A house haunted by AI and the mysterious murder 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 solely individual he actually ever sees, however issues have grown tense between them — a scenario solely worsened by the indisputable fact that he’s normally holed up alone in 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 alternative to lastly exhibit his best creation: William, a sophisticated 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 trace of Demon Seed in there, too. That is one other brief learn, coming in at underneath 250 pages, and it’s simply the proper 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 understand 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 complete saga. However for individuals 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 full story of Twitter’s takeover. And it’s a messy one.

I can’t assume of one other new collection in current reminiscence that’s left me so hungry for the subsequent challenge as The Tin Can Society #1. Earlier than I get into it, although, I ought to word that this primary challenge 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 crime scene: tech mogul turned superhero Johnny Moore has been murdered.

Moore, born with spina bifida, rose to fame as the genius creator of superior exoskeleton-style mobility aids, and he wore a full-body armored model of one of these fits whereas working as the vigilante hero, Caliburn. When he’s discovered useless, the swimsuit is gone. The Tin Can Society follows Moore’s childhood associates, who come collectively after years aside to get to the backside of his murder. There’s a lot of coronary heart in the first challenge because it bounces between their present-day setting and the previous, constructing out the backstory of Moore’s adolescence and the tight-knit pal group that after was. I’m excited to see the place this one goes. The Tin Can Society can be a nine-part mini collection, and the subsequent challenge drops in late October.