Lydia Schoch

Title: Ode to the Half-Broken

Author: Suzanne Palmer

Publisher: DAW

Publication Date: May 26, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 416 pages

Source: I borrowed it from my local library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Forty years ago, the world nearly ended.

Be is an old robot who was there, and doesn’t want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens, disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there, though, has not forgotten about them, and when they are attacked, their person vandalized, and one of their leg stolen, they set out to find the thief accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic.

The world has changed, but the recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible.

This is a story about coming to terms with your past, with who you’ve become and who you still want to be: a tale of resilence and hope, an ode to those struggling to become whole in a world half-broken.

Content Warning: War, multiple pandemics, references to mass graves (mostly from disease).

Review:

Some things are too precious to part with.

Be’s backstory was a true highlight of this tale. This character didn’t’ identify as any gender or with any set of pronouns, but I will be using they and them to discuss them for the sake of making this review as easy to comprehend as possible given this character’s unique personality. While I can’t go into any detail about their past without sharing spoilers, what I can say is that it was well written and gave me fresh insight into many of their quirks that were shown from the beginning but not explained at that point. If every scene was written this way, I would have happily gone with a much higher rating as I was immersed in Be’s unique way of thinking about the world and genuinely thought of them as a robot who was filled with secrets.

As excited as I was about the premise, I struggled with the slow pacing of this novel. Every step along Be’s quest to retrieve their stolen leg unfolded slowly, and action sequences were few and far between.  This is something I’m saying as someone who loved the Monk and Robot duology and originally decided to read this due to the numerous references other readers made to those books while reviewing this one. There were similarities between them, of course, but I found myself wishing for more character development in order to tide me over until the next round of exciting events as the protagonist travelled around.

The world building was complex and memorable. Some of the best scenes in my opinion were the ones that explored the myriad of ways both robots and humans have adapted to a world several decades from now in which disease, war, and global warming have upended many of the old rules about what society, nature, and the weather are supposed to be like. There was a wide range of responses to these overlapping crises that included communities I might like to live if given a choice in this universe as well as highly dangerous areas where even robots couldn’t travel safely. Sharing too many details about these topics would give away spoilers, but do keep an eye out for the breadth of possibilities as you read.

Ode to the Half-Broken was thought provoking.