Andrew Pyper (1968–2025)

Dammit. Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news.

The good news is, hot damn, the first two-thirds of this novel are fantastic. Dark, disturbing, creepy, and scary as shit. I love the idea, the characters, and Pyper's writing hasn't been this amazing (and, at his worst, he's fantastic) since [b:Lost Girls|1664002|Lost Girls|Andrew Pyper|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1186545603s/1664002.jpg|1677689].

Then there's the bad news. The last third lost me. When he brought in the tiger and GM, show more it all just kind of unraveled and, at least for me, all tension was lost. It felt like the rules and logic of death just became too elastic.

A bit of additional good news, the end (once we got past the tigers and GM) was quite satisfying.

So, overall, I enjoyed it, but there was a span of 70-odd pages that just didn't quite do it for me. show less

DNF.

I usually battle on to the bitter end of a bad book, hoping for redemption or at least for it to move from "bad" to "so bad it's good," but I couldn't with this one. From the main character being a male fantasy of the perfect woman (while she didn't spend time fondling her own breasts, she did possess a perfect and "petite" body, a startling lack of agency in a woman with an alleged Ph.D and a voracious sexual appetite, focused on a vampire who claims to be her Dad. Ugh.), to the idea show more that a violent offender in a psychiatric prison would be a woman's sexual fantasy, this book made me too angry to continue. Write women as though they were actual people, Mr. Pyper!

Andrew Pyper is a good author. I'm a fan. I have no idea what happened here, but there will have to be some seriously good reviews for me to pick up another book by this author. The Killing Circle is a solid and well-written thriller. Read that instead. Unless the thought of a man ripping the ears of a random passer-by is exciting to you. Then you and this book's main character are peas in a pod and I wish you a vampire of your very own. show less

Well, damn.

Andrew Pyper was a lovely man and brilliant writer. I was lucky enough to take courses from him and chat with him on occasion. I loved the guy, and it still guts me that he's gone.

And what makes me sadder is, this book. I truly did not enjoy it. I didn't care for the first Mason Coile book, WILLIAM that much, but this one? Truly didn't like it.

For me, I simply could not get past the idea that a construction robot would ultimately get bored and begin to see the beauty in the stars, show more while also becoming emotional, conniving, duplicitous, violent, and homesick. While also inventing genders and names for itself.

Worse when you multiply that by three. There's just so many points where I winced. Lines like, when the bot is asked why it chose names and genders, etc, the answer it gave was something along the lines of, "It would be fun."

When asked if the bots would protect the remaining astronauts, the answer was, "with our lives."

A mechanical tool has fun? It sees itself as having a life? When its parameters are to land on a planet, and build a habitat for the humans that will come three years later?

No.

Just...no.

Funny enough, the thing that damn near made me put the book down and not pick it up again (and sadly, I should have listened to that thought), was when one of the bots started sending Morse Code.

Why in god's name would any bot or Martian rover get programmed with Morse Code?

There's crazy stuff like the robots fully admitting they lied (while also stating implicitly that they cannot lie) then, instead of being immediately shut down—or at least rebooted—they are ordered to stay where they are and essentially be good from now on. And they're trusted to do so...despite all signs showing that at least one of them is murderous.

Then, add to this mix, an eleventh hour realization from Gold about her past and you have a novella that's simply riddled with plot holes and nonsensical actions by its characters.

I wanted to love this second last release by Pyper, but I simply couldn't.

And that guts me too. show less

IN A NUTSHELL
Wow! What a marvellous horror novel. A Perfect Halloween read. One of the most original, surprising and menacing pieces of dark fiction I've listened to in a long time.

'William' is now one of my "I must recommend this to anyone who will listen" books. It's 220 pages of pure pleasure.

'William' takes place on Halloween, in a house that is all Gothic Victorian Mansion on the outside and all Smart Home, high-security technology on the inside - much like the story itself. This is a show more novel that, like 'Frankenstein' considers the consequences for the creator of bringing a new, independent intelligence into the world. Except, both the creator and the creation that Mason Coile conjures are totally modern and instinctively duplicitous.It is a story not just about the dark potential of AI but of the dangerous hubris of those who create them.

The story is told in a straightforward way, without melodrama or slasher movie Jump Scares but, from the first page, it is quietly disturbing. You can feel that something is not quite right but you can't name what's making you uneasy. Is it that Henry, who is socially awkward and desperately keen to win the approval of his estranged pregnant wife, Lily, is struggling to understand why Lily has brought two guests to the house and what she expects of him? Is it the we-know-something-you-don't way that the guests, the handsome Davis and the brusquely confrontational Paige, treat Henry? Or is it Henry's obsession with his creation, William an AI-powered robot with all the charm of the ventriliquist's dummy talking to Anthony Hopkins in 'Magic'?

It doesn't take long before unease becomes menace, as a sense of impending doom settles over the people in the house. As the menace became palpable, reached a climax and morphed into pathos, I thought I knew what was going on. I was so wrong.

Everything changes in the final section of the book. Menace becomes sheer terror as the reality of the situation is finally revealed. The ending was unexpeced and superb.

If you're in the market for something memorable, original and gripping, get yourself an audiobook copy of 'William' and settle down for five hours of satisfying story telling perfectly narrated by Honey St. Dennis. show less