World Running Down 🏞️

By Al Hess.

World Running Down by Al Hess is a striking and deeply thoughtful work of science fiction that blends post apocalyptic survival, found family, and romance with an emotionally rich exploration of identity, autonomy, and choice.

Set in the future wastelands of Utah, the story follows Valentine Weis, a salvager trying to survive in a brutal world while dreaming of something better. Valentine is trans, grappling with body dysphoria and the constant danger of the wasteland, and hoping to one day earn enough money to gain citizenship in Salt Lake City.

The city promises safety, abundance, and access to the medical care he needs to transition freely. It feels impossibly out of reach, until an unexpected opportunity presents itself.

That opportunity arrives in the form of Osric, an AI who was once powerful and respected within Salt Lake City but has been forced into an android body against his will and exiled to the wasteland.

Osric offers Valentine a job retrieving stolen androids on behalf of an escort service, with the reward being a visa into the city and the future Valentine has always wanted. The problem is that the android women they are sent to recover are becoming self aware and have no desire to return to lives defined by exploitation and control.

What unfolds is a story that places consent and bodily autonomy firmly at its centre.

Through both Valentine and Osric, the book explores what it means to live in a body that does not feel like your own, to be perceived incorrectly by others, and to fight for the right to decide who you are and what your body should be. There is pain here, but there is also real trans joy, hope, and tenderness woven throughout the narrative.

The characters are a genuine highlight. Valentine is scrappy, determined, and deeply kind, often putting others before himself even when it costs him dearly. Osric is immediately endearing, awkward and naive as he learns how it feels to exist in a body, yet thoughtful and sincere beneath his initial frustration.

The android women are also wonderfully realised, from the fiercely protective Cinnamon to those only just discovering their own agency and desires.

The romance between Valentine and Osric is gentle and emotionally grounded, with moments of angst and misunderstanding balanced by care, patience, and mutual respect.

World Running Down is a powerful, compassionate book that asks difficult questions about freedom, identity, and the cost of chasing personal dreams in a broken world. It is thoughtful, inclusive, and quietly moving, with characters that stay with you long after you finish reading.

Thank you to Caroline and the team at Watkins Publishing and Angry Robot for running this book-tour! The book is out now and available to purchase.

Buy the book here.

Buy the Kindle book here.

Support a local and independent bookshop and buy the book here.