Androne by Dwain Worrell (book review).
In short, ‘Androne’ is a pretty darn good for a first novel. Set in the near future, Dwain Worrell imagines a world where most of the armies, navies and air forces vanished into thin air. Nobody knows why or who disappeared them but, in response, a new generation of war machines have been built, the ‘andrones’ of the title. Sort of like mecha, they are a cross between androids and drones, hence the name. The pilots can be hundreds of miles away from where the andrones operate and one such pilot is Paxton Ares, the novel’s protagonist.
Ares is an interesting character, despite tapping a little into the cliche of a young man, far from home, thinking about his pregnant girlfriend and how he’s going to handle fatherhood. But Worrell crafts this character well and the anxieties and limitations of the character feel real. The way he describes his girlfriend or reflects on his own family have some nice touches. Flashbacks to his grandfather talking about his war experiences have been done before, of course, but to be honest, the fast-paced nature of the novel reflects the author’s experiences as a screenplay writer as much as anything else. ‘Androne’ might not be literature, but it’s a good story that’d work great on screen.
In any case, the key premise is that while the andrones are meant to mere machines, falling into various types, such as Spartans and Apaches, this isn’t quite how things turned out. Under the control of their pilots, they are imbued with morality alongside their strength, but remove that control and they become far more dangerous. Thanks to some timey-wimey shenanigans, Ares and his crew find themselves using their andrones to try and take back control of the rogue ones, find a preternaturally intelligent young girl, Harmony, who can help them and, in doing so, save humanity’s future.
An epilogue at the end indicates that the story isn’t over by the end of the book, with a certain ambiguity over precisely what’s revealed on the last few pages. Readers should probably expect a follow-up novel before too long.
Framed like that, there’s a bit of the ‘Terminator’ franchise in ‘Androne’ and, to be honest, the novel isn’t massively original but it’s effective with some wonderful action scenes straight out of a video game. It’s also reflective of our times, tapping into concerns about how quickly conspiracy theories and misinformation spreads, as well as the degree to which humanity can see itself as a single thing when threatened or will we hold onto our national and racial identities no matter what. Chuck in recent concerns about AI and the use of drones in modern warfare and you have a novel with something to say, even if the way it’s done has been done before.
Neale Monks
October 2023
(pub: Amazon/47North, 2023. 335 page paperback. Price: $16.99 (US), £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-662511-97-4)