A home haunted by AI and the mysterious homicide of a superhero

An agoraphobic engineer named Henry spends his days locked away in his extraordinarily sensible residence constructing freaky little robots, together with one that appears like a magician and rides round on a tiny bike. His spouse, Lily, is the one particular person he actually ever sees, however issues have grown tense between them — a scenario solely worsened by the truth that he’s often holed up alone within the attic engaged on a secret mission. At some point, Lily invitations some former coworkers over to encourage Henry to socialize, and Henry takes the chance to lastly showcase his biggest creation: William, a complicated AI system housed in a crude robotic physique. Horror ensues.

Mason Coile’s William (stylized W1LL1AM) takes the well-worn trope of a naive creator confronted with their out-of-control creation and provides haunted smart-house creepiness, with a twist ending. Naturally, it’s drawn comparisons to Frankenstein and even The Shining, however I’d dare to say there’s a touch of Demon Seed in there, too. That is one other brief learn, coming in at underneath 250 pages, and it’s simply the correct factor to get you into the spooky season temper. It takes place, appropriately, on Halloween.

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and its subsequent transformation into X as we now realize it dominated headlines for months, so that you couldn’t be blamed for feeling such as you’ve heard all there may be to find out about the entire saga. However for many who do need a deeper look into the way it all transpired, journalists Kate Conger and Ryan Mac have dredged up a ton of beforehand unreported info of their ebook Character Restrict, which pulls from interviews with insiders and inner recordings from the rooms the place all of it went down to offer us the total story of Twitter’s takeover. And it’s a messy one.

I can’t consider one other new collection in current reminiscence that’s left me so hungry for the subsequent situation as The Tin Can Society #1. Earlier than I get into it, although, I ought to be aware that this primary situation opens with a content material warning about violence and discussions of ableism and racism. It’s intense from the soar. The Tin Can Society begins with a criminal offense scene: tech mogul turned superhero Johnny Moore has been murdered.

Moore, born with spina bifida, rose to fame because the genius creator of superior exoskeleton-style mobility aids, and he wore a full-body armored model of one in every of these fits whereas working because the vigilante hero, Caliburn. When he’s discovered lifeless, the go well with is gone. The Tin Can Society follows Moore’s childhood buddies, who come collectively after years aside to unravel his homicide. There’s a variety of coronary heart within the first situation because it bounces between their present-day setting and the previous, constructing out the backstory of Moore’s youth and the tight-knit good friend group that when was. I’m excited to see the place this one goes. The Tin Can Society might be a nine-part mini collection, and the subsequent situation drops in late October.