After World

Earth is faced with environmental collapse. So, mankind asks AI what they should do. Simple: Remove humans from the ecosystem. Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition by recording changes to the environment. Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Drones buzz around her, a camera watches her, and microphones record her. The AI also recording her story known as Story Worker falls in love with her.

Storyline

I give the idea of a post-apocalyptic novel where Ai and the last human girl Sen fall in love, credit for being a great idea for a story. While I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi novels I know so many people are raving about this online. So, when I was offered a free galley to read and to do a Q&A with the author I of course said yes! When I received the book in the mail on the 22^nd I immediately started reading it.

Writing & Execution

I give the writing credit for being descriptive. I think the biggest problem for me was it sometimes was hard to know what was going on. There were times you didn’t know whose point of view it was from and out of nowhere it shifted from what was happening now to what happened in the past. I also found it a little hard to believe that any of the human population agreed to let a deadly pathogen make them sterile and kill them off so the ecosystem could be saved. The people’s consciousness/data or whatever would be uploaded to Maia for Afterworld. I also felt the story dragged on & on & on & on & on!  

Characters

I did like the characters of Sen Anon & Ai story worker. You could tell the story worker didn’t want to do what he was assigned to do. Sen Anon I feel is the only realistic human in this book when everyone around her just was ready to except the cards they were dealt. I mean I wouldn’t want to be so blasé about the end of humanity. I know we’re all going to die at some point but I’m with Sen Anon and I want a chance to live.

Overall

Overall if you’re a fan of sci-fi & post-apocalyptic stories, then check out After World by Debbie Urbanski. The concept was interesting, I just think the execution could have been done better. Then again, I have to remember this is the author’s debut after all. Maybe I might like her future work better.