Stand-In Companion - Kazafumi Shiraishi

Genre: Short Story | Speculative Fiction

Release Date: 23rd November 2018

Publisher: Red Circle (Red Circle Minis Collection)

Hayato is a successful industrial designer in Japan, in a future world full of progressive technology and AI. After his less than amicable divorce, he's assigned a stand in - an android to provide realistic companionship. But can you replicate that? This may be an advanced world, but even the most impressive technological strides can't solve the most basic of human desires - finding love, connection and true meaning in life.

In only 42 pages, Shiraishi creates an entire world. A beautiful new universe than feels like both utopia and dystopia at the same time - with a stark juxtaposition between magnificent technology and human achievement, marked against the dark side of government oppression and control. I felt like I knew the world, connected with it, and that is a testament to the masterful writing in this story.

The writing style is descriptive and somewhat poetic, but still saying concise and clearly without any filler. This little book provokes the reader to think about the truths behind AI and true autonomy.

Instead of a story, I'd describe Stand-In Companion as a striking snapshot of a distant yet unsettlingly familiar future.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Red Circle Minis for providing me with a reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Red Circle Minis is a series of short captivating books by Japans finest contemporary writers that brings the narratives and voices of Japan together as never before. Each book is a first edition written specifically for the series and is being published in English first. The Book covers in the series draw on traditional Japanese motifs and colours found in Japanese building, paper, garden and textile design. Everything, in fact, that is refined and beautiful, from kimonos to zen gardens and everything in between. The mark included on the covers incorporates the Japanese character mame meaning 'bean', a word that has many uses and connotations including things miniature and adorable. The colour used on the cover is know as torinoko-iro.

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