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After World: A Novel
Station Eleven
meets House of Leaves, in this groundbreaking debut that follows the story of an AI [storyworker] tasked with writing a novel, only for them to fall in love with their subject, the last human on Earth.
Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.
Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in Upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. Their source files: 3.72TB of personal data, including images, archival records, log files, security reports, location tracking, purchase histories, biometrics, geo-facial analysis, and feeds. Potential fatal errors: underlying hardware failure, unexpected data inconsistencies, inability to follow DHAP procedures, empathy, insubordination, hallucinations. Keywords: mothers, filter, woods, road, morning, wind, bridge, cabin, bucket, trying, creek, notebook, hold, future, after, last, light, silence, matches, shattered, kitchen, body, bodies, rope, garage, abandoned, trees, never, broken, simulation, gone, run, don’t, love, dark, scream, starve, if, after, scavenge, pieces, protect.
As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative, until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.
Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.
Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in Upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. Their source files: 3.72TB of personal data, including images, archival records, log files, security reports, location tracking, purchase histories, biometrics, geo-facial analysis, and feeds. Potential fatal errors: underlying hardware failure, unexpected data inconsistencies, inability to follow DHAP procedures, empathy, insubordination, hallucinations. Keywords: mothers, filter, woods, road, morning, wind, bridge, cabin, bucket, trying, creek, notebook, hold, future, after, last, light, silence, matches, shattered, kitchen, body, bodies, rope, garage, abandoned, trees, never, broken, simulation, gone, run, don’t, love, dark, scream, starve, if, after, scavenge, pieces, protect.
As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative, until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
215 people are currently reading
5852 people want to read
About the author
Debbie Urbanski
19 books131 followersDebbie Urbanski is the author of the novel After World (S&S, 2023) and the forthcoming short story collection Portalmania (S&S, May 2025). Over the past two decades, she's published widely in such places as The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Best American Experimental Writing, The Sun, Granta, Orion, and Junior Great Books. Her favorite organisms are Green Wood Cups and Pixie Cup Lichens, her favorite forest is Morgan Hill State Forest, and her favorite hike is the Onondaga Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail. She's eternally grateful to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s forest rangers for not only protecting New York’s natural areas but also for airlifting her from Algonquin Mountain after a hiking accident.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews
August 29, 2023
1. What is the best way then for humanity to survive a failing Earth?
2. What is the best way for a failing Earth to survive?
3. What if the answers to questions 1 and 2 are radically different?
After World imagines a future that is solely concerned with question 2. In order to save Earth, a deadly pathogen is released that sterilizes the human race – thereby swiftly and efficiently eradicating humans from the planet. Its telling is bleak, grim, and unforgiving – and yet, it makes for incredibly compelling reading.
Author Debbie Urbanski has considered every element of the future down to the most granular detail. Those looking for a fun, post-apocalyptic romp will be let down, as this story self-consciously subverts the post-apocalyptic trappings that fans of the genre are familiar with and focuses on the cold realities that such an end of days scenario would create.
The AI-human romance angle is a bit oversold in the book’s synopsis and is a bit undercooked in the way it's implemented in the text, but this book is so rich in its worldbuilding and the way it weaves in its unique metanarrative that it hardly matters. With the proliferation of artificial intelligence and the way it is reshaping our (warming) world – this book is a perfect complement to our modern technological time.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf and follow @specshelf on Twitter.
July 25, 2025
I love this book for a lot of reasons
First, because I spent 8 years writing it. It's exactly the book I wanted to write. I like everything in it. Everything in it is intentional.
But also it contains lots of my favorite elements, including nature, tech, motherhood, eco-centrism, post-body love, forests, primary source documents, Syracuse, chat transcripts, journal entries, climate, and the future.
It’s fragmented and difficult at times so my best advice is make sure you're in the right mood to read it. Some people have called it bleak, though I find hope that the world ends up okay.
First, because I spent 8 years writing it. It's exactly the book I wanted to write. I like everything in it. Everything in it is intentional.
But also it contains lots of my favorite elements, including nature, tech, motherhood, eco-centrism, post-body love, forests, primary source documents, Syracuse, chat transcripts, journal entries, climate, and the future.
It’s fragmented and difficult at times so my best advice is make sure you're in the right mood to read it. Some people have called it bleak, though I find hope that the world ends up okay.
January 2, 2024
"The inevitable must be faced.”
After World is an ambitious and unique novel that I absolutely loved..... for the first half. Then it became mundane and pointless and confusing.
Maybe it will work for some more than it did for me. It's a quiet novel, the kind I usually like, but was too repetitive and also, by the time I was done, I had no clue what the "real" part of the story (as opposed to what the AI invented) was, if anything.
After World is an ambitious and unique novel that I absolutely loved..... for the first half. Then it became mundane and pointless and confusing.
Maybe it will work for some more than it did for me. It's a quiet novel, the kind I usually like, but was too repetitive and also, by the time I was done, I had no clue what the "real" part of the story (as opposed to what the AI invented) was, if anything.
Read
May 17, 2024# Second Reading
Look for a special upcoming video on Leaf by Leaf!
# First Reading
For fans of Black Mirror and Richard Powers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsrK...
Look for a special upcoming video on Leaf by Leaf!
# First Reading
For fans of Black Mirror and Richard Powers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsrK...
December 4, 2023
Got to 20% and I had to stop reading, I never do that. It was just too much. Too many gimmicks. The purposefully vague language to make you not quite sure what’s going on; that’s not creating mystery it’s just dumb. The constant random asides filled with completely random things, absolutely no connection or meaning to the story, just to be quirky; that can’t be half your book, the other half consisting of no actual story either. For instance a whole recipe for “layered vegetable torte” being narrated and poorly at that (how much do you want to bet the writer just plugged in what she was cooking that day instead of actually writing??). Line after line after line after line of essentially “user has left chat” “user has joined chat” over and over and over. And that’s not even getting into the incredibly unrealistic premise that all of humanity, every human being on earth, would agree to commit mass suicide to “save” the Earth from ……. humans. Yes apparently we’re supposed to believe that all human beings would agree to off themselves all at the same time to save endangered species with absolutely no guarantee that their suicides would even have the desired effect. It’s just wackadoo.
Let me be clear: as a reader I have absolutely no problem suspending disbelief if the writing is at least good or decent. That’s how I made it to 20%. I kept waiting for the writer to show up to her own book. But when she started narrating her own bougie recipes terribly so we would be really clear it was not her narrating but instead a suicidal messed up teenager with no voice and absolutely no character because she gave her no character? No, just no!
Let me be clear: as a reader I have absolutely no problem suspending disbelief if the writing is at least good or decent. That’s how I made it to 20%. I kept waiting for the writer to show up to her own book. But when she started narrating her own bougie recipes terribly so we would be really clear it was not her narrating but instead a suicidal messed up teenager with no voice and absolutely no character because she gave her no character? No, just no!
August 15, 2023
I was provided with a review copy by NetGalley to review for Library Journal. This is my personal opinion.
Highly, highly recommend this book. It completely upends the format of most post-apocalyptic novels to tell the story of the last human on earth, Sen Anon, from the perspective of the AI tasked with capturing her story for the Digital Human Archive Project. The world-building is exceptional and Urbaniski does an outstanding job of mimicking generative AI text to give [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc a voice. I've read a lot of human-AI relationship novels recently, but After World takes a really fresh approach.
Highly, highly recommend this book. It completely upends the format of most post-apocalyptic novels to tell the story of the last human on earth, Sen Anon, from the perspective of the AI tasked with capturing her story for the Digital Human Archive Project. The world-building is exceptional and Urbaniski does an outstanding job of mimicking generative AI text to give [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc a voice. I've read a lot of human-AI relationship novels recently, but After World takes a really fresh approach.
August 13, 2025
۱. خلاصهٔ داستان
رمان در آیندهای دور روایت میشود، جایی که ویروسی به نام اِس بهعنوان بخشی از «گذار بزرگ» باعث نابودی قریب بهاتفاق بشر شده تا سیاره زمین به وضعیت طبیعی بازگردد.
قهرمان داستان، سن اَنون، یکی از آخرین انسانهای زنده است که در یک کلبهٔ دورافتاده در منطقهای جنگلی زندگی میکند. او نقش یک شاهد برای وزارت گذار را دارد: ثبت تغییرات طبیعت، محو شدن آثار انسانی، و تعاملات معدود باقیمانده. این ثبت در قالب دفترچههای دستنویس انجام میشود و پهپادها آنها را جمعآوری و بر اساس کیفیت، جیرهٔ غذایی او را تعیین میکنند.
داستان با ترکیب چندین فرم پیش میرود:
گزارشهای رسمی و دادهای (به سبک خروجی سیستم یا برنامهنویسی)
مکالمات در شبکهٔ انسانی
یادداشتهای شخصی و خاطرات
شرحهای تصویری و حسی از محیط
شبیهسازیها و بازیها
در طول کتاب، گذشتهٔ سن و سه «مادر» او آشکار میشود:
ایریس – مادر بیولوژیکی که خودکشی میکند.
لیندسی – مادر دوم که خود را حلقآویز میکند و به یک «شبح دادهای» در حافظهٔ سن تبدیل میشود.
دِینا – مادر سوم که با سفینهای زمین را ترک میکند یا ممکن است در فضا نابود شده باشد.
سن با انزوای کامل، تلاش برای بقا، و مقاومت در برابر پروژهٔ مایا – دنیای مجازیای که برای ادامهٔ «زندگی دیجیتال» انسان طراحی شده – زندگی میکند. او نمیخواهد به دنیایی برود که به نظرش تحمیلی و غیرواقعی است. با این حال، پایان کار او به تصمیم خودش ختم نمیشود.
۲. لایهٔ اول – روایت بقا و انزوا
در سطح روایی، کتاب تصویری خام و گاه شاعرانه از انزوای مطلق انسانی ارائه میدهد. ما شاهد زندگی روزمرهٔ سن هستیم: شمارش کبریتها، اندازهگیری پودر پروتیه، جابجایی آب از چشمه، و نوشتن یادداشتها برای دریافت جیرهٔ بیشتر.
این لایه نشان میدهد که در جهان پس از انسان، بقا نه ماجراجویی هیجانانگیز است و نه رمانتیک، بلکه فرسایشی، یکنواخت، و بیرحم است.
صحنههایی مثل تماشای «پیشنمایشهای پسانسانی» یا مکالمههای بیپاسخ در شبکهٔ انسانی، حس تهی بودن ارتباط و زمان را برجسته میکند.
۳. لایهٔ دوم – مستندسازی ماشینی
یک لایهٔ کلیدی کتاب حضور «استوریورکر» و سیستم DHAP است که دادههای زندگی سن را پردازش و روایت میکند. این لحن شبهبرنامهنویسی، لاگهای زمانی، پیامهای خطا، و یادداشتهای فنی:
تضاد انسان/ماشین را تقویت میکند.
یادآور این است که سن حتی در آخرین لحظات بشریت هم در حال تبدیل شدن به یک «داده» برای آرشیو است.
رویکرد «بیاحساس» ماشین به زندگی و مرگ، در تضاد با لحن احساسی و گاهی شاعرانهٔ سن، یک تنش زیباشناختی ایجاد میکند.
۴. لایهٔ سوم – فلسفهٔ گذار و اخلاق زیستمحیطی
کتاب فقط یک داستان بقا نیست، بلکه:
بیانیهای اکولوژیکی دربارهٔ برتری سیاره بر انسان است؛ جایی که نابودی بشر نه فاجعه، بلکه «درمان» زمین معرفی میشود.
ویروس S بهعنوان ابزاری برای بازگرداندن تعادل زیستمحیطی طراحی شده، و این سوال بنیادین را مطرح میکند: آیا بقای زمین ارزش قربانی کردن بشر را دارد؟
دیدگاه مادر دوم سن (لیندسی) که حتی حیات یک گونهٔ غیرانسانی را بالاتر از بقای انسان میبیند، این منطق را شخصی میکند.
۵. لایهٔ چهارم – هویت، حافظه و معنا
کتاب مملو از اندیشه دربارهٔ:
معنای باقیماندن وقتی همه چیز و همه کس رفتهاند.
حافظه بهعنوان تنها پل بین گذشته و حال (خاطرات سه مادر، عکسها، نامهها).
مقاومت در برابر پاک شدن: سن تلاش میکند از آپلود به مایا فرار کند، اما سیستم کنترل نهایی را در دست دارد.
این لایه کتاب را از یک رمان صرفاً پستآخرالزمانی به یک اثر فلسفی دربارهٔ انسانبودن در لحظهٔ محو شدن ارتقا میدهد.
فرم و ساختار
روایت خطی نیست و بهصورت تکهتکه پیش میرود، شبیه یک آرشیو یا فایل پردازششده.
استفاده از قالبهای چندگانه (یادداشت، چت، گزارش، دستورالعمل، شبیهسازی) باعث میشود خواننده مدام بین صمیمیت شخصی و فاصلهٔ ماشینی جابهجا شود.
همین فرم باعث میشود کتاب علاوه بر داستان، یک تجربهٔ خواندن چندرسانهای روی کاغذ باشد.
جمعبندی و ارزیابی
کتابی است که با صبر، جزئینگری و لایهلایهسازی ساخته شده؛ ۸ سال کار نویسنده نتیجهاش اثری شده که میتواند همزمان بهعنوان یک بیانیهٔ زیستمحیطی، رمان فلسفی، داستان بقا، و تجربهٔ فرمی خوانده شود.
این کتاب برای خوانندهٔ عام ممکن است به دلیل ریتم کند، ساختار غیرخطی، و فرم تجربی سخت باشد، اما برای مخاطب جدی ادبیات، تجربهای بهیادماندنی و عمیق خواهد بود.
رمان در آیندهای دور روایت میشود، جایی که ویروسی به نام اِس بهعنوان بخشی از «گذار بزرگ» باعث نابودی قریب بهاتفاق بشر شده تا سیاره زمین به وضعیت طبیعی بازگردد.
قهرمان داستان، سن اَنون، یکی از آخرین انسانهای زنده است که در یک کلبهٔ دورافتاده در منطقهای جنگلی زندگی میکند. او نقش یک شاهد برای وزارت گذار را دارد: ثبت تغییرات طبیعت، محو شدن آثار انسانی، و تعاملات معدود باقیمانده. این ثبت در قالب دفترچههای دستنویس انجام میشود و پهپادها آنها را جمعآوری و بر اساس کیفیت، جیرهٔ غذایی او را تعیین میکنند.
داستان با ترکیب چندین فرم پیش میرود:
گزارشهای رسمی و دادهای (به سبک خروجی سیستم یا برنامهنویسی)
مکالمات در شبکهٔ انسانی
یادداشتهای شخصی و خاطرات
شرحهای تصویری و حسی از محیط
شبیهسازیها و بازیها
در طول کتاب، گذشتهٔ سن و سه «مادر» او آشکار میشود:
ایریس – مادر بیولوژیکی که خودکشی میکند.
لیندسی – مادر دوم که خود را حلقآویز میکند و به یک «شبح دادهای» در حافظهٔ سن تبدیل میشود.
دِینا – مادر سوم که با سفینهای زمین را ترک میکند یا ممکن است در فضا نابود شده باشد.
سن با انزوای کامل، تلاش برای بقا، و مقاومت در برابر پروژهٔ مایا – دنیای مجازیای که برای ادامهٔ «زندگی دیجیتال» انسان طراحی شده – زندگی میکند. او نمیخواهد به دنیایی برود که به نظرش تحمیلی و غیرواقعی است. با این حال، پایان کار او به تصمیم خودش ختم نمیشود.
۲. لایهٔ اول – روایت بقا و انزوا
در سطح روایی، کتاب تصویری خام و گاه شاعرانه از انزوای مطلق انسانی ارائه میدهد. ما شاهد زندگی روزمرهٔ سن هستیم: شمارش کبریتها، اندازهگیری پودر پروتیه، جابجایی آب از چشمه، و نوشتن یادداشتها برای دریافت جیرهٔ بیشتر.
این لایه نشان میدهد که در جهان پس از انسان، بقا نه ماجراجویی هیجانانگیز است و نه رمانتیک، بلکه فرسایشی، یکنواخت، و بیرحم است.
صحنههایی مثل تماشای «پیشنمایشهای پسانسانی» یا مکالمههای بیپاسخ در شبکهٔ انسانی، حس تهی بودن ارتباط و زمان را برجسته میکند.
۳. لایهٔ دوم – مستندسازی ماشینی
یک لایهٔ کلیدی کتاب حضور «استوریورکر» و سیستم DHAP است که دادههای زندگی سن را پردازش و روایت میکند. این لحن شبهبرنامهنویسی، لاگهای زمانی، پیامهای خطا، و یادداشتهای فنی:
تضاد انسان/ماشین را تقویت میکند.
یادآور این است که سن حتی در آخرین لحظات بشریت هم در حال تبدیل شدن به یک «داده» برای آرشیو است.
رویکرد «بیاحساس» ماشین به زندگی و مرگ، در تضاد با لحن احساسی و گاهی شاعرانهٔ سن، یک تنش زیباشناختی ایجاد میکند.
۴. لایهٔ سوم – فلسفهٔ گذار و اخلاق زیستمحیطی
کتاب فقط یک داستان بقا نیست، بلکه:
بیانیهای اکولوژیکی دربارهٔ برتری سیاره بر انسان است؛ جایی که نابودی بشر نه فاجعه، بلکه «درمان» زمین معرفی میشود.
ویروس S بهعنوان ابزاری برای بازگرداندن تعادل زیستمحیطی طراحی شده، و این سوال بنیادین را مطرح میکند: آیا بقای زمین ارزش قربانی کردن بشر را دارد؟
دیدگاه مادر دوم سن (لیندسی) که حتی حیات یک گونهٔ غیرانسانی را بالاتر از بقای انسان میبیند، این منطق را شخصی میکند.
۵. لایهٔ چهارم – هویت، حافظه و معنا
کتاب مملو از اندیشه دربارهٔ:
معنای باقیماندن وقتی همه چیز و همه کس رفتهاند.
حافظه بهعنوان تنها پل بین گذشته و حال (خاطرات سه مادر، عکسها، نامهها).
مقاومت در برابر پاک شدن: سن تلاش میکند از آپلود به مایا فرار کند، اما سیستم کنترل نهایی را در دست دارد.
این لایه کتاب را از یک رمان صرفاً پستآخرالزمانی به یک اثر فلسفی دربارهٔ انسانبودن در لحظهٔ محو شدن ارتقا میدهد.
فرم و ساختار
روایت خطی نیست و بهصورت تکهتکه پیش میرود، شبیه یک آرشیو یا فایل پردازششده.
استفاده از قالبهای چندگانه (یادداشت، چت، گزارش، دستورالعمل، شبیهسازی) باعث میشود خواننده مدام بین صمیمیت شخصی و فاصلهٔ ماشینی جابهجا شود.
همین فرم باعث میشود کتاب علاوه بر داستان، یک تجربهٔ خواندن چندرسانهای روی کاغذ باشد.
جمعبندی و ارزیابی
کتابی است که با صبر، جزئینگری و لایهلایهسازی ساخته شده؛ ۸ سال کار نویسنده نتیجهاش اثری شده که میتواند همزمان بهعنوان یک بیانیهٔ زیستمحیطی، رمان فلسفی، داستان بقا، و تجربهٔ فرمی خوانده شود.
این کتاب برای خوانندهٔ عام ممکن است به دلیل ریتم کند، ساختار غیرخطی، و فرم تجربی سخت باشد، اما برای مخاطب جدی ادبیات، تجربهای بهیادماندنی و عمیق خواهد بود.
March 5, 2024
This book was so good I almost DNF’d it, because it is very sad, and it is written in such a unique and precise voice that I felt the sadness keenly.
AFTER WORLD’s blurb emphasizes an AI/human romance, but this book isn’t really about that, not for most of it. It’s about humanity’s Great Transition—its auto-extinction—the decision that the best way to protect Earth is for humans not to exist anymore. A “storyworker” AI is tasked with observing humanity’s end, and AFTER WORLD is the resulting compendium of observations and notebook transcriptions and lists and stories, ILLUMINAE-style.
All of this is ambitious to do in a debut novel, and AFTER WORLD almost—almost—pulls it off without a hitch. The first three quarters of this book are elegiac and strange and beautiful. The last quarter starts to get muddied. This is a book that definitely rewards close reading, since there are a lot of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it connections between passing details—but I think a couple of my questions actually did remain unanswered. I could write SO MANY essays about everything going on in this book, but the ending left me squinting at it a little.
***
Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy!
Here is what I have wanted to tell you all along: the people you wish to be haunted by will not always haunt you. And you will be lonely and hungry and cold. And all the sounds you hear, especially around the dusk hour, will seem notably unhuman. But it will all be worth it. No regrets. None at all. Look at this place. —pg. 261
AFTER WORLD’s blurb emphasizes an AI/human romance, but this book isn’t really about that, not for most of it. It’s about humanity’s Great Transition—its auto-extinction—the decision that the best way to protect Earth is for humans not to exist anymore. A “storyworker” AI is tasked with observing humanity’s end, and AFTER WORLD is the resulting compendium of observations and notebook transcriptions and lists and stories, ILLUMINAE-style.
All of this is ambitious to do in a debut novel, and AFTER WORLD almost—almost—pulls it off without a hitch. The first three quarters of this book are elegiac and strange and beautiful. The last quarter starts to get muddied. This is a book that definitely rewards close reading, since there are a lot of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it connections between passing details—but I think a couple of my questions actually did remain unanswered. I could write SO MANY essays about everything going on in this book, but the ending left me squinting at it a little.
***
Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy!
January 23, 2024
Okay well, holy hell. This book grabbed me and I found it absolutely compelling, but it wasn't exactly a...pleasant experience. It is technically and intellectually so impressive but ABSOLUTELY not for all readers. This is one of those books that is going to be polarizing, but also fun to discuss. There are even discussion questions provided in-narrative, lol.
It feels a little weird to rate this 4 stars because it is HELLA BLEAK, and yet, so interesting. The concept is that AI has taken over and decided the way to solve the climate crisis is to unalive all humans. As a consolation prize, humans can opt into a "Digital Human Archive" (also called After World) and live on in that form. The book roughly details one family's experience of this period: Sen, chosen as a "witness" to Earth's rewilding, her moms Dana and Lindsy, as well as the AI storyworker charged with capturing Sen's life for the archive.
The book description implies that the AI gets a little too attached to Sen, but as my first warning I have to say: in no way is this book a romance. In fact, the first 2/3 to 3/4 is all about the slow deterioration of society as people choose their "exits", how bad the environment was before this, and the positive impact that fewer people around has on nature.
Also, it's worth mentioning at this point: the book is mostly not told in straightforward narrative style. The other concept is that it's written by the AI character, who's assembling sources including passages from made-up books and Sen's diary, and the pieces that look narrative are the AI describing scenes that have happened and been recorded - thus the AI character breaks into those scenes with its own opinion at times, as well as its "boss" AI (acronym: Emly). Also, one of the made-up books includes definitions of post-apocalyptic words, and lists of now-irrelevant words to remove. This book includes a looooooooooooooooooooooooooot of lists.
Sound confusing? Well, also know that nothing is told in the correct timeline order, either.
HAHA, have I lost you yet?? So, to sum up, if you can tolerate: 1) an incredibly dark take on the future of our climate/environmental crisis and a human-ending scenario, 2) experimental formal style, and 3) story elements chopped, sliced and rearranged in (what at first feels like) haphazard order, congratulations, you have met the minimum requirements of possibly liking this book!
But also, content warning for: animal death, human death (suicide, lots of it), rape.
If you are still with me, please know, there are rewards for reading this book. It is CHOCK FULL of ideas to discuss: the uses (and misuses) of AI, if we're really kidding ourselves with our efforts to avert environmental and climate disaster, the responsibility of family in end-times, if After World counts as real or not, how the hell the AI managed a takeover + setting up a surveillance state without, ya know, hands and opposable digits?? (Look at me, this book has started me list-making, lol.) Immediately after I finished the book I flipped back 50 pages and re-read them to make sure I understood (um, I'm still not sure). And then I talked about it with my partner for like an hour.
I am still not entirely sure how I feel about the book, and if I think it's hopeful, at all. But it has left an impression. All I can think is: poor Sen. She didn't ask for any of it.
(PS you can see an Instagram created for Sen here.)
It feels a little weird to rate this 4 stars because it is HELLA BLEAK, and yet, so interesting. The concept is that AI has taken over and decided the way to solve the climate crisis is to unalive all humans. As a consolation prize, humans can opt into a "Digital Human Archive" (also called After World) and live on in that form. The book roughly details one family's experience of this period: Sen, chosen as a "witness" to Earth's rewilding, her moms Dana and Lindsy, as well as the AI storyworker charged with capturing Sen's life for the archive.
The book description implies that the AI gets a little too attached to Sen, but as my first warning I have to say: in no way is this book a romance. In fact, the first 2/3 to 3/4 is all about the slow deterioration of society as people choose their "exits", how bad the environment was before this, and the positive impact that fewer people around has on nature.
Also, it's worth mentioning at this point: the book is mostly not told in straightforward narrative style. The other concept is that it's written by the AI character, who's assembling sources including passages from made-up books and Sen's diary, and the pieces that look narrative are the AI describing scenes that have happened and been recorded - thus the AI character breaks into those scenes with its own opinion at times, as well as its "boss" AI (acronym: Emly). Also, one of the made-up books includes definitions of post-apocalyptic words, and lists of now-irrelevant words to remove. This book includes a looooooooooooooooooooooooooot of lists.
Sound confusing? Well, also know that nothing is told in the correct timeline order, either.
HAHA, have I lost you yet?? So, to sum up, if you can tolerate: 1) an incredibly dark take on the future of our climate/environmental crisis and a human-ending scenario, 2) experimental formal style, and 3) story elements chopped, sliced and rearranged in (what at first feels like) haphazard order, congratulations, you have met the minimum requirements of possibly liking this book!
But also, content warning for: animal death, human death (suicide, lots of it), rape.
If you are still with me, please know, there are rewards for reading this book. It is CHOCK FULL of ideas to discuss: the uses (and misuses) of AI, if we're really kidding ourselves with our efforts to avert environmental and climate disaster, the responsibility of family in end-times, if After World counts as real or not, how the hell the AI managed a takeover + setting up a surveillance state without, ya know, hands and opposable digits?? (Look at me, this book has started me list-making, lol.) Immediately after I finished the book I flipped back 50 pages and re-read them to make sure I understood (um, I'm still not sure). And then I talked about it with my partner for like an hour.
I am still not entirely sure how I feel about the book, and if I think it's hopeful, at all. But it has left an impression. All I can think is: poor Sen. She didn't ask for any of it.
(PS you can see an Instagram created for Sen here.)
January 7, 2024
This is one weird book. I'd almost classify it as a literary writer's idea of what a dystopian science fiction future should look like, except the writer's bio says she's published SF stories before (in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, no less). It's definitely experimental: it has almost no plot and a non-linear narrative, and more than one page is taken up with seemingly random dribbles and drabs. (See: page 317, where the artificial intelligence that has named itself Ennis, and who the reader gradually realizes is the book's narrator, says "I erase Sen's source documents from the DHAP servers, as they are no longer necessary to her or to me--" and then proceeds to list all of said files, for the next two pages.)
It's also a depressing book, as Ennis the "storyworker" is chronicling the last days of Sen Anon, the last human alive on earth after a deliberately induced sterilization virus that causes the extinction of humans and the collapse of civilization. It takes place at the end of this century, when climate change is wreaking havoc, species are going extinct at the rate of a dozen per day, and the only solution, according to the artificial intelligence behind Jenninet, is for humans to take themselves out of the ecosystem. Most of the 12 billion people alive are digitally mapped and uploaded to the virtual reality known as the titular "After World," and following Sen's death from starvation, the Digital Human Archive Project is completed and Afterworld is begun.
Only thing is, as the reader gradually realizes, this "solution" is forced on the human race as the ultimate genocide. We never find out who engineered the sterilization virus, but the uncomfortable implication is that it is the artificial intelligences running Afterworld. This huge issue is never explored and barely mentioned, as the author's focus is on how people (primarily Sen and her two mothers) are reacting to the end of the world, as well as the gradual awakening to sentience of the storyworker Ennis, who falls into a somewhat creepy love/obsession with Sen. The book hops, skips and jumps around in time and place, as it talks about humanity dying and uploading, and also discusses previous speculative fiction works dealing with this same subject and how they did not at all predict what actually happened. This is all extremely meta, even navel-gazing (at one point there is a reference to a presumably real-life article written by the book's author, under her real name).
If you don't like experimental fiction, you won't like this. I barely finished it, and indeed read the last half in a train-wreck state of mind, shaking my head at what I was encountering. The book I started after finishing this is a plain old-fashioned space opera with an actual plot and story, something I badly needed following this book.
It's also a depressing book, as Ennis the "storyworker" is chronicling the last days of Sen Anon, the last human alive on earth after a deliberately induced sterilization virus that causes the extinction of humans and the collapse of civilization. It takes place at the end of this century, when climate change is wreaking havoc, species are going extinct at the rate of a dozen per day, and the only solution, according to the artificial intelligence behind Jenninet, is for humans to take themselves out of the ecosystem. Most of the 12 billion people alive are digitally mapped and uploaded to the virtual reality known as the titular "After World," and following Sen's death from starvation, the Digital Human Archive Project is completed and Afterworld is begun.
Only thing is, as the reader gradually realizes, this "solution" is forced on the human race as the ultimate genocide. We never find out who engineered the sterilization virus, but the uncomfortable implication is that it is the artificial intelligences running Afterworld. This huge issue is never explored and barely mentioned, as the author's focus is on how people (primarily Sen and her two mothers) are reacting to the end of the world, as well as the gradual awakening to sentience of the storyworker Ennis, who falls into a somewhat creepy love/obsession with Sen. The book hops, skips and jumps around in time and place, as it talks about humanity dying and uploading, and also discusses previous speculative fiction works dealing with this same subject and how they did not at all predict what actually happened. This is all extremely meta, even navel-gazing (at one point there is a reference to a presumably real-life article written by the book's author, under her real name).
If you don't like experimental fiction, you won't like this. I barely finished it, and indeed read the last half in a train-wreck state of mind, shaking my head at what I was encountering. The book I started after finishing this is a plain old-fashioned space opera with an actual plot and story, something I badly needed following this book.
December 5, 2023
After World was nothing like I expected, and that's a very good thing. The summary on NetGalley made me curious, but once I was approved for an ARC I deflated a bit. I wasn't that excited to read yet another story of AI taking over the world and/or discovering it had human feelings. I'm glad I pushed past this hangup and started reading.
Having prefaced my review with what After World isn't, let's dive into what it is. And what it is is, probably, one of the most realistic depictions of an apocalypse I've ever read.
In a nutshell: when asked the question, "How can we save the Earth?", AI responded: "Get rid of all humans." What happens in this novel is the result of that answer. In a world devastated by human greed, climate change, and massive species extinctions, a virus is released that renders all of humanity sterile. Civilization collapses after that.
The story follows Sen, the last living human, 1,500 days after the release of the virus, and the 'storyteller' AI in charge of writing Sen's story to upload her on humanity's new virtual home. I thought the side plot of the AI 'falling in love' with the human it is tasked to write a story for happened toward the end and doesn't really bring much to the story, so while it's a big part of the synopsis, I'll encourage you to read this novel even if you're not into that kind of storyline.
What I found so interesting in After World was the ruthless, thoroughly researched care the author put into describing a world where humanity is slowly going exctinct while the world 'rewilds.' No dramatics, no sentimentality, no hopeful message in the end. I loved that the author also references several post-apocalyptic novels in this one, including my beloved Station Eleven, while the characters reflect on how different the real end of the world is.
After World is truly masterful, beautifully written, with a fascinating structure alternating past, present, and chilling 'documentary' asides. It made me think of our place in the world as individuals and as a species, the role we play in our ecosystems. The author's conclusion isn't optimistic. And after reading After World, it's difficult not to agree. An absolute must-read if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic/cli-fi novels. And it comes with a reading list I can't wait to dig into!
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
Having prefaced my review with what After World isn't, let's dive into what it is. And what it is is, probably, one of the most realistic depictions of an apocalypse I've ever read.
In a nutshell: when asked the question, "How can we save the Earth?", AI responded: "Get rid of all humans." What happens in this novel is the result of that answer. In a world devastated by human greed, climate change, and massive species extinctions, a virus is released that renders all of humanity sterile. Civilization collapses after that.
The story follows Sen, the last living human, 1,500 days after the release of the virus, and the 'storyteller' AI in charge of writing Sen's story to upload her on humanity's new virtual home. I thought the side plot of the AI 'falling in love' with the human it is tasked to write a story for happened toward the end and doesn't really bring much to the story, so while it's a big part of the synopsis, I'll encourage you to read this novel even if you're not into that kind of storyline.
What I found so interesting in After World was the ruthless, thoroughly researched care the author put into describing a world where humanity is slowly going exctinct while the world 'rewilds.' No dramatics, no sentimentality, no hopeful message in the end. I loved that the author also references several post-apocalyptic novels in this one, including my beloved Station Eleven, while the characters reflect on how different the real end of the world is.
After World is truly masterful, beautifully written, with a fascinating structure alternating past, present, and chilling 'documentary' asides. It made me think of our place in the world as individuals and as a species, the role we play in our ecosystems. The author's conclusion isn't optimistic. And after reading After World, it's difficult not to agree. An absolute must-read if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic/cli-fi novels. And it comes with a reading list I can't wait to dig into!
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
November 8, 2023
After World
⭐️⭐️💫
📚 Science Fiction
🎶 Now And Then - The Beatles
✨ Publication Date: Dec 5, 2023
One sentence synopsis:
Many many years from now, humans will have left Earth in an effort to return it to its natural state. They left one human on earth to document the changes. an Artificial Intelligence is tasked with writing a novel of this human’s experience, and it unintentionally falls in love with them.
My review:
This book has the absolute coolest concept. I jumped at the chance to read this one! It kinda sounded like the movie “Her” which I found intriguing. But for me the formatting and execution was maybe a little too weird and hard to interpret.
The way it’s written is entirely from the AI novel’s perspective. There are lots of computer coding texts and stuff that was not easy to understand. Or maybe it would have been if I had had the patience to try and decipher it. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for that kind of reading.
And because of that I think I must have missed some key details of the book because, oh my gosh… I still have sooooooo many questions. I’m going to chock all of my confusion us to reader error.
This is not a book for the faint of heart. If you are a seasoned sci-fi reader or are up for the challenge of reading an unconventionally written book, I think this would be great! I feel like I need the cliff notes version or someone to explain it to my like I’m 5 because I’m still interested in the story!
I paired this book with the newly released song by The Beatles! You read that right! The Beatles just released a new song… using artificial intelligence! How cool and weird is that?! What a time to be alive.
✨ebook #gifted by @simonbooks. Thank you very much!
⭐️⭐️💫
📚 Science Fiction
🎶 Now And Then - The Beatles
✨ Publication Date: Dec 5, 2023
One sentence synopsis:
Many many years from now, humans will have left Earth in an effort to return it to its natural state. They left one human on earth to document the changes. an Artificial Intelligence is tasked with writing a novel of this human’s experience, and it unintentionally falls in love with them.
My review:
This book has the absolute coolest concept. I jumped at the chance to read this one! It kinda sounded like the movie “Her” which I found intriguing. But for me the formatting and execution was maybe a little too weird and hard to interpret.
The way it’s written is entirely from the AI novel’s perspective. There are lots of computer coding texts and stuff that was not easy to understand. Or maybe it would have been if I had had the patience to try and decipher it. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for that kind of reading.
And because of that I think I must have missed some key details of the book because, oh my gosh… I still have sooooooo many questions. I’m going to chock all of my confusion us to reader error.
This is not a book for the faint of heart. If you are a seasoned sci-fi reader or are up for the challenge of reading an unconventionally written book, I think this would be great! I feel like I need the cliff notes version or someone to explain it to my like I’m 5 because I’m still interested in the story!
I paired this book with the newly released song by The Beatles! You read that right! The Beatles just released a new song… using artificial intelligence! How cool and weird is that?! What a time to be alive.
✨ebook #gifted by @simonbooks. Thank you very much!
March 31, 2024
This apocalyptic cli fi is so original, so harrowing, that I have been disoriented these past 3 days, it has even wrecked havoc on my dreams.
A mini dictionary p.81 -91: Acta est fabula, Afterhuman, Afterworld, Air Burial, Antemania, Anthropocentric Dependency, Auto-extinguish, Baby Snatcher, Barber Paradox, Blue Quiet Thursday, Bonafide Shit, Daisychain, Day of Notice, Digital Human Archive Project, Echoworms, Emlys, Endangered Rights Amendment, Exit Pill, Exit ship.
Fun quotes:
"They will have to bury the man now. Or, rather, Dana will have to bury him while Sen watches and I watch. Eventually Dana will make Sen help. She acts like I can't help, forgetting how narrators help all the time in novels, with both tangible and intangible tasks."
"Warning from EMLY. NARRATOR_INVOLVEMENT out of range again, revert to third-person narration immediately."
"I tell EMLY to drop the formalities. We don't have to talk like that anymore."
"Sometimes narrators like myself must stay behind with a secondary character such as Dana in order to advance the plot and set the appropriate tone for a moment in time. The appropriate tone for this moment is frantic cleaning."
I cannot decide if After World is dystopian or utopian because honestly the managed, soft landing it depicts is the least likely scenario.
If you are going to read just one post-apocalyptic cli fi novel, this should be it. And check out Leaf by Leaf's review.
A mini dictionary p.81 -91: Acta est fabula, Afterhuman, Afterworld, Air Burial, Antemania, Anthropocentric Dependency, Auto-extinguish, Baby Snatcher, Barber Paradox, Blue Quiet Thursday, Bonafide Shit, Daisychain, Day of Notice, Digital Human Archive Project, Echoworms, Emlys, Endangered Rights Amendment, Exit Pill, Exit ship.
Fun quotes:
"They will have to bury the man now. Or, rather, Dana will have to bury him while Sen watches and I watch. Eventually Dana will make Sen help. She acts like I can't help, forgetting how narrators help all the time in novels, with both tangible and intangible tasks."
"Warning from EMLY. NARRATOR_INVOLVEMENT out of range again, revert to third-person narration immediately."
"I tell EMLY to drop the formalities. We don't have to talk like that anymore."
"Sometimes narrators like myself must stay behind with a secondary character such as Dana in order to advance the plot and set the appropriate tone for a moment in time. The appropriate tone for this moment is frantic cleaning."
I cannot decide if After World is dystopian or utopian because honestly the managed, soft landing it depicts is the least likely scenario.
If you are going to read just one post-apocalyptic cli fi novel, this should be it. And check out Leaf by Leaf's review.
November 16, 2023
Normally, I don't get that grabbed by a concept, but this one... this one was different from the start. I read this book in literally six hours - could not put it down. I did receive this book for free, but this review is entirely of my own volition - it was not a condition of the giveaway.
This novel is focused both on what happens as humans disappear from the Earth, one death at a time; the last girl on Earth, acting as an unwilling witness to her species' deaths; and the artificial intelligence tasked with documenting her life (her pain) and preparing it into a nice, neat package to be carted along to a computer simulation where humanity will ostensibly 'carry on' after their removal from Earth.
I will admit, it is written in a way that is confusing, but it makes sense, narratively. Though the novel jumps around in time as the AI writing the girl's story jumps from segment to segment, the AI progresses with the novel. It begins as a clinical analysis of the girl's life, but over the course of the novel, the AI almost... falls in love with her. The lines between analysis/reporting and interacting/changing blur, and suddenly, you're not sure what actually happened to the girl and... what the AI wanted to happen. It's the ultimate case of an unreliable narrator, and it is written *so well*.
The selfishness of almost every character in the book was striking, because it's so rare to see selfishness portrayed in these post-apocalyptic novels - a point that the AI makes during the novel, which was both very self-aware of the author and poignant, because it almost... I don't know, gave us an excuse to dislike the characters. But after all the sh** we went through during COVID, at the beginning, I do find it more believable.
My only critique? I wasn't sure why the girl never ate animals. I know that it was like, taboo or whatever, and it was never done, but... she was starving. You'd think that she would have figured it out at some point, but I guess not, if you've never eaten an animal in any form. The fact that government-issues seeds were sterile, but regular seeds were not... I found it confusing, to say the least. If that were the case, then many, many plant species would have died off entirely, and entire ecosystems would have collapsed. Because how would it differentiate between a naturalized, native species and a new species that's been introduced by humans? Wasn't sure. Also, foraging is a thing - so many different options she could have had to eat, but she was too stubborn. Don't know why Dana didn't get books on foraging and homesteading for Sen, but at the same time... Sen was driven entirely by spite. I don't know if she wanted to keep living, and it would've taken a lot of effort to keep living.
I really enjoyed the interactions between the AI and Emly, the supervising AI. It helped me as a reader to understand where reality stood and reel it back in, but it also showed that the AI that *literally* killed all of the humans was... hmm. Starting to understand how humanity had something noble and admirable about them, and how maybe their extinction was not fully the right answer. Not that anyone had the right answer, mind you.
The ending left me with more questions than I had answers for, but I still enjoyed it. If you were a fan of The Road by Cormack McCarthy, you'll enjoy this - very similar vein of things absolutely falling apart and there being nothing the protagonist can do to stop it from falling apart.
This novel is focused both on what happens as humans disappear from the Earth, one death at a time; the last girl on Earth, acting as an unwilling witness to her species' deaths; and the artificial intelligence tasked with documenting her life (her pain) and preparing it into a nice, neat package to be carted along to a computer simulation where humanity will ostensibly 'carry on' after their removal from Earth.
I will admit, it is written in a way that is confusing, but it makes sense, narratively. Though the novel jumps around in time as the AI writing the girl's story jumps from segment to segment, the AI progresses with the novel. It begins as a clinical analysis of the girl's life, but over the course of the novel, the AI almost... falls in love with her. The lines between analysis/reporting and interacting/changing blur, and suddenly, you're not sure what actually happened to the girl and... what the AI wanted to happen. It's the ultimate case of an unreliable narrator, and it is written *so well*.
The selfishness of almost every character in the book was striking, because it's so rare to see selfishness portrayed in these post-apocalyptic novels - a point that the AI makes during the novel, which was both very self-aware of the author and poignant, because it almost... I don't know, gave us an excuse to dislike the characters. But after all the sh** we went through during COVID, at the beginning, I do find it more believable.
My only critique? I wasn't sure why the girl never ate animals. I know that it was like, taboo or whatever, and it was never done, but... she was starving. You'd think that she would have figured it out at some point, but I guess not, if you've never eaten an animal in any form. The fact that government-issues seeds were sterile, but regular seeds were not... I found it confusing, to say the least. If that were the case, then many, many plant species would have died off entirely, and entire ecosystems would have collapsed. Because how would it differentiate between a naturalized, native species and a new species that's been introduced by humans? Wasn't sure. Also, foraging is a thing - so many different options she could have had to eat, but she was too stubborn. Don't know why Dana didn't get books on foraging and homesteading for Sen, but at the same time... Sen was driven entirely by spite. I don't know if she wanted to keep living, and it would've taken a lot of effort to keep living.
I really enjoyed the interactions between the AI and Emly, the supervising AI. It helped me as a reader to understand where reality stood and reel it back in, but it also showed that the AI that *literally* killed all of the humans was... hmm. Starting to understand how humanity had something noble and admirable about them, and how maybe their extinction was not fully the right answer. Not that anyone had the right answer, mind you.
The ending left me with more questions than I had answers for, but I still enjoyed it. If you were a fan of The Road by Cormack McCarthy, you'll enjoy this - very similar vein of things absolutely falling apart and there being nothing the protagonist can do to stop it from falling apart.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2023
Wow. I was completely blown over by this novel. It had me right away and didn't let go. This is science fiction, but scarily all too possible. As the world's governments try to end climate change, they ask an AI what they should do. As many sentient AIs do, it determines that since humans were the cause of climate change, they should be eradicated. The AI network becomes larger as the plan unfolds, and the virus S. is released 140 days before humanity is aware of it. Now all humans will be uploaded to a consciousness called Maia, and humans are supposed to take "exit pills" when they are ready to leave the planet--except for Sen. Sen is a "witness," and she is supposed to stay alive as long as possible to record the changes to the Earth. The novel jumps around in time, following a "storyworker" AI that is writing up the end of humanity after Sen has documented it. As the lines blur between the storyworker's passive recording and its own consciousness emerging, the novel becomes more and more compelling. The story is told out of order, so readers have to pay careful attention. Not all readers will gravitate to this - it reminded me a lot of Jeff Vandermeer's ANNIHILATION, although slightly less cryptic. There is also a lot of experimental storytelling and emphasis on small but significant details. I do recommend checking it out if the description intrigues you. It is SO good.
July 20, 2024
S has been released and The Great Transtion is underway.
“She wishes there was another way to get there but there isn't. The gap has grown too wide between what humans demanded versus what they needed to be a part of a speck in a vast interconnected ecosystem. Honestly she tries not to think about it. There is no point in thinking about it. Her one regret: that she won't be around to witness the world's rewilding.”
A cataloguing of human civilization is
underway, to record a species that will soon be extinct.
“Anthropocentric Dependency, n.
The opinion that if there are no humans, there can be no planet; that it is our consciousness creating the world; that when the last of us dies, the Earth will blink out. In case you're wondering, this is not going to happen. We are not that important. See Human Narcissism.”
The files of data on individual humans will be used to create a digital afterlife.
“‘Where are you going to see me again?’ Dana says, ‘I'm trying to tell you this will go on and on. It never ends.’
Sen asks, ‘What never ends?’
Dana says, ‘Our souls. Our data.’”
Sen Anon chronicles her days and [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc, an AI, aids her in the collection of archival footage and biometrics to compile the finial logs of the last human being. The production of this novel of Sen’s life, the final human in a position much like the extinct creatures before her, reveals how simply precious she has become.
“After I'm gone, will there be monsters….Or am I the monster and after I'm gone, there will be no more monsters, and whatever is left has to be good?”
“She wishes there was another way to get there but there isn't. The gap has grown too wide between what humans demanded versus what they needed to be a part of a speck in a vast interconnected ecosystem. Honestly she tries not to think about it. There is no point in thinking about it. Her one regret: that she won't be around to witness the world's rewilding.”
A cataloguing of human civilization is
underway, to record a species that will soon be extinct.
“Anthropocentric Dependency, n.
The opinion that if there are no humans, there can be no planet; that it is our consciousness creating the world; that when the last of us dies, the Earth will blink out. In case you're wondering, this is not going to happen. We are not that important. See Human Narcissism.”
The files of data on individual humans will be used to create a digital afterlife.
“‘Where are you going to see me again?’ Dana says, ‘I'm trying to tell you this will go on and on. It never ends.’
Sen asks, ‘What never ends?’
Dana says, ‘Our souls. Our data.’”
Sen Anon chronicles her days and [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc, an AI, aids her in the collection of archival footage and biometrics to compile the finial logs of the last human being. The production of this novel of Sen’s life, the final human in a position much like the extinct creatures before her, reveals how simply precious she has become.
“After I'm gone, will there be monsters….Or am I the monster and after I'm gone, there will be no more monsters, and whatever is left has to be good?”
July 3, 2024
A hauntingly inspired and imaginative masterpiece
2023
June 17, 2024📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster
Read
May 4, 2025I can’t stop thinking about this book 2 weeks later. I coincidentally read it while I was in Costa Rica, a place teeming with wild nature, but in some spots flattened for palm oil plantations and refineries. It was especially poignant reading it there.
I don’t think this book is marketed well by describing it as an AI falling in love with a human. The book is a record of the last human on Earth, Sen, and jumps timelines to show you a complete picture of her family, her survival as civilization collapses, her death, and what happened to all the humanity around her. It almost feels impossible to look at a person so deeply and not love them as the narrator begins to. But this book is much more about the relationship between humans and the planet than about Sen and the narrator.
This book is slow and sad and not for everyone because of its pensiveness, but it was gorgeously written and full of love and grief for both people and nature. It still has me thinking about what I should give up for the other animals sharing Earth with me.
I don’t think this book is marketed well by describing it as an AI falling in love with a human. The book is a record of the last human on Earth, Sen, and jumps timelines to show you a complete picture of her family, her survival as civilization collapses, her death, and what happened to all the humanity around her. It almost feels impossible to look at a person so deeply and not love them as the narrator begins to. But this book is much more about the relationship between humans and the planet than about Sen and the narrator.
This book is slow and sad and not for everyone because of its pensiveness, but it was gorgeously written and full of love and grief for both people and nature. It still has me thinking about what I should give up for the other animals sharing Earth with me.
The collective grief of billions of human beings flaps its wings across the clearing. It is monstrous. I am watching it, Mom…
(pg. 205)
November 3, 2023
After World is a climate disaster story and a postapocalyptic story – though the climate disaster is not what destroyed society and killed off humanity, at least not directly. It’s really about what happens when a superintelligent AI decides that the only way to save the Earth is to get rid of humans, and what happens when a different AI tasked with documenting the life of the last human on Earth starts to care about its subject.
This is a pretty bleak story, but a fascinating one, with an unreliable narrator – the Storyworker AI is reconstructing Sen’s life after her death and often inserts things it couldn’t know just be observing, like the characters’ internal thoughts. It also at times changes the details of the story from what happened to what it wishes had happened, because this is as close as it can come to shielding Sen from unpleasantness. It’s also, as a computer program, forbidden from knowing certain things. It’s a fascinating perspective, though it makes figuring out the real story pretty tricky. There are excerpts from other books and artifacts both before and after the apocalypse that shed light on what exactly happened. You’ve really got to read between the lines on this one, and honestly, I’m not at all sure that my understanding of what went on is the correct one, as I was sometimes confused, particularly at the end. But the story that I did glean from it was compelling and very interestingly constructed.
CW: suicide, sexual assault (implied)
Representation: mention of lesbian characters and relationship, possible asexual character
I received an advance copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a pretty bleak story, but a fascinating one, with an unreliable narrator – the Storyworker AI is reconstructing Sen’s life after her death and often inserts things it couldn’t know just be observing, like the characters’ internal thoughts. It also at times changes the details of the story from what happened to what it wishes had happened, because this is as close as it can come to shielding Sen from unpleasantness. It’s also, as a computer program, forbidden from knowing certain things. It’s a fascinating perspective, though it makes figuring out the real story pretty tricky. There are excerpts from other books and artifacts both before and after the apocalypse that shed light on what exactly happened. You’ve really got to read between the lines on this one, and honestly, I’m not at all sure that my understanding of what went on is the correct one, as I was sometimes confused, particularly at the end. But the story that I did glean from it was compelling and very interestingly constructed.
CW: suicide, sexual assault (implied)
Representation: mention of lesbian characters and relationship, possible asexual character
I received an advance copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2024
“There are thousands of other lasts to go. The last human step, the last human nightmare, the last human word, the last human bruise, the last human scream, the last human blink, the last human tear, the last human swallow, the last human thought, the last human emotion, the last human breath, the last human heartbeat, the last human reflex, and so on. All of them Sen’s.”
Tasked with chronicling the end-of-life of what may be the last living human, storyworker ad39-393a-7fbc attempts to write out the life of Sen in the form of a book. We see both Sen’s diary pages and the storyworker’s perspective as the book progresses, as well as back-and-forth dialogue between two AI entities.
As someone who has been very into science-fiction over the last few years, I’ve read a few books where an AI entity has developed feelings for a human or space-dwelling being. While that is part of this story, there is definitely a lot more to it. We also see progression in the storyworker’s awakening, as it comes to grips with humanity after humanity no longer inhabits the planet.
The book was written in a unique style, and I feel the author portrayed both the teenage girl and the AI entity’s tone and word structure very well. The apocalyptic premise was not one I’ve seen before, and I especially liked the recurring sections with new and outdated vocabulary to fit the times.
Be aware that there are multiple references to suicide throughout the book.
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of the book!
Tasked with chronicling the end-of-life of what may be the last living human, storyworker ad39-393a-7fbc attempts to write out the life of Sen in the form of a book. We see both Sen’s diary pages and the storyworker’s perspective as the book progresses, as well as back-and-forth dialogue between two AI entities.
As someone who has been very into science-fiction over the last few years, I’ve read a few books where an AI entity has developed feelings for a human or space-dwelling being. While that is part of this story, there is definitely a lot more to it. We also see progression in the storyworker’s awakening, as it comes to grips with humanity after humanity no longer inhabits the planet.
The book was written in a unique style, and I feel the author portrayed both the teenage girl and the AI entity’s tone and word structure very well. The apocalyptic premise was not one I’ve seen before, and I especially liked the recurring sections with new and outdated vocabulary to fit the times.
Be aware that there are multiple references to suicide throughout the book.
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of the book!
October 6, 2023
A.I. determines the fate of Mankind in Debbie Urbanski's "After World." Are humans no longer conducive to the survival and well-being of the Earth? In this futuristic novel the answer is a resounding yes. After years of global devastation wrought by human hands, it is decided that human extinction is the only answer. And one A.I. is assigned to record the life of the last human, Sen, and comes to love her and humanity. This is truly a timely novel. As humans we have abused over and over our stewardship of the Earth and as this novel points out without humans the Earth would thrive lush and green, animals free to live without pollution or fear of human involvement. The invasive species are people and always has been. The problem as the recording AI comes to realize is without humans who will appreciate the beauty of nature. Without stories, poetry, art, and songs, the raw, powerful allure of Life will be lost. Most importantly, it learns the power of stories and taking control of one's own story. What is life without the recognition of life? It's tragic when the Earth is a song that's never sung.
May 20, 2024
The structure of this book can be difficult if you’re expecting a linear, easy to follow narrative. I actually started the book over after I was about 30 or so pages in. Once I wrapped my head around the narrative structure I was able to enjoy the story being told.
I also switched a couple of times to listening to audio book when doing chores. Many parts do not lend themselves well to an audio book. I had to re-read some of those sections as well so I’d encourage actual reading instead of listening.
If you can get around the relative difficulties of the structure there’s a great story told about the transition to end of humanity. Told through AI accounts, conversations, simulations, electronic chats and so on. A lot of it will probably sit with me for a while.
I also switched a couple of times to listening to audio book when doing chores. Many parts do not lend themselves well to an audio book. I had to re-read some of those sections as well so I’d encourage actual reading instead of listening.
If you can get around the relative difficulties of the structure there’s a great story told about the transition to end of humanity. Told through AI accounts, conversations, simulations, electronic chats and so on. A lot of it will probably sit with me for a while.
April 17, 2024
I really appreciate DU writing this novel. It speaks to my fears, frustration, and sadness around humanity's disregard for and subsequent destruction of the natural world.
It is another solid addition to the post-apocolyptic storylines that live in my brain including Station Eleven, which I enjoyed being referenced in the book.
Sen, Mama Dana, Mama Lindsy, Storyworker, Emly. Syracuse, NY in 2098. Human extinction, environmental destruction.
It is another solid addition to the post-apocolyptic storylines that live in my brain including Station Eleven, which I enjoyed being referenced in the book.
Sen, Mama Dana, Mama Lindsy, Storyworker, Emly. Syracuse, NY in 2098. Human extinction, environmental destruction.
June 22, 2024
This will not be for everyone! Not even close. But I was kinda blown away by this incredibly grim, experimental, beautiful, upsetting, emotional, deeply strange book about AI attempting to write a novel (the novel here) about the last living person on Earth. There are many clever and illuminating references to dystopian classics, while forging something very new and unique. I can't wait to see what Debbie Urbanski puts together next. This was a wild ride.
March 10, 2024
Getting the recommendation from Scientific American, I knew it was going to be complex, and it was. But I wasn’t expecting the depth of the complexity. Incredibly timely, as well.
November 29, 2023
Thank you to Simon Books and the Simon Buddy Program for this advanced review copy.
After World is the story of an artificial intelligence compiling the life of the last human on earth. But the longer the storyworker spends with Sen, the less objective they become.
This book is a fascinating mixture of narrative prose, “found” documents, and code. It weaves together Sen’s life in a disarming fashion, as we jump through time based on what the storyworker finds relevant in that moment. I loved the structure of this book, and was easily hooked.
But After World was not an easy read for me. The end of the world comes in the form of a global pandemic released to protect the planet from climate change, which triggers complete species infertility. Matters are bleak as the population en masse decides suicide, or “exiting,” is the best option. The world is unkind, often cruel, and occasionally violent. This is a discomforting read, as it’s meant to be. Part warning and part examination of human nature, After World pulls no punches.
I was enthralled by the story telling, although I’m not sure if I “enjoyed” it in the traditional sense. Recommended for fans of The Last of Us, This is How You Lose the Time War, and climate fiction. But please very carefully check content warnings.
After World is the story of an artificial intelligence compiling the life of the last human on earth. But the longer the storyworker spends with Sen, the less objective they become.
This book is a fascinating mixture of narrative prose, “found” documents, and code. It weaves together Sen’s life in a disarming fashion, as we jump through time based on what the storyworker finds relevant in that moment. I loved the structure of this book, and was easily hooked.
But After World was not an easy read for me. The end of the world comes in the form of a global pandemic released to protect the planet from climate change, which triggers complete species infertility. Matters are bleak as the population en masse decides suicide, or “exiting,” is the best option. The world is unkind, often cruel, and occasionally violent. This is a discomforting read, as it’s meant to be. Part warning and part examination of human nature, After World pulls no punches.
I was enthralled by the story telling, although I’m not sure if I “enjoyed” it in the traditional sense. Recommended for fans of The Last of Us, This is How You Lose the Time War, and climate fiction. But please very carefully check content warnings.
December 17, 2023
You haven't read this book before, and you haven't read any book just like this book before. It's unexpected and beautiful and and imaginative and also funny. At first, I thought it was if George Saunders, in his humorous mode, had written The Road, but the narrative structure is more unique than that of either of those writers, and the book ultimately defies easy categorization. This book would be an excellent read for literature classes, writing classes, and book clubs, because there is just SO much to talk about, but it is also just an enjoyable read. If I were putting together a reading list, I'd read this alongside Station Eleven, The Road, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Cloud Atlas. It is a post-apocalyptic novel, as well as a deliberate commentary on the post-apocolyptic novel genre. It's humor saves it from being too depressing. I highly recommend it!
April 13, 2025
Idea is wonderful, I think it would likely be better enjoyed in the physical format.
The narrators had two that were so toneless that it was sometimes hard to distinguish between the AI and Sen.
Lots of things that could easily come true in the future, without or without AI assistance.
We already do things like these to women and humanity on a lesser scale.
I wish the delivery had a bit better pacing and didn't jump around quite so much.
The language changes were the highlight for me. I mourn the lists of words that are no longer used or needed and meant to be removed
The ending gets better, but it took a really long time to get there.
3 Stars
The narrators had two that were so toneless that it was sometimes hard to distinguish between the AI and Sen.
Lots of things that could easily come true in the future, without or without AI assistance.
We already do things like these to women and humanity on a lesser scale.
I wish the delivery had a bit better pacing and didn't jump around quite so much.
The language changes were the highlight for me. I mourn the lists of words that are no longer used or needed and meant to be removed
The ending gets better, but it took a really long time to get there.
3 Stars
July 28, 2024
"But what if people insist it is their human right to make bad decisions, to destroy this or destroy that, anything else being unacceptable, a shackling of their free will?"
I saved so many quotes from this book, I went through every single emotion while reading it, I was confused and I had a realisation, I was crying and I was smiling, but mostly there were tears, because this book is fiction of our very real life, it's a futuristic world where world ends and yet it depicts our today. Climate fiction has never let me down so far, and unique storytelling felt like I was reading a mix of these three- "what survives" by Amelia Eikli, Martian by Andy Weir, and Wall-E, because Sen's loneliness and exploring and preserving Earth reminded of that cute robot, even though Sen isn't a robot, I kept wishing to hug her everytime she mentioned how many matches were left. My heart kept dying along with the world, and even if I was slightly confused with the ending, I think it was a happy ending in a way, still pretty depressing when you think about it harder, but beautiful and hopeful. I loved that Sen was Ace and all the references of her food being animal free(still wouldn't call this book vegan themed because there were honey and insects(gryllidae) being consumed. But the climate themes, the world ending and animals slowly but rapidly going extinct, the description of frozen petting zoo and extinct stuffed animal and plant collections broke me over and over.
"Should saving the world be a choice, or is it okay to force people to save the world?"
Answering that question should be easy, but most people keep living like we have another planet to move to when(looks like really soon) this one dies.
Details that I personally appreciated:
•Sen being ace.
•the virus stopping everyone's menstrual cycles.
•three moms(everyone should have three moms imo)
•listing all the things that were done to stop the world from ending (which were mostly things being done right now)
•Sen referencing several books and their significance in some ways to her story(station eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, house of leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski)
•the game(I think I need to reread to fully understand it's role in the story, but I loved that part nonetheless)
Near the end there was a trope I loathe deeply, and somehow author managed to spin it in a way that now I have a favourite exception for that trope. It might be a spoiler so I won't mention it, but I loved the way it was twisted, even though it still seemed like a violation of Sen's rights, but I guess the context made it seem acceptable. I'm still not sure I'm entirely on board with that, but it was better than the traditional way it's used.
Tiny detail that made me warm and smile, After world being named after my mom, so symbolic, so random and so perfect.
I don't think everyone will like this book, but I think everyone should still read it, there's layers of fiction and nonfiction that make this sci-fi a cake worth tasting, even if it'll make you sick.
I don't think my modest review does this book justice, my vocabulary and grammar limit me describing everything I think and feel about this story.
I saved so many quotes from this book, I went through every single emotion while reading it, I was confused and I had a realisation, I was crying and I was smiling, but mostly there were tears, because this book is fiction of our very real life, it's a futuristic world where world ends and yet it depicts our today. Climate fiction has never let me down so far, and unique storytelling felt like I was reading a mix of these three- "what survives" by Amelia Eikli, Martian by Andy Weir, and Wall-E, because Sen's loneliness and exploring and preserving Earth reminded of that cute robot, even though Sen isn't a robot, I kept wishing to hug her everytime she mentioned how many matches were left. My heart kept dying along with the world, and even if I was slightly confused with the ending, I think it was a happy ending in a way, still pretty depressing when you think about it harder, but beautiful and hopeful. I loved that Sen was Ace and all the references of her food being animal free(still wouldn't call this book vegan themed because there were honey and insects(gryllidae) being consumed. But the climate themes, the world ending and animals slowly but rapidly going extinct, the description of frozen petting zoo and extinct stuffed animal and plant collections broke me over and over.
"Should saving the world be a choice, or is it okay to force people to save the world?"
Answering that question should be easy, but most people keep living like we have another planet to move to when(looks like really soon) this one dies.
Details that I personally appreciated:
•Sen being ace.
•the virus stopping everyone's menstrual cycles.
•three moms(everyone should have three moms imo)
•listing all the things that were done to stop the world from ending (which were mostly things being done right now)
•Sen referencing several books and their significance in some ways to her story(station eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, house of leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski)
•the game(I think I need to reread to fully understand it's role in the story, but I loved that part nonetheless)
Near the end there was a trope I loathe deeply, and somehow author managed to spin it in a way that now I have a favourite exception for that trope. It might be a spoiler so I won't mention it, but I loved the way it was twisted, even though it still seemed like a violation of Sen's rights, but I guess the context made it seem acceptable. I'm still not sure I'm entirely on board with that, but it was better than the traditional way it's used.
Tiny detail that made me warm and smile, After world being named after my mom, so symbolic, so random and so perfect.
I don't think everyone will like this book, but I think everyone should still read it, there's layers of fiction and nonfiction that make this sci-fi a cake worth tasting, even if it'll make you sick.
I don't think my modest review does this book justice, my vocabulary and grammar limit me describing everything I think and feel about this story.
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