World Running Down

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 76 ratings

Price: 29.66

Last update: 01-29-2025


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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Random Chronicler
    5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
  • Connor
    4.0 out of 5 stars Much needed post-apocalyptic trans read
    Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2023
    I was really looking forward to this book; it's got everything I'd want in a novel: transmasc, neurodiverse MC, MLM romance, androids, AI, post-apocalyptic setting.

    On most counts, it hits the mark. The transmasc rep hits *just right* - it doesn't dismiss dysphoria, but it's not the entire character motivation, either. Sometimes it hurts, but it's that good kind of hurt, where I felt seen. I'm not the ADHDer in my household, but the rep there felt true to what I know. I feel like raisins get a bad rap: clearly, the texture of oranges and grapes is far worse. ;) My husband claims it's mushrooms.

    I liked the characters. I didn't always love how quickly they flew off the handle, but it made sense, given that they're stuck together 24/7 (and Valentine is neurodiverse), that they would be tense and minor misunderstandings would flare up quickly. Osric was interesting, his journey as an AI stuck in an android body and how that complemented and contrasted Valentine's journey as a trans man was great. I understood Ace, too, and the point about how we tolerate the barely tolerable in friendships so we're not alone was taken. I do feel like Valentine never gave any thought to how she might feel sidelined and abandoned once he got together with Osric, but in the end, the best part about close POV is that we get to see a character's flawed, biased perspective.

    So why not five stars? Some scenes felt rushed. Sometimes I'd get confused and have to read back a little to make sure I didn't miss something because the characters had already moved on. The world building brought up some fascinating and horrifying questions that were never fully answered, specifically related to the concept of android/human reproduction and abominations. It felt like the elephant in the room during the sex scene and overshadowed it for me, because the threat of pregnancy as a transman is already horrifying. I can't imagine it being even worse and being like, "yup, gonna trust all this to a condom!"In the circumstance they were in, I think I would have been more comfortable with non-penetrative or anal sex, but that might have been the point. Regardless, it kind of poured cold water on the sexy times for me.

    I still really enjoyed it. Just not quite as much as I'd hoped to, and not as much as Mazarin Blues or Sable Dark by this author.
  • Felicia Davin
    5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
  • Helen Whistberry
    4.0 out of 5 stars 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.

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