David Glitten’s thought-provoking science fiction novel THE ANDROBIOTICA ADVENTURES imagines a future shaped by artificial intelligence, androids, and powerful corporations.
The book follows the National Science Service investigator David Faulk as he looks into a missing computer file at the AndroBiotica firm. He probes the crime amid a backdrop in which AI became advanced enough to relegate modern-day artificial intelligence to a lesser machine-intelligence role, androids are dispatched on infiltration missions, and people can be transported to parallel dimensions. Faulk and his partner Aurora end up chasing an android across dimensions and traveling through time while conducting their investigation and infiltrating the firm LifeLike Technologies.
The mystery unfolds as a whodunit. Faulk questions suspects, including a scientist who is in contact with the Bolivian cartel, and uncovers clues. The narration is filtered through different points of view—and sometimes to its detriment. When Faulk immediately rules out a suspect based on instincts, the tension is stripped away; when the rogue android Romulus reveals his motivation almost immediately, any chance of mystery is eliminated. Yet the action is fast-paced for the most part, keeping the plot moving forward with twists and turns. THE ANDROBIOTICA ADVENTURES succeeds at ratcheting up the tension, as with the revelation of a secret identity or a dramatic pronouncement.
The novel succeeds at world-building by filling its premise with many concrete details, such as laying forth the logistics of a trip across dimensions (which both makes it seem plausible and establishes the parameters of the action). However, Glitten is less successful at exploring the intriguing themes the novel broaches, such as when Faulk ponders the ramifications of androids in a too-on-the-nose internal monologue that feels more like a general essay on the subject and less a reflection grounded in his own experience.
Apt descriptions of corporate lobbies, labs, clean rooms, and other settings give the work a grounded feel. The story furthermore builds tension and subverts expectations with sudden outbursts of unanticipated violence. It also introduces novel elements, such as suicide androids or decoy androids that aid in escapes. Overall, there is enough originality for the narrative to feel fresh (even when evoking sci-fi cornerstones like Blade Runner).
David Glitten’s THE ANDROBIOTICA ADVENTURES is a fast-paced but thought-provoking book that contemplates what it means to be human while entertaining readers with action and mystery.
~ Joseph Pete for IndieReader