The Worlds of Android

by Katrina Ostrander (Editor), Gary Astleford (Contributor), Anthony Hicks (Contributor)

The Worlds of Android is your definitive guide to Android setting and its unique vision of the future. A beautiful, 272-page hardbound setting guide and art book, The Worlds of Android features full-color art, stunning gatefolds, and a polyphony of narrative voices that convey the immense diversity of human experience in the rich, fictional universe made famous by Android: Netrunner and the Android board game.

Mankind has spread itself out across the solar system with varying degrees of success. The Moon and Mars are colonized. A plan to terraform Mars is well underway, hindered only by a civil war that has broken out on that planet. On Earth, a massive space elevator has been built, stretching up into the sky. It is the hub of trade in the solar system, and most people refer to it as the “Beanstalk.” Enormous megacorporations, called corps by most, influence every facet of daily life: food, threedee, music, career choices.

Throughout its three sections, The Worlds of Android explores these corps and their most visionary innovations. It explores what technological advances and extraterrestrial expansion mean to a human population that no longer resides exclusively on Earth. And it explores the question of what it means to be human in a world filled with clones, bioroids, and other forms of artificial intelligence.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Reference, Art, Role Playing Games

272 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

Katrina Ostrander has served as editor for over a dozen media tie-in novellas spanning multiple genres including cyberpunk, fantasy, Lovecraftian horror, and science fiction. She has worked with emerging writers as well as New York Times–bestselling authors. In 2021 her debut novella, Ice and Snow, was published in the Great Clans of Rokugan Volume 1 anthology from Aconyte Books.

As the Creative Director of Story and Setting with the Asmodee Franchise Development Team, she oversees the internal and licensed development of the company's proprietary IPs. Besides her work as an editor of tie-in fiction and developer of IPs, she has written for or developed over a dozen roleplaying game products, including adventures, supplements, and core rulebooks. Recent writing credits include contributing to Cubicle 7's Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Core Rulebook and Starter Set.

She writes advice and how-to articles relating to gamemastering, adventure design, writing tips, and more at KatrinaOstrander.com.

Reviews

[Jordan Steinhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent companion to the Android universe.

It fleshes out the settings seen in the books, lcg and board game and gives details about the corporations, society and technology all while providing some beautiful art.

If you love the Android universe this is a must have.

[Keith]

In Which I Attempt to Annotate this Weirdly-Organized, Heavily-Subsectioned Monstrosity OR The Center Cannot Hold

INTRODUCTION
THE WORLDS OF ANDROID: Androids exist! It is the future!
ARCHIVED MEMORIES: Corporations mapped brains to make androids and clones! Everyone hates them!
ENGINEERING THE FUTURE: The company who makes androids is called Haas-Bioroid!
Interlude: Floyd, the robot detective, discovers a murderous android.
INFINITE FRONTIERS: HB makes many kinds of androids.
PERSONAL EVOLUTION: Jinteki makes clones!
Interlude: Jinteki Chairman Hiro is threatened by his grandfather.
REPLICATING PERFECTION: Jinteki makes many kinds of clones.
THE WORLD IS YOURS: Intro to NBN.
Interlude: Noise hacks into something he shouldn't on HB's servers.
THE NETWORK: A description of the internet.
THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS: Brief description of New Angeles.
BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW: Intro to Weyland and the Beanstalk.
MOVING UPWARDS: History and explanation of the Beanstalk.
GATEWAY TO THE STARS: Anatomy of the Beanstalk.

PART 1: IT IS THE FUTURE
HAAS-BIOROID: History of the Haas family.
BIOROIDS: A bioroid's weekly routine.
Interlude: Cynthia Haas sees her ex-husband.
ENGINEERING THE MODERN WORKFORCE: journalistic exposé on the bioroid phenomenon.
Interlude: Ismina Parker runs for Congress.
Interlude: Ulysses the bioroid is born.
-
JINTEKI: History of Chairman Hiro.
ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT/GENETIC PERSPECTIVES: Genetic technobabble.
JINTEKI WINS CHRONOS PROTOCOL BID: Jinteki can reprogram clones in the field.
CLONES: Advertising on Henry/Tenma/Molloy lines, as well as proper clone care.
Interlude: A spy in Jinteki.
-
NBN: The company's information monopoly.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW/LET US ENTERTAIN YOU: Suggestion that NBN not only controls all media, but intentionally offers 'countermedia' to offset concerns of monopoly.
-
THE NETWORK: History of the Blackout and rise of the Network.
REALITY, AUGMENTED: Specifics on PADs and off-gridding.
Interlude: Smoke breaks the Network.
A DEEP BLACK SEA: Discussions of private and illegal networks.
BUILDING NEURAL BRIDGES: netrunning gear & cyberspace technobabble/risks of running.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE NET: sentient AI.
JUST FUN 'N GAMES: You kids stop playing those compooter games!
Interlude: Lily Lockwell gets a tip from Noise.
-
THE WEYLAND CONSORTIUM: Weyland owns the Beanstalk plus everything else...
THE BOARD: ...and is likely horribly corrupt!
THE NEW ANGELES SPACE ELEVATOR: I can't even be pithy on this one, this section is so long and is pushing the Real Science So Hard and I can't even, it is just so beyond me and possibly written by a crazy person.
***
Okay, at this point I've abandoned the copious note-taking because 1) the book gets a little more clearly-organized and 2) I'm tired.

Part 2: The World Changed covers the city of New Angeles -- this is like the only brief section in the book, and is complemented by a much longer and more detailed run-through in Shadow of the Beanstalk, the sister title. There's a decent rundown of other international superpowers (not specific enough for gaming, but enough to paint the world in broad strokes), plus a weirdly over-detailed discussion of the Moon colonies, and a slightly more balanced look at Mars. Balance of info is all over the place, really. I feel like someone different wrote each section and no one consulted with one another on the kind of information they'd been tasked to present.

Part 3: People Did Not seems to have a balance of useful info that should have been covered already and really specific crunch that doesn't belong here. The first section here covers and interstellar war that's relatively essential to the setting. Then there's a long section on weaponry that feels totally out of place. More later.

EDIT: Or not, but I'm pretty sure I finished it, shut up.

[Owen]

If you're interested in the Android universe, the information here is interesting even though the bulk of the book reads like a Wikipedia page, or perhaps an RPG source book with no crunch.

The art is gorgeous and the story fragments are excellent.

[Petr · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in the world of Android, then this is a great source!
All history of the world, the corp politics, everything in sufficient detail for RPG campaigns of just fluff for your card games.

If you are not? Then it is a boring exposition book about a fictitious world, stay away :D

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, flavourful compendium of the setting that powers many great games from Fantasy Flight Games. Gorgeous graphics, good writing, and interesting remixes of many a cyberpunk/near future trope.

Full disclaimer: yes, I play Android:Netrunner, so I am a bit biased ;D

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like getting to know the Android universe and maybe hints of what's coming in ANR but this is, like, super repetitive. It's like the same history 5 times, they expect skimming and incomplete reading so it's filler.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent background information and art for the world of Android.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotta agree with Janet (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... The book repeats itself a lot.

I also didn't like how it focused more on the Corps and only had like 10 pages for the Runner side. Yes, it mentions them as "NetCriminals" but it would be nice to have actually had more information on some of the ID's from Netrunner out there. The Chatlog with Smoke and two other unidentified runners talking about Whizzard being Boom!'d (killed by an RPG) was amusing, as the book was published before that happened IIRC.

I'd have liked more fiction (the runs being described for Noise and Kit were interesting) and a bit more art than some of the drier pages (that repeated stuff explained in previous parts) to make it a bit faster to read or at least a semi-art book. But eh... it's not a bad little companion, but not worth the $40-60 Fantasy Flight wants to charge for it.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated, and the backstory for the Android universe was fascinating. Downsides were 1.) It had a few references thrown in with no real grounding in the narrative simply to refer to Netrunner cards, and 2.) It was quite obviously written by several different people, leading to a slightly inconsistent tone and some information being repeated several times in the space of a few pages. It was also dry enough that I couldn't read it in a small number of sittings, and I wandered away from and back into it several times.

Also, word of warning; it is several hundred large pages containing lots of text, and is way longer than the Art book you might take it as from its size and cover.

[John]

I find it difficult to rate this out of 5 stars, and so I haven't. It's a textbook on the Android universe, and so it doesn't really work as something you just read cover to cover – and it strikes me that since it's been on my 'currently reading' slate for about three years now, it might be time to admit I'm probably enjoying books that actually have plots a little more than this. If I ever run an Android roleplaying game, though, this will definitely be one of my first ports of call!

[Kris Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Despite sounding clichéd” is the beginning of a line in the book.
For a book on a background I like, the writing was clichéd. It took a long time to finish this book.
Repetitive information made the read even more tedious.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite the dense book. There's a ton of material here. If you're an Android: Netrunner fan then I highly recommend it. If nothing else, some of the best art used on cards is featured full-page here. The actual fiction is sometimes hit or miss. Bits are kind of dry like a history. But overall worth it for fans.

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the "Android" universe. The Blade Runner-ish feel with clones, robots, mega corps and limited stellar travel from humanity. I am a fan of the novels and this was a great source book to the setting with amazing artwork.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a deep dive into the setting of FFG's Android universe of board and role-playing games. Gorgeous art, reused from the Netrunner card game, essays on the megacity of New Angeles, the colonies on the Moon and Mars, tales of life in the new world.

[Szymon Szymczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tylko dla fanów gier z serii "Android". Bardzo ładnie wydany opis świata. Tło społeczne opisane w sposób głębszy i bardziej przekonujący niż się spodziewałem. Tym większa szkoda, że brakuje czasu na granie.

[Fraser Simons]

Exhaustive. I had to read it selectively because it goes into very granular detail. As far as serving as a sourcebook and an artbook, it serves both masters well. I can’t imagine needing any more detail than what’s provided and there is Plenty of art here.