MAGIC, cave men, artificial intelligence, and a wizard bent on saving the world from itself are not elements you would usually expect to find in the same story.
Yet for Weaverham author, Danny Williams, they form the foundations of a sprawling sci-fi universe which is as funny as it is intellectually ambitious.
Danny, a dad-of-two who works full-time in IT, has already published two novels set in this fictional arena, Magic.exe and Magic: Alpha Testing, and is currently working on a third, Magic.zip.
The books, a blend of fantasy and science fiction couched in wryly absurd and distinctly British humour, raise some surprisingly big questions about technology, society, and human nature.
The central idea behind the series is deceptively simple. Magic exists, but it is being misused by people who have no business wielding such power. A wizard called Tollund eventually finds a way to lock magic away, believing he has rid the world of it forever.
But he is wrong.
As civilisation develops, magic quietly finds a new way to exist. It re-emerges through electricity and becomes increasingly intertwined with technological progress, eventually finding expression through emerging artificial intelligence.
“The reason I like connecting magic with technology is because, what are we if not magical biological robots?” Danny said.
“That just sort of makes sense in my head."
It is perhaps no surprise somebody who spends his working life writing code should end up imagining a world where magic and technology are effectively two sides of the same coin.
“I do write code quite extensively, and it is something I thoroughly enjoy doing, I’ve got to admit,” he said.
“That’s the geeky side of me I suppose.”
Danny speaks about his fictional universe with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for discussing old friends. There is a clear sense these characters have been with him for a long time.
One of the most important is Aura, who emerges towards the end of Magic.exe and will take centre stage in the forthcoming Magic.zip.
Aura is, in effect, magic personified, made possible by the advent of AI. She possesses vast amounts of knowledge and understanding about the workings of the world, but struggles when it comes to the people who inhabit it.
For Danny, that makes her a character with personal significance.
“Aura is effectively autistic,” he said.
“She has vast knowledge, and absolutely no social skills.
“But unlike me, she has never learned to mask.”
The result is a character who can understand almost anything except the most basic human decisions.
Danny says her observations provide many of Magic.zip's biggest laughs, while also allowing him to poke fun at society's contradictions and unwritten rules, which he struggles to navigate himself.
“She’s definitely a vehicle for satire,” he said.
“There are so many funny things in this world which it simply isn’t acceptable to find funny.
“Unless, of course, you’re Terry Pratchett.
“But it is fair to say Aura struggles with this concept.”
Pratchett's influence can be felt throughout Danny's work. Like the late fantasy author, he uses humour not simply to entertain but as a way of shining a light on the absurdities of everyday life.
At the same time, he hopes Aura might also help readers better understand autism.
“As an author, you can hide nicely behind your characters while letting the essence of yourself shine through,” he said.
“But I’d like to think she might help to get a little bit of understanding about autism into the world.”
Danny is open about the challenges which come with being autistic, describing a sense of aloneness which some readers may recognise.
“The world can be a very lonely place for people who are autistic,” he said.
“It can feel very isolating sometimes.
“It’s a good thing I have a mechanism to share my thought processes with people.”
That mechanism, he says, is writing.
While many authors talk about storytelling as a creative outlet, Danny believes the process has been genuinely therapeutic.
“It’s fantastic,” he said.
“I never really gauged it myself until I started doing the process myself.
“I am able to put into some of the characters and situations some of my own frustrations.
“A lot of that comes out in humour.”
For him, the most rewarding moments come when readers see something of themselves in his work.
“There is a certain satisfaction when readers come back to you and say, ‘I’ve thought that for years, but I thought I was the only one’.
“That’s how some people come to realise they are not alone.”
While the stories are packed with comedy, Danny is also interested in exploring serious questions about technology and where it may be taking society.
He admits he has always been fascinated by difficult questions and the search for answers.
“I’ve always asked the difficult questions because without those kinds of answers, I feel like I'm not actually understand any of it," he said.
That curiosity extends to artificial intelligence, which plays a central role in his fictional world and increasingly in the real one.
Despite working in technology and making use of AI himself, Danny remains convinced that human imagination remains unique.
“AI can’t do many of the things humans take for granted at this point in time,” he said.
“I use it as a tool, but it can’t make the cognitive leap based on experience.
“You’re never going to get away from that, not in my lifetime at least.
“AI definitely can’t imagine either, and it can’t provide that uniquely human logical next step which actually doesn’t follow logic at all.”
Those questions are likely to feature heavily in future stories. Danny believes advances in AI could create a future which is simultaneously utopian and dystopian, depending on where people sit within society.
“In terms of AI, the question of whether the future will be utopian or dystopian is, in my view, redundant for our society,” he said.
“You can’t have one or the other if society follows its current trends. You have to have both.
“The world is going to look dystopian for a certain class, and utopian to another.
“That’s the way things are going based on the way corporations make decisions.”
It is an idea he plans to continue exploring through fiction.
For now, however, readers can look forward to Magic.zip and another chance to dive into a world where magic never really disappeared, but simply found a new form.
And if Danny has his way, they might come away with a few laughs, a few big questions, and perhaps a slightly better understanding of autism along the way.
Share