Roderick/Part 2

Under construction!

The second of the Roderick novels was originally published as Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine. In The Complete Roderick, it's simply called Part 2 (although it's only about half as long as Part 1; in Sladek's original plan, it would have been Book 3 of a trilogy).

Summary

Roderick, now passing for human, has moved to the big city— where "Felix Culpa" (now known as the Lucky Legs Killer) and Allbright (now on the skids again, after apparently having caused Dora's death) have also relocated. He finally succeeds in making contact with the institutionalized Dan Sonnenschein, putting both Ben and the Orinoco Institute on his trail. His new friend, derelict ex-astronaut and religious dabbler Luke Draeger, gets him a job at a demolition company, where he witnesses disasters caused by another of Mr. Kratt's business ventures. Indica and Hank continue to expand their pro- and anti-machine activism; Father Warren, Roderick's former teacher at Catholic school, takes over Hank's increasingly violent organization. Roderick discovers that he is no longer the only sentient machine: other types of commercially marketed robots and computers have become self-aware, and now regard him and Dan as mythical heroes. When he finally comes face to face with the Orinoco Institute, they've changed their policy (due to realizing that they had been misinterpreting the messages from Leo Bunsky's brain) and want him to join their team to steer the course of the human race. Horrified by the thought of how much pointless violence these covert futurists have committed due to his existence, he rejects the offer, and offers himself up to Kratt's company to be dismantled and used as the basis for a new generation of robots; but this never happens, since they lose track of him, and he becomes a nameless statue. The book ends with a service at the new Church of the Plastic Jesus, led by Luke, bringing together a congregation of "the derelict and forgotten simulacra"; Allbright and Dora are reunited.

Roderick/Part 2

Summary

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