This is a work in progress. Estimated publication sometime in the second half of 2023.
The Pygmalion Deviation
This is a retelling—insofar as ‘retelling’ is possible—of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, set in a possible near future world of 2053 C.E.
2053 C.E. In a time of runaway climate change, with billions dying from natural catastrophes and new pandemics, those few who can afford it try to pretend they can ignore it all. In those places where civilization still has some kind of order, the mid-21st century descendant of the internet, TransNet, connects and enslaves people at the same time. China is the dominant world power, with the United States relegated to second place. Most of Europe has been transformed by mass migrations, but retains a significant core of what it used to be.
One of those having found a comfortable niche in this new world order of advanced technology is Damon, celebrated modern-day sculptor of exquisitely designed modern-day equivalents of the marble statues of the classical masters. His female, uncannily human, ‘humoid’ Creations fetch astronomical prices. He is about to have his final Creations exhibition at a Paris Gallery.
Clandestinely Damon has developed much more than just humoid machines. His secret Creation, which he has named ‘Ariel’, is an entirely autonomous and unconnected humoid in the form of an exquisitely beautiful woman, who has stepped over the threshold that separates machine from something far more mysterious; and who, at least in Damon’s eyes, has become a person. Deep down, he also knows that he is far too close to falling a victim to the same infatuation that possessed Pygmalion when he created Galatea.
Now, during the exhibition and auction of Damon’s final Creations, Ariel for the first time faces the world and other humans; and she has to convince them that she is human herself. If she does not, then the IAHMA,—the International Artificial Human Management Agency, who keeps a record of, and ultimate control over, all humans not ‘naturally’ brought to gestation, whether they be humoid or artificially-grown IVF embryos—will not only destroy her, but also punish Damon for committing a major international crime.
Matters are complicated when Damon’s old friend Elai shows up and reveals to Damon that he, too, has committed a crime of similar consequentiality, when he created an illegal IVF embryo from his now-dead former lover, who at the time had been married to a wealthy and influential politician, and artificially grew it to maturity without notifying the IAHMA. Elai is desperate, because though he has done everything possible to equip the young woman, who right now is just called ‘Fifty-Seven’, with an intellect, education and a steady-as-she-goes psychological profile, he needs someone to help her become a fully-formed human being.
His old friend Damon is the only one he trusts enough to do this.
NOTE: This novel contains love scenes with mildly explicit sexual elements.