BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: September 2025
Genre: Supernatural/Fantasy
Publisher: Casa Muerte Press
Page Count: 170
Format: Paperback, Ebook
ISBN: 9798299435443
Price: $9.99 (PB), $2.99 (eBook)
ABOUT THE BOOK
“He condemned the living for the crime of existence.”
A twelfth century vision of artificial intelligence foreshadows a sixteenth century recipe to produce it. A nineteenth century prison nurtures it. A twenty-first century golem befriends it. And a boy without a century stands at the intersection of real and virtual, moments into the future. They call him The Mechanic.
A kidnapping leads Hanzi Boss to a sanctuary community where religious law forbids speech by the artificially intelligent. For beings like him, the penalty for existing is death and his true nature must remain secret. But the community has its own secrets. An ancient immigrant hides there, a monster made not born, a being who can know Hanzi for what he really is. When the price of life is death, who survives—infinite strength steeped in the silence of the past, or intelligence guided by lived experience?
This is a story of arcane knowledge, alchemy, and strange philosophies. It is the story of a being not created by God, who does not know what he is and searches for something more. Initial Condition is the third book in The Mechanic’s Diary series following Wake the Whirlwind and Neurojuggler.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ian Domowitz is a veteran of the military, academia, and Wall Street. He splits his time between Manhattan and the woods of Pennsylvania, where he spends an excessive amount of time conversing with his two English setters. Despite holding 12 patents in financial technology, he promises no use of generative AI in his written work. He can be contacted through www.iandomowitz.com.
TIMELY TIE-INS
January
- New Year, New Year, New Fears / New Frontiers
- National Science Fiction Day – 2
- Data Privacy Day – 28
February
- International Book Giving Day
- Safer Internet Day – 11
- Library Lovers Day – 14
- Digital Learning Day – 27
March
- National Read Across America Day – 2
- National Day of Unplugging – 7
- Pi Day – 14
- International Read to Me Day – 19
- World Storytelling Day – 20
- Cerebral / High-Concept Fantasy Features (Spring Books Roundups)
April
- School Library Month
- National Robotics Week – 4-11
- National Library Week – 19-25
SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- Martha Wells first advertised her sci-fi Murderbot Diaries, now a streaming series, as “an exploration of consciousness in AI.” Initial Condition is an allegory of one AI’s search for the Singularity. What do you see as the similarities and differences?
- Your book is predicated on the idea of an AI produced in the 16th century brought into the near future. How does that work?
- Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein came out in October 2025. Is there a connection between his monster and your homunculus concept?
- There are a few things that seem really topical about the book. For example, you describe talking as a crime with a death sentence. Were you thinking about free speech here? You also describe a “sanctuary community.” Anything going on there?
- This book has your hero dealing with a golem, a Jewish myth from the 1600s. Why the golem figure? Is it something more than just another monster?
- The book is part of a series, with two books leading up to this one and a fourth already written and available for pre-order. How are they connected?
- The main characters are primarily teenagers. Is this book for a YA audience?
- Why a novella? Why not a full-length novel?
PRAISE
“A reality-bending mix of mysticism and alchemy…. Domowitz blends biblical lore with concepts of moral responsibility and accountability in this visceral exploration of humanity, free will, and spirituality…. Ultimately, Domowitz’s imaginative allegory explores the search for truth and identity alongside the value of arcane wisdom versus lived experience.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Domowitz’s prose is sharp and hypnotic, mixing the textures of dark fantasy with the pacing of a techno-thriller…. By the end, the kidnapping feels almost secondary to the novel’s larger meditation on creation, responsibility, and the human craving to make something that can answer back.”
—The Prairies Book Review
“Libraries seeking series additions that work well together to add philosophical, psychological, and magical realism components to a dark fantasy for mature teen and adult readers will find this mix of spiritual and ideological reflection to be astute and compelling…. [A] completely engrossing, creative story that toes the line between magical realism, dark fantasy, philosophical and social inspection, and an exciting foray into human and AI potential.”
—Midwest Book Review
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Memoir / Christian Inspirational
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1647429003
Price: $15.99