Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me.

- This is a typical Ian McEwan novel, and fans will love it, as I certainly did. 

- His style is to establish right from the get-go an everyday practical premise around which an intense contemporary drama will be built. Ordinary people are doing ordinary things, normally related to their work and usually professional careers. He’s a very social writer in this sense, who's always interrogating current social and political movements and trends. 

- In Machines Like Me we're in the early 1980's, but with an imaginative twist. PM Margaret Thatcher has sent the navy to the Falklands to oust the invading forces of Argentina (historically accurate), and the internet and social media are everywhere (not accurate).

 - History is being rewritten, and it seems to favour the progressive political left. Instead of winning the war Thatcher loses it. The computer scientist and WW2 hero Alan Turing, who actually died in 1954, is alive and well and very influential in the 1980s; the Beatles reunite and release a new album in 1982, although John Lennon of course was killed in 1980; Socialist Labour leader Tony Benn ousts Thatcher at the next election (Benn was never a Labour leader), but is killed in the Brighton hotel IRA bombing (which Thatcher herself survived). 

- Central to the plot is the emerging reality of artificial intelligence, a movement led by Turing. The main character, Charlie, comes into a bit of money and buys a 'synthetic human' called Adam. Together with Miranda, his girlfriend, they develop Adam's personality and form an affectionate relationship with him. McEwan spends a lot of time, perhaps a bit too much, exploring fascinating philosophical and moral issues that they all confront along the way. Their reflections and conversations are serious, intelligent and rather engrossing. 

- This intellectual exploration is such a trademark of McEwan's and why I like his novels so much.

- He also has a gift for excellent characterisation and plotting. That's certainly true here. Miranda's backstory is so absorbing, and eventually becomes the principal focus of the novel and its resolution.  

- How does it all end with the 'ambulant laptop' Adam, who rather unfortunately develops a mind and personality very much his own? Very satisfactorily indeed. 

- In summary, this is a superb new novel from a master of the craft.