Eager is a children's science-fiction novel written by Helen Fox

Helen Fox

Helen Fox is an English children's author, educated at Millfield School and New College, Oxford, where she read history and modern languages. Before becoming a full time writer, Fox worked as a primary teacher, a marketing executive, and a tour guide...

, and first published in 2003. Eager is the name of a self-aware robot in a futuristic society controlled by a company called LifeCorp. Eager was shortlisted for the West Sussex Children's Book Award 2005 - 2006.

Plot summary

The plot is set in England at the end of the 21st Century, and revolves around an experimental type of robot that can think for itself, EGR3 (called Eager). Eager learns by experience as a child does, is intellectually curious and capable of emotion. He can feel wonder, excitement and loss. His inventor sends him as an assistant to an old-fashioned robot, Grumps, who acts as butler to the Bell family. Though much-loved, Grumps is running down and can no longer be repaired.

Mr Bell works for the all-powerful technocratic corporation, LifeCorp, who supply the robots which cater to every human need. His children Gavin and Fleur learn of an underground group which opposes LifeCorp, and there is danger of a robot rebellion brewing. The ultra-high-tech, eerily-human BDC4 robots are behaving suspiciously and the Bell children and Eager are drawn into a great adventure. Eager's extraordinary abilities are tested to the limit and he tries to find out the answer to the question: What does it mean to be alive?

Themes

Questions of where technology may be heading, what constitutes life and death, and the morality of creating self-aware machines to serve, or sometimes replace, humans, are raised. Eager is the first of 3 novels

Sequels

Two sequels, Eager's Nephew (2005) and Eager and the Mermaid (2007) have been published.

External links

• Review of Eager
• Children's Reviews of Eager