Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm not equally a fan of all of Ishiguro's novels (I did not like The Buried Giant) so I was a little worried, but this returned to exactly what I loved about The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go (NLMG). Someone on Twitter (@danpjsheehan) made the comment re: Ishiguro that the only thing better than a sad butler is a doomed clone (I'm paraphrasing badly), to which we can now add a monotheist AI. Unlike NLMG, in this novel there is never any question about the identity, and limitations, of the narrator, who is immediately identified as an AI who, being solar-powered, sees the Sun as a god. Yet, the atmosphere of the novel is similar, as we slowly learn about the world she finds herself in, puzzling about the mysterious illness her human companion has, what the difference is between 'lifted' and unlifted children, how race and class relations play out in this post-AI society, etc. This makes this novel, in which not that much actually "happens," as tense as a mystery novel or thriller, and I raced through it in basically one sitting. Unlike the mystery novel, there is no "reveal," however, and at the end of the novel you gradually realize that you have picked up all the clues you need to understand (most of?) the mysterious references, they have just been introduced so subtly that you don't even realize it. Some things (perhaps) remain unresolved, or I just need to read it again, paying more attention this time. Regardless, even if things are not neatly tidied away, I was left amazed by the world, so close to our own but so different, that was created. The narrator is (almost) as compelling and strangely charismatic as Kathy H or Stevens. I haven't lost myself so thoroughly in a fictional voice for a while: ignoring everything around me, completely immersed in trying to decode the mundane details the narrator gives us. I don't think it is fair to say this is derivative of his earlier novels though: the central conceit is completely different in each case, and the voice of the narrator, their style of revealing facts, change accordingly. Yes, perhaps his "shtick" is creating highly unusual narrative voices and perspectives, but surely that's a broad enough category that he can continue writing novels without being accused of being repetitive?