Death of an Author: A Novella

by Aidan Marchine

What happens when artificial intelligence comes for the novelists? Death of an Author is a groundbreaking, suspenseful experiment in the meta world of man meets machine.

When Gus Dupin, literary critic and scholar, finds himself invited to the funeral of Peggy Firmin, celebrated novelist and now murder victim, he is determined to find out who killed her and why. As his investigation gets underway, it is not long before he finds himself at the center of an experiment at Marlow AI, a large language model company.

Why was he included in this experiment and what role did Firmin play? Further, why is Dupin suddenly a suspect in Firmin’s murder? And is he the next victim? As Dupin attempts to unravel the mystery of the death of his favorite author, listeners find themselves in an alternate reality that raises a sinister what is the appropriate relationship between humans and machines and is murder the consequence when it goes too far?

A revolution in narrative and an unprecedented use of Artificial Intelligence, Death of an Author is a masterful and stunning examination of the nature of storytelling and the power of language.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, Novella, Crime

Audible Audio

Published May 9, 2023

Reviews

[Mira123]

Wer die Rezension zu diesem Roman auf einer anderen Seite als direkt auf meinem Blog liest, wird sehen, dass ich hier keine Sternebewertung hinterlassen habe. Und das hat auch einen guten Grund: "Death of an Author" ist ein Buch, das KI-generiert wurde. Das Thema ist aktuell riesig in der Bücherbubble und das auch aus gutem Grund. KI wirft viele Fragen auf, die noch nicht geklärt sind und die wir vielleicht auch zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt gar nicht wirklich klären können. Es geht dabei zum Beispiel um Fragen des Urheberrechts und der Kreativität. Egal, wie wir diese Fragen am Ende beantworten werden: Wir befinden uns am Startpunkt eines großen Umbruchs und ich bin gespannt, wo uns diese Reise hinführt. Und gleichzeitig habe ich auch Angst davor. Diese Mischung an Gefühlen ist für mich wohl der Hauptgrund, warum ich mich entschieden habe, meine Masterarbeit zum Thema zu schreiben. Aktuell bin ich laut meiner Wortzähl-App bei aktuell circa 60% meiner Arbeit und damit zeichnet sich das Ende damit endlich, endlich als kleiner Punkt am Horizont ab. Es geht in meiner Masterarbeit um Intertextualität und um Konzepte der Autorschaft und wie sich beides mit Künstlicher Intelligenz verbinden lässt. Und das muss ich natürlich anhand von verschiedenen Beispieltexten herausarbeiten.

Einer dieser Texte ist "Death of an Author". Bei diesem Buch handelt es sich um einen Krimi, der laut eigener Angaben zu mindestens 95 % von KI generiert wurde. Und glaubt mir: Ich habe mir ordentlich den Kopf zerbrochen, ob es ethisch überhaupt vertretbar ist, dieses Buch zu rezensieren. Doch es ist mir wichtig, Künstliche Intelligenz und generierte Texte nicht im allgemeinen zu verteufeln. Denn wie immer gibt es nicht nur schwarz und weiß, sondern sehr viele Graustufen. Es gibt nicht nur die großartigen menschgemachten Texte und die schrecklichen KI-generierten Texte, die nicht mal das Papier wert sind, auf dem sie gedruckt sind. Stephen Marchine - der Mensch, der hinter diesem Buch steckt - hat es sich mit dieser Veröffentlichung nicht leicht gemacht. Der hat nicht einfach ChatGPT befohlen, ihm einen Kriminalroman zu schreiben, sondern viele Monate mit verschiedenen Programmen gearbeitet, um einen lesenswerten Roman zu verfassen. Dabei beweist er durch verschiedene intertextuelle Anspielungen im Text und durch ein ausführliches Nachwort auch, dass er sich mit den Themen Literatur und Kreatives Schreiben auch tatsächlich auskennt und sich wirklich für kreative Experimente wie eben dieses hier interessiert, und nicht einfach nur auf ein passives Einkommen hofft.

Ich bin an dieses Buch mit eher niedrigen Erwartungen herangegangen - denn sind wir mal ehrlich, die meisten generierten Texte, die aktuell im Netz herumschwirren, sind einfach nicht besonders gut. Denkt bitte daher auch gar nicht erst daran, mir jetzt euer generiertes Buch anzubieten, solltet ihr eines haben. Ich lese diese Bücher für meine wissenschaftliche Arbeit, nicht, weil ich in Zukunft nur noch solche Bücher lesen möchte. "

Death of an Author" hat mich dann aber doch noch überrascht. Doch einiger ungewöhnlicher Phrasen und Satzkonstruktionen, ist dieses Buch gut geschrieben. Auch der Inhalt war interessant und glaubwürdig, Einzig das Ende ließ mich etwas unzufrieden zurück. Da wurde die Spannung sehr schnell aufgelöst und ich finde, dass man dem Abschluss mehr Seiten hätte widmen können.

Trotzdem war das eine interessante Lektüre, die ich nach meiner Masterarbeit hoffentlich nicht hassen werde.

Mein Fazit? Interessant und mal was ganz anderes, als ich es sonst so kenne.

[Riccardo Lo Monaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting for so many reasons. A novel about AI… written by AI. Just so interesting.

[Bret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating use of AI, guided by a skilled author. Enjoyable read. Loved the explanation of the creation of the work at the end.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars for Death of an Author (audiobook) by Aidan Marchine, Stephen Marche (afterword) read by Edoardo Ballerini.

This was an interesting story. An author was commissioned to help create an AI generated book and I think he did a great job. The story was compelling and unique and half way through it I’d completely forgotten about the AI. And probably the best part was the afterword, where the author explained all the details to how he created it. It looks like it can be done but it might be easier for an author to just write the book from scratch.

[Zoë Routh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book 95% written by a machine? I had to read it. (I listened to the audio, narrated by a human).

My opinion: excellent! From a literary point of view, the writing was tight and evocative. The story was fast paced and interesting with a twist and insights on how we think and engage with technology.

On the whole ‘using AI for writing is cheating and ripping off writers’ debate, my perspective is that using AI tools ADDS to the writing experience as an author. It stretches thinking, adds new connections, pushes ideas into new corners, makes research faster.

It’s still a human driving the story, overseeing the artistic vision, pulling it together, snipping and sewing the threads and images.

AI will only respond to input, not generate a work of art that resonates, that reaches deeply into the soul and rattles the cage. Humans will do that, with our AI co-pilots making it faster, easier, deeper, and richer.

Highly recommended - see what AI human collaboration can achieve, now, at the nascent stage of this tech evolution.

[Mei · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book wasn’t bad considering it was 95% written by A.I. There are definitely parts where you can tell A.I. wrote it but I didn’t mind and was overall entertained. I particularly liked that it was set in Toronto and the Leslie spit. It was also interesting to read Stephen Marche’s process for using A.I. to write this book and think about the possibilities for A.I. generated writing and art.

“On his first day back, he decided to treat himself to a chocolate cake with raspberry jam. The tangy sweetness of raspberry cut through the cocoa flavor, a burst of fruit, but even the most delicious cake is unpleasant eaten alone. Food is context. A lasagna that is frozen in individual portions and microwaved later is a sadness lasagna.”

[Susan (Smith) Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest twist is the book itself.

[Saud Altamimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping. A bit rushed at the end. One wrong pronoun referring to the daughter. I found out that this book was AI generated halfway through.

[Alexa Barrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ honestly I think this could’ve gotten a 4 if it had been a little longer with more development. It was truncated a bit too early, however this was a very cool concept (primarily written using AI), and even more interesting to hear the “author’s” note at the end explaining the project.

[Sam (she_who_reads_) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most cohesive book- which I assume because this was written mostly through the use of AI (which I didn’t know when I picked it up)
It was a bit muddled, repetitive, and just a bit meh

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the concept, the work, and the narration

I think there are two other books with the same title that are popular on Goodreads at the moment. When Hoopla suggested the audiobook of Death of an Author to me, I was intrigued. As someone who earns a living by writing -- nothing exciting, mind you -- and has "write bio for the new AVP, Artificial Intelligence" on her task list, I could not resist!

This was a really interesting novella, written in part by creative AI, and I am impressed. In the author's notes, Stephen Marche describes the creative project: it was to be 95% computer-generated, but the content had to be something that someone would want to read. It had to be a "page-turner".

The result -- Death of an Author -- is "a murder mystery about a writer being murdered by the tech that is supposedly killing writers". The novella is simple, but atmospheric. There are nods to Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Sir Conan Doyle, etc. of course. Largely because Marche (the human driving the AI) read those authors and tried to make the machine write like them.

Frankly, the process of writing the novella was absolutely fascinating -- maybe more fascinating than the novella itself. As a non-creative writer, I see how AI could be employed to assist me -- or even replace me. Fingers crossed that they generate a nice severance package when the time comes.

[Miranda Arendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, I love to read about AI. this was so interesting

[Dara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting experiment, and the note at the end about the process creating the novella was as the most fascinating part. I don’t really know if you can truly claim it to be “95% machine written” when the composition was so intricately directed. It did make me think, though — I wish Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler were still around so we could get their take on the world of AI.

[Victor Calderin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I think that people's instinct will be to slam on this novella because of it 95% AI composition, but Marche, who produced and worked the text, succeeded at his mission to created a readable narrative. Marche's afterward is a must read and gives us a lot to think about.

[David Mihalyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool to read a book co-written with a LLM. The mistery plot is quite good, as a sci-fi it is not exceptional and I found the writing style a bit dry. Definitely made me think of how to use LLMs better.

[Antonio Gallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Morte di uno scrittore” (“Death of an Author”) è un esperimento innovativo, pieno di suspense nel metamondo dell’uomo che incontra il linguaggio pensante della AI. Quando Gus Dupin, critico letterario e studioso, si trova invitato al funerale di Peggy Firmin, celebre scrittrice e ora vittima di omicidio, decide di scoprire chi l’ha uccisa e perché. Mentre la sua indagine prende il via, non passa molto tempo prima che si ritrovi al centro di un esperimento presso Marlow AI, una grande azienda di modelli linguistici. Scopre che è stato incluso in questo esperimento, ma non sa perchè. Inoltre, Dupin è sospettato dell’omicidio di Firmin ed è, addirittura, sospettato di diventare la prossima vittima. Mentre egli tenta di svelare il mistero della morte della scrittrice, suo autore preferito, chi legge il libro si trova in una serie continua di realtà alternative. Il lettore deve affrontare il problema di quale possa essere il giusto rapporto tra esseri umani e le macchine pensanti, con la conseguenza di un delitto molto misterioso. Un omicidio che simboleggia oltre il fatto fisico anche la metafora dell’assassinio non solo dell’autore ma anche dello scrittore e della scrittura. Una rivoluzione nella narrativa ed un uso senza precedenti dell’Intelligenza Artificiale. “Death of an Author” è un esempio di scrittura davvero magistrale e sbalorditiva della natura e del potere della lingua. Un vero e proprio romanzo giallo chiamato in inglese “novella” scritto da Stephen Marche, un umano, in collaborazione con Aldan Marchine che non è un essere umano bensì il prodotto, per così dire, di ben tre AI (Intelligenze Artificiali).

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

“Death of an Author” is an innovative, suspenseful experiment in the metaworld of a man meeting the thinking language of AI. When Gus Dupin, literary critic, and scholar, is invited to the funeral of Peggy Firmin, a famous writer and now a victim of murder, he decides to find out who killed her and why. As his investigation gets underway, it’s not long before he finds himself at the center of an experiment at Marlow AI, a large language modeling company. He discovers that he has been included in this experiment, but he doesn’t know why. Furthermore, Dupin is suspected of the murder of Firmin and is, even, suspected of becoming the next victim. While he tries to unravel the mystery of the death of the writer, his favorite author, whoever reads the book finds himself in a continuous series of alternate realities. The reader must face the problem of what could be the right relationship between human beings and thinking machines, with the consequence of a very mysterious crime. A murder that symbolizes not only the physical fact but also the metaphor of the assassination not only of the author but also of the writer and of writing. A revolution in narrative and an unprecedented use of Artificial Intelligence. “Death of an Author” is a truly masterful and stunning example of writing about the nature and power of language. A true thriller called in English “novella” written by Stephen Marche, a human, in collaboration with Aldan Marchine who is not a human being but the “product”, so to speak, of three different AI (Artificial Intelligences).

[Tania Rook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what an AI would do if asked to write a murder mystery? Me neither, but here are the main points.

1. It would steal the plot from an existing novel. I have to applaud Aidan's choice of Agatha Christie, because quite frankly Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat have done an exceptional job of reinvigorating Sherlock Holmes, so a plot from the great Dame of the genre seemed the more politically expedient move. But what AI misses about Agatha Christie's novels is there was a lot of scope for the audience to deduce what was going on for themselves, or at least figure out relevant clues. Aidan just grabbed an existing scenario, used it in the background, then presented it by outlining how it was used by Agatha Christie.

2. It would plagiarise itself. In an unusual move, the murder victim wrote a novel where she was murdered in the exact same way. Which OK, I guess that's not unheard of in crime fiction. But instead of the details being similar, they are identical. As in, the same words are used. Aidan literally plagiarised a fictional novel of his creation for this fictional novel of his creation - not considering that in the universe he created the novel that we read doesn't exist.

3. It ignored a seminal point that is arguably android cannon, created by Philip K. Dick in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). That is, if you create an android, no matter how sophisticated your technology, there will still be some means for a dedicated individual to distinguish an android from a human. The characters in the novel can't. Because they are all the creation of AI, so the ones that are supposed to be human actually lack the quality that differentiates humans from androids (although in this day and age how they keep assuming battery life is going to skate under the radar, feels like a stretch).

I think the last point is the most interesting if you want to discuss the novel. There are some really interesting ideas about humanity, artificial intelligence and their relationship. But most of the really interesting points are in what is missing.

[James Garman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella, in audiobook form, took me by surprise. I knew it had a connection to AI, but that was right there in the subject line of the "book". An respected author from Toronto is found dead on a bridge close to Gus Dupin's house in the woods outside a small town with a university. He doesn't really know here, has never met her, but has written about her and has received an invitation to her funeral.

He attends the funeral, worried about why he has been invited, and concerned because the police have interviewed him and seem to think it is possibly he himself was guilty of her murder. At the funeral, an avatar of the writer tells the audience how she died.

Only at the end, does the person bringing the story to us advice the listening audience that he generated the novella using AI, CHATGPT and other tooks of the trade. He believes that the wise, and clever use of the various tools can and should be able to develop a story just as "unique" as anything by a human being only.

In listening, I had a faint feeling of discomfort at the begining but it was because I thought the numbering of the chapters was off somehow. The story itself certainly felt like an authetically "unique" story at least as special as anything exclusively by a human being. What this implies to me is that perhaps AI will, in fact, introduce a new form of writing where plot points are put into different styles and make to sound differently and in some sense, as the "writer" suggests actually be less formalic than something simply wrote in the style of another author.

It does seem to take a certain amount of talent in technical use of the various tools available in order to product the narrative part of the "book". I am intriqued enough to want to explore other AI generated works if I can find them and know that they are that BEFORE reading them, (supposedly there are lots on Amazon.

[Nathan]

Why would anyone want to read this??! Let alone pay for it!?

Do all you readers want all books to be written by AI in the future?? Because that is exactly what will happen if readers don't reject all works written with any AI immediately. Publishers will gladly dispense with human writers (who might want to get paid, of all things!) to simply make money off of crap made by AI. Do you want to support unemployment for real actual human writers with real brains and real creativity? And the crushed hopes of anyone, including an generation of kids, to ever be a writer as a profession? Then go ahead any support this destruction by giving money for this awfulness. And then be ashamed of yourselves. And don't dare come back complaining when in the future we have no original creative stories written by actual people, until actual people forget how to even write them.

I don't know what is more disgusting, the books themselves, those who would "write" them, or readers for being too foolish, ignorant, and easily duped into buying them.

[Ashley Bragg]

I don't even know how to rate this. I'm so conflicted. I didn't realize this was an experiment in AI writing until the note at the end (I randomly listened to the audiobook from my library because the cover seemed interesting). Part of me was horrified to learn that I had listened to a product of the infamous chatGPT *shudder*. There are so many reasons to dislike the AI system and the way people use it. But I'd also like to think that I have an open mind. In a way, I can conceptualize the use of AI as a writing tool as being somewhat similar to the use of a special brush for digital art or a mold for ceramics. At what point is the tool making the art rather than the person? The question of what constitutes "real art" has no easy answers. I won't go on forever about this (although I could), but for now, let's just say that I think the discussion about AI art is just starting and this work raises some interesting points.

[Kron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fairly typical murder mystery, HOWEVER!, it is generated and crafted by AI. The story itself is cool in concept, rather meta, and I feel like this combined my two favourite things: classic mystery à la Christie and classic science fiction like Samuel Delany. The prose on the otherhand can sometimes be clunky and jarring. It reads like the type of work you'd read in a high school or first year creative writing course.

The resulting story itself is not worthy of the 5 stars, however, the afterword by Stephen Marche is superb. It reveals the work behind the curtain and argues that we just need to know how to use AI properly. Ultimately fascinating and I will continue to think about this piece for a long time.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

DNF.

It has all the elements of a book, the parts of a story. But it was just lacking something...

If you've ever used Chat GPT before, you know that the responses it provides are frequently verbose and presented in a list format, with repetitive words. This book (obviously as most of it was written with ChatGPT), had many issues with that.

I think it's a fascinating use of the AI models that we have access to today, but there are clearly limitations on what it can do. This book should be required reading for all Hollywood executives when they make decisions about not paying writers and just using AI to generate content.

Not saying that we won't get there in the future, but as of right now, pay your goddamn writers.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an experimental book written by AI, had I known this or payed attention to the description I would have probably never read it. However I did, and it confirmed what I feel about AI-it can never truly replace the creative work of authors or artists. The work felt emotionally flat and disjointed. It felt like the work of the average Joe who says, “I could do that-and then failed miserably and realized that maybe writing a book takes more than just being able to write a sentence. That it takes more than a general idea and an ability to type. Creative people are good at what they do-let’s continue to let them thrive and producing wonderful works. Let’s not clog up our libraries, bookstores, museums, and galleries with half baked ideas created with little more than an ability to type.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book felt oddly boring from the beginning. It is quite short but felt like it was plodding along without any purpose. I haven't read a lot of Canadian mystery writers so I considered briefly if this was a common way to develop a story that I wasn't as familiar with until I considered Louise Penny who was wildly engaging until she wasn't. I looked up the author to see if I recognized any of their other books only to find that this is a largely AI-driven story. Then the flatness of the text and dialogue made sense. I cannot recommend this book because I do not think it is worth recommending, not even for a whisp of a diversion.

[Sydney Lauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the plot of the novel is certainly interesting, there is a certain level of detachment that comes from it being 95% written by AI. I think the concept of “Death of an Author” is interesting, as AI writing stories effectively nullifies authorship.

The “author” (whose essay explains everything at the end) argues that AI writing novels is essentially similar to how authors “borrow” writing from other authors. However, while the concept may be similar, a person writing and burrowing from others requires a degree of critical thought—not a machine algorithm or LLM.

Peggy was right all along.

[Harper · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. Accidentally checked out the wrong book at the library — which is rather ironic if you know anything about Death of The Author — thank god I didn’t spend money on it; Not because I didn’t like it, but because I don’t want to support AI media as someone who loves the art of writing. AI was such an unnecessary plot line, it feels like propaganda trying to show us AI isn’t evil: “AI is a beautiful thing.” (literally a quote). It’s kind of a rip off of a Knives Out Movies. The concept was pretty good but it was so short and felt like we needed more details, character development, and overall plot before the mystery was solved. Maybes it’s just not my cup of tea.

[Sintija Buhanovska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iespējams, ka šīs e-grāmatas lielākā vērtība ir tā, ka autors pēcvārdā godīgi apraksta, ka 95 % darba satura ir radīti ar mākslīgā intelekta palīdzību. Ar vairāku programmu palīdzību, ja esam pavisam precīzi. Man gan nešķiet, ka pasaulē ir tik liels vārdu izmisums, lai rakstnieki paši nespētu izgudrot krimiķu sižetus. Jap, šis ir īss un ļoti viduvējs krimiķis. Var lasīt, ja vēlaties apmierināt ziņkāri, kāds ir MI sarakstīts stāsts, jo tieši tāpēc šo darbu izlasīju es. Darbs būšot tikai e-formātā, drukātā nē, tā vismaz ziņoja autors un izdevējs.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audiobook is amazing because it's narrated by a human. For the rest, I don't know what to say. Impressive that a machine wrote it, but the dialogues sound artificial and the plot is very derivative. It also still needed a human author to put it all together. The epilogue is worth it though, to learn how it was actually "written" and edited and how a machine and a human worked together in something so, well, human, as creativity. An interesting experiment.

[Paul Narvaez · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75

This was an interesting experiment. The first AI novel I've read (and apparently, the first one *worth* reading). It was surprisingly engaging, given that the author knew exactly what he wanted to do and knew both literature and AI well enough to realize it.

I could see AI writing passable airport novels but still have my doubts about literary fiction. However, this was impressive all the same.

[Dense Poplar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the strange experience of not knowing what this book was going into it. I often take random audiobooks out of the library in genres I like and this was one of those.

It did feel a little strange. Repetitive, with overly long excursions into Canadiana, bound in a collapsing on itself structure. But I enjoyed it; found it interesting.

And the post script about how it was made was fascinating, and, perhaps, even important.