A Strange and Brilliant Light: Winner of the Writers’ Guild Best First Novel Award
Eli Lee
Jul 2021 · Hachette UK
Ebook
416
Pages
About this ebook
The AI future is here . . . and it's up to three women to change the world.
Lal, Janetta and Rose are living in a time of flux. Technological advance has brought huge financial rewards to those with power, but large swathes of the population are losing their jobs to artificial intelligence, or auts, as they're called. Unemployment is high, discontent is rife and rumours are swirling. Many feel robbed - not just of their livelihoods, but of their hopes for the future.
'Mind-bending' Carole Stivers, author of The Mother Code
Lal is languishing in her role at a coffee shop and feeling overshadowed by her quietly brilliant sister, Janetta, whose Ph.D. is focused on making auts empathetic. Even Rose, Lal's best friend, has found a sense of purpose in charismatic up-and-coming politician Alek.
'A thoughtful, interior-focused story...like Ishiguro's Klara And The Sun' SFX Magazine
When vigilantes break in to the coffee shop and destroy their new coffee-making aut, it sets in motion a chain of events that will pull the three young women in very different directions.
'A disquieting take on Big Tech's plans for the future of work' Gwyneth Jones, author of Bold as Love
Change is coming - change that will launch humankind into a new era. If Rose, Lal and Janetta can find a way to combine their burgeoning talents, they might just end up setting the course of history.
'Sad, hopeful, funny, and brilliant . . . It will, I hope, inspire many to think long and hard about what we want our future to be like' British Science Fiction Association
Lal, Janetta and Rose are living in a time of flux. Technological advance has brought huge financial rewards to those with power, but large swathes of the population are losing their jobs to artificial intelligence, or auts, as they're called. Unemployment is high, discontent is rife and rumours are swirling. Many feel robbed - not just of their livelihoods, but of their hopes for the future.
'Mind-bending' Carole Stivers, author of The Mother Code
Lal is languishing in her role at a coffee shop and feeling overshadowed by her quietly brilliant sister, Janetta, whose Ph.D. is focused on making auts empathetic. Even Rose, Lal's best friend, has found a sense of purpose in charismatic up-and-coming politician Alek.
'A thoughtful, interior-focused story...like Ishiguro's Klara And The Sun' SFX Magazine
When vigilantes break in to the coffee shop and destroy their new coffee-making aut, it sets in motion a chain of events that will pull the three young women in very different directions.
'A disquieting take on Big Tech's plans for the future of work' Gwyneth Jones, author of Bold as Love
Change is coming - change that will launch humankind into a new era. If Rose, Lal and Janetta can find a way to combine their burgeoning talents, they might just end up setting the course of history.
'Sad, hopeful, funny, and brilliant . . . It will, I hope, inspire many to think long and hard about what we want our future to be like' British Science Fiction Association
About the author
Eli Lee was born in Dorset and is now is based in London. As well as writing fiction and non-fiction for a variety of anthologies, magazines and websites, she is fiction editor and contributor to literary journal Minor Literature[s] and has also worked for Strange Horizons. Find her on Twitter at @_elilee.
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