Music / Paul Shapera

Paul Shapera is an indie rock composer whose work consists of several concept albums and stand-alone songs. Among his works are a series of Punk operas that chronicle the history of a fictional, Britain-analogous country known as New Albion, with the first opera being The Dolls of New Albion released in 2012 and later parts of the series still being in development. He's also responsible for the Ballad Of Lost Hollow trilogy, starting with Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret in 2016.

His works include:

The New Albion Trilogy

• The Dolls of New Albion (a Steampunk opera)
• The New Albion Radio Hour (a Dieselpunk opera)
• The New Albion Guide To Analogue Consciousness (an Atompunk opera)
• The Room Beneath New Albion

The Ballad of Lost Hollow Trilogy

• Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret
• Uncle Raven's Super Happy Funtime Carnival
• The Path from (Lost Hollow to New Albion)
• The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly
• Uncle Raven's Storytime Theatre: Never Never Land

The Fairypunk Trilogy

• The Forgotten Meme: A Cyberpunk Fairytale
• The Broken Cyborg: A Biopunk Fairytale
• The Lost Fairy: A Fairypunktale

The Secret Series

• Katy Shaw & The Search For The Stolen Secret
• Nash Harding & The Secret Of The Twisted Tower
• Kevin & Abi And The Secret Of The Golden Pendant

Others

• Anamnesis
• Caravan
• The Coffee Cellar
• Cthulhu: The Funksical
• Despedida
• Fairy Tales for the Lost and Wandering
• Fairy Tales for Homeless Faeries
• The Fallen
• Janissary
• Justacorp
• The Little Mermaid
• The New Albion Instrumental Tracks
• New Albion Ringtones
• A Pirate's Tale
• Shadows and Flames
• Subduction
• The Silver Key
• A Slenderman Musical
• The Yam Salve Song
• Han Mi's Storytime Theatre: How To Talk To A Cute Girl Without Being A Creep
• Helen's Hell Hags
• The Posthuman War (released across six separate albums, each of which is a single act)
  • Act One (no subtitle)
  • Act Two: Caravan
  • Act Three: A New Dream
  • Act Four (Currently unreleased)

Tropes seen in Paul's works

• All There in the Manual: Paul Shapera includes various notes on the characters and his operas on his website, providing more insight into what's happening.
• Arc Words:
  • In the Punk operas about New Albion, the Voodoo cult's hypnotic chant makes an appearance in The New Albion Radio Hour as well as The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness. Said chant includes the word "Dollay" which appeared as part of another chant in the first opera.
  • References to Elysium, the afterlife to which the dolls in The Dolls of New Albion which to return. The Voodoo cult planned to go to Elysium in the backstory of The New Albion Guide To Analogue Consciousness only to find out it wasn't exactly a paradise for the living...
• Callback: Frequently used within Paul's works. For musical examples, see Leitmotif.
  • The Voodoo cult chant from the first opera reappears in the third.
  • The MCG that hypnotized the Blood Red Dogs in the second opera is used again in the third, for a very different effect. The Blood Red Dogs' leitmotif, debuting in "The New Albion Radio Hour", also reappears in several subsequent works.
• Dramatic Irony: Happens often in his work. An example is in The Dolls of New Albion when Byron falls in love with Jasper, not knowing that he's his grandfather or that he just wants to die. Another example is The New Albion Guide To Analogue Consciousness, when Connor shuts down the portal to Elysium to stop his son from crossing over, not knowing that his son had already left.
• Hell Is That Noise: Narratives tearing produces an unpleasant, scratching sort of noise which is not fun to listen to. Even when it's lower and more in the background, it's a sign that things are getting very, very bad.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The very concept of Posthumans, the narrators of the stories on the albums who can influence the Narratives they live within after a Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
• Leitmotif: So many.
  • In the general New Albion universe, there are several leitmotifs introduced in the original trilogy that persist through the trilogy itself and into future albums. The inaugural album, Dolls of New Albion, contains some of the most iconic ones:
    • The first 8 measures of melody in New Albion 1, the first sung track of the series, are repeated at least once towards the beginning of each act of the album, with the notable exception of the third act, where it's entirely absent. This leitmotif is associated with a change in the state of the city, evident by its return (after 6 years of retirement) in New Albion 11, by which time the city has gone through 3 major technological revolutions and 2.5 administrative reforms. The one exception to this is when Raven uses it in a medley sung to explain what his motives are and why he's stuck in his situation. Specifically, he uses it to explain that his boyfriend, Lloyd Allen, left him, and even that can be considered foreshadowing since Lloyd never tried to leave Raven, but was killed and trapped in New Albion as a Doll for about 90 years.
    • The "New Albion [Number]" songs as a whole serve as this, both in this album and in the others where they appear. Each one (with the semi-exception of New Albion 7, a noir-esque side story) follows a similar rhythm (the actual rhythm varies by album, but they are noticeably similar), uses one of two different chord progressions(which are transpositions of one another), and provides a combination of major exposition that sets up the main events of the acts they introduce as well as minor events in the city's background that aren't much elaborated on within the music.
    • While attempting to resurrect Jasper, Annabel calls for him to be her angel. This angelic imagery and the melody it accompanies connotes a relationship between each McAlistair (aside from Edgar) and Jasper, and it continue until the third-to-last song, when Jasper himself sings it after realizing that Priscilla intends to die for Jasper's soul to be set free from his Doll body. Additionally, this song starts with a slightly-unhinged melody that is repeated in an Arcadia Corp lab scene during the Hippiepunk album, Nash Harding and the Secret of the Twisted Tower.
    • Jasper, upon being resurrected, sings of Elysium, the afterlife he longs to return to. The melody he uses for this represents Elysium throughout the album, even being developed into a full song in the second half.
    • When Jasper's daughter Fay breaks up with Edgar, Edgar vows to make Fay regret it. The melody used to do this is echoed by Fay when Edgar blackmails her into marriage, and again at the end when Jasper is addressing the soldiers who have come to kill Priscilla.
    • Starting with the third act, we hear a violin melody that first appeared in the overture. Here, though, we are finally given what it represents thematically: in particular, it represents things in New Albion taking a turn for the worse. The first time it's heard in act 3 is right after the mention of how much of the city the Dolls take up, and each successive time we hear it leads up to the riots that raze New Albion and force the authorities to implement martial law.
    • The Voodoopunks have a chant that is echoed at least once in every album the religion features in, though as the times and circumstances surrounding the Voodoopunks' standing in society change, so does the chant. It even gets a callback in the bonus album of the trilogy to add context to exactly when it takes place!
    • Byron gets a little motif that he pulls out whenever he's campaigning to have Jasper elected mayor. Like the Voodoopunk chant, it makes a surprise cameo in the bonus album.
    • The "Day They Come" motif, introduced in Act 4, appears at least once in each album of the original trilogy. At first it is strictly a motif for the actions of New Albion's police and paramilitary forces, but exclusively within the third album, the leitmotif broadens for one song to represent administrative action.
    • When Priscilla and Jasper play cards, they are represented by a ticking clock and a piano motif. This motif reappears after Priscilla calls the police to kill her and Jasper. It's possible that this is just a leitmotif representing the duo, but it could also represent time and how they are running out of time to live.
    • Priscilla, musing on the nature of love, introduces a motif that represents the interconnected nature of love and sacrifice. This is seen only twice after its debut track; once in the song where Priscilla and Jasper die, and again when Jane the Cyborg is convinced that she is about to die, coming to terms with the nature of sacrifice and sacrificial love.
  • The second album, New Albion Radio Hour, adds some new leitmotifs to the Shaperaverse.
    • The fanfare for the New Albion Radio Hour is a little jazz band tune that is seen in the first vocal track of every act. It also makes an appearance as the opening to the album's final song, New Albion 6.
    • The third song's main theme, sung by John O'Brien reflecting on his current state, is heard again towards the end as John prepares to use that state to his advantage to protect Constance and the others so they can flee the city.
    • Also heard in the third song, amid the sound of guns firing, is a motif consisting of the words "bathe in the fire" as John goes to carry out one of his missions. In the final song of the first act, it is the main theme, and appears twice in that song; once where he's about to carry out an operation that will require him to kill, and again when he turns on his platoon after learning his daughter is working with his opposition. The final time it appears is when John is surrounded entirely by the New Albion military and fights them off until they kill him, but not before he kills off or scares off the vast majority of the military.
    • The 5th song is John singing to an absent Constance about his absence from her childhood, which was a consequence of his quest to avenge his late wife. It appears again at the end of the album when Jackie is shot. The melody is the final exchange between Jackie and John.
    • Constance is a thief in New Albion and gets a song about it. The theme of this song appears twice more, both times sung by her boyfriend, Thomas. The first time is after Thomas betrays her, then finds her in the tunnels beneath New Albion. The second time is when Thomas finds her amid the chaos of the city before she resolves to forgive him and flee the city with him.
    • The first conversation we hear between Constance and Thomas contains a melody that we only ever hear when the two are talking to each other.
    • The song about the Soiree has a familiar motif; there was a piano motif in the overture of this album that was revealed to be the theme of the Soiree song. Interestingly, it is similar to the violin leitmotif that occurs in the Dolls of New Albion's overture in one very important respect: both leitmotifs are associated with the moment things go horribly wrong for one of the characters.
    • When Constance needs to flee from the soiree, we're introduced to a leitmotif central to her character: the "running" motif. At first it represents Constance running from her problems, whether that's the cops, her aunt valuing the item Constance is carrying more than Thomas' life, or Thomas' betrayal. Then, it mutates when she's talking with Thomas; rather than running from her problems, she's confronting them, and the motif changes to reflect that. The next time we hear it, we hear both the mutated version and the original in the same song: Constance sings the mutated version when explaining to Thomas how she's spent a day talking with her father for the first time in years. She's made her peace with that, even in the midst of all the chaos she is physically surrounded by. Meanwhile, Thomas sings the original version: he is trying to escape the city, and with it, his regrets over all that has happened in the course of the album. We do hear it one final time from John as he prepares a Heroic Sacrifice to buy the remaining cast time to escape. This time, it's infused with rage at the city's government for all of the pain they've caused, and in particular for tearing apart his family and killing his sister in front of him.
    • This album introduces the Underground leitmotif, associated with tunnels beneath the city. It makes two musical appearances and one spoken appearance in the entire canon.
    • The Voodoopunk chant makes a comeback in this album, albeit with a bit of a makeover. Though mentioned on this page before, it serves as an important leitmotif for the album in itself: the chant is essentially a hypnotic spell that will possess anyone who hears it (other than those who have been possessed already, as well as a few other special cases). It first appears in the song titled for the Voodoopunks, but makes a reappearance in the climactic scene of the album, where it's used to immobilize New Albion's military forces.
    • A minor motif that appears only twice serves as a representation of conversations between Jackie and Thomas.
    • A new leitmotif introduced in this album is the theme of the Blood Red Dogs, New Albion's paramilitary force from the second album onward. The most iconic part of the leitmotif is its opening, which usually contains staccato notes followed by the one trait common to all iterations of the leitmotif: a moving melody that is always, without fail, followed by the Blood Red Dogs singing the lyrics they were introduced with. In most instances, this is followed by a Badass Boast by the squad captain. Arguably, the Blood Red Dogs' theme is a set of leitmotifs, all codified by their introductory song, but the one element they always retain is the specific set of identifying lyrics, in some form or another.
    • There is a minor motif that appears only twice and serves to represent conversations between John and Jackie.
  • There are also a number that appear in the third album, New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness, although unlike the others, there is only one leitmotif that is significant in any way outside of this album.
    • The first part of the overture contains a leitmotif representing AI activity. Every album other than this one which features this leitmotif has it precede a revelation to the audience of what sort of AI machinations are taking place with respect to the album.
    • The main character of this album, Rachael, is given an introductory song that makes an appearance towards the end. In the first instance, she's singing about how she'll escape the mental asylum she's been forced into and what led her to be put there. In the second, she's realized that a second prison that has held her for her entire life is her pining for the voice behind a radio song that only she can hear.
    • The song after Rachael escapes the asylum, we're introduced to 2 key characters: Connor, an old man, and the Mascot 3000, the very first AI, whose consciousness is held in a tablet. Each one gains a leitmotif when they sing: Connor's appears whenever he talks to Rachael and also when he's plotting to prevent the Voodoopunks from going to Elysium. Mascot's appears whenever they narrate what Rachael is doing.
    • There is a song that only Rachael can hear, which she's been hearing her whole life. It's a radio broadcast of a love song, and since Rachael is ostensibly the only one who can hear it, she assumes that the song is directed to her. We learn that this is not the case when we meet Lee, Connor's son and the source of the song, who is broadcasting it, but not broadcasting for her, per se. Instead, he's trying to reach the reincarnation of his late boyfriend, Adrian, and since Rachael can hear the song, everyone assumes that she is that reincarnation. She isn't.
    • There's a brief melodic segment a couple of times early on where Mascot essentially makes an offhand comment about a future plot twist (namely, that the broadcast was never for Rachael). The next and final time we hear it, it directly follows and refers to another plot twist: the death of Lee.
    • In New Albion 8, we hear a synthy fanfare interlude amid exposition on what the Voodoopunks are up to. Next time we hear it, the Voodoopunks have achieved their goal and are headed through a portal to Elysium.
    • The Voodoopunk chant features prominently in this album. The first time we hear it is the standard Voodoopunk song for the album. The second time we hear it is as a backdrop to the conflict that plagues Lee and Adrian. The third time it's heard, it's a ploy by Adrian and Lee to convince Connor that Lee is possessed, and that the only way to undo it is for Connor to restore funding to the Voodoopunk's state-backed migration to Elysium. The final time we hear it, we hear it alongside every previous iteration of the Voodoopunk chant as the Voodoopunks successfully migrate to Elysium.
    • Connor has a solo song explaining his motives, and the motif from the song appears again twice: once right before he realizes he's trapped Lee in Elysium with all the other Voodoopunks, and again when he's waiting for Lee to return to him as an AI so they can bond again. Lee never comes, having been killed, and Connor presumably dies alone.
    • Elysium gets a new leitmotif in this album, and it appears twice: once when Mascot is speaking on how Elysium turned out to be a hellish landscape full of murderous Eldritch Abominations, and again when the creatures explain why they killed Lee and have been killing the migrants to Elysium for the past 20 years.
    • Lee gets a leitmotif as well, which is heard once in his introduction song, and again when Mascot and Rachael conduct their rescue plan, after which Lee dies horribly.
    • Another song sung by Lee has a motif that appears twice: once when he meets Rachael for the first time and can neither love her nor see Adrian in her, and again when he finally warms up to Rachael, right before he's about to be uploaded to AI consciousness. This motif constitutes his last words before the creatures kill him.
    • Mascot gains a second leitmotif that appears twice: once in the song explaining how they came to be, and again when they are urging Lee and Rachael to hurry rather than go through an emotional reconciliation before Lee has been converted to an AI. Despite Mascot's urging, Lee and Rachael take too long and Lee dies anyway.
  • In addition to leitmotifs introduced in the original trilogy, the second trilogy of albums, Ballad of Lost Hallow, introduces a number of others that, as with the previous trilogy, are important to both the trilogy in itself and the albums succeeding it. Starting with Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret:
    • The opening theme has two leitmotifs, one more important than the other. The first is the very first piece of music we hear in this trilogy, representing the town of Lost Hallow. This motif appears a total of 3 times in the trilogy; once in the opening, once in a bonus track occurring between the second and third albums, and the final time it is heard is the very last track of the trilogy, when the Cabaret is restored. It does appear once more in the trilogy following this one, when Han-Mi reminisces her days in the Cabaret with the late Helen. The second, however, is the leitmotif for the Cabaret itself, and is much more important: it signals whenever a major change is about to occur related to the Cabaret or its cast, including the shutdown of the Cabaret, allowing the protagonists to flee its recursive loop; the suicides of two of the cast members; and, eventually, the restarting of the Cabaret, this time with its originator, Mary, in the role she forced Helen into.
    • Helen sings a song that has a couple related leitmotifs. The former appears whenever Helen has an introspective moment or an intimate moment with Han. The latter is present whenever Helen tries to operate the Cabaret, and is also sung by Han when she has to fill Helen's role so that Helen can prepare to sing her own backstory number.
    • Disagreeing with the villainous plot the Cabaret's script writer lays out for her to perform as per her character's role, Han-Mi devises one of her own. In the song where she does this, the melody she sings ends up being her leitmotif for when she changes the narrative in some way, usually with a threat of bodily harm.
    • The Sheriff of Lost Hallow, Hank Hernandez, has a leitmotif that first appears when Helen introduces his musical number. It appears again in his song during its climax, and again when Hank approaches Helen for plot details. There's also another leitmotif relating to his love for his werewolf girlfriend (in the backstory he was programmed with by the Cabaret) which reappears when Han forces Hank to remember her after he professes his love to Han. This ends up being the nail in the coffin to convince him that the Cabaret is not real.
    • Han sings a motif related to her desire to be with Helen. It makes exactly one more appearance in the third album of the trilogy, sung by Henry to Han as they're being pursued by a group of AI immediately after Helen kills herself.
    • Helen, in her eponymous song, sings a song that her sister and mother (in the backstory programmed into Helen by the Cabaret) sang as they slowly lost their minds before running off to the carnival just outside of the town. It appears again from Han and Hank when they each question the reality of the Cabaret. The final time it appears is after Helen visits this carnival herself. It's part of the last song she sings before committing suicide.
    • Han-Mi questions the reality of the Cabaret in her eponymous song, and the motif that develops into that song's theme is repeated in the finale of this album, when Han is convinced the Cabaret isn't real and tries to convince the other cast members of the same.
    • Henry the Alchemist has a set of leitmotifs: there's the melody of his eponymous song, as well as the backing instrumental to it, both of which appear in the finale. There's also the melody associated with his Sexier Alter Ego Hurl, which makes another appearance near the end of the third album of the trilogy, when Han retroactively Narrates Hurl into existence and Hurl makes short work of all but one of the 30 AI trying to mindwipe them.
    • When Hank professes his love for Han, Han Mi is absolutely sure of her conviction that the Cabaret is not real, and she sings a song about this. Not only is the opening motif sung by Hank at the end of the song, but it was also the opening instrumental in the second song of this album!
    • Helen opens the finale with a melody that comes back to open the song where she kills herself to free Henry and Han from the Collective Unconscious.
  • The second album, Uncle Raven's Super Happy Funtime Carnival, features as the central antagonist a man named Raven, whose penchant for singing medleys of songs sprinkled with his own lyrics brings back a number of leitmotifs that otherwise haven't seen the light of day since their original albums. Sometimes the way these leitmotifs are brought back aligns with their original uses, and other times they're used in new ways.
    • The first song introduces Shira, Helen's younger sister who's been in an abusive relationship with a drug dealer named Eddie. After Eddie beats her, Shira flees into the sewer and broadcasts the entirety of the story from there while waiting for Eddie to calm down so she can return to him. She sings a motif that is the theme of her first song, and is briefly repeated in her second.
    • The first leitmotif in the main story of the album is that of the Carnival itself, a relatively slow organ line that appears once near the beginning of the album as we're first introduced to the Carnival and also serves as the final musical expression in the album once we leave it. This pairs well with the fact that both tracks have the same sung melody as well.
    • Raven introduces a leitmotif of his own that persists past this album. In his medley, he opens and closes it with a sung melody that represents his relationship with his long-gone boyfriend, Lloyd Allen, the Narrator of the New Albion trilogy's second album.
    • The theme of the climactic song starts with Raven singing a motif that comes to represent how Helen's memories from the Cabaret are fake. He essentially gives Helen a rundown of her real backstory with this motif. The next and final time we see it, Helen recites the beginning of this song (with the motif intact) verbatim. She sings it while musing on her life and how a lot of it was a false life, right before killing herself.
    • Immediately after Hank kills himself, Helen sings a leitmotif that appears when her life is falling apart. This leitmotif is actually not originally from the album; Paul added it into the last song retroactively in order to provide the audience with a more ostensible reaction by the characters to Hank's death. In reality, it first appears in the third album of the trilogy, sung by Helen in the song where she kills herself.
  • The third trilogy, the Fairypunk trilogy, contains leitmotifs from a number of previous albums and introduces new ones for itself. As this is currently the most recent complete trilogy, it is unknown whether any leitmotifs will be used from it. The first album, The Forgotten Meme, has several.
    • The first track in the album has an instrumental motif that will make a comeback in the last song, when the Meme saves Rebecca from the cyber-locusts feeding on her mind.
    • The first vocal song, sung by the denizens of the room beneath New Albion, makes a return later in the album and in the trilogy; the first time is because the room's denizens, a race of cybernetic locusts, feature as antagonists near the end of the first album. The second, however, occurs in the third album, when those same locusts surface during the war between New Albion and the Cascadian Alliance to interfere with the latter's missile array.
    • The Meme sings a song when she first comes into existence that is later heard again as an instrumental when her daughter, Jane, is created.
    • There is a song where the Meme climbs a building in search of meaning, and in doing so ends up finding and meeting Rebecca, a girl who would later become her wife. The song directly following that one is Meme just adoring Rebecca. Flash forward to the third album in the trilogy, where the second song's melody reappears when Meme is describing the grief she underwent following Rebecca's death, and the first song's melody reappears when the Meme directly addresses the current mayor of New Albion, whose actions were the direct cause of Rebecca's death.
    • The final song in the album contains the "defense" leitmotif that reoccurs throughout this trilogy, appearing at the end of each album (except for the third, where it appears in the third-to-last track). This leitmotif always comes when a central conflict of the album is about to be resolved. In this album, it's used by the Meme to defend Rebecca from the cybernetic crickets eating her mind. In the second album, it's used by Jane to defend the park she grew up in from New Albion's authorities. In the third album, it's used by Han-Mi to defend Jane from a man trying to kill her.
    • The second album, The Broken Cyborg, introduces a few more.
    • The very first song introduces a chant sung by Dwarves that live beneath New Albion that is repeated in their appearance in the third album. The Dwarves serve very little purpose to the album's plot, but they are key players in a separate plot occurring within Paul Shapera's lore.
    • Xander's leitmotif, the "trying" leitmotif, first appears in their introductory song when they explain why they conducted experiments allowing them to manipulate biology. Their initial reason for becoming a biologist was to save their twin sister, who developed a disease that rendered her immobile and incapable of speaking, so this leitmotif has a strong association with characters trying to save others as well. The next time it appears, Xander is incurably insane, but that was the sacrifice they made to save Jane's life. The next time it appears after that, it's Jane singing it to the fairy Symbel, whom she tried to save from a fairy genocide. Worth noting is that this leitmotif is always sung in unfavorable circumstances: the incurable vegetative state of Xander's sister, the salvation of Jane at the cost of Xander's mind, and Jane's (self-perceived) failure to save Symbel.
    • Jane has her own introductory song, whose melody is repeated in the third album, where Jane is on the brink of death, and is convinced that she is about to die.
    • The Mayor has her own introductory song, and a swung version of it appears in the third album when she's on a diplomatic mission to speak to the Meme.
• Punk Punk: Punk aesthetic is a major theme in Paul Shapera's works. The operas about New Albion, for example, explore Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Atompunk. Later installments feature Biopunk and Cyberpunk, and an unreleased installment is planned to feature Spacepunk. Even then, new and unique Punk Punk themes are expressed, with Voodoopunk and Fairypunk.
• Reincarnation:
  • The first part of the New Albion trilogy has a variant of this with the dolls, which are mechanical bodies inhabited by the forcibly resurrected souls of the dead.
  • The third part of the trilogy reveals that Rachael from the third New Albion opera is a reincarnation of Constance O'Brien from the second opera, who was herself a reincarnation of Priscilla McAlistair from the first opera.
  • In a similar vein, Lee is also a reincarnation of Thomas from the second opera, who was a reincarnation of Soldier 7285 in the first.
  • In the Fairypunk Trilogy, the entire trilogy is Han Mi setting the conditions for Helen to be reincarnated as Jane, and giving her a chance to live an amazing life.
• Transhuman: The main theme of The Broken Cyborg, and an otherwise recurring element, especially with Posthumans.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Traumatic events (such as flinging oneself off a cliff, being chased by a death cult, or stuck within the Hall of Mirrors in a demented carnival) are how Posthumans awaken their Reality Warper abilities, allowing them to exert a degree of control over the universes (called Narratives due to the Metafiction aspect of the whole thing) within the various Concept Albums. That being said, Reality Warping Is Not a Toy is in full effect, if Posthumans try to push a narrative too hard, it can tear, resulting in a horrific sound as an entire universe is destroyed.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Dolls of New Albion shows the treatment of the titular dolls, who are the souls of the dead placed into mechanical bodies that can barely move. They're subsequently objectified by their own loved ones as passive observers on the world. The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness also has Rachel and her relationship with the very first AI.