Title: William
Author: Mason Coile
Release date: September 12th, 2024
*Huge thank you to Andrew Pyper, Edelweiss and G.P Putnam’s Sons for the digital ARC of this one!*
Way back in May, of the year 2023, I trekked out to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, home of the Blue Jays, the Maple Leafs, the Hockey Hall of Fame and my favorite author, Andrew Pyper.
I went there to ‘host’ the 10th anniversary celebration of Andrew’s classic novel, ‘The Demonologist.’ I use the term host loosely, because all I really did was get Andrew to agree to show up and convince Little Ghosts bookstore to let us have it there. I stammered through a maybe two minute speech about how much I love Andrew’s books (it was actually much longer on my phone, but I decided to skip over a bunch of stuff because EVERYBODY was looking at me!!), and then Andrew read from the novel, answered a few questions and signed some books. And then we walked to a local pub and celebrated.
It was all an elaborate excuse to finally and officially meet Andrew in person. If you’re one of the five to ten people in the book world that doesn’t know that I’m a huge fan of Andrew’s, well hello! Otherwise, you’ll know – I’M A HUGE FAN OF ANDREW’S! (And not just because I’m a large individual!)
Now, while out there, I was actually able to hang out with Andrew several times outside of the event, which was AMAZING. And, as a huge Pyper fan, I took the opportunity while we rode the subway, to ask him about what his next novel would be.
And to my utter surprise, he told me. He shared that he was releasing a novel under a pseudonym, that it was with one of his dream publishers and that it focused around an Artificial Intelligence narrative. I was in shock and, other than telling my wife about six times on the phone when I called her while out there, and another three or four dozen times when I was back at home, I told nobody. My lips were sealed and I hadn’t even signed an NDA! I kept my yap shut until the day that Andrew finally, officially announced that his pseudonym was Mason Coile and ‘William’ would be releasing in 2024. Originally announced with a placeholder title, ‘Daemon,’ I couldn’t wait to read this. When the day finally came that the book was available for request through Netgalley and Edelweiss, I jumped on it, hoping to be approved. And, amazingly I was – over at Edelweiss. Netgalley is US only unfortunately. (Side note, I’ve only been approved for three books total over at Edelweiss (close to 100 on Netgalley now) and two of the three have been Andrew’s books – The Residence and now, William).
Having now read, ‘William,’ (twice actually) I’m left in awe at the magnificent novel Andrew’s created, that asks some heavy questions while doing its best to have its main character navigate the minefield of what the future looks like, while also driving an emotional dagger into the reader several times over.
Much like the 2014 movie, ‘Ex Machina,’ and even Spielberg’s 2001 movie, ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence,’ Pyper, as Coile, crafts a novel that is written as though it is sci-fi, while firmly rooting the heart of the story within the horror genre.
As the initial teasers were released, Andrew frequently remarked, ‘to say more would give away some of the twists and turns,’ and frankly, I completely understand that, which will make writing this review that much harder.
What I liked: I’m going to go into this one pretty in depth for two reasons, one – I have a lot of observations. Two – I’m working on something else and this will be utilized for that in the future!
So, to start with, let’s look at this novel purely as a fiction novel. The story follows Henry, a brilliant robotics engineer who has developed a severe cause of agoraphobia, which prevents him from leaving the family home. This affliction is so bad, that every time he even thinks of stepping foot outside, he begins to sweat, panic and his pulse quicken. He’s built a lab on the third floor of their home, where he tinkers away each day, working on whatever it is he’s working on. His wife, Lily, herself a well respected business woman, has sold her most recent start up, which those funds are often used to advance Henry’s experiments. Lily is also pregnant, her first child on the way and as such, Henry is pushing himself to become a better person and to somehow overcome his affliction.
This is the basis and things, on the surface at least, seem to be solid. That is, until two of Lily’s former colleagues come for a visit. Paige and Davis. They meet Henry for the first time, and while over for lunch, Henry introduces them to his greatest creation, William, an AI ‘program’ within an unfinished body. As this is a thriller/sci-fi/horror novel, things go wrong quick and William becomes unhinged. Soon, it’s a fight for survival as they desperately try to flee from the home.
The tension throughout this story was top notch and the storytelling itself was incredibly cerebral. It’s an interesting thing to see Andrew channel another level of crafting a tale, and I often wondered if -releasing this under a pseudonym – allowed him to break free from some of the Pyper shackles and just go for it. Pyper himself is a brand, a thirty year brand of literary/horror thrillers, with smart storytelling and engaging prose. The prose here is immediately identifiable and if I’d not known Coile was Pyper, I still would’ve picked this out as an Andrew book. The voice is the voice is the voice. (And we get a few trademarks within – the appearance/use of the word ghoul being a major one.) But we’ve seen some pushing towards this novel throughout some of Andrew’s own work in the past. The Homecoming (mild-spoiler alert) has very hard sci-fi leanings in the last quarter. Oracle and Oracle 2 have technological themes running throughout them. And even if we go way back to The Trade Mission, we see the tech start up team who’ve developed Hypothesys a virtual reality device involved with morality. Andrew’s dipped his toes into the sci-fi world before, but not to this degree, which I think is partly the Coile development.
Now, we’ve also already been made away of a sequel to this one, ‘Exiles,’ which has a 2025 release date and is set further in the future, but also on Mars. That news does two things. The first, is that you already know there will be a ‘soft ending,’ an ending that does close this book, but obviously leaves the door wide open for the next. Saying that, the ending here is spot on, incredibly unnerving and knowing this tech that Andrew has developed within the book is now out in the wider world, you’ll end this one with an entire body shiver. The second is that it’ll have your brain frantically trying to figure out how we go from here to there. I know I’ve already been trying to determine this leap from earth to Mars and from the end of this novel to the start of that one, so I personally can’t wait to see where it goes.
Lily, Henry and William made for a great trio of characters. The interactions between the three as well as the way the house becomes part of the equation (another Pyper trait, but instead of the outside environment being a character, the house becomes one, much like The Homecoming again), and more unsettling, the technology becomes a central aspect to the unravelling we experience.
Now, let’s examine this novel from the viewpoint that it’s not just fiction, but one 240 page metaphor. Huh? That’s right. From the early pages to the very end, this one quickly became apparent that this was not just a novel. That this was Andrew masking a very real look at a very real time through the lens of fiction.
I may end up being off base with a few things here, and I’ve actually already asked Andrew about a couple pieces to confirm I was on the right track, but let’s break things down here and to begin with, let’s look at Henry and his agoraphobia and lab.
Over the last however many years, starting in May of 2020, Canada was gripped within the Covid pandemic and not too long after, the stay at home rules were put in place, as well with masking and vaccines etc. etc. From 1999 until then, Andrew had already been a fulltime author and as such, his ‘work place’ wasn’t effected the same way others would’ve been, by having to either be laid off or then switching to work from home. When the pandemic hit, in Andrew’s case, his world would’ve shrunk even more, much like Henry’s shrunk. Outside meant sick people, potential illness and even death. When we couple this with the lab/writing office, we see that connection even more. Andrew on the third floor of his house, puttering away at his latest WIP. Henry on the third floor of his house, puttering away at his latest experiment. And when then slot that into Andrew’s life even more – I assume what he does up there is relatively unknown to his wife. I’ll also assume he’ll have conversation with his wife about what he is working on, as many writers do with their significant others, but we see that same connection between Lily and Henry. Lily ordering parts or tracking down whatever it is that Henry needs plays that metaphorical role of Andrew coming to a roadblock and hashing it out with his wife to get her opinion.
I’ll even go one step further and posit that Paige and Davis are representations of Andrew’s own kids, in that as they grow older, the parent sees them less. Paige and Davis arrive to have lunch with them, but it has been a bit since they’ve even seen Lily. Much the same as when busy teenage kids are doing their activities, hanging with friends and then voila, suddenly the entire family is home at the same time and they all can enjoy a meal. And if I’m really connecting these dots like this, we even have the Pyper family dog appear, even though in this case, Mooney is a mechanical creation from Henry, one with whirling ears and a penchant to tag along with Henry.
Now, let’s examine some of Henry’s philosophical statements. Throughout, I got the distinct impression that William represented the wider writing world. This always morphing, always slightly depressing/evil entity that is publishing and writing. Henry has created William, much as Andrew has created his career. Often, Henry questions how he fits in the world, how can he be more connected, a better version of himself and even a better husband and father. Doesn’t that sound like Andrew philosophizing about how he can be a better writer, and father and dad? But also, it frequently poked at the question that I’ve often pushed on all my social media posts about Andrew’s work – why not Andrew? Why isn’t his work even bigger? Why don’t we have five or six movies from his work out already? There’s always variables, always starts and stops, and always a wiggling, worm like ebb and flow for every book release, but to me, this novel seems very introspective, very honest, open and at times, significantly heartbreaking when taken as a metaphor.
Throughout, Henry questions his place in the world and each time he did my heart broke for both Henry and for Andrew. Taken as just a novel, Henry is very Frankenstein’s monster-esque character. A character built of his own construct begging to know why he’s got this brilliant mind but how come the outside world doesn’t let him share it. Taken as a meta piece of fiction, we see Andrew, as Henry, pondering the question of what will it take for his novels to launch into the stratosphere, when time and time again, we see it happen elsewhere. When we see an individual take off and then fall into a pattern of releasing the same novel over and over to critical acclaim, awards and massive sales.
As Andrew’s potential biggest fan (definitely most frequent poster of Andrew’s work!), I’ve often wondered the same thing, and seeing this introspection is both powerful, but also tear-inducing.
I know I’ll be forgetting something to discuss here, but I’ll close this section with a look at the technological side of things. Throughout, AI is prevalent , as is the use of technology. The doors within the house open and close on command. The home itself is hardwired with different little bits of tech and we also see Lily wearing special glasses that have a digital screen within the lenses – much like the ridiculous new Apple Visor things – that Henry notes can make for some odd moments when he thinks she’s blinking at him, but she’s flipping through screens.
Pyper tackles the explosion of technology in two distinct parts. The first half of the novel showcases the excitement of technology. Look what Henry’s created! How wonderful! Look what this house can do! How cool! Look at these glasses! Amazing! And look at William! What a creation! Then, the second half tackles the downside and the over-reliance of technology. It is as though Andrew’s channeled the great Rogers cellphone outage incident we had here in Canada. Where it became apparent just how crippling such an outage can be, where every phone is out, the banks are down, the internet is inaccessible, emergency services are unavailable and Rogers replied with a statement that basically read, ‘Hey sorry about that! We’re not sure why it happened. We can’t promise it won’t happen again! But here’s 50 cents off your next bill for compensation over what happened.’ We see that as William takes hold and decides that in order to truly experience what it means to be alive, Lily, Henry, Paige and Davis are essentially at William’s whim and there really isn’t anything they can do about it. They’ve become technological hostages. At one point, Lily asks Henry if he’s made a kill switch for William, to which he replies, ‘No, I didn’t think I would need one.’ Such is the folly of mankind and believing we’re always in control and nothing bad will ever happen.
I do want to make a note that Andrew’s novels were on the list of books stolen through the online AI debacle. Not only is that reprehensible and disgusting, but within this novel, he seemingly addresses that, when he discusses how William continues to develop and expand on its own volition and Henry has no idea how or why that is happening. It’s because we’ve fed the machine and now the machine continues to take and take and take.
What I didn’t like: Ok, if you’ve somehow gotten this far, you’ll be surprised to discover I hated this novel. HAAA! Just kidding, trying to test you, as you’ve probably fallen asleep. But, as for what I didn’t like, there were a few minor things I noted, but there’s always a reason for them.
First – the main twist. That’s all I can say. Andrew does a wonderful job of hiding it, but I saw it early on and if you do see it early on, it does dampen the reveal later. Saying that, if you do see it early on, it kind of makes what Henry goes through, throughout, all that much more heartbreaking.
Second – expansion. I know Andrew was wanting to keep this one short and sweet, but there’s a few things I wished we would’ve learned more about. There’s a scene where an old man comes walking by while Lily and Paige are outside, and Lily tells him to jog on. It made sense and I think it related to the Covid analogy I’ve theorized, where an old, white, talking head tries to give people advice they don’t want, but it would’ve been great to see more of that. As well, the neighborhood itself. We get some initial descriptions, and the ending expands on it more, but the neighborhood seems very specific, but we don’t really get the why of that. If I’m being metaphorical, I’d assume it relates to Andrew’s real neighborhood and how there were others so close, but so far away, during the pandemic, but I could be wrong. It could also be a discussion point on Toronto itself and the changing landscape of that housing market, but it’s hard to really clamp that down without knowing more.
Lastly, just for fun, if this was a big metaphorical discussion point about Andrew’s real life, I hope to God I wasn’t the William creation, where William continues to talk and suggest things to Henry, until Henry bashes the robot a bunch with a metal bar! Oh dear…
Why you should buy this: A juggernaut of dread, ‘William,’ is an easy, single sitting read where you’ll be rapt the entire time. As always, Andrew’s writing is propulsive, compulsive and can’t-put-down-able. I was hooked from page one and when I wasn’t reading this, I was thinking about it. Andrew’s released some truly remarkable books over his career, but if my deep dive into this is correct (and I know some of it is), Andrew’s taken his writing to yet another level. And once again, the use and adoption of ‘Mason Coile’ make complete sense, in that we can consider this a novel by Mason Coile, written about Andrew Pyper, playing the role of Henry. Got it? Good.
From start to finish, ‘William’ pushes the genre-boundaries while also cementing why Andrew has reshaped the Canadian Literature landscape. A masterpiece by one of the greatest to ever do it, ‘William’ not only fits nicely into the pantheon of Andrew’s bibliography, but, I think at least, shows a chameleon-like rebirth of an author, one that will excite and surprise a lot of new and frequent readers alike.
5/5
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