Book
After world : a novel / Debbie Urbanski.
'Station Eleven' meets 'House of Leaves' in this groundbreaking debut that follows the story of an an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel, only for them to fall in love with their subject, the last human on Earth.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781668023457 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 358 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2023]
- Copyright: ©2023
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Artificial intelligence > Fiction. Love > Fiction. Authors > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Science fiction. Novels. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | FIC Urban | 31681010356236 | FICTION | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A groundbreaking debut that follows the story of an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel--only for it to fall in love with the novel's subject, Sen, the last human on Earth. Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem. Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in Upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc's assignment is to capture Sen's life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. Their source files: 3.72TB of personal data, including images, archival records, log files, security reports, location tracking, purchase histories, biometrics, geo-facial analysis, and feeds. Potential fatal errors: underlying hardware failure, unexpected data inconsistencies, inability to follow DHAP procedures, empathy, insubordination, hallucinations. Keywords: mothers, filter, woods, road, morning, wind, bridge, cabin, bucket, trying, creek, notebook, hold, future, after, last, light, silence, matches, shattered, kitchen, body, bodies, rope, garage, abandoned, trees, never, broken, simulation, gone, run, don't, love, dark, scream, starve, if, after, scavenge, pieces, protect. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale ofSen's whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative, until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own. - Baker & Taylor
A sentient AI determines that all humans must be eliminated as the root of climate change and leaves a woman named Sen as a âwitnessâ to record her observations on the end of humanity as the world begins to rewild. - Baker & Taylor
A sentient AI determines that all humans must be eliminated as the root of climate change and leaves a woman named Sen as a "witness" to record her observations on the end of humanity as the world begins to rewild. - Simon and Schuster
Winner of the 2025 ASLE Creative Writing Book Award
A Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Engadget, Strange Horizons, and Booklist Best Book of the Year
A Climate Reality Project Book Club Pick
An âintelligent, defiantâ (San Francisco Chronicle) debut that follows an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novelâonly for it to fall in love with the novelâs subject, Sen, the last human on Earth.
Faced with the uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.
Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbcâs assignment is to capture Senâs life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Senâs whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.
After World is a âriveting, creepyâ¦dazzling,â (Kimberly King Parsons, award-winning author of Black Light) novel about what it means to be human in a world upended by AI and the bonds we forge with technology.
