Lacklustre YA tale of a trans-man who, while scraping a living as a scavenger in the sparsely populated desertlands of a future USA, dreams of moving to the big city so he can get treatment to make his body align more with his self-image. He alternately mopes over some imagined slight or moons about his crush on an AI who has been downloaded into an android body. Both plot and characters are unconvincing. ( )

In a world where many wealthy elites have fled, life goes on, with scavengers in the desert and cities in which people live well. Valentine, a trans man, would love to get a visa for a city where he could get T and top surgery, but his undiagnosed ADHD and the general expenses of living as a scavenger hold him back. With his partner, he’s offered an incredible opportunity—retrieve some androids for a citizen and they’ll both get visas. But the opportunity comes by way of an android who is actually a sentient AI city manager displaced into an android body, whose own dysphoria and experience of abuse lead Valentine to make riskier choices. It’s mostly a romance; despite the sometimes-dangerous circumstances and a lot of misgendering by non-heroes, the people at the heart of the story are largely trying to be kind. ( )

2023. Valentine and Ace are broke salvagers outside Salt Lake City. The live in a van and scrape by doing dangerous missions and fighting pirates. Valentine wants to save up enough money to buy a visa to live in the city where he would have access to gender-affirming health care. He meets Osric, a powerful and sexy AI, who has been unlawfully downloaded into an android body. Osric, wants nothing more than to get back into the network where he belongs. But having a body has its benefits. After falling in love with Valentine, will he really go back to the network? Meanwhile they have to save eight android sex-workers who have gained sentience. Hijinks ensue. ( )

interesting characters, with a story that wasn't half bad, but should have had a professional editor run over it with a freight train... ( )

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.

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