A transgender salvager in a post-apocalyptic Utah wasteland gets a chance at the score of a lifetime and maybe even romance in this fast-paced dystopian science fiction trad debut novel from author Al Hess.
In our world where dystopian futures feel more and more like a dystopian present, some of us may feel hesitant to pick up dystopian sci-fi as a form of escapism and instead gravitate towards more hopeful takes on the future. But what if a novel can do both? Al Hess’s trad publishing debut, World Running Down, out now with Angry Robot, accomplishes just that.
Valentine Weis is a transgender salvager in a futuristic Utah wasteland. He dreams of earning citizenship in Salt Lake City, where he’d be able to access the gender-affirming hormones and surgeries he needs for free. Enter Osric, an AI put into a human body against his will, with a job that could get Valentine everything he’s spent years working towards–if only he’s willing to return a group of female androids to the place they desperately want to escape from.
Where this book really shines is in the social commentary it delivers through its characters and the physical, ethical, and emotional challenges they deal with.
Between Valentine’s struggle with dysphoria as a trans man and Osric’s conflicting feelings about being in a humanoid body he never asked to be in, the themes of body dysphoria and bodily autonomy ring true with so many struggles trans and nonbinary people face today. From being misgendered or needing help with his testosterone injections, to the gender euphoria of seeing himself in a well-fitting suit, Valentine feels incredibly real and relatable as a queer and trans character. While his lack of access to gender-affirming care feels very much like a nod to our current political climate and several states’ bans on transgender healthcare for youth, Valentine’s character arc ultimately is one of hope and resilience.
Ultimately, this book is one about character relationships, be it between the androids that quickly grow from a job into self-aware people with dreams and flaws, or the community of Mormon salt pirates inhabiting the wastes of the Salt Flats. Hess weaves these narratives together into a cohesive whole that feels fresh and critical but never preachy, with a lot of kindness at its heart.
The romance between Valentine and Osric in particular feels genuine and tender, unfolding as a slow burn with some definite spice on the page. It checks off some tried-and-true romance tropes in new ways, while also not shying away from addressing issues of dysphoria and discussions of explicit consent.
Overall, World Running Down has the kind of dystopian sci-fi worldbuilding fans of Mad Max: Fury Road will immediately feel at home in. Its futuristic Utah wasteland is a setting where scarcity dictates every move its inhabitants make and it seems that everyone ultimately only looks out for themselves–except when they don’t. Themes of community and found family in a world where fierce individualism perpetuates rifts within society thread through the narrative and create a complex cast of diverse characters that stick with readers long after the final page.
This standalone novel explores so many nuances of transness and humanity via the main characters, Valentine, and his love interest, Osric, as they both struggle to live in the bodies assigned to them but in the end connect over so much more. If you are looking for a very queer and very trans spin on Mad Max: Fury Road, set in a dystopian, futuristic Utah, this is the book for you.
Content Warnings for World Running Down include profanity, explicit male-male sex and sexual elements, brief violence, brief misgendering, and body dysphoria.