AurealisReviewed by Stevie Barry
Ashley Jade‘s “Age” is a story at once darkly comedic and completely tragic. It explores the benefits and drawbacks of immortality, and why it’s ultimately more of a curse than a blessing. Half of it is told through dialogue; the two protagonists, who have spent the past four hundred years together, will answer questions the other hasn’t yet asked. They speak much more of the past than the present, their long lives now ruled by nostalgia. The tale ends on an appropriately (and effectively) gloomy note.
“Ballard and Ballard: A Biopunk Detective Novel of 2080 AD,” by Steven HK Ma, is a noir-style yarn set in a future suffering the consequences of unethical genetic engineering. ‘Uplifts’, animal-human hybrids, were created as a slave race, but were emancipated several years before the story takes place. The narrator is one such ‘uplift’, a detective struggling to find work in a society that views his kind as little more than animals. The plot is a straightforward take on discrimination and dystopia, but the narrator has a dry, sarcastic voice that gives the story uniqueness in such a well-worn genre.