Synopsis
A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future. Set across small towns and remote islands, where neon flickers against old buildings and oaks, this collection paints a unique view of a traditionally cyberpunk setting.
In 2089, a woman miscarries and seeks a way to find peace amidst overwhelming grief. Years later, a young man must find a way to pay rent outside of his job at the glassblowing studio. A pair of students, excited to go to college, install new hardware that promises to improve their cognitive functions. A private investigator searches for a missing child who has a reputation for embarking on risky adventures. Each tale is shaped by love, loss, and perseverance, weaving a vision of life outside of the megacities.
Review
Sit around the campfire and turn off your lens. We’re telling some Sci Fi tales with this short story collection from Adam Bassett.
Digital Extremities is a solid Sci Fi selection, all truth be told. Bassett curates tales that depict a not-too-distant future and runs a heavy dose of feels through them. Prepare yourself to be moved one moment and deeply uneasy the next. This is a very real experience we’re hurtling towards.
Generally speaking the stories all lean into a central theme of life on the outskirts. The megacity life spills out into the rural areas Bassett covers and in most cases is rejected. The technology in Bassett’s future is an evolution of what we’re used to today. Imagine if the Google Glass actually is converted into a lens that fits over your actual eye. Yikes. Or how about logging your memories in a chip that inserts directly into the analogue port, you know, the one that’s wired in to your head?
We’ve chartered this sort of territory before with the excellent Love, Death and Robots and Black Mirror. Although Bassett isn’t intent on doom and gloom, rather the focus is an honest look at what life could really be like in the areas of society that aren’t so quick to accept new technologies and methods.
Body Mods
Rather than dissect every story here, I’m just covering this book broadly. The subtlety of the worldbuilding throughout the book is fantastic. Bassett has either travelled here from the future and written what he can recall or he’s just very good at this genre.
Tiny details like the descriptions of body modifications, subdermal neon lights or replacement metal fingers for example are just a few of the plethora of minute details each story portrays. Compare these to the substantial concepts like the oceans rising and global temperatures increasing that lead to Svalbard’s rise as an upcoming cultural hub and are so cleverly realised. It all contributes to these stories feeling so real and effective.
These smaller communities are so isolated from the concept of the mega city where the rich go to escape climate change is often stark. The story of those “left behind” as it were is a compelling read. Although the stakes are low in a grand scheme of things, these stories all feel important from character to character. These people we learn about are just doing their best to get by and there are moments where they are forced to do terrible things with no other choice. It’s tough outside the city.
And, throwing my hat into the ring when it comes to content warnings – I appreciated the care the author took in outlining any areas readers may struggle with. While some books don’t need content warnings, the intimacy of DE and the reader is such that these stories can really hit home. That’s a testament in a way to the author’s writing.
Final Thoughts
Signing off on this one simply by saying this is an intimate read that has so much to offer. It’s genuine and pragmatic in what it does and it’ll make you reflect on a lot of things. A worthwhile read without a doubt.
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