Eager
3 primary works
Book 1
The ban against building self-aware robots has been lifted and Eager can finally come out of hiding. But his freedom is short-lived: the Authorities begin to round-up self-aware robots. Humans need the robots help. They lack the expertise to solve a growing technological crisis on earth - one that will affect both humans and robots.
But even though he's being held captive, Eager's greatest dream has been fulfilled: he now has robot friends, such as Dulcie the mermaid - half-animat, half-dolphin. But are these new friends all they appear to be? And can they really help solve the planet's growing problems?
Book 2
It is later this century, and the earth's natural resources have been rationed for use by technocrats. Now a global company, LifeCorp, makes all major decisions and robots do most of the work. Life otherwise is much as we know it (except that your house talks to you, the kettle asks you how many cups of tea you want, and you can call up Socrates and other philosophers on the gobey, a futuristic internet).
When the Bell family's much-loved old-fashioned robot butler Grumps starts to go wrong, Mr Bell finds EGR3 through a colleague. But EGR3, known as Eager, is something different - programmed to learn through his experiences, like a human child. He also feels wonder, excitement - and confusion; not least a sense of awe at the latest, glamorous BDC4 robots, flaunted by the families of the powerful and wealthy technocrats. And he feels sorrow at the loss of Grumps, destroyed under strange circumstances.
Then Gavin Bell begins to think there is something odd about the BDC4s behaviour. With his sister Fleur, he investigates, enlisting Eager's help - with hilarious consequences. Questions are asked of LifeCorp and of Eager's creator and the answer to all the puzzles is finally solved. It leaves only the final question to be answered - the one closest to Eager's heart: am I alive?
Book 3
Eager comes out of hiding regularly to visit his old friends, the Bell family, and with him comes his 'nephew' Jonquil, Professor Ogden's newest, and formidably intelligent invention. Jonquil is a tinselly structure that can infinitely change shape. He is impatient, curious, always wants to be in the middle of things - and quickly out of control.
Fleur Bell is now grown up, with a daughter, Ju; her old friend, Marcia has a son, Finbar. Fleur's husband works in a space station, and things take a very worrying turn when he appears not to be his usual self during his regular conversations with the family on the go-between. Before long Eager and Jonquil, with the help of Ju and Finbar, are locked into another quirky mystery adventure in search of the truth ...
To complicate matters further, for Eager the human world is even more bewildering than ever ...