While flawed in many ways, this book moves from a slow start to a compelling ending.This is a story in two halves. The first half involves a disparate group of prisoners, coming to their senses on an abandoned, automated facility where it appears they've been kept so that they can be replaced by android doubles. The blurb gives away one of the main plot issues with this half of the story, as the prisoners try to work out how to get back to where they belong.The second half of this story abandons that situation almost altogether, and instead wanders into one of Norton's magic fused with science set-ups and a battle for control of a planet. This half is the more compelling read, but also makes the first half almost entirely irrelevant.For a book first published in 1971, Android at Arms is interesting for having the main character and a large portion of the cast be people of African ancestry. Very rare for SF at that time (and still rare!). Unfortunately, the gender politics is not one of Norton's better efforts - the antagonist is an evil "Old Woman" god. There's a moment where this is introduced where it looks like Norton's going to do something interesting by having the protagonist realise that he's merely been taught that women's magic is bad, but sadly that moment passes unrealised and instead we have two opposed groups - one where all the characters are men except for the Emperor's valiant wife, and the other side which is all women except for some enslaved men. No points for picking which side is evil and which side wins.It's sad to read any book where all women except one are depicted as bad, and the divided aspect of the two halves of the tale do the book no favours, so while it did pick up in the end I'd recommend this book mainly for Norton completionists.
In the movie DARYL, the statement is made that 'A machine becomes a human being when it becomes impossible to tell the difference'.By this standard, the androids involved (whichever ARE androids), qualify as people. It's not clear where the Mengians who developed the androids got their technical information from. It's stated that android technology was forbidden, and that known androids were killed by mobs, centuries before. But may some not have survived and gone underground?One point that struck me the first time I read this, and has stayed with me since: in what African language is 'Andas Kastor' a reasonable name?
What do You think about Android At Arms (1987)?
Book changes from a mystery about people imprisoned on a barely habitable planet to a buddy story about escaping to attacks involving psychic magic to jumping to an alternate world. Episodic and not convincing.
—Gary Denton
