After World

A Novel

By: Debbie Urbanski

Narrated by: Sura Siu, Emily Tremaine, Cindy Kay, Kevin R. Free

Winner of the 2025 ASLE Creative Writing Book Award and the CNY Book Award for Fiction

A Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Engadget, Strange Horizons, and Booklist Best Book of the Year

A Climate Reality Project Book Club Pick

An “intelligent, defiant” (San Francisco Chronicle) debut that follows an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel—only for it to fall in love with the novel’s subject, Sen, the last human on Earth.

Faced with the uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.

Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.

[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.

After World is a “riveting, creepy…dazzling,” (Kimberly King Parsons, award-winning author of Black Light) novel about what it means to be human in a world upended by AI and the bonds we forge with technology.

Critic reviews

"Conceptually brilliant, Urbanski's debut is a tragic story that embraces philosophical musings rather than a violent catastrophe."—Library Journal

Sura Siu's and Emily Tremaine's alternating narrations plunge listeners into the events surrounding a government-sanctioned human-extinction event. Siu's performance shifts in tone and cadence as the AI called "Storyworker" tells the story of Sen, a teenage "Witness" to the end of humankind. The initially straightforward account merges with journals and surveillance footage of Sen's final years. As Storyworker becomes less objective, which becomes evident in Siu's softening diction, it still cannot quite fully express the human spirit. Tremaine, as Sen, gives the character emotional complexity that shows her humanity. Cindy Kay, as former sci-fi writer Wynn, and Kevin R. Free, as high school textbook author Cugat, provide additional world-building.—AudioFile

Concept was not fulfilled

The performance was fine but not special. The style was very repetitive, a decision related to the tech, but it was way overdone. The book would have benefit from stronger editing.

Just Awful

Not my type of book. Total snooze fest, plot is choppy and nonsensical. You can do much better than this when it comes to sci-fi.

More interesting than enjoyable

I was expecting this to be weird. And it is. Very abstract. I think it had a political point related to climate change but I’m not quite sure what that point was. All that said, I’m glad I listened to it. But I can’t recommend it. Just know what you are getting if you buy this.

REALLY TRIED

I'm an avid listener and have wide variety. I was excited about this book because of the concept but the execution was WAY to confusing.

I like the general idea. execution fell short.

As an avid listener of audiobooks, my experience with "After World" was both intriguing and challenging, ultimately impacting my overall enjoyment.

The narrative structure, which frequently shifted between different time frames, posed a significant hurdle. While I value the complexity this technique can bring, its execution made following the storyline arduous. While the central premise became clear within the first three hours, the subsequent seven hours felt disjointed. Despite hoping for a cohesive resolution or fresh perspective, the conclusion left me unsatisfied.

Throughout the latter half of the audiobook, character identification proved to be another obstacle. Without a clear understanding of each character's significance, I struggled to connect with their experiences and journeys. This lack of clarity made it difficult to emotionally invest in the story, leaving me disconnected from the narrative progression.

In conclusion, "After World" offered promising themes and ideas, but fell short in execution, particularly in maintaining coherence and character development. While I initially engaged with the story, the challenges in following the narrative structure and identifying characters hindered my enjoyment and left me disappointed with the conclusion.

I would tentatively recommend "After World," with the caveat that potential listeners should be prepared for a challenging narrative structure and inconsistencies in character development. Additionally, readers might find the written format more suitable, as certain details, such as complex identifiers and overly precise timestamps, could be tedious to listen to in audio form.