Review by Kirsten Arcadio of "Android Author" by Sapphira Olson

"Eloise slipped in and out of consciousness, a flickering representation of reality played in her mind like images in a Victorian zoetrope." Set in a dystopian world where androids write novels, Android Author is a steam-punky romp that explores themes of creativity, artificial intelligence and the boundaries between humans and AI. 

The novel is colourfully meta, chopping between the narrative of its various protagonists and the texts they are writing. Wild and fast-paced, the novel makes interesting use of intertextuality with multiple references to To Kill a Mockingbird and overtones of George Orwell and Philip K. Dick.

Initially, the narrative follows the fate of an AI story-writing machine (Android Writer PD121928) whose sole purpose is to produce stories and novels, churning out a concoction of weird and wonderful stories including a 140-character "novel," the only one of its works that is accepted for publication. During the process the reader learns about the AI’s life: its cat, killed by a drone delivery, the late wife it dismantled because it had begun to "hate her a little bit," and the ever-present existential threat of being killed if its stories are not accepted by a publisher. After its demise, its stories are collected by Eloise, a human prostitute, who endeavours to keep them alive in a number of different ways. 

The world of this novel is a rich and varied futuristic landscape, full of all manner of funky androids, including Mary Whitehouse sex androids and Audrey Hepburn killer fembots. In this world, the old literary classics of a bygone human era are considered "filth" and Eloise’s plight to publish a story a lost cause. 

As the novel progresses, Eloise’s aim to bring authentic storytelling back into the world takes her on a kaleidoscopic journey through time with a scientist Umberto and a varied cast of androids on a spaceship not unlike The Heart of Gold in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Android Author. It’s a rich, psychedelic experience, perfect for fans of Douglas Adams, graphic novels, and speculative fiction that is original and fun. 

About the reviewer

Kirsten Arcadio is a novelist and digital marketing professional based in London and the East Midlands. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Leicester.