A Quick Jab at Sci Fi

I got into science fiction this year. I read Ursela Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and then went down a rabbit hole of Nebula award winners. Left Hand was a great story. It’s about an envoy (which is like a surveyor, or a diplomat) named Genly Ai who must visit the planet Gethen in hopes of recruiting its populace to join an intergalactic coalition called the Ekumen. Sounds simple, I know. Just wait.

When he arrives, he discovers that all human life on the planet is androgynous. The novel then explores how gender (or the lack-there-of) effects a given society. Good book. 10/10 would recommend. Probably been burned in Florida in recent months (hey-o!)

Since getting into these stories I’ve been trying my hand at science fiction. I don’t know much about physics or nuclear fission or even my own gender, let alone other genders, so it’s a tall task.

Tonight I’m sending you a rough draft at one of the chapters from a novella I’ve been working on called IZAC. In the society I’ve imagined, which is way different from the world we live in (there’s nothing in common at all, I assure you) humans live on a decaying earth, almost entirely inside air conditioned buildings. They have developed complete dependency on smart phone technology. Work, play, and worship have all found solutions within screen culture. Humans have begun taking IZAC – a drug that both enhances their ability to digest information at a rapid rate while also treating their inevitable cornea deterioration as a result of increased screen time. Users of the drug develop side effects that blur their sense of reality and inevitably reach a vegetative state. Brain scans of these addicts – called ZACites – indicate perennial euphoria – causing many members of society to increase their dosage and effectively seek out IZAC addiction. 

Like I said, super science fiction and not at all happening on our planet right now.

I’ve been making people promises lately, like I’ll share my writing with less reservations, so here we go. You can read the first chapter, for free, right now, here.

Thanks for reading. Hoping to share more stories like this in the future. Cheers.

Brian