Beautiful Shining People: The extraordinary, EPIC speculative masterpiece…

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How this happens and where that relationship will take them both, you’ll have to read the book to find out and more fool you if you don’t do so, because this book will take you places you have never been before – intellectually and emotionally – and leave you reeling with feelings you will not have expected when you began to read and which will be hard to process. But the thing is all this already exists presently but Michael has just taken it a couple of levels further and it is due to this that you readily accept this new world and don't even blink an eye when something odd happens! It’s going to be quite hard to review without spoiling the central conceit of the novel, but let’s see how we get on! Konbanwa ,’ the girl says, smiling a soft, inviting smile that’s replaced last night’s neutral lips. I'd like to think that by the 2040s, such gender essentialism will be a thing of the past, and nobody will find themselves thinking they're not "woman enough" because of the appearance and/or function of their genitals.

For me, this novel poses some of those questions, but beyond the technology there is also a mysticism to the book that takes it into the different realm of being at its core an age-old love story, a Romeo and Juliet for a future age. I loved all the smart lines of wisdom sprinkled throughout this book, from the drunken conversations between the three MCs, to the wonderfully real quotes we got from Joe, to the completely ahead of his age thoughts coming from our MMC. Nor is it always the case that someone with a high number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) will turn to crime and/or develop a severe mental illness - there are so many other factors, such as individual character, or having the right teacher/counsellor/friend/opportunity at the right time, that can alter their path. Michael Grothaus captures the electricity of the streets perfectly, contrasting that to the traditional temples and shrines that feature and inform the story.There’s something different about her – a kind of splintering inside her, like there’s something in there that doesn’t belong. This is a subject that must be at the forefront of most of our minds in these turbulent times, as those in power seem to become crueller and crueller and it can be hard to see any good in the world, until you look closer at the individuals who make up society. His debut, Epiphany Jones, blew me away and was my book of the year 2020, and one of my favourite books ever. As they start to navigate their relationship and their position in an ever-shifting, precarious world, each of them harbors a secret that they are desperate to keep from the other. sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia.

If I'm honest I was less compelled by the plot part, as good as it was, because I wanted to spend more time with John and Neotnia - if you've ever seen Before Sunrise, it had a flavour of that to it to begin with - but I'm still happy with what I got. It also offers an interesting meditation on future geopolitics and the role of technology in our increasingly complicated and connected world.Oddly enough, considering how weird the other characters initially seem, it’s John, our point of view character, that I had most problems identifying with. The central characters, alongside those connected to their stories, were wonderfully textured with mysterious pasts and their depth made it very easy and enjoyable to be invested in their story arcs. This book explores these themes, about how the actions of one person can change the course of history.

Involuntarily entangled in the illicit world of sex trafficking amongst the Hollywood elite, and on a mission to find redemption for a haunting series of events from the past, Jerry is thrust into a genuinely shocking and outrageously funny quest to uncover the truth and atone for historical sins. John being a tech wunderkind, the subject of the novel inevitably turns to the future of computing and its role for good and ill. At a sentence level Grothaus is excellent; he manages to make even rain falling against the cafe window somehow deeply compelling. The author clearly knows the country because he captures it evocatively and convincingly and references kami and elements that are integral to Japanese culture (as well as a lot of noodle slurping, which made we want to eat some Japanese noodles)This novel feels like a very relevant and well thought out read, with a very humane touch. His writing has appeared in Fast Company, VICE, The Guardian, Litro Magazine, The Irish Times, Screen, Quartz and others.Thoroughly enjoyed this speculative, sci-fi but not too sci-fi story set in a futuristic Tokyo, all about the possibilities of technology but equally about what it is to be a human.

The ability to maintain this many realistic insecurities while not having them cloud the overall story was beautifully executed. I loved the characters, including Neotnia’s ex-sumo wrestler café owner, Goeido, and his oh-so-weirdly-coifed pet Inu.These two narratives pulled at me throughout the reading, like a hologram card that first appears to be one thing and then slides into another. But it is also romance with both some steam and an almost doomed/forbidden vibe… And maybe even a touch of family drama and mystery thrown in to spice things up. The door’s bell clangs as I enter, and my eyes immediately go to the dog with the spherical head perched on the counter.