''The Old Axolotl'' ( pl, Starość aksolotla) is a 2015 digital-only novel by Polish

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

author

Jacek Dukaj Jacek Józef Dukaj (born 30 July 1974) is a Polish science fiction and fantasy writer. He has received numerous literary prizes including the European Union Prize for Literature and Janusz A. Zajdel Award. Career He was born on 30 July 1974 i ...

. The novel was released in Polish on March 10, 2015, and shortly afterward, on March 24 that year, in English (translated by Stanley Bill). It has been described as "an experiment in reading (and creating) the electronic literature of the future". It is Dukaj's first novel and his homepage described the work as his "debut in English", though several of his short stories (''The Golden Galley,'' 1996, ''The Iron General'', 2010, ''The Apocrypha of Lem'', 2011) have been translated prior to this. The novel has inspired two

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

original series Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...

: the 2020

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

'' Into the Night'', and its 2022

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

spin-off '' Yakamoz S-245''.

Plot

The novel presents a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...

vision of Earth where biological life has been wiped out, inhabited by

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

s and

mech In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...

s, many of which are humans whose consciousness has been digitized in the wake of an extinction event.

Significance and analysis

The novel is an example of electronic literature, available only in digital formats, and has no traditional paper version. It was designed from the beginning not only to incorporate more traditional elements such as illustrations, but also hypertext, and 3D- printable models of main robotic characters designed by

Alex Jaeger Alex Jaeger is an American art director. Filmography *1996: '' Star Trek: First Contact'', visual effects art director *1997: ''Starship Troopers'', visual effects art director *2003: ''Hulk'', visual effects art director *2007: ''Transformers'', ...

, the art director of ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'' films. The novel composition is layered, with the narrative layer, an encyclopedic/hyperlinked footnote layer, and a

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...

layer, including illustrations and a short promotional video by the Oscar-nominated

Platige Image Platige Image S.A. is a Polish company founded in 1997. It specialises in computer graphics, 3D animation, and digital special effects. Its core business includes advertising as well as film, art, and academic projects. The studio employs a staf ...

studio. One of the novel's central questions is: "What does it mean to be human?" Other subjects are "staples of cyberpunk and related genres, such as the

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

". The novel is representative of Dukaj's prose, posing philosophical questions about the future of man and technology. The other major element of the novel is Dukaj's attempts to introduce the reader to the new style of electronic literature. The novel was nominated for the 2016

Janusz A. Zajdel Award The Janusz A. Zajdel Award (''Nagroda imienia Janusza A. Zajdla''), often called just Zajdel, is the annual award given by the Polish science fiction and fantasy fandom for the best stories published in the previous year. The winners are chose ...

References

External links

Novel websitePromotional video for the novel
by

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Axolotl Novels about artificial intelligence Novels about robots Artificial intelligence in fiction Fiction about consciousness transfer Polish novels Electronic literature works 2015 novels Post-apocalyptic novels Cyberpunk novels Mecha in literature Jacek Dukaj

Plot

Significance and analysis

See also

References

External links