and crannies to be weird. She used those spaces not only to explore some wild concepts but to leave breadcrumbs for some of the later reveals. Lostetter clues you in with little nods here and there before revealing her whole hand at the end of the story. I don’t want to point them out entirely because they are fun surprises like time-released pop rocks.
I don’t think Activation Degradation is particularly revolutionary in contemporary genre fare, but I do think it has an important place because of how Lostetter rolls out her big surprises. Maybe I’m biased because of her previous books, but I found the conversations she dives into fascinating and haven’t really encountered them in other stories as of yet. She uses the worldbuilding within her story to engage with Unit 004’s extremely short existence, born into the void with purpose: protect the mine and/or die trying. It is born with a particular view of the world, and within minutes it is assaulted, but it leaps into action doubling down on its programmed convictions. It tries to live in the world it was created for, struggling against the rising tide that is its context. Activation Degradation doesn’t quite fall short of anything per se, as it sort of blasts open a conversation it doesn’t have the time or context to answer. And I’m honestly happy it brings up the questions it does. To bring them up here would spoil the surprise Lostetter has in store, and I frankly do not have the capacity to answer those questions in a several paragraph book review.
If you need a nice stand-alone that plays on some cozy conventions with as tad more edge, Activation Degradation will be for you. It has some genuine surprises, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a book I can’t stop thinking about. It’s a book I want people to read because some of its implications are interesting, and they are a little messy in the book, but it’s the start of a conversation. Even though I enjoy its nature as a standalone, I would love to see more of this particular universe, even if it’s through short little snippets. If only to continue gazing into Pandora’s box Lostetter opened in front of me.
Rating: Activation Degradation – Drop your preconceptions and engage.
-Alex
