After
Pádraig Kenny
Walker Books

“Tell me agin how the world ended.” So says Jen as the story begins; this is something her father has talked of with her many times already. Now the two are walking towards the old city hoping to find food and other useful supplies. Once again Father explains how humans destroyed the world little by little, first its habitats, followed by The Flood that wiped out many of their own kind.

In the city their search of the supermarket shelves yields nothing, but the library has lots of books and Jen is fascinated by an old tablet bearing the label Seacroft Technologies. Then following an encounter with a family to whom they give all they have in the way of food and medicines, Father declares that they should find somewhere to spend the night; this they do in a deserted hotel. Come sunrise they leave, find something for Jen to eat in another supermarket and then proceed to walk, passing a number of wrecked robots including one resembling a massive scorpion. By evening they reach the edge of a forest.

As they sit together Jen notices a flickering in the darkness and urges Father to investigate. The following morning they take a detour despite Father’s concerns that they might encounter people, perhaps not friendly ones. His prediction is correct and they come upon a small community, which to Jen’s delight, seem welcoming. Among them is a boy around her age, so Jen is even more eager to join them. Father though must keep his true existence – an autonomous robot, with the appearance of a human – secret from these clearly technophobic Flood survivors. If not, what will happen?

Jen and Father are not related but have formed a very close bond even though the latter is programmed to be devoid of emotions and relies on a childcare book for his parenting. So when Father’s secrets start to unravel, Jen faces an impossible decision: Father or community? And what of that holiday camp place she’d read about in a brochure a while back?

With occasional illustrations by Steve McCarthy, this is another brilliant, entirely credible story set in a Dystopian future by the author of Stitch that is an exploration of what it means to be human; in addition however, Pádraig Kenny explores the role of AI and a possible horrendous outcome of human’s ever increasing reliance on technology.

I wonder just how far child readers think we humans should go in our never-ceasing endeavours to have a better life.