Several news wires picked up on the 2025 IndieReader Discovery Awards and, in particular, on my prize-winning send-up of AI and online learning. This was my favorite:
Toys in Babylon wins 2025 IndieReader Discovery Award for Humor/Fiction
Results of the 15th annual IndieReader Discovery Awards announced May 29, 2025
Jersey City, New Jersey Jun 1, 2025 (Issuewire.com) - On Thursday, May 29th, IndieReader, one of the original review services for self, hybrid and independently published authors, announced the winners of the 15th annual IR Discovery Awards (IRDAs) for 2025. Toys in Babylon: A Language App Parody and Whodunnit by Patrick Finegan won in the Humor/Fiction category.
IndieReader launched the IRDAs in 2011 to help notable indie authors receive the attention of top publishing professionals, with the goal of reaching more readers. Noted Amy Edelman, author and founder of IR, “The books that won the IRDAs this year are not simply great indie books; they are great books, period. We hope that our efforts via the IRDAs ensure that they receive attention from the people who matter most. Potential readers.”
Past and present sponsors for the IRDAs include Amazon, Reedsy, Smith Publicity and NY-based literary agents Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. Judges have included publishers (from Penguin Group USA and Simon & Schuster), agents (from ICM, Dystel), publicists (from Smith Publicity), and bloggers (from GoodeReader).
Toys in Babylon is a thinly disguised satire of the world’s most successful online teaching company, Duolingo. Things go horribly wrong when a similar company replaces staff with artificial intelligence so effectively that its cast of cartoon educators begins thinking on its own. What follows is a madcap romp as the enterprise struggles to (a) solve the sudden disappearance of its corporate mascot – a perky, multilingual plush toy, and (b) put the AI genie back in the bottle. Toys in Babylon will appeal to anyone who has ever shuddered at the “promise” of AI or invested months with the Duolingo owl.
Per IndieReader, Toys in Babylon is “a roller coaster of a ride. The author has a sharp eye for the absurd and ironic, and weaves all the elements together in ways that are delightful surprises. Toys in Babylon is a fast, funny page turner.”
The book’s author, Patrick Finegan, stated, “I am thrilled that such a narrowly focused parody brought smiles to such a wide audience of readers and judges. It motivates me to continue the saga – a series of awkward collisions, perhaps, between the company’s embrace of progressive concepts and ESL income sources (including immigrants) and a country at war with DEI. Bounteous grist for satire.
https://www.issuewire.com/toys-in-babylon-wins-2025-indiereader-discovery-award-for-humorfiction-1833672539194164