Mageframe

by Robin Sloan

"We’ve run the simulation a million million times… and every time, the Dark Lord wins. So we’ll run it again."

An experiment in AI, collaboration, and fiction. You, an apprentice mage, will define the parameters of a quest against the Dark Lord. You’ll receive a map (A MAP!) and a short story narrating that quest and revealing its conclusion.

Unknown Binding

Published May 1, 2019

About the author

Robin Sloan is the author of the novels Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and Moonbound, all published in the U.S. by MCD. He grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. So strange, so ethereally almost-natural, and yet with the definite strange weirdness of an AI writer. I've actually read two other people's stories and I'm struck by several beautiful phrases spun out of the text -- "Like the sound of a piece of wood that had broken apart" and "They cast the coin in a septic tank, and filled it to the brim. It was called a soul stone and that was evil magic." particularly stick with me. AI is scary and beautiful and both.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just a short fragment. But good.