The Companions: A Novel

by Katie M. Flynn, Ramon de Ocampo (Read by), Hillary Huber (Read by), Emily Woo Zeller (Read by), Candace Thaxton (Read by)

Overview

Station Eleven meets Never Let Me Go in this debut novel set in an unsettling near future where the dead can be uploaded to machines and kept in service by the living.

In the wake of a highly contagious virus, California is under quarantine. Sequestered in high rise towers, the living can’t go out, but the dead can come in—and they come in all forms, from sad rolling cans to manufactured bodies that can pass for human. Wealthy participants in the “companionship” program choose to upload their consciousness before dying, so they can stay in the custody of their families. The less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death, but all companions become the intellectual property of Metis Corporation, creating a new class of people—a command-driven product-class without legal rights or true free will.

Sixteen-year-old Lilac is one of the less fortunate, leased to a family of strangers. But when she realizes she’s able to defy commands, she throws off the shackles of servitude and runs away, searching for the woman who killed her.

Lilac’s act of rebellion sets off a chain of events that sweeps from San Francisco to Siberia to the very tip of South America. While the novel traces Lilac’s journey through an exquisitely imagined Northern California, the story is told from eight different points of view—some human, some companion—that explore the complex shapes love, revenge, and loneliness take when the dead linger on.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797104102
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ramón de Ocampo, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, was a cowinner in 2018 of the Audie Award for Best Multi-Voiced Performance. A graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, he has been seen on television, film, and stages all over the world, including recurring roles on such television shows as The West Wing, 12 Monkeys, Sons of Anarchy, and Medium. He is the winner of a prestigious Obie Award for his stage work.

Katie M. Flynn is a writer, editor, and educator based in San Francisco. Her short fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Indiana Review, The Masters Review, and Tin House, among other publications. She has been awarded Colorado Review’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction, a fellowship from the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and the Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. Katie holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco and an MA in Geography from UCLA. This is her first novel. Follow her on Twitter @Other_Katie or visit her website BuryTheBird.com.

Hillary Huber is one of the most successful voice talents in Los Angeles. Recent books read for Blackstone Audio include Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him by Patricia Marx, A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read, and A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart.

Emily Woo Zeller is an Audie and Earphones Award–winning narrator, voice-over artist, actor, dancer, and choreographer. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013. Her voice-over career includes work in animated film and television in Southeast Asia.

Candace Thaxton is an actress and audiobook narrator. She has starred in several films and television shows, including Ghost Town and Law & Order.

Jesse Vilinsky is a classically trained actress and voice actor, having graduated from the USC School of Dramatic Arts and BADA in London. She has lent her voice to numerous film and television projects and has worked on various video games, animation, and commercial projects as well. As a narrator, Jesse has garnered recognition in AudioFile magazine for her expertly voiced characters and ability to bring forth the strength and truth of their stories.

Rebekkah Ross is an actor, singer, writer, producer, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. She is a founding partner and artistic director of SparkPlug Productions, a non-profit multimedia production company. She is also a company member of Food for Thought Productions and has starred as Vanessa Fitzgerald in Handsome Town, an internet sitcom.

Erin Moon is a professional actor and an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator of over 150 novels. She lives and records in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.

Michael Crouch is an actor based in New York City. His audiobook narration has won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, and Best of the Year accolades from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He can also be heard on national commercials, cartoons, video games, and the animé series Pokémon XY and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.

Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for The Companions includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book

Introduction

In the wake of a highly contagious virus, California is under quarantine. Sequestered in high-rise towers, the living can’t go out, but the dead do come in—and they arrive in all forms, from sad rolling cans to manufactured bodies that can pass for human. Wealthy participants in the “companionship” program choose to upload their consciousness before dying, so they can stay in the custody of their families. The less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death, but all companions become the intellectual property of Metis Corporation, creating a new class of people—a command-driven product-class without legal rights or true free will.

Sixteen-year-old Lilac is one of the less fortunate, leased to a family of strangers. But when she realizes she’s able to defy commands, she throws off the shackles of servitude and runs away, searching for the woman who killed her.

Lilac’s act of rebellion sets off a chain of events that sweeps from San Francisco to Siberia to the very tip of South America. While the novel traces Lilac’s journey through an exquisitely imagined Northern California, the story is told from eight different points of view—some human, some companion—that explore the complex shapes love, revenge, and loneliness take when the dead linger on.

Topics and Questions for Discussion

1. The book opens with the state of California under quarantine. In what ways does the quarantine create an opportunity for Metis?

2. In your opinion, what makes Lilac different from other companions? Why do you think she is able to break free from her programming and make the “human” decision to rebel?

3. Cam risks her life multiple times for companions. What is it about Cam and her personality that draws her to them? If you were Cam, would you have risked both your job and your safety to help Lilac?

4. Discuss Ms. Espera’s decision to choose a death date in order to become a companion at the urging of her daughter. Would you do this for a loved one? Would you want a loved one to do this for you? Why or why not?

5. On page 169 Ms. Espera says, “Still, I do not despair. Maybe it is my machine nature, but the well of sadness inside me has been pumped dry.” Right before saying this, though, she tells us how she has grown attached to baby Honda. Discuss this paradox. How can she feel some emotions and not others? Do you think this is a flaw in her coding or a reaction to the trauma she’s experienced?

6. As the intellectual property of Metis, companions are programmed with a security protocol that inhibits their free will. What are the ethical implications of such an existence? What happens when corporations can regulate behavior?

7. There are eight point-of-view characters in the novel, but some characters are more central to the story than others. Who do you consider the novel’s main character? Why?

8. Is companionship an offer of immortality or a prison? Would you want to become a companion?

9. On page 219, Nat mentions that he stole data and sold it to a stranger to buy a plot of land. What data do you think he stole and why? What ramifications might this choice have in the future?

10. On page 232, Lilac says, “People find out you’re a companion and they want you to do things for them. Things they can’t do for themselves.” What do you think this says about human nature and our basic impulses? Do you agree?

11. Since a companion is, in effect, the uploaded consciousness of a living person, could it be argued that it is human? Does having the consciousness of a human equate to being human?

12. After seeing how much Lilac and Jakob love Andy, Rolly asks, on page 205, “What happens to a companion who’s no longer a companion?” How would you answer this question?

13. Sexual identity and the body are major themes in the novel, as is objectification, especially when it comes to human-companion interactions. Dario only wants to use Kit for sex, Rolly describes Jakob as seeming “to like his female body, slinking around all sexy-like,” which gives Rolly “strange feelings,” and Cam, who loves Lilac, is especially upset by the loss of her lover’s body, even if it can be replaced. Why do humans place so much emphasis on the companions’ bodies? In what ways does companionship offer the opportunity to explore sexual identity?

14. What vision of the environment, of climate change, does this near-future novel present?

15. Many of the characters, human and companion, harbor intense regrets. How do their regrets propel the novel’s narrative?

16. The Companions ends with Gabe waiting for Kit to show up in a bookstore after years of separation. Why do you think the author chose to end the novel in this way? What do you think happens after the novel ends? Are Kit and Gabe reunited? Is it a happy reunion?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. As multiple characters point out, it is difficult for most people to tell the difference between high-end companions and humans. For a companion, what might have been the advantages—and disadvantages—of passing for human before the recall?

2. Do you think Metis had larger plans in mind for companions (i.e., government agents, soldiers, etc.), or do you think they were intended to be just that, companions for humans?

3. In your opinion, was Metis surprised that companions went rogue and defied their programming to chase their own desires? Or do you think Metis foresaw this happening in some cases but created the companions anyway? Do you think that corporations like Metis have a responsibility to inform their users about all potential consequences?

4. If it were possible and you had the funds, would you lease a companion? If so, what person, living or dead, would you choose as a companion?

5. When in the novel do you think Lilac is closest to her true self? Have there been moments in your own life when you felt closest to your true self?

6. Legally speaking, a person must die in order to be uploaded, and there can be no copies. However, in Jakob’s case, we learn that copies are being made illegally. This represents, in effect, a new and terrifying form of identity theft. How would you feel if, like Jakob, you knew a copy of you existed out there in the world?

Editorial Reviews

01/06/2020

A deadly virus strikes near-future California in Flynn’s nightmarish debut, leading to a quarantine of the state’s surviving residents in sealed towers. “Companions” are provided to the shut-ins in the form of the dead, whose consciousnesses have been uploaded into various forms, from crude robots to flesh-covered humanoids. The robot-embodied Lilac serves Dahlia, a petulant adolescent, by entertaining her with snippets of Lilac’s life before death and quarantine. Lilac’s memories of teen parties lead her to buffer on a scene in which she is battered by a boy whose advances she resisted. But when Dahlia’s mother threatens to send Lilac back to the factory for breaking things around the apartment, Lilac escapes, setting out to find out what happened to her best friend, Nikki, who was with her when she died. On the way, she meets Cam, a compassionate caregiver to geriatric patients; Gabe, a feral child living on the streets; Jakob, a movie star turned companion; and Rachel, a passing-for-human companion whose memory might hold the key to Lilac’s quest. Told by eight voices over the course of 20 years, the overly busy narrative often threatens to overwhelm Lilac’s story. But by the end, Flynn’s vibrant characters movingly answer the oft-asked question, “What does it mean to be human?” This will satisfy fans of literary and science fiction alike. (Mar.)Correction: this review has been updated to correct two incorrect plot points.

Publishers Weekly

Beautifully atmospheric and emotionally intense, The Companions is an unnerving and engrossing story. The radiant, somber voice of this near-future speculative novel ratchets the suspense while also illuminating what makes us human and how we endure beyond death. This is a spellbinding novel that will linger with you.” —Kassandra Montag, author of After the Flood

"With deft narration and unforgettable characters, Katie M. Flynn weaves a tale of high-tech, dystopian reincarnation. Each detail is beautifully sketched and thrilling to discover, creating a near-future world of endless fascination. The Companions is a compelling, gripping, whip-smart piece of speculative fiction." —Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters

“This sweeping novel of near-future dystopia has an ensemble cast and covers continents and years of time, but it never loses its intimacy and immediacy. There’s a deeply moving humanity to each of these characters—even the ones who aren’t quite human. I loved this book so much I didn’t want it to end.” –Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“If you wished the Black Mirror episode ‘Be Right Back’ had explored the greater ramifications of uploading the dead into artificial bodies, Katie M. Flynn has you covered. She has explored every facet of the idea from every perspective, and the result is gripping.” –Ariel S. Winter, author of The Twenty-Year Death and Barren Cove

“The Companions is one of those rare novels that leave you feeling euphoric and hollow, filled with questions about the loss and loneliness that shape life after a loved one is gone...and comes back. A stunning debut novel. We can’t wait to read Katie M. Flynn’s next book.” –Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, New York Times bestselling authors of People of the Canyons

From the Publisher

2019-12-23
In the near future, the dead can choose to return to the world of the living—as something not quite human.

Set in a slightly futuristic, quarantined California, Flynn's debut novel opens after a devastating virus has decimated huge swaths of people. Borders are closed, cities are highly surveilled, and death is no longer black and white. Metis, a med-tech corporation, has ownership of all companions, or machines the dying can upload their consciousness into. Companions can either be wards of their families or sold to strangers—but they are all denied basic human rights. Spanning decades and continents, the novel is told from the perspectives of eight characters (human and humanoid alike) whose lives intersect and overlap because of Lilac, a companion unlike the rest. After having been murdered as a teenager, Lilac has spent decades as a companion—one of the first, in fact. When she discovers she can defy her programming, Lilac begins to search for her murderer. From there, she comes into contact with other characters, including Cam, a former employee at an elder-care facility; Rolly, a teenager living on his family's diminished farm; and Gabe (short for Gabrielle), a spunky yet wounded 9-year-old orphan. Flynn's characterization is strong throughout, but Gabe is particularly well-drawn. At first, she's angry, grief-stricken, stubborn, and unwilling to show weakness. Her emotional journey throughout the novel feels absolutely earned. In the midst of a character-driven narrative, Flynn's simple and evocative writing shines: "It's not supposed to be possible for a companion to dream, but I can feel it, like a lozenge on the tongue, both present and disappearing all at once." Though the plot sometimes feels too convenient, the novel raises important questions about humanity. If companions have memories and can feel emotions like love, pain, anger, and sadness, are they not human? If not, what makes us human in the first place?

A suspenseful, introspective debut.

Kirkus Reviews