Long for the World

Androids do not age; they are never children, and they never grow old. They’re like magic beings in a fairy tale.

This is a continuation of the story of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, androids created by Mycroft Holmes, a genius in the field of artificial intelligence who has learned how to make his androids self-aware and capable of experiencing emotion. It continues soon after Learning the Heart, as the post-war world rebuilds and changes.

The story is told by John Watson, an android, a lover of books, a writer of stories, beloved of Sherlock Holmes. It’s an important story to tell, he feels, because people need to understand that an android’s heart is not just a mechanism. No one knows exactly what a soul is; who’s to say an android doesn’t have one?