World Running Down

4.5 | 73 ratings

Price: 29.66

Last update: 11-08-2024

About this item

A transgender salvager on the outskirts of a dystopian Utah gets the chance to earn the ultimate score and maybe even a dash of romance. But there's no such thing as a free lunch…

Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City—a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition are free, the food is plentiful, and folks are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.

Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer—an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of. But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise,” they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware and have no interest in returning to their old lives.

The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream to give the AI a chance to live theirs.

Random Chronicler

Cozy, sweet, heartbreaking, important

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2024

What an absolute, unadulterated delight! I didn't even know Cozy Post-Apocalyptic was a thing, but if this is an example, sign me up! Within about ten pages I was willing to die for Val and Osric, and that didn't change throughout the book. I love the world-building, I love the premise, I love the characters, I love the themes. Valentine's struggles with dysphoria and finding access to medical care--and doubts about his lovability--broke my heart, as did Osric's struggle to make sense of his body and identity. One of the most important ideas in the story is about self-sacrifice, which is shown to be the flip side of making your own choices rather than having them made for you, even when they are made for you out of love and a desire to help, and this plays out in both overt and subtle ways.

I know there is more here than simply a sweet and tender story of two souls helping each other, others in need, and themselves, but honestly, that story alone is more than enough. Deeply recommended.

Helen Whistberry

Thoughtful exploration of identity and romance in a dystopian setting

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2023

Lots to love here from the trans rep to thoughtful ruminations on AI and what it means to be sentient to the many different types of alienation one can experience in this complicated world of ours. I thought the parallels between the two main characters (Valentine is a trans man suffering from dysphoria and frustrated with his lack of access to surgery and hormones and Osric is an AI trapped in an android body against his will) was an effective way to explore trans and identity issues. Likewise, the idea of the group of android women slowly gaining sentience and personalities of their own was a very engaging storyline. Drawbacks for me were some weakness in worldbuilding, a bit of a muddled plotline, and plot bunnies that were introduced but then didn't seem to go anywhere. The core of the story though is Valentine and Osric's burgeoning relationship and in that respect, it is a satisfying cozy dystopian romance with some action elements thrown in for good measure. Definitely original and worth a read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction who appreciate the addition of positive LGBTQIA+ rep, humor and optimism.

Felicia Davin

Great worldbuilding and adorable romance

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2023

One of the very best sci-fi tropes is “non-human among humans,” especially when paired with “figuring out embodiment,” because those are just such excellent starting points for asking questions about sentience, bodily autonomy, what it means to be human, and what it means to be a person, even if you’re not human. This book delivers and it’s an action-packed, post-climate-apocalypse/dystopian roadtrip through the desert in what used to be Utah. The setting deftly combines a kind of Mad Max and weird Western vibe (when the characters are kicking up dust on the run from pirates in their beat-up van) with a retrofuturistic, Jazz Age and robots vibe (when the characters are admiring suit fashions and neon lights in Salt Lake). The romance is adorable, which is a nice contrast with the depths of human villainy that drive the plot and all the horrifying mutant animal experiments running amok in the wilderness. There is trans pain here—estranged family, misgendering, transition that feels far out of reach—but it’s balanced by lots and lots of trans joy. I especially appreciated this book’s depiction of a complex friendship; romance has a lot of ride-or-die besties, so it’s surprising and poignant to find a book showing something thornier. Anyway: renegade Mormon desert pirates, android sex workers who will stab you, a sentient AI who is discovering that maybe having a body is kind of nice, actually, and a big-hearted trans guy trying valiantly to save the world and keep his van running.

Amazon Customer

Heartfelt and empowering

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2023

Heartfelt and empowering. This book was a delight from start to finish. The characters are complex and endearing, and I was rooting for all of them (except the baddies, obviously). The trans experience is a key part of the text, and its portrayal is beautifully rendered. It's a story about what it means to be sentient, what it means to be human, what it means to be yourself and in your own body. But it's also a story of people getting by to the best of their ability, and eventually finding community and happiness with the help of their friends. I'd recommend this book to everyone, especially those who need a ray of sunshine and hope when the world looks bleak.

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