The Kingdom

April 1, 2019
Ana is flawless, and she lives in a fantastical place of perfection where her job is to please. Ana and her Fantasist "sisters" are human/animatronic hybrids. They perform as gorgeous princesses for paying guests in the Kingdom, a kind of futuristic Disneyland. At night they settle in for update installations, their wrists bound with velvet straps to their beds. But hybrid creatures throughout the Kingdom, from butterfly to polar bear, are starting to malfunction. The Fantasist women are acting out of character too. Ana finds herself having strange sensations such as desire and anger...feelings. As Ana evolves, she begins to wonder why her sisters can't remember what happens behind the scenes when powerful visitors get time alone with the Fantasists. And then--as punishment for a bizarre act of violence--one of her sisters is abruptly replaced. As her discernment and fear grow, so does Ana's obsession with 19-year-old Taiwanese-American Owen Chen. The textured narrative unfolds through court documents, trial transcripts, and first-person narration from Ana, cleverly conveying her motivations. This sublime blend of The Stepford Wives and Westworld is richly composed and intricately plotted. Ana and most major characters are white; there is some diversity among the Fantasists. Breathtakingly imagines humanity entangled with artificial intelligence. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)

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May 27, 2019
Rothenberg (The Catastrophic History of You and Me) presents a thought-provoking anti–fairy tale of AI enslavement for the amusement of humans. Ana is one of seven Fantasists, organic-technological hybrids who serve as princesses—hostesses and attractions—at the Kingdom, the world’s most advanced amusement park in the 2090s. The Fantasists have been engineered to be beautiful representatives of the global population and are programmed to be helpful, polite, and compliant. Ana and some of her “sisters,” though, have begun to have their own thoughts. Beginning with the discovery of an unnamed body, the story follows three timelines, interweaving brief coverage of a public trial and a secret post-trial interview of Ana with events leading up to the murder. Those events include two of Ana’s sisters, Nia and Eve, who were permanently shut down after violent aberrant behavior, as well as Ana’s growing relationship with Owen, a maintenance man with an unusually high security clearance. Rothenberg delves into questions of what it means to be sentient and how humankind treats beings considered to be “lesser.” Combining elements of mystery, drama, and romance with science fiction, this novel will have broad appeal. Ages 14–up.

June 14, 2019

Gr 9 Up-In 2095, the Kingdom is the most technologically advanced entertainment complex in the world, a Disney-esque theme park where a patented fusion of virtual reality and interactive technology provide unparalleled enjoyment for guests. Ana is one of the park's seven Fantasists, human-android princesses designed in a lab to read and mirror human emotion and provide the ultimate interactive experience. Ana and her sisters are programmed to obey the Kingdom's Supervisors, behave within acceptable boundaries, and display only artificial emotion. But when her sister Nia disappears, Ana begins asking questions about the status quo and experiencing emotions she doesn't have words for. She befriends a handsome maintenance worker at the park, who hints at a dark undercurrent beneath the Kingdom's sparkle and inspires her to dream of a more fulfilling life outside the park gates. Then Ana is accused of murder; she faces the fight of her life to save her sisters and reclaim her future. Rothenberg skillfully constructs the narrative via a series of flashbacks and transcripts from Ana's trial, and despite initially slow pacing and a slightly clumsy ending, she excels at capturing the arc of Ana's emotional development from machine-like to passionate. VERDICT This highly accessible title is recommended to both science fiction fans and teens who don't normally read in this genre, and to readers who enjoyed titles such as Lauren Oliver's Replica and S.J. Kincaid's The Diabolic.-Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill Coll., Melbourne, Australia

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