An interesting and reasonably quick read. Lots of I, Robot movie vibes but the main POV is from the company CEO's character instead of the disgruntled cop and the fancy smancy robot. I found that to be quite interesting, because I had expected the story to focus on the robot with a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence to be the protagonist. In yet another aspect that makes this book so similar to the Hollywood film, the robots that are affected by a strange affliction that gives them increased sentinence are reuniting in a specific place for reasons they don't quite understand.

However, this is where the book veers in a very different direction. It sort of combines the movie with a heavily religious Catholic thriller focus of a Dan Brown novel. One of the two protagonists of the book is a junior priest with a Neuroscience college degree named Gabriel that also works as an exorcist. I found him to be likeable although I would have wanted his personality to have been fleshed a bit more.

There's some aspects of this book that accidentally overlaps with the Trinity Blood anime (well, except with the aspect of having vampires now ruling the world). After a massive catacylsm, ancient organized religion has consolidated its power just like in that anime and Europe is now ruled by an emperor named Kapulong that acts more like a figurehead. The true rulers are the Cardinals of the Catholic church. It was certainly interesting and I liked the bickering rivalry Gabriel had with some of the more conventially minded Cardinals that disagree with his science background.

Unlike Trinity Blood, this book has a second regional power, where Islam is now consolidated by a Caliph who rules a newly erect city near Wuhar, Pakistan. I quite liked the aspect of how this ruler openly accepts the practice of Sufism, alongside quite a huge tolerance of variety of modest attire for their citizens (few of the Caliphate citizens wear chadors or burqas). They allow Catholic priests to travel through their lands without changing into civilian attire. One thing the book never mentions is how this society views Shia communities. Furthermore, there is no mention of theocratic states featuring Judaism or Buddhism. There is a possibility other countries are revealed in the sequel.

Without spoiling too much about the book, I did feel there were things that reduced the fun factor for me. One of them was how despite being a somewhat utopic future with increased equality, women remain as 2nd class citizens. This is one thing I really enjoyed about Trinity Blood: women can become Cardinals and exert immense amounts of political pressure and respect in the empire. And why not change things a bit and make it fun? There's some catholic communities that tolerate female volunteer priests due to the dire lack of ordained male priests. The Pope somewhat ignores it because of the stringent requirements to train new priests (for starters, you need someone paying money for your food & board for several years. The prohibitive living costs alone while being a seminar student eliminates plenty of qualifying candidates).

I was expecting Namono to have a much more closeness to the mysterious warrior nun faction. In a book that already has very few female characters taking active roles in the story, having a female warrior nun faction exert influence in the Vatican would have been a nice consolation prize from the absence of female Cardinals. I don't dislike Namono's kinship with Emperor Kapulong, she sees him as a father figure. But it seems odd she didn't have a chain of command. She doesn't even use a cool Battle Nun suit. The book only mentions she wears a skin tight dark grey unitard with some holographic and defense specs.

There is a female physicist named Sarah that reminds me a tad bit too much of Dr. Vespa from the 2nd Dan Brown novel. Both books seem to fall into the mistake of writing her as a super smart STEM degree eminence. I guess that is ok, but I would have wanted to know more about Sarah as a person. Hobbies? Little personality quirks? Favorite dish? All we get is her unresolved issues regarding Gabriel when they were dating years ago. She still has more personality exploration than Vespa, but I never got a feel of her as a person.

What the book will offer is insanely huge amounts of repetitive speeches and metaphysical themes. I didn't find them to be bad per se, but they hoarded a very significant part of the prose and slowed the speed of the story to a full stop for at least 5 chapters. Chapters that could have been used to explore the Warrior Nun faction or have Sarah work with her team studying some of the electromagnetic energy spikes. Plenty of readers might also find the side story of the Caliph keeping his very expensive gold robot as a sex toy locked up in a harem building (alongside lots of women that seemingly hate each other) to be problematic. It wasn't a deal breaker for me. I actually kind of liked the chapter where Namono visits the robot's old room and tells the Caliph's sister to go away and stop bothering her.

What I did find to be a dealbreaker was how we discover the Nigerian billionaire poured billions of dollars doing illegal medical research to imprisoned christians. Pretty much State sanctioned genocide on a massive scale. Such a confession would make everyone deservedly hate him and incite friction (especially from Gabriel who doesn't have a prior amicable relationship or political stakes in being nice to him). I thought the way Namono and Gabriel didn't resist the (very tempting) urge to punch the guy in the face was a huge missed opportunity for character growth and conflict.

In a nutshell, there's things I liked and not about this book. I quite liked the gold harem robot and the elderly Sufi priest a lot. Also liked Gabriel as a quirky priest as well. Despite the lack of female political representation and missed opportunities for some conflict, it was an interesting read. ( )

There are many that are searching for powerful processes of enchantment. While other people appreciate simplicity. This read mixes touches of next-generation techno and religious ceremonies of morning prayers in the mosque with commonplace things such as barking dogs. ( )

There were some things about Our Lady of the Artilects that I really loved and kept me going, but in the end I was a bit disappointed. The best feature of the novel is the world-building. It presents the world of the 23rd century in sweeping detail; the story spans Nigeria, Europe, and Asia, with hints of other regions. There is a revived Holy Roman Empire, which resembles the original only in its name and its seat of government in Vienna. A Caliphate controls a large part of the Islamic world, which has shed its fanatical features. China is still China, and its government has done things which make the Cultural Revolution seem like a minor skirmish.

Technology has significantly advanced. A feature of this world is androids, called "artilects" or "synths." In addition, most people have received noetic (mind-enhancing) implants. The risks should have been obvious, and it appears that nothing less than the Forces of Hell are taking advantage of the technology. As the story opens, a synth is demonically possessed, and an exorcist who is also a computer expert is called in.

I have no objection to such things in fiction. A good understanding of the Christian Bible helps in understanding many of the allusions, but it isn't necessary to be a theist. My problem is that the final chapters get increasingly transcendental till it's hard to understand what's going on. It's possible to read the ending as a conflict between human forces and some kind of alien intelligence, but that's a strained interpretation and not what the author intended. If I try to read it as a conflict between metaphysical good and metaphysical evil, it doesn't work for me.

There are some research problems. A discussion between two characters concerns Alegri's Miserere, which Mozart heard in the Sistine Chapel and transcribed from memory. The Holy Roman Emperor, who presumably knows about such things, claims: "For centuries, it was a secret of the Vatican and could only be performed in the Sistine Chapel." No one mentions the name of the composer, Gregorio Alegri. He was born in 1582, and Mozart transcribed the music in 1770, which means the Sistine Chapel had it secret for less than 200 years, which I'd consider the minimum duration for "centuries." It's as if Gillsmith thought the piece was a medieval chant of uncertain origin, like the Dies Irae.

He refers to the text as based on Psalm 50, which I thought was an error. In modern Bibles, the Psalm on which that piece is based is numbered 51. However, the older Septuagint and Vulgate Bibles number it as 50, so the characters must just be referring to that numbering system.

This is a novel which I really wanted to like, and in some respects I still do, but the ending goes too deep into mysticism for me to come away satisfied. ( )