Books by Al Hess

“This is a science fiction story set in dystopian Utah. A salvager named Valentine is trying to raise enough money to gain citizenship to Salt Lake City, where he will be able to get gender-affirming surgery (he’s trans). Salt Lake City is the utopia of this world, and everybody else lives in the desert beyond it, scrabbling for scraps. Inside Salt Lake City, residents have free healthcare, housing, food, and comfort; outside it, people live in a very desperate state. Valentine takes a job with Osric, an AI trapped in an android body. And, of course, they fall in love along the way! The problem is, Val starts to realizes this job is not what it seems, and he has to choose whether he’ll sacrifice his principles to get what he wants – or give up his own dreams to help others.” Read more...

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Debuts of 2023

Yume Kitasei, Novelist