We’re thrilled to be hosting an online event with Ros Anderson, Oana Aristide and Eli Lee, three authors whose debut novels take different approaches to exploring the ethical questions around Artificial Intelligence. The many questions include: what happens when AI replaces us, taking our jobs? What happens if AI becomes conscious? If it is self-aware, should we value it as we do human life? And does AI already have too great a role in our lives? The authors will be in conversation with writer and founder of Fringe of Colour Films, Jess Brough.

The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson (Dead Ink Press)

Set in a recognisable near future and laced with dark, sly humour, Ros Anderson’s deeply observant debut is less about the fear of new technology than about humans’ age-old talent for exploitation.

Under the Blue by Oana Aristide (Profile Books)

Mixing the narrative of a road trip with the development of an AI programme that may lead to weigh the value of human life, this is a prescient and vital work of apocalyptic fiction.

A Strange and Brilliant Light by Eli Lee (Jo Fletcher Books)

This riveting, thought-provoking speculative novel explores the impact of the AI revolution through the eyes of three very different young women. Change is coming – change that will launch humankind into a new era.

Ros Anderson lives in the UK. She trained as a dancer but now works as a copywriter and design journalist.

Oana Aristide was born in Transylvania, to parents of Romanian, Greek and Yemeni background. After the fall of communism the family emigrated to Sweden. Oana has worked in the City of London as a macroeconomist, and as an advisor to the Romanian prime minister, but since 2018 she has lived on a Greek island, converting a heritage villa into a hotel.

Eli Lee was born in London and is now based in Dorset. As well as writing fiction and non-fiction for a variety of anthologies, magazines and websites, she is fiction editor at literary journal Minor Literature[s] and was previously an articles editor at Strange Horizons.

Jess Brough is a writer, producer and psycholinguistics PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Jess has written for gal-dem and The Skinny, and has been published in The Bi-Bible: New Testimonials, Extra Teeth magazine and The Best of British Fantasy 2019 anthology. In 2018 Jess founded Fringe of Colour, which has gone on to become a multi-award-winning promotional platform and support network for Black and Brown people at arts festivals.

When you purchase a copy of The Hierarchies, Under the Blue or A Strange and Brilliant Light via the options below, you receive access to watch the event from home. For this special event, we have also created a Three Books & Event Bundle for all three books with a discount. There is an option to purchase a £3 voucher, which also provides access to the livestream. The voucher can be used on any item in the bookshop and on our website – including the books featured in the event.

Debut Speculative Fiction Panel