book details

Book: Silicon Man by William Massa

categories: Book, Robot, Android, Corporation, Cyberpunk, Dystopian, Artificial Intelligence, Undercover, Action, Thriller, Adventure, Horror, Racism, Science Fiction

William Massa

about this book: Silicon Man uses the androids of the story to explore issues of racism. It's a common theme when it comes to AIs. Either they pose a threat and the story deals with technology run amok (Terminator) or robots are shown as a futuristic underclass in order to address a social injustices (Blade Runner).

My take mirrors the second approach but I try to add some new wrinkles to the genre. By doing an undercover story, I was able to to take a bigoted robot hunter who dislikes AIs (he has his reasons) and force him to become a machine in order to infiltrate the android rebel cell. It really puts him in a place where he finds himself trapped between two worlds. Even though SILICON MAN is foremost a fast-paced action thriller, I tried to give it an emotional/thematic heart.

I generally work in the horror/dark fantasy genre but had a blast writing SILICON MAN and plan on doing more science fiction in the future.