As a writer of dystopian novels, I have always been interested in narratives that challenge the reader. Why? Because I firmly believe that if literature is, as they say, "a window on the world," then mind-bending texts create their own windows, and hence allow the readers to free themselves from all sorts of conventions. What's more, many of my novels deal with a drug, "Synth," that allows the users to change their surroundings at will. So I do write some “mind-bending” stuff myself, with precisely the purpose I mentioned above. To challenge yourself through fiction is to challenge a reality you have not chosen to live in. It is not only an act of defiance, but also, very often, an act of courage.
The Bridge is a terrific and terrifying novella about womanhood, the patriarchate, technology, identity, and, ultimately, freedom. Its theme appeals to me as I have always been an ally of the women’s cause and JS Breukelaar does a great job describing a disturbing future if we are not more careful and respectful. What’s more, it is a great story, which embarks the reader in a dark and fascinating labyrinth. Both nightmarish and poetic, with references to ancient mythologies,The Bridge offers a unique reading experience. Although it’s very different stylistically from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, I nonetheless consider it to be a top-class feminist speculative fiction classic.
"I was raised by three sisters, one a witch, one an assassin and the third just batshit crazy." And so begins The Bridge, from Shirley Jackson Award, Aurealis Award, Shadows Award, and Wonderland Award finalist, J.S. Breukelaar. Meera and her twin sister Kai are among thousands of hybrid women—called Mades—bred by the Father in his Blood Temple cult. Meera is rescued by a mysterious healer and storyteller, Narn, but her sister, Kai, does not survive the Father's "unmaking." Years later, when the cult is discovered and abolished, Meera, still racked with guilt and grief, enrolls in college to take advantage…
Jordan Krall is, in my opinion, one of the greatest speculative fiction writers alive today. This novella takes simultaneously place in two different locations: on a spaceship on its way to Mars and in a unnamed city, both with a main character that may or may not be the same. Easy to read, but difficult to understand, Beyond is both a pleasure and a riddle, challenging the reader in the most satisfying way. Dealing with the questions of identity, metaphysical anguish, and conspiracy theories, it radically breaks apart the world as we know it.
Find yourself on a starship as it lumbers across the desert.Find yourself on a train looking out at the stars, the earth a blue marble in the infinite black abyss behind you. Find yourself overdosing on narcotics in a bathtub at home.The Red Planet.Pharmaceuticals.The Demiurge.Assassins.Suicide bombers.Underground railroads between worlds.What mysteries link them? Pull back the veil and see. In Beyond the Great, Bloody, Bruised and Silent Veil of this World author Jordan Krall creates a wholly unique experience; all at once revelatory, hypnotic, and hallucinatory. All literal, all parable, all a twisted drug-trip. So read on and know this; it's…
InI Dream Of Mirrors, Scottish writer Chris Kelso describes a nightmarish virtual world in which a self-proclaimed prophet who turns his followers into obedient programs by erasing their memories. The two main protagonists, a nameless narrator, and his unreliable partner Kad, are rebels who want to find out the truth. I absolutely love this book, as it challenges our vision of technological progress and what we assume is our identity. Remarkably well written and with a fantastic pace, it is, in my eyes, a true underground classic, on par with William Gibson’s world-famous Neuromancer.
My bones feel new, brittle. You won’t have heard any apocryphal stories about me because no one seems to know anything about me. My body is a sheet of paper from a worn manuscript, folded into the origami shape of a man. My life has been stuffed into a satchel and carried to publishers. Its words are my words.
He has no name. He belongs to no race or nation. He has no definable personality or allegiance. Only the dead city of mirrors holds the key.
From the mind of Chris Kelso, author of The Dregs Trilogy, comes I Dream…
In Claiming T-Mo, Australian-African writer Eugen Bacon re-invents and shatters all the familiar codes of the magical sci-fi genre. A novel about women, magic, fate, and freedom, Claiming T-Mo is also a deep reflection on motherhood, love, masculinity, and identities. As the different female narrators share their views and feelings about T-Mo, the elusive central character, more questions about filiation and heritage unroll, making the reader a part of the quest. I love Eugen Bacon because she is an incredibly versatile talent, who turns everything she writes about into pure gold.
In this lush interplanetary tale, Novic is an immortal Sayneth priest who flouts the conventions of a matriarchal society by choosing a name for his child. This act initiates chaos that splits the boy in two, unleashing a Jekyll-and-Hyde child upon the universe. Named T-Mo by his mother and Odysseus by his father, the story spans the boy’s lifetime — from his early years with his mother Silhouette on planet Grovea to his travels to Earth where he meets and marries Salem, and together they bear a hybrid named Myra. The story unfolds through the eyes of these three distinctive…
If, like me, you love labyrinthian books that actually lead you somewhere, then Brazilian writer Fabio Fernandes’s short story collection,Love. An Archeology, is for you. Using meta with meta on top, these loosely related stories will take you on a wild ride with androgynous characters, mysterious places, and poetic situations. As you have probably figured it by now, I love to be challenged by books and this one is one of the most rewarding reads I have experienced. Highly recommended for lovers of high-brow speculative fiction who hate when genre is taken too seriously.
Fourteen stories, ranging from science fiction to weird, mixing future scenarios (on and off-Earth) and alternate realities, but in fact, they are essentially about one thing: love and its malcontents. A man who refuses to let death erase the memories of his loved ones; two time- travellers leaping through the aeons in a literal love-and-death relationship; a murderer in love with the ghost of his prey - and more.
What would you do for love? What lengths, in space and time, would you go to? These characters have done it all.
I have chosen The Song Of Synth because it is, in my eyes, the best introduction to my speculative fiction universe, also known as “the City-States Cycle.” Taking place in the imaginary metropolis Viborg City, it focuses on Marcus, an ex-hacker trapped into working for the government. Addicted to a drug called “Synth,” he comes across some information that will make him face his past and turn him into a fugitive. Dealing with issues such as control technologies, mental manipulations, the political implication of drugs, and the question of identity, I feel that The Song Of Synth is a book that could appeal to a lot of readers who are sensitive to contemporary issues.
A fast-paced literary thriller with a strong sci-fi element and loaded with existential questions. Beyond the entertainment value, this book takes a hard look at the perilous world of publishing, which is on a crash course to meet the nascent, no-holds-barred world of AI. Could these worlds co-exist, or will they destroy each other? And more importantly, how will humans tolerate their own creations, the robots, on this planet?
In this, his latest speculative fiction novel, Shane Joseph, returns to the “what if” questions facing humanity that he raised in After the Flood, a book that won him the…
With Chatbots and Large Language Models changing the world of writing and publishing dramatically, what happens when we introduce a sentient robot capable of feelings into the mix?
Phil Kruger, inventor, and serial womanizer, believes he has the answer in his creation, Victoria, the first sentient robot in the world, imbued with beauty, knowledge, and strength and on a crash course to acquire human feelings through massive infusions of data. Arrayed against him are independent trade publisher Artemius (Art) Jones and his rebellious and sexually starved daughter, Paula, an editor herself, who is determined to take her father's failing press,…
