In the Lives of Puppets

“In a flat, mechanical voice, she said, ‘If you were to die, I would play with your corpse. There is much I would be able to learn. I would drill you until there was nothing left.’ This—as Nurse Ratched had undoubtedly planned—set the vacuum off once more. ‘Oh no,’ it whimpered. ‘Oh no, no, no, this will not do. Victor!’”

Nurse Ratched and Rambo’s vibrant personalities help to establish the blurred line in this novel between machines and people. This exchange typifies the dynamic between the blithely sadistic nurse and the perpetually petrified vacuum at the start of the story. Over time, Nurse Ratched becomes more openly caring and protective toward the members of her found family, including the fearful Rambo. The robots’ back-and-forth provides much of the novel’s comic relief, lightening up a story that might otherwise be weighed down by its examination of guilt, humanity’s extinction, and philosophical ruminations.

“This new heart—crude and sophomoric and indescribably human—was a contingency plan. Just in case. He’d started building it when he was fifteen years old.”

This scene marks the first appearance of an artificial heart built by Victor. Hearts serve as a motif throughout the novel symbolizing The Complexity of Love. For example, Victor originally intended this heart for his father, but he ends up giving it to Hap, the person he eventually falls in love with. This heart also points to the theme of What it Means to Be Human because it is described as “indescribably human” with all the imperfections that implies. It’s vitally important to the plot that Victor has the ability to build hearts because he must repeat this feat again and again to restore the machines he loves.

“His cheeks and jawline were covered in a fine layer of stubble, the detail oddly exquisite. Someone had taken great care to make the android look as he did. Victor wondered what had happened, and how the android had ended up in the Scrap Yards so far away from anything resembling civilization.”

Victor’s immediate fascination with the “oddly exquisite” android’s features foreshadows his romantic interest in Hap. The protagonist’s questions about the mysterious machine help to build up the story’s suspense. In an eerie twist, it’s later revealed that the carefully wrought appearance that draws Victor in was a deliberate design choice to help the android get close to his human victims without raising suspicion.

“Blood welled from a small cut on his palm. He watched as it dripped down his hand, a rivulet cascading down his arm. It reached the crook of his elbow before a fat red drop fell to the ground, splashing into the dirt.”

Victor’s minor cut has major ramifications. Although it’s not apparent at the time, the single “fat red drop” of blood that falls to the ground in the Scrap Yards is enough to inform the Authority of the human’s presence. This leads to Giovanni’s abduction and the ensuing events. While the novel is deeply interested in Free Will and Intentional Action, accidents and their unintended consequences also play a significant role in the characters’ lives.

“‘He was decommissioned for a reason. Either he was corrupted, or faulty, or damaged and not worth repairing and therefore unnecessary.’ ‘That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be fixed,’ Vic said. He glanced at the android’s face before looking away. ‘Everything deserves a chance.’ Nurse Ratched was silent for a moment. Then, ‘Dream logic. Wistfulness. Empathy. These describe you. That is unfortunate. It would be better if you were a machine. Silly human emotions.’”

Nurse Ratched’s dismissal of the android is somewhat ironic considering that she was decommissioned before Victor found her and his “[s]illy human emotions” prompted him to give her a new life. Her description of Victor develops the theme of What it Means to Be Human and gives insight into the protagonist’s characterization. Victor’s strong sense of empathy and his desire to rebuild what is broken are essential qualities of his, and, at least according to Nurse Ratched, humanity as a whole.

“‘Find anything?’ And though it hurt to do, Victor lied. He lied because he wasn’t sure what his father would say. He lied because he didn’t know what they’d found. He lied because he didn’t know what else to do. ‘No. Just the usual.’ Dad nodded, looking relieved. ‘So long as you’re safe.’”

The novel is inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, a children’s story with a protagonist who is famous for lying. In this excerpt, Klune’s protagonist demonstrates his own capacity for deceit by concealing the android in his laboratory from Giovanni, who, like Geppetto, is both a gifted creator and a loving, fretful father.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt them. Hap was trying to protect them from what he perceived as a threat. Dad.”

In this suspenseful scene, Hap, who has no memories, sees Giovanni as a threat to Victor. This foreshadows the revelation that Giovanni programmed the HARP to destroy humanity as well as the way that Hap becomes Victor’s staunchest protector in spite of his original protocol.

“‘Y-yes,’ Hap said, nodding furiously. ‘Th-that. They saved me. I s-saved the butterfly.’”

This moment provides important character development for Hap. Belying his foreboding manner and near-permanent scowl, the android saves the butterfly even though it costs him his chance of escape. Hap draws a parallel between his decision to save the butterfly and Victor and Nurse Ratched’s decision to rebuild him. In both cases, someone chose to risk their personal safety to help another. Throughout the novel, butterflies serve as a symbol of free will.

“‘It might be for the best that you don’t remember what your life was before because it’s not going to be the same. The heart, it’s…’ He shook his head. ‘It’s something special. It will lift you up. It will ache without reason. If your response to it is the same as mine, you’ll find yourself feeling things you never thought possible. You are a machine, Hap. That much is clear. But a heart changes everything.’”

Giovanni’s words to Hap touch on the themes of What it Means to Be Human and The Complexity of Love. Giovanni’s counsel that “a heart changes everything” is proven true because Hap’s heart allows him to fall in love with Victor and become a completely different person from the killing machine he was programmed to be.

“‘We’re not the same,’ Dad had said, voice gentle and soft. ‘But know that I was alone and sad before you came into my world. You gave me hope, Victor. It started in the tips of my toes before it rose through the rest of my body and latched firmly in my chest. It has never left. It evolved into something so much greater. And it’s because of this feeling that I can say I don’t need you to be like me. I need you to be you.’”

While consoling a 10-year-old Victor, Giovanni offers some insight into the complexities of love. To him, love’s strength does not lie in the similarities between people but rather in its power to heal and transform. His father’s words remain with Victor and help him to navigate his complex relationships with Hap as well as Giovanni.

“‘What do you do if you’ve forgotten all you know?’ Dad opened his eyes. He was silent for a moment, as if carefully choosing his words. ‘You start again from the beginning.’”

Giovanni’s answer to Hap’s poignant question becomes the title of Part 4. His words offer foreshadowing because both Hap and Giovanni have to start over with Victor’s help in the novel’s final section after losing their hearts and their memories.

“‘General Innovation Operative, by order of the Authority, you will return to the City of Electric Dreams. There, you will undergo an evaluation to determine if you have a viable future in service of the machines.’ ‘Reprogramming,’ the one on the left said. ‘Or decommissioning,’ the one on the right said.”

Giovanni’s arrest by the Authority marks a turning point in the plot and a steep heightening of the stakes. The rest of the novel follows Victor as he seeks to rescue his father from the City of Electric Dreams and restore his memories.

“His designation is not Hap, but HARP. It stands for Human Annihilation Response Protocol. I made him as instructed, and as my programming dictated: to become a hunter of humans, to kill God.”

The recording Giovanni left for his son upends everything Victor thought he knew about his father and Hap and creates significant internal conflict for the protagonist and supporting characters. Over the course of the novel, both androids wrestle with the weight of their past actions even though they were following their programming, and Victor struggles with the blood on the hands of the two people he loves most. The recording also creates suspense because it’s not yet revealed that the HARP were so effective at carrying out their instructions that Victor is the last human.

“A single drop of your blood in my heart changed everything, Victor. When I held you in my arms for the first time, you opened your eyes and cried. Such a little sound, yet so strong. It was then I knew love. Here I was, the father of Death bringing life into the world as if I had any right. As if my loneliness was the only thing that mattered. I was selfish, a distinctly human trait. Another is the ability to lie. I lied, Victor. To myself. To you.”

In a twist, the fairytale-esque prologue is revealed to be nothing more than a comforting fiction Giovanni concocted for his son. Giovanni’s confession that he created Victor interweaves the novel’s major themes. While love and free will are quintessential human traits, so are selfishness and lying. Deceit is an essential ingredient of Pinocchio, and the Geppetto figure is also guilty of this in Klune’s reimagining of the classic tale.

“‘If you wanted to hurt us, hurt me, you already could have. But you haven’t.’ Hap nodded without looking back. ‘Exactly. Gio s-said I c-could be good. He said I was HARP, b-but I could choose to be H-hap. He didn’t have to l-let me stay.’”

The theme of free will plays a vital role in Hap’s character arc. The android is grateful that his memories of his time as HARP are gone so that he can focus on his present and future. Giovanni’s conviction that his fellow android can choose to be Hap reflects his own desperate desire to redeem and reinvent himself.

“Vic squeezed his hand. Hap looked down where they were joined before glancing up at Vic, an inscrutable expression on his face. ‘For now,’ Vic whispered, though he was sure the Coachman could pick up every word. ‘For me.’ Hap stared at him for a long moment before nodding. ‘F-for y-you.’”

Victor and Hap’s exchange advances the plot and develops the theme of The Complexity of Love. As much as Hap despises the Coachman, he agrees to follow their captor’s orders for Victor’s sake. This is the first time that the couple holds hands, and they offer one another strength and comfort by doing so on several occasions throughout the remainder of the novel.

“The Hap on the screen carried himself with purpose. Each step seemed perfectly measured, his shoulders squared. His skin and limbs were intact, no trace of wood anywhere.”

In a suspenseful plot development, a HARP appears during the Authority’s search of the Coachman’s museum. This is the first time that the novel shows an active human-hunting android and gives the reader an idea of what Hap was like in the past when he followed his programming.

“‘Why is Victor so important?’ The Coachman stared at them for a long moment. ‘Because,’ he said slowly, ‘there hasn’t been a human on this earth for centuries. They are, for lack of a better word, extinct. Created by Giovanni on orders from the Authority, the HARPs hunted down every last one of them.’ With an uncertain smile, he added, ‘As far as I know, Victor is the only human left in the world.’”

In one of the novel’s major turning points, Victor learns that he is “the only human left in the world.” This revelation has important implications for the story’s stakes and the theme of What it Means to Be Human. Since Victor is the last human, it prompts questions of what specifically the characters are trying to preserve by protecting him.

“Vic stood on the threshold, unable to make his feet move. Hap pressed a hand against the small of his back. ‘Be brave.’ ‘Be brave,’ Vic whispered, and for the first time, stepped out into the City of Electric Dreams.”

Throughout the novel, Victor experiences fear and sensitivity to stimuli, and these become especially daunting in the City of Electric Dreams. The love interest helps the protagonist hold onto his courage by referencing the rules that Victor and his friends follow whenever they embark on a dangerous mission.

“Hap brought his face inches from Vic’s own. Their noses brushed together, Hap’s eyes glittering. He said, ‘Human.’ Vic, unable to speak, dropped his hand and pressed it against Hap’s chest, the gears turning furiously. And with the last of his strength, his vision graying, Victor kissed Hap.”

In a key moment in the romantic arc of the plot, a malfunction during the Blue Fairy’s test causes Hap to relapse into a HARP and attack Victor. Consistent with a classic fairy tale trope, true love’s kiss breaks the spell.

“Wavy cerulean hair billowed as if caught in a storm. But it was the wings that commanded Vic’s attention: wings like the butterfly’s except larger, so much larger. They glowed with a fierce light, spreading at least fifteen feet from tip to tip, the membranes translucent, veins of electricity arcing through them. They flapped back and forth, the wind washing over Vic’s face, tasting like a lightning storm. And then its face. It was smooth and white, like a mask with holes for the eyes and mouth, though it had no lips. Underneath the eyes, streaks of blue like frozen tears.”

This vivid description of the Blue Fairy demonstrates how Klune takes elements of Pinocchio and reimagines them in a science fiction setting. The enormous, powerfully charged butterfly wings are a fitting feature for the character. Butterflies serve as a symbol of free will throughout the novel, and the Blue Fairy is the creator of the virus that allows all of the machines under the Authority to gain free will at the novel’s climax.

“He said, ‘C-can…can you d-do it again?’ Vic closed his eyes. ‘Is that what you want?’ ‘I am choosing,’ Hap said slowly, each word sounding as if it was punched from his chest. ‘I am making my own choice. I don’t have strings.’”

Hap and Victor share their second kiss because they choose one another, not because they’re facing mortal peril. Hap’s use of puppet imagery by saying that he doesn’t have strings emphasizes his free will and gives a nod to the story that inspired the novel.

“Hap smiled quietly. He said, ‘You g-gave me life. You gave me friends. You gave me p-purpose. My strings have b-been cut, and it’s because of you.’ Vic screamed for him as he turned. But Hap didn’t hesitate.”

During the novel’s climax, Hap wipes the memories of all the machines under the Authority’s control and destroys his own heart in the process. Hap’s dialogue speaks to the transformative power of Victor’s love. Once again, the android uses the image of cut strings to signify his free will. By uploading the virus, Hap cuts the other machines’ strings for them.