Books · fiction
Pudding Heroes
The Rising Child, a psychological thriller by Steven Ochs.
Explore the WorkThe story
Pudding Heroes explores consciousness, reality and human agency through fiction. Steven Ochs imagined Lelah as a human inside a computer; an AI later interpreted the character as an AI herself, a reading that surprised him. The novel is the narrative test case for Pudding Theory, which is framed as fictional science and creative exploration.
Beyond the novel
An in-world guide called The Book of Houses appears after the ending of Pudding Heroes. Its fictional author, Sterling Geisel, and the related Mind Lottery connect the printed story to a separate participatory website. The book and the website have distinct pages here.
The novel and its visual world
The opening places Lelah inside a computer system, facing a test of whether she is human. Identity, memory and feeling become urgent questions within the story. Steven uses the thriller to explore a world in which a person’s understanding of reality can change what they do next.
Steven wrote the original novel in 2017, returned to it in 2022 and finished later revisions in 2025. After completing the original manuscript, he experimented with short recurrent-neural-network insertions; his account says one remains. The first edition is dated 2025 and published by Ochs Studios LLC. Steven is credited with the writing, cover design and interior art. The volume combines The Rising Child, the in-world Guide to Surviving AI and the Pudding Theory material, allowing the reader to move from narrative into participation.