I loved this book so much and I was also sent a physical ARC so I can annotate it. This book really explores what it means to be human in this post apocalyptic setting. The queer rep was chefs kiss as well!!

I really wanted to love this one but sadly I never found myself really connecting with the characters. I felt I was never really let in their world to begin with. Loved the representation and I am thankful for the physical copy I received!

This is science fiction set in a dystopian world that raises the question of what makes people people. I have noticed (as I am sure the rest of the world has as well) that Sci-Fi is usually used as a commentary on how society operates and what the future of such practices might lead to and also to question the standards that those societies are built on.
This particular story is not that different, either. We meet a duo who live in rough and scavenge/retrieve things for people for a price. Valentine has struggled his entire life to be accepted for what he is, but the small town he was born in and the people around him made that impossible. This is on one side. On the other, we have an android who did not ask to be placed in a body and was happier to be part of a hive mind and serving a purpose. The two meet when Osric brings a proposal to Valentine and his partner on the road. The latter keeps Osric's true nature a secret while seeing something of himself in him.
The world we are introduced to has a lot more secrets than expected, as we are soon to find out.
The concept of identity and the feeling of self are the most prominent discussions within the adventure. Conversations happen within the larger framework of underhanded dealings, romance and other interconnected small pieces.
I liked this book more than I expected to! It was unique and definitely not like the others I read before and after it. I may have wanted more investigation into the world in this book. I am not sure where it stands as part of a bigger series, but it would definitely benefit from having closure on certain facts.
I would recommend this book to fans of the genre or even those people who are interested in a dystopia with a focus on different types of people.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This was just so good; gay&trans people and AI in post-apocalyptic chaos? Beautiful. I really became invested in their story, and loved the exploration of what it means to be human.

World Running Down by Al Hess strikes the perfect balance of gut punch sci-fi quests and compelling social commentary centered in a post-apocalyptic dystopian backdrop.

Thank you @AngryRobot books for granting an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set out to fulfill his city dreams, Valentine Weis is determined to buy a visa and become a citizen at Salt Lake City where testosterone and gender affirming surgery is free. With jobs as salvager not enough to make ends meet, his future is proving bleak. Not until a messenger drops an offer that will surely grant him what he had long dreamt of. The messenger is a formerly a powerful AI, Osric, who was forced into an android body and wants back into the system. Bogged down by their respective plights, the two head off to shoot for their goals but some complication will make decisions difficult and sacrificing their dreams might just be what it takes for others to live freely.

There is quiet confidence in Hess’ pen and yes, it is mighty. His prose is elegant and glides through like an intimate yet commanding dance. While drawing attention to the important conversations it wanted to put a spotlight on, the story is snug at keeping at the pace and plot as it grants a glimpse to the future. It’s brimming with action sequences that puts the reader constantly at their seats edge and folds in moments of intimacy that makes the heart swoon. It is distilled in evenness, both grim and hopeful, that it keeps the reader flipping through its pages.

Waltzing through exploration of gender, bodily autonomy, the importance of consent, socio-economic issues, and the ills of technological advancement, I find that this book had a steady voice that is arresting. It’s brilliant that while it wanted to raise awareness, it was done in a way that is not exceedingly didactic. Being it an own voices narrative, I appreciate that it tackled trans issues without overdoing it, taking distinct steps without messing the flow. I am also glad of its cognizance that pain and loss of agency are not isolated to one person but can be shared in their universality and that the measures to survive these are often corrupted by rotting socio-political systems.

More than the sci-fi elements, I love the magnetic relationship between Val and Osric. This slow burn romance painted in good banter, humor, and the quiet-endearing moments is one I enjoyed so much. It’s refreshing that the characters do not gloss over their problems and although allowed time to breathe, they do not shut down and permits themselves to examine the issues at hand. There is a charming found family in this and its unwavering acknowledgement that while support systems are valuable, some are not healthy for us. In seeing Val and Osric’s experience reflect and refract each other, one is given the chance to scrutinize where we sit in the world’s expectation of us and how we can tear them down as we share this existence.

World Running Down is programmed to invade and override your system to offer an adventure that will change your coding for life. Grab a copy and brace yourselves to be run down!

This book is incredibly cute! It features some wonderful queer rep, classic scifi themes involving androids/AI, all set in a dystopian, yet hopeful, Mad Max-like world. It is definitely heavy on romance, which can sometimes be hit or miss with me, but it was done so well in this book that I couldn't help but root for the love story. Overall, Hess did a good job of balancing the social commentary with the narrative and character work, never coming off as preachy.

Note: The author has a prequel short story, called Neuro Noir, available on their website that I read in preparation for World Running Down. I highly recommend reading that story. It adds to the world and dives deeper into some of the scifi themes.

Thanks to Angry Robot and NetGalley for allowing me to read this digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

(CWs: explicit sexual content, dysphoria, moderate transphobia, violence, discussion/threat of trafficking, toxic friendship)

At times dramatic but ultimately feel-good story about a trans scavenger on the Mad Max-y salt planes of near-future Utah, taking on a big job from the utopian Salt Lake City in the hopes of finally earning his admission into it - with the help of a temporarily-trapped-in-an-android-body AI. (Who is very hot... and smart... and cute... and- well. you get the picture 👀). I particularly enjoyed the worldbuilding around AIs and androids - they two usually get lumped together, and it was interesting seeing a world in which they were very distinct groups treated and perceived completely differently. If anything, some of the concepts/subplots in this book were so compelling I was disappointed not to see them expanded on even further (such as the test for determining sentience - for such an important part of the story it felt a little surface-level - or the animal-robot hybrids roaming the planes). I think just how easily everything got wrapped up into a neat happy ending was a bit unrealistic, but it's definitely a book to read for comfort rather than realism. Equal parts fun character-driven adventure and a sweet gay romance, it's a great read for a rainy day <3

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Al Hess' WORLD RUNNING DOWN is the Mad Max-inspired-cozy-queer-trans-gay-AI-dystopian-romance of your dreams, and if you read that and don't think all of those descriptors should work together, you're wrong.

Valentine and his partner, Ace, are scavengers in the wastelands outside Salt Lake City. Their collective dream is to someday save enough money to be able to purchase visas to gain access to Salt Lake, where Valentine can finally receive the gender-affirming care he wants and deserves. When they are given a job that might be too good to be true, they jump at the chance because the payment is exactly what they want: money and visas to finally live in Salt Lake. Of course, nothing is as it seems, especially Osric, who recruits Val and Ace for the job. An AI Steward of the city, Osric was forced into an android body against his will, and wants nothing more than to return to the safety of his network. While both men are figuring their way out in the world and navigating bodies that they don't belong in, they are also tracking a collection of androids, dodging pirates, and possibly even falling in love.

There are so many subtle nuances to Hess' story: the struggles faced by anyone in the queer community, body dysmorphia, what constitutes free will and sentience, balancing what is right against what is the easiest thing to do, sociological prejudices, abusive employers, manipulative friends, all wrapped up it a perfectly realized world that is, in fact, running down. It is never made explicitly clear what went wrong, but it is made clear that the rich escaped and left behind those that couldn't afford to leave the planet to fend for themselves. While the people left behind do clearly try to better to each other, the class and wealth distinctions are still there. In fact, the most caring and humane of the characters, aside from Valentine and a handful of other humans, are the AI Stewards; their level of care, respect, and understanding of each other and their individual needs is thought provoking. And that's the crux of Hess' novel: to make you aware that caring, respecting, and understanding those around you can take you far and make you a better person, even when it seems like the world is crashing down around you.

Valentine is an endearing character who seems to have a heart too large for his own good, and Osric and his "big, sexy brain", are remarkable characters and getting to watch their love story unfold as they discover just as much about themselves as they do each other is a true treat. I can't recommend this book enough and I'm anxious to see what stories Hess has to tell us next.

A huge thanks to Angry Robot Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copies in exchange for an honest review.

World Running Down by Al Hess is a new sci-fi release, set in a dystopian future where all the rich people took shuttles off the planet 100 years ago (believable). Valentine is a trans salvager who is scraping by on the outskirts of Salt Lake City by running errands. He dreams of getting a visa to the city for gender-affirming surgery and access to testosterone, but the costs are high. Along comes Osric, a sentient AI who’s found himself trapped in an android body. As Valentine and Osric explore blossoming feelings for each other, the current mission of returning a number of androids belonging to a sex trader tests the limits of Valentine’s empathy vs his personal needs.

Wow. What a read. I adored the diverse cast of characters, how deeply Valentine’s gender dysphoria was explored, and the deep understanding between Valentine and Osric. For a dystopian novel, it was a gorgeous exploration of being in a post-apocalyptic environment doesn’t have to mean losing a sense of humanity. Thanks so much to Angry Robot for the ARC of this title!

The writer within me was enraptured from the first line, and promptly pushed the reader into Valentine’s van for the ride. From the first instances of Valentine’s poignant voice to the last line, this story has its sweet and bitter. How could it not? In a dystopian world with a familiar concept, the rich live in cities, the poor survive in a wasteland, Hess takes the principle and makes it anew.
Valentine’s life is hard; he and his companion Ace take scrappy salvaging jobs so they can both one day afford visas to Salt Lake City. Ace wants that better world, but for Valentine as a trans man, it holds the treatments he needs to be his true self. The pair take Valentine’s van across the salt flats, dodging pirates and wildlife, doing whatever they can to see their dreams come true.
When Osric arrives into Valentine’s life, a struggling AI not used to the confines of an android body, Valentine’s big heart gets the better of him. He takes a shine to the fumbling Osric, and the pair start a banter that still gives me a warm glow.
Osric reveals that his owners have a job offer for Valentine and Ace, one that involves a taste of the city life in clothes, and all Valentine and Ace have to do is meet their mysterious benefactor. If they accept the job, and succeed, payment comes with an offer too good to be true; visas to Salt Lake City. The job? Rescue a few stolen androids, which sounds too easy, and too good to be true. Valentine finds himself saying yes, despite Ace’s misgivings, and wanting Osric to stay with him.
Because Osric is not supposed to be in this body. As a steward over Salt Lake, he once held a position of authority, managing the city as part of a network with other AIs. He thinks an infraction has him demoted to assisting a family capitalizing on the lack of self-awareness in their androids, running a female companionship company. Something darker has happened, and Osric wants nothing more than to return to the limitless network with his fellow stewards. But when the trio find the droids, they find themselves with a dilemma too; take the world they think they want, or do what’s right even though it will cost them their dreams?
In such a desolate setting, Hess manages to find hope and spin it through Valentine, even though Valentine himself doesn’t always believe in it. That who he is matters, that everyone’s identity, including that of an AI or android, is important. Right by his side, Osric holds none of the apathy and unkindness normally found in AI stories, but instead is enfolded an empathetic understanding. Careful, wonderful, wildly protective, his personal journey is deeply moving as he finds himself.
I found myself wishing I could meet the characters, if only to share in their joy and help them with their struggles. The love story so carefully crafted between Valentine and Osric was so fraught with underlying struggles on their own personal battlefields, at one point I feared I wasn’t going to get my happily ever after.
A part of me never wanted to put the book down, could have read it in one sitting, but as someone who’s autistic, I found myself connecting with the writing and being emotionally impacted in ways I didn’t expect. And it wasn’t just in Valentine, but the way Osric took care of him. This isn’t a key focus of the book, but I did find myself heavily impacted by it when I related to the way Valentine reacted to many of the most angst driven scenes. By Hess writing reactions I would have, that I don’t normally see in books.
If you love the idea of Blade Runner, but want something with more hope and a lot more joy, this is your book. If you want a softer dystopia that doesn’t leave the bitter bleakness behind, this is your book. If you want to see a place where you could belong, as who you truly are, this is your book.

World Running Down is a dystopian SciFi novel with a trans protagonist and a gay main couple that will entertain you with fast action and lovable characters.

Reading it was kind of weird though. I mean I liked it but it seemed to constantly switch from incredibly exciting to kinda boring.
It makes up for that with interesting likable characters, clever details and a story that explores the theme of wanting to be yourself in a world that won't let you.
The writing has a very FanFiction-y style to it (everyone who knows me knows that is absolutely not a criticism, I love FF) so that's just something you either like or don't.

I give this one 4/5 stars 🌟

World Running Down is a dystopian SciFi novel with a trans protagonist and a gay main couple that will entertain you with fast action and lovable characters.

Reading it was kind of weird though. I mean I liked it but it seemed to constantly switch from incredibly exciting to kinda boring.
It makes up for that with interesting likable characters, clever details and a story that explores the theme of wanting to be yourself in a world that won't let you.
The writing has a very FanFiction-y style to it (everyone who knows me knows that is absolutely not a criticism, I love FF) so that's just something you either like or don't.

I give this one 4/5 stars 🌟

World Running Down is a love story. But if romance isn’t usually your thing, DO NOT let that stop you from picking this up.

At its heart, it’s a book about bodies - what it means to inhabit them, who has control over them, and how society treats those who don’t feel at home in theirs. It’s also a book about minds - what it means to be sentient, who gets to define sentience, and who this sentience is ‘given’ to.

It takes place in a near-apocalyptic Earth where the uber-rich have already left, the professional classes (human and AI) live in a well-provisioned city, and the rest eek out an existence in a dangerous wasteland.

In this declining world, Valentine, a scavenger desperate for a visa that will grant him access to the city and the medicine he needs to transition, meets Osric, an AI who has been forcibly removed from his networked community and dumped in a body. (Much of the story’s power comes from Valentine and Oscric’s shared struggles to live in bodies they’re disconnected from.)

The two are brought together when Valentine accepts a job from a brothel owner to retrieve a group of Android women.

Hess’s writing is terrific, evocative in a razor-sharp minimalist way perfectly suited to the world. The characters and dialogue are equally strong, and often funny. Cinnamon (one of the Android women undergoing a painful transition into sentience) has some particularly great lines, such as when she’s given a copy of the bible by a group of Mormon pirates:

“I’m confused. It states that God creates light on the first day. But he doesn’t create the light source– the sun– until day three. Has this novel had a proper editor?”

World Running Down is a moving, layered novel that explores a lot of important issues – power, privilege, class, transgender rights and dignity, artificial intelligence, neurodivergence in a neurotypical society - but these issues, far from coming at the expense of the story, are deeply embedded in it.

Put this on your TBR, or if it’s already on it, bump it up.

I enjoyed this. The best part for me was definitely the relationship between Osric and Val, I loved both of their characters and the way they really saw one another, all the small ways they cared for one another and the way they were always putting the well-being of the other first. The whole relationship aspect was so well done. The plot dragged for me in a few places, and the pacing felt a bit off. I lost some of the momentum I'd built up wanting to know what happened with these characters because it felt like there was too much going on at times. But overall I still enjoyed it and especially love the idea of more trans main characters in every genre. This is definitely one to check out if you like Mad Max type scenarios and like a romance where the MCs really know and care for one another.

If Science Fiction is to be believed the only bright thing about the future will be the burning rays of the sun beaming down to burn our skin. The futures grim, the futures dystopian. However, sci fi also tells us that humans will do what it takes to survive. Despite inescapable heat and roving bands of motorcycle pirates, people will still love, lose, and overcome. World Burning Down by Al Hess may be set in a future hellscape, but there are hopes and dreams to be had.

Valentine Weis is a scavenger in future America who specialises in commissions others would not undertake, the reason is that Valentine has a dream to gain access to Salt Lake City and the drugs and surgery they need to deal with their body dysmorphia. Meanwhile, Osric is dealing with their own conflict. This AI has been banished from the grid and placed inside the body of an android. Val and Osric find one another in the wastelands and join forces, each hoping the best for the other.

I have read a good amount of science fiction and fantasy that deals with queer characters, and it is great to see the genre expanding to engage with all the audience. Often, a character being gay, or trans plays a role in the story, but rarely as centrally as in World. The driving force of the story is Valentine’s body dysmorphia and their dream of becoming whole. It impacts their actions and the choices they make, even if they are not always the easiest.

There is a lot more to Valentine than being transgender. Hess creates a kind, thoughtful and rounded characters who has a lot to them. Often Val will make a decision that will impact their life negatively in aid to help others. It is one of the things that Osric is drawn to, the outer and inner beauty that Valentine projects. World is a story of action and scarcity, but it is also a love story between two characters finding themselves and each other.

The character of Osric is a great companion journey to Valentine's as they are going through their own form of body dysmorphia. Ripped from a network, they suddenly find themselves in a body with all the sensations and needs that comes with it. Comparing the two characters journeys could have been treated heavy handed, but Hess does an excellent job of using Osric to aid readers in understanding Valentine’s plight. Some of us have never questioned our bodies and may find it hard to understand what it must feel like to be transgender, but framing this as an AI being transformed into an Android and it makes sense. It did to me at least, but that is probably my science fiction mind.

I loved the characters and relationships in World, but there is also some great world building and action. At the core I believe that Hess, like the character of Valentine, believes the best in people. The book has betrayal, violence, and some hard-hitting elements, but at the core it is kind. I do not wish to ruin the final parts of the novel, but as a reader you will finish it feeling uplifted.

When I read the plot I thought it should have been a sort of dystopia with hard characters and a androids/AI rebellion.
I was wrong: it’s a story set in a world that is not very different from the one we live in with a cast of sweet and intriguing characters.
It’s poignant, sweet, moving and gripping. It made me smile and cry, I rooted for Valentine and Oscric and hope in a HEA like I was reading a romantic novel.
Valentine is well rounded and lovely character: he’s fighting to read his goal but he’s never bitter or harsh. There’s a lot of sufferance, there’s moving representation of dysphoria but this character has no chip on his shoulder.
Oscric is the Stewart AI that was forced into an android body. A funny and complex character I loved since I met him.
The author is a very talented storyteller and deliver a cast of well-developed characters, a tightly knitted plot and a complex world building.
I would happy to meet again these characters, I will surely read other books by this author.

World Running Down turned out to be my third climate-apocalypse dystopia in a row, after Junkyard War and Perilous Times. The world is going to hell in a handcart and it’s all humanity’s fault no matter how you look at it. But these three looks at the view from that handcart are quite different. And all, surprisingly, hopeful.

At first, Valentine Weis doesn’t seem to have much hope. Or, perhaps, hope’s all he’s got without any real way of making any of his hopes come close to realization. At least not until Osric drops into his life – just about literally – with an offer that Valentine probably should refuse.

Because anything that looks too good to be true generally is – especially with people who actually still have a conscience and at least an ounce of compassion for their fellow beings. However those beings present themselves and whatever they happen to be made of.

In his very post-climate apocalypse world, Valentine lives his life on the outside looking in. Someone is offering him the opportunity to finally be on the inside. The question is whether the price is one that he’s willing to pay.

Salt Lake City is one of the few remaining, functional cities in the U.S. It’s a place where healthcare and transportation are free, where it seems as if everyone has enough to eat and a place to live. It’s a place where the rich get richer and the poor peek through the glass at all the things they can’t have without citizenship. Or sponsorship. Or both.

Valentine has none of the above. Instead his only possession is a barely functioning van, his only friend is more of a frenemy, he’s just barely breaking even on the delivery and salvage jobs he takes to keep body and soul together. And he’s trapped in a body he knows is wrong, deals with regular and depressing bouts of body dysmorphia and keeps falling further behind in his quest to save up enough money to get admitted to the place where he can get the medicines and the surgery he needs to make his external appearance reflect his inner self.

Osric, on the other hand, isn’t even human. He’s a Steward, an elite artificial intelligence who has been placed in a mere android body by nefarious person or persons unknown and sent out by even more nefarious persons to rope Valentine and his friend Ace into a job that must have one hell of a catch – because the fee for doing it is beyond Valentine’s biggest hopes and best dreams.

Which he just might manage to make come true. Not by giving in to what either those nefarious persons or his best frenemy/business partner Ace might say is the best thing – but by doing the actual, honest-to-goodness right thing. No matter how much it breaks his heart.

Escape Rating A: Before I even attempt to get into any more detail, first things first. And the first thing is that I loved World Running Down. A lot. Which kind of surprised me, not for itself, but because it was the third climate apocalypse dystopia book I read in a row, and as a subject that’s kind of a downer.

But the book itself isn’t a downer at all, which is really all down to Valentine. He just so earnestly wants to be a genuinely good person in spite of the world running down. Given a choice between the right thing and the easy thing Valentine chooses the right thing every single time – quite often to his own detriment.

He’s not unrealistic – at all – about just how FUBAR’d his world has become. He just doesn’t let that affect his own decision making process. He knows that things overall are heading towards an even hotter place than the climate, and he’s cognizant that he can’t fix much of that. But he’s committed to making things a little better as he can to those whose lives he actually touches.

Which is what gives the story both its hopefulness and its poignancy.

Valentine himself is caught in a “catch-22”. He’s trans, he needs both meds and surgery to complete his transition – which he very much desires to do. To be able to do that he needs to get residence in Salt Lake City, and for that he needs to pass a citizenship test. Which is just as big a hurdle because Valentine has ADHD or some variant of it which hasn’t even been diagnosed, making it difficult for him to study and retain certain kinds of information. Math gives a lot of people trouble. It gives Valentine a double dose of trouble, and he needs to get it to pass the test. Doing the original job would be a shortcut to his dreams – but absolutely does come at much too high a price.

But this isn’t just Valentine’s story, although we see much of it from his perspective. It’s also Osric’s story, and it’s the story of the job they are contracted for and the huge cloud wrapped around the silver lining of the payoff for doing it. Both parts of which result in discussion of artificial intelligences and the definition of what makes a being of artificial intelligence intelligent enough to be self-aware and eligible for citizenship.

And then the whole story works its way around to just how much heartache and heartbreak can be caused by trying to do what you think is best for someone you care for and how demeaning it is to make those decisions without their input.

There’s more. There’s just so much more. More than I should get into here, no matter how tempted I am. Which is very.

Between the climate apocalypse, the dystopian elements, the so, so sharp divide between the haves and the have nots, and both the political and the romantic issues that are raised by the questions of sentience and artificial intelligence, World Running Down touched on themes that brought to mind (my mind at least) a whole shelf of books that a reader might find equally appealing and/or interesting and very much vice versa.

So if you’ve ever read any of the following, you will probably also find World Running Down to be running right up your reading alley. And if you like World Running Down, these may also appeal; A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz and The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

Set in a post-collapse Utah, this book has trans people, gay people, androids, Mormons, and pirates. What more can you ask?

World Running Down was a lovely, quieter take on the future- one replete with AIs of various sentiency, and one with at least a bit of societal collapse. I have seen some reviews mention that it doesn't feel quite post-apocalyptic, and I feel like that is a great way to say it. Because it isn't necessarily the apocalypse- things aren't really at that level of degradation- but neither is it the bustling world we know today. There are cities, and technology, and forms of government, but they're few and far between, and the vast areas between them are kind of lawless hellscapes.

To start, we meet Valentine. I loved that the author provided illustrations of the characters, because I was able to picture them so well! I found Valentine to give me Jasper Jordan vibes, probably from his goggles, but either way it endeared me to him immediately. He's trans, and in a world with very limited resources, getting the medication and surgical procedures he so desperately needs are outside his current financial grasp. That is heartbreaking, full stop. And obviously relevant in our current society, which is even more infuriating because we don't have any global collapses to blame for our ignorance. I digress, but I felt for Valentine from the start. He travels in his van with his bestie Ace, who... honestly sometimes she was more of a frenemy than an actual friend, but their complicated relationship was kind of refreshing to see. Sometimes, we need to see examples of unhealthy relationships (as long as they're portrayed as such, which this does) just as much as great ones. They're traveling around working as couriers basically, trying to earn enough money to become citizens of Salt Lake City.

Osric is an AI. A sentient AI, who used to be part of a collective group of fellow sentient AIs, who now finds himself in this random body he never asked to be in. When Osric and Valentine end up on a mission together, they find they have a lot more in common than meets the eye. I loved the parallels the author created between Valentine's and Osric's body dysphoria. Both simply don't feel comfortable in their current skin, and neither chose the bodies they are in, and obviously this made them even closer, as they were able to relate to each other in such a significant way.

There are a lot of other aspects I enjoyed about this book, too! Things like: Quasi-Apocalyptic Road Trips™, desert pirate clans, other AIs who are being treated like possessions and we hope will eventually not be, complicated relationships, incredibly atmospheric desolate desert settings, thought provoking questions of morality, and lots of humorous and adorable moments along the way. If you like any of the aforementioned, you should probably give this book a go!

Bottom Line: World Running Down was thoughtful and entertaining, with characters I cared about and a story that provides plenty of commentary on current social issues.

It’s time to melt those cold hearts, World Running Down is so, so sweet. The world might be falling apart but it is brimming with kindness and compassion. When the AI of this future gained sentience, they didn’t rise up, instead they negotiated rights and now work alongside humans managing their cities.

It’s not without conflict or danger, there are pirates in the wastelands of Utah after all, but it doesn’t feel a hopeless future. Instead it feels like one where the people left behind, those who might have been rejected by society before, have made a better, more accepting place. The cinnamon rolls of the world have not been crushed.

Osric being downloaded into a flesh body gives space for the story to explore body dysmorphia and relate to Valentine’s own experience in a body that doesn’t feel right. At the start, Osric’s distress is palpable, and it is not hard to feel what has been done to him is wrong. So in that same thought, it should also be wrong that Valentine must live in a body he is uncomfortable in.

The stolen androids that Valentine and his partner are hired to retrieve are owned by an escort agency. While Osric makes it clear that the androids are not the same as him, if they have the possibility of becoming sentient, is it fair to leave them in that position? Bodily autonomy and choice are an important theme of this story, explored from several angles.

It’s presented as a post-apocalyptic world, but only briefly mentioning what happened. Climate change followed by the rich abandoning the planet in their spaceships… So I’m sat there thinking, this doesn’t sound too bad. However I was left wondering why somewhere like Utah would still be populated in post climate collapse world. The world-building is pretty lightweight, which is fine, because the stars of the show are the characters and all their adorableness.