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The secrets of the Android universe are yours to discover in The Worlds of Android, coming soon to a retailer near you!

Within this beautiful, 272-page hardbound setting guide and art book, you'll find information about the corps, cultures, and technologies of the not-too-distant future. With its full-color art, stunning gatefolds, and a polyphony of narrative voices, The Worlds of Android offers an entry to the Android universe that is every bit as immersive as a full-immersion run on the Network.

So, what is full-immersion? How does it feel to conduct a run on corporate servers? How has the development of the Beanstalk enriched humanity? What's happening on Mars? The Worlds of Android provides the answers to these questions, along with many others.

At the same time, The Worlds of Android is likely to raise nearly as many questions as it answers. While the future of The Worlds of Android may have been shaped by the development of bioroids, clones, the space elevator, and the Network, it is defined by its humanity—an all-too-familiar assortment of all the best and worst that humans bring to all that they touch. The world has changed, but our ambitions, greed, and political strife remain the same. We still pursue happiness, seek newer and better forms of entertainment, and look to aid our neighbors or combat them in bloody wars.

And all our actions still have consequences, whether for good or ill…

Between the rising sea levels and biome shifts, the War, and the colonization of Mars and Earth’s moon, the geography of human civilization has changed more in the past century than ever before.

 

Scheduled to arrive at retailers in March, The Worlds of Android is divided into three major sections. The first of these offers a closer look at the Android universe's four most important megacorps and their technological advances. The second looks at the many ways that the world has changed—along with the ways that its concerns have extended to Luna and Mars. The third explores what it means to be human in a time of androids and data streams that can feed directly into the brain, interpreted with bleeding-edge software.

It is the second section that concerns us today, especially as it sheds new light on the continents and settlements that lie farthest from New Angeles, the Beanstalk, and the hub of most materials set within the Android universe to-date. From New Angeles and the North American megacities of BosWash, ChiLo, and SanSan, The Worlds of Android leads us to South America, where Brazil and Ecuador are enjoying a renaissance of prosperity and influence. You'll also learn about the decline of Europe and Central Asia and differing trajectories of the nations of Southeast Asia and Australia.

"…Smoke plumed from food vendors; cattle brayed; drums pounded, the religious revelers proving undaunted by the weather. The last dregs of sunlight were blocked by millions of hoppers jostling for position in Mumbad’s three-tiered skylanes overhead."

The nations of East Asia still bear scars from the War, whether they be physical or political. And while we learn that clones outnumber bioroids by more than two to one in Japan, owing to Jinteki's influence, we also learn that China is still struggling to recover from the Blackout and regain the economy, influence, and potential it previously enjoyed. Nonetheless, the nation remains a major power with serious ambitions, and New Beijing is in talks to finance the development of a second space elevator in Kampala, Uganda. The scientists on the project have not yet replicated the buckyweave tether that allowed Weyland to raise the original Beanstalk, but it may only be a matter of time… which bears the obvious question of how a second space elevator would affect Weyland's business.

Of course, there's more than one world represented in The Worlds of Android, and the book's second chapter also explores life on Luna and Mars. Not only does it offer a wealth of information about the settling of these two locations, it goes into terrific depth about the layout, enterprise, and culture of both Heinlein and Bradbury, the major Martian settlement. You'll also find some gorgeous, two-page maps and a full-color gatefold of Heinlein that reveals what you see of the colony above the moon's surface is only a small portion of the whole.

More importantly, because questions about human nature pervade all of the Android universe, The Worlds of Android makes sure to touch upon hot nightclubs, criminal organizations, and social mores. And for all that technology has changed humanity, people are still people, as evidenced in the book’s brief history of the Worlds War and the Martian Colony Wars, along with the short pieces of fiction that offer a window into the lives of those who lived through them.

…incursions on each other’s territory is tantamount to a declaration of corporate war.

Altogether, there's plenty within the book's 272 pages to satisfy your initial curiosity. But once you've explored humanity's reach beyond the borders of New Angeles and the Network, you're likely to find yourself asking, "What next? Where does it lead? And what role are the corps playing in all of this?" For all the answers you'll find to the questions that have long been haunting you, there's just as much that's likely to further whet your appetite for the Android universe and its fantastically recognizable future.

<Query: When does it all begin?>

The not-too-distant future of The Worlds of Android is likely closer than you think. If you haven't already pre-ordered your copy at your local retailer, you'll want to be sure to do so today. Then, be sure to share this article on Facebook so that we can unleash a horde of zombie bots against NBN's servers, crash them, and access more images from The Worlds of Android!

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