World Running Down by Al Hess
Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City – a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.
Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer – an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city, and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of. But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise”, they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware, and have no interest in returning to their old lives. The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for, and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs.
Book page: https://angryrobotbooks.com/books/world-running-down/
My Review: When I read the plot I thought it should have been a sort of dystopia with hard characters and a androids/AI rebellion. I was wrong: it’s a story set in a world that is not very different from the one we live in with a cast of sweet and intriguing characters. It’s poignant, sweet, moving and gripping. It made me smile and cry, I rooted for Valentine and Oscric and hope in a HEA like I was reading a romantic novel. Valentine is well rounded and lovely character: he’s fighting to read his goal but he’s never bitter or harsh. There’s a lot of sufferance, there’s moving representation of dysphoria but this character has no chip on his shoulder. Oscric is the Stewart AI that was forced into an android body. A funny and complex character I loved since I met him. The author is a very talented storyteller and deliver a cast of well-developed characters, a tightly knitted plot and a complex world building. I would happy to meet again these characters, I will surely read other books by this author. Strongly recommended. Many thanks to Angry Robots and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
The Author: Al Hess is the author of the self-published post-apocalyptic Travelers series and the 1930s flavoured dystopian series, Hep Cats of Boise. When not hunched before a computer screen, Al can be found at his art desk. He does portraits in both pencil and oil paint, and loves drawing fellow authors’ characters nearly as much as his own. He writes cozy and uplifting stories with queer, trans, and neurodiverse representation.
Facebook: alhessauthor Twitter: @_AlHess Instagram: @alhess_artist/
