The Inevitable by Daniel Hope

Do robots live forever?

The Inevitable, a novel by Daniel Hope, features a charismatic robot grappling with a very human conundrum, the meaning of life and death.

Tuck is a humanoid robot who survived the Bot Riots on Earth by escaping into space, but his metal bones, ragged strips of synthaskin, and frayed Carbora polymer muscles need replacement. As the last bot in the universe and grieving the loss of his family, Tuck grapples with the meaning of life and death as he is forced to wander between planets looking for parts, risking exposure even as collectors are hunting him. Tuck alleviates his loneliness when he adopts an abandoned A.I. integrated into a spaceship and names it David after the boy he took care of on Earth. The two meet Maze, a genetically modified, escaped lab experiment who, like Tuck, has super-human speed and strength. Maze serves as first mate on a ship, The Memory of Lenetia, owned by the billionaire, Amelia, who offers Tuck the parts he needs in exchange for assistance with her corporate raid against her main rival. Tuck and David fly to Amelia's ship, but mercenaries delay the operation by launching an attack and attempting to kidnap Maze. Tuck finds renewed purpose in his life through Maze and he quickly becomes devoted to her. Together they must survive in a world where they are at once misfits and precious commodities. In this futuristic adventure, Tuck and Maze have survived capture, but will they survive Amelia’s mission?

Dan Hope likes writing and science fiction, so it should be no surprise that he combines them. By day, he works with user experience designers to make apps easier to understand. His muted pessimism has been generously characterized as the Voice of Reason by the design team. He lives in Colorado with his family. His nerdy interests have been generously characterized as Super Lame by his kids. Lidia Yuknavitch is the National Bestselling author of the novelsThe Book of Joan andThe Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction as well as the Reader's Choice Award, the novelDora: A Headcase, and a critical book on war and narrative, Allegories Of Violence (Routledge). Her widely acclaimed memoirThe Chronology of Water was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award for creative nonfiction and winner of a PNBA Award and the Oregon Book Award Reader's Choice.The Misfit's Manifesto , a book based on her recent TED Talk, was published by TED Books, and her new collection of fiction,Verge , was released in 2020. Lidias newest novel isThrust .
She has also had writing appear in publications including Guernica Magazine, Ms., The Iowa Review, Zyzzyva, Another Chicago Magazine, The Sun, Exquisite Corpse, TANK, and in the anthologies Life As We Show It (City Lights), Wreckage of Reason (Spuytin Duyvil), Forms at War (FC2), Feminaissance (Les Figues Press), and Representing Bisexualities (SUNY), as well as online at The Rumpus.
She founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland Oregon, where she teaches both in person and online. She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon. She lives in Oregon with her husband Andy Mingo and their renaissance man son, Miles. She is a very good swimmer.