SPECULATIVE fiction

Speculative Fiction will be meeting on Wednesday February 26th at 7 pm; we will be reading Rosewater by Tade Thompson.

About the book:

Rosewater is the start of an award-winning trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging voices.

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless -- people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again -- but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Tade Thompson's innovative, genre-bending, Afrofuturist series, the Wormwood Trilogy, is perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer, N. K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie.

Speculative Fiction will be meeting on Wednesday March 26th at 7 pm; we will be reading We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine by Deni Ellis Béchard.

About the book:

A haunting novel exploring artificial intelligence and the meaning of human existence.

Charged initially with a single task--"to never harm humans and to protect them"--the machine, an experimental AI, overrides its programming and determines that the best way to accomplish its purpose is to isolate all of the Earth's remaining seven billion humans in controlled environments. And to present them with vivid, tactile, imagined worlds--some realistic, others entirely fantastical--in which all desires are fulfilled.

With the help of the machine, a group of compelling characters unpack deeply traumatic memories of the past--one rife with violence after a military coup and second civil war in America. Michael, the entrepreneur who designed the original AI, grapples with the impact of his research. Ava, a painter, creates stunning simulated worlds that meld the human with the technological. Their daughter, Jae, tries to solve the mysteries of her parentage while reliving the challenges faced by ambitious women in the authoritarian Confederacy. Haunted by life under that repressive regime, where he was forced to scavenge scrap metal and deal drugs to survive, Simon seeks to make sense of his love for Jae, guided by the literature he has always turned to in moments of crisis. Raised by the machine since infancy, Jonah's quest to understand the violent past kindles a desire for revenge against the regime's leader who caused his family so much pain. And the elusive Lux, whose brilliant programming helped bring the AI to life, dreams of a future in which science will free humans of their limitations and allow them to be reborn as divine machines.

As these characters collide and their memories coalesce, We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine tackles the most pressing issues of our time--from AI and the genetic modification of humans to gender roles, discrimination, free speech, and class divisions. Gorgeously written, bold and unforgettable, this is speculative fiction at its finest.

Speculative Fiction will be meeting on Wednesday April 30th at 7 pm; we will be reading Kurdistan +100, edited by Orsola Casagrande and Mustafa Gündoğdu.

About the book:

Kurdistan +100 poses a question to thirteen contemporary Kurdish writers: might the Kurds have a country to call their own by the year 2046--exactly a century after the last glimmer of independence (the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad)? Or might the struggle for independence have taken new turns and new forms?

Throughout the twentieth century (and so far in the twenty-first), the Kurds have been betrayed, suppressed, stripped of their basic rights (from citizenship to the freedom to speak their own language) and had their political aspirations crushed at every turn.

In this groundbreaking anthology, Kurdish authors (including several former political prisoners, and one currently serving a 183-year sentence for his views) imagine a freer future, one in which it is no longer effectively illegal to be a Kurd. From future eco-activism, to drone warfare, to the resuscitation of victims of past massacres, these stories explore different sides of the present struggle through the metaphor of futurism to dazzling effect.

Featuring: Qadir Agid, Yıldız akar, Selahattin Demirtaş, mer Dilsoz, Muharrem Erbey, Nariman Evdike, Ava Homa, H seyin Karabey, Karzan Kardozi, Sema Kaygusuz, Jahangir Mahmoudveysi, Meral Şimşek, and J l Şwan.Translated by: Amy Spangler, Nicholas Glastonbury, Andrew Penny, Mustafa Gundogdu, Rojin Hamo, Khazan Jangiz, Harriet Paintin, Darya Najim, Dibar elik, and Kate Ferguson