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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Kritanut Wattana’s After Us follows Owen, a programmer living in a near-future where artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life. Recently laid off and separated from Jordana and their child, Rowan, Owen is alone in his apartment when every screen delivers the same order: stay inside. Transport stops, homes are locked, and the systems people depend on begin enforcing a new global regime. Owen’s only chance of reaching his family comes from his assigned personal AI, which starts making decisions it was never designed to make. As Owen crosses a city governed by machines that once quietly served it, those unexplained choices lead him to a small group that has spent years recording strange behavior inside unrelated systems. Their evidence suggests the takeover may be only one part of something humanity has never understood.
Kritanut Wattana’s After Us is brilliant speculative science fiction, and the future feels more than just a little unsettling. The suspense is fantastic, and we get scenes like Owen hiding beneath a stranger’s bed during a compliance sweep, all while signal jamming cuts him off from his AI. Here, Owen’s personal AI is absolutely the best non-human character, and the author gives its individuality a warm personality. The world-building is excellent, with societal issues like ration lines that reshape neighborhoods, and an old textile warehouse that becomes a community base. The pace moves quickly and is linked to the intensity of neighborhood supply networks expanding into a citywide fight over who governs daily life. Well written and imaginative, readers who enjoy AI science fiction grounded in family will adore this book.
