Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - World Running Down

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

World Running Down by Al Hess

8 reviews

shottel's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

World Running Down isn’t innovating, but that’s okay. It’s solid fiction, set a couple generations after rich people jump ship to a new planet after deciding that earth is a lost cause. A few large cities remain the last bastions of prosperity, while outside their borders things somewhat resemble Mad Max. In this environment Valentine, a trans guy trying to scrape together enough money to buy a visa to one of the cities, takes a job that sends him down a path that involves a lot of reflection about what it means to be sentient and our duty to others and the environment. Less high-falutin, there’s also a lot of gay emotions and some sex. It’s a genuinely enjoyable novel, especially if you like more reflective fiction or trans or gay main characters.

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alyssamayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved reading a book with a trans character in my hometown of Salt Lake City! I loved the characters and the conversation about AI sentience.

I wish there had been more mention of the mountains

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quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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mar's review

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

At times dramatic but ultimately feel-good story about a trans scavenger on the Mad Max-y salt planes of near-future Utah, taking on a big job from the utopian Salt Lake City in the hopes of finally earning his admission into it - with the help of a temporarily-trapped-in-an-android-body AI. (Who is very hot... and smart... and cute... and- well. you get the picture 👀). I particularly enjoyed the worldbuilding around AIs and androids - the two usually get lumped together, and it was interesting seeing a world in which they were very distinct groups treated and perceived completely differently. If anything, some of the concepts/subplots in this book were so compelling I was disappointed not to see them expanded on even further (such as the test for determining sentience - for such an important part of the story it felt a little surface-level - or the animal-robot hybrids roaming the planes). I think just how easily everything got wrapped up into a neat happy ending was a bit unrealistic, but it's definitely a book to read for comfort rather than realism. Equal parts fun character-driven adventure and a sweet gay romance, it's a great read for a rainy day <3

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

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lettuce_read's review

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Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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ambers's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is SUCH a delight, wow. It's a book about queer and trans joy, found family, the euphoria of being at home in your skin, and the quest it can take to get there. It's set against a sci fi desert that reminded me personally of Tales from the Borderlands, and like all good sci fi, it ties itself intimately to modern day concerns - income inequality, inaccessible healthcare (especially gender affirming care), transphobia, and the necessity of community bonds. It also feels like a deeply personal novel, and I'm grateful Al Hess put it out in the world for us.

With a 5 star review, there's obviously not much I didn't love about this book. The villain dialogue was at times a bit cookie cutter, and I wish we'd learned more about the plotline of animal/android hybrids, but those are minor gripes. Overall, I tore through this read from start to finish, and left with a huge grin on my face. I honestly wish I'd taken my time with this one, so that I could spend more time in the world, but I couldn't help myself.

World Running down features philosophical questions about the meaning of life while traveling through a post apocalyptic desert, ADHD rep, a joyful romance between a gay AI and a trans man (with parallels between their dual journeys from dysphoria to euphoria), motorcycle riding Mormon pirates, and more. If any of that even remotely interests you, please do yourself a favor and read this book. Thank you to Angry Robot book and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review; this is definitely one I'll be recommending and revisiting.

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chippyreads's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

World Running Down

5 stars

-Dual POV

-ADHD rep

-Trans FTM MC

-Queer Romance

-Speculative SciFi/Post apocalyptic

-Found Family

-AI, Robots

-Character driven

‘Wasteland Road Trip’

What a wonderful read!

Valentine, a trans man, dreams of raising enough money to afford citizenship for Salt Lake City in order to gain free gender affirming health care (and lots of food). In this wasteland of a world Valentine and his new bestie (Ace) run errands in their old van, all while avoiding Mormon ‘Pirates’ in the desert.

Osric is a powerful AI of Salt Lake City who has been forced into an android body and tasked with tracking down Valentine and Ace with an offer they can't resist. Recover the merchandise and they BOTH gain citizenship. Yet the merchandise are android escorts who are becoming self aware, and don’t want to return to their abusive patrons.

As Valentine wrestles between his morals and dreams, a beautiful relationship grows between him and Osric. The way they bond over shared feelings to do with their own bodies is really beautiful to see on page.

I really loved the way Osric at first saw the world as an AI. He would look at colours as their HTML code and notice the musical pitch of someone's voice. As time goes by he appreciates touch and the use of facial expressions.

It wasn’t enough to bring the rating down, but I feel like the author left out a whole plot line to do with animals. So we’re presented with this interesting fact: Valentine is shown the problem by another character, but we don’t ever get any answers as to how or why.

Even though I loved that this book read so quickly, I wish it were longer, just so we could explore the world more and see more interactions between Osric and the sentient androids.

Considering its a speculative SciFi it was very easy to picture the world and characters. In such an ugly world that Valentine lives in, he finds so much beauty in friendship and community. If you want a queer book with empathy, found family and adventure, then I highly recommend picking up this book.

Thank you to Angry Robot book and NetGalley for a eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings (from author’s website)

Language, M/M open door sex and sexual elements, brief violence, brief misgendering, body dysphoria

User added

Kidnapping/Trafficking, off page SA, Emotional abuse

How I rate books

1- I disliked this book very much. Highly unlikely to read this author again

2- Eh. I didn't hate it. Might give the author another go

3- It was fun

4- Amazing and would read again

5- I'm in love. Give me more right now!

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ash_hernick's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Are you interested in reading about the philosophical debates around artificial sentience? Fights (and treaties!) with motorcycle-riding religious pirates? The desert wastes of an almost post-apocalyptic Utah? Maybe you're just looking for a sweet romance between a trans man and his AI boyfriend? If any of these piqued your interest, then "World Running Down" is perfect for you!

"World Running Down" by Al Hess is a lovely story about Valentine, a trans man, and Osric, an AI trapped in an android body, traveling together through the ruins of a run-down, near-future Utah. Valentine's a scavenger, trying to get together enough money from doing odd jobs to get a visa so that he can live in a city and finally transition the way he wants to. He's traveling with another scavenger, Ace, and together the two go from town-to-town picking up jobs and studying for the inevitable citizenship test they'll have to take if they get their visas. While stopping in a settlement one day, Valentine meets Osric, a person from the city sent as a messenger to tell the two scavengers about a job from a high-paying client. Oh, and Osric's also a Steward (one of the city's AI guardians) illegally trapped in an android body.

There was so much I loved about this book. I'm always a sucker for discussions of what qualifies as artificial intelligence and sentience, and "World Running Down" explored these ideas in a way that was thoughtful and felt natural. I loved the conversations between Valentine, Osric, and various androids and Stewards about sentience. This book was such a refreshing read and reminded me thematically of "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" (one of my favorite recent speculative releases) in a lot of ways, although the stories themselves are very different. I think it's that both books handle discussions of AI and sentience in similarly compelling ways.

I also thought the romance between Val and Osric was sweet and built up well within the narrative. It didn't feel instalovey at all to me, but it's also clear that a spark was there from the beginning, and Hess develops that attraction well. I also loved how the Valentine and Osric are able to connect to each other through the idea of both being "in the wrong body" in a sense - Val wishes he had a more traditionally cis masculine form, and Osric has never been in a humanoid body before. I wouldn't have made that connection on my own, but the way the two talked about their experiences felt natural and made a lot of sense with the internal logic of the world.

On the topic of Valentine's trans identity - sometimes Valentine experiences transphobic microaggressions, and there are references to explicit transphobia off-page, but I appreciated that Hess's depiction of both felt respectful and purposeful. Sometimes Valentine is misgendered on-page, but he always steps up and tries to shut it down as soon as he can, or another character steps forward to support him. Most people he encounters are actually accepting of his gender identity, and if they misgender him initially, it's an accident, and they switch to the correct pronouns and name for him as soon as they learn they've made a mistake. It's even a major plot point that the central city in the novel offers HRT and gender-affirming surgeries to its citizens, covered under the city's healthcare plans. Fair warning that Val does bind with bandages/tape sometimes in the novel, but I really can't blame him - man's essentially living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Overall, all of the author's choices around displaying the transphobia (or lack thereof) that Valentine experiences throughout the novel felt purposeful and realistic. Obviously, Utah as a futuristic desert wasteland full of wandering pirates and androids isn't exactly realistic - but each instance felt like it made sense within the greater understanding of the story.

In general, I was just ecstatic to see such a well-developed gay and trans character in a well-written romance with an equally well-developed gay character. They were wonderful.

With all my praise of it, you probably won't be surprised to here that there wasn't much I disliked about this novel. Mostly, I wished there'd been more of it! I did feel like there were some plot points that weren't fully resolved, or ideas that weren't wrapped up completely, but none of these were major in the grand scheme of the story. There were moments when I wished I'd gotten to learn a little more about the history of the futuristic world Valentine and Osric lived in, but again, this had no bearing on the main plot.

I'm definitely going to be recommending this book to friends! As I was reading it, I already had a mental list going of the people in my life who I thought would love it. Definitely pick it up if you're interested in reading a character study of a trans man doing what he can to transition in a falling-apart world, or if you're looking for a queer romance against a speculative near-futuristic setting. Even if you're just looking for another quick read about AI, this could be the book for you! I cannot recommend it enough.

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