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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
This book was SO good. Not to go full literary critic but the words “audacious” and “original” definitely apply. It was a recommendation (thanks PK!) so I knew nothing about the plot or genre going into it, but I loved the blend of sci-fi and horror (many different subgenres of horror as well - cosmic, body, monster, etc - yay) and it managed to be intellectual and high-concept without spinning into pages of pedantic physics tutorials that are unnecessary to advance the plot (a pet peeve of mine with other SF concept-focused writers like Egan and Stanley Robinson). Also - well written!
My only real gripe is that it was tricky to follow the timelines and characters at points, but that seemed intentional given the subject matter and plot.
Definitely one I’d like to reread.
My only real gripe is that it was tricky to follow the timelines and characters at points, but that seemed intentional given the subject matter and plot.
Definitely one I’d like to reread.
The director of an ultra clandestine agency which is in charge of battling antimemes attempts to solve a puzzle which, by its nature is something she cannot remember. We jump around in time at various points in her life as small pieces are made known.
If you’ve played the video game Control there are some aspects of this that are familiar. Objects that are usually innocuous have other properties that relate to these creatures that are not just in the peripheral, they cannot be perceived at all, without assistance. The agents of The Foundation have a drug that allows them to perceive some of these forces and therefor interact and combat them in various ways. But there are things far more complex than that at play that threaten the world.
It’s frenetic in pacing for the first half and then almost meandering in the second. It retreads ground sometimes, annoyingly. And the quality of the prose is often uneven. There’s show-don’t-tell problems and a lack of a cohesive structure due to the framing device and, probably, the serialization of the content to begin with on the SCP Foundation Wiki page.
It can be extremely fun to read at times because of the conceptual ideas and their role in the plot. Everything, essentially, is resolved via deus ex machina. Little to no foreshadowing used allows for any real kind of pleasure in the resolutions though, aside from the ending, which wove together some seemingly disparate threads. Most of the time the reaction I had was that it was an interesting idea and often pretty cinematic. And it kind of has to be because none of the unique content can actually be explained. This allows for a lot of latitude with the author with plot beats and devices, but also gives it a fan fiction feel sometimes and becomes very repetitive.
Had the end chapter not brought together some of the threads from previous chapters, especially after instituting vastly different pacing and a reframing of point of view midway through, this would have been a 2 star read. Ultimately, while sophomoric and solipsistic—especially with thin characterization—I do feel like it had original ideas and that the macro ones were executed well.
If you’ve played the video game Control there are some aspects of this that are familiar. Objects that are usually innocuous have other properties that relate to these creatures that are not just in the peripheral, they cannot be perceived at all, without assistance. The agents of The Foundation have a drug that allows them to perceive some of these forces and therefor interact and combat them in various ways. But there are things far more complex than that at play that threaten the world.
It’s frenetic in pacing for the first half and then almost meandering in the second. It retreads ground sometimes, annoyingly. And the quality of the prose is often uneven. There’s show-don’t-tell problems and a lack of a cohesive structure due to the framing device and, probably, the serialization of the content to begin with on the SCP Foundation Wiki page.
It can be extremely fun to read at times because of the conceptual ideas and their role in the plot. Everything, essentially, is resolved via deus ex machina. Little to no foreshadowing used allows for any real kind of pleasure in the resolutions though, aside from the ending, which wove together some seemingly disparate threads. Most of the time the reaction I had was that it was an interesting idea and often pretty cinematic. And it kind of has to be because none of the unique content can actually be explained. This allows for a lot of latitude with the author with plot beats and devices, but also gives it a fan fiction feel sometimes and becomes very repetitive.
Had the end chapter not brought together some of the threads from previous chapters, especially after instituting vastly different pacing and a reframing of point of view midway through, this would have been a 2 star read. Ultimately, while sophomoric and solipsistic—especially with thin characterization—I do feel like it had original ideas and that the macro ones were executed well.
I wanted to love this book and for about a third of it I did. It felt like a nailed on 5 stars. The core concept is amazing and completely fascinating. The issue is the structure they use to explore the idea is basically inscrutable. I’d love to see some other explorations around this idea
A very unique sci/fi read that is unlike anything I have ever read or will likely ever read again. How do you fight back against an entity that has the ability to manipulate and "devour" human memories? That is essentially the premise of the antimemetics division and it's endless failures that lead up to the start of this book. I found the start wildly entertaining and so fun to adjust to the sci fi literal mind bending elements. The middle took a little longer to adjust to as the story becomes slightly more abstract and less linear and the ending is main thing keeping me from ranking it higher. This book will not hold our hand and I feel like there were some bigger gaps towards the end of the story. Ultimately, there's no doubt I would recommend it for people who like unique reads and love real sci fi elements oozing through their books. I actually do wish I had a little bit of context instead of coming in completely cold. I think I would have been able to adjust a little bit faster and built a foundation in this world more confidently.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was absolutely blown away by this book. This was, to me, an amazing intersection of both cosmic horror and liminal horror mixed within some SF and a surprising amount of existentialism.
As a big fan of the SCP universe overall (SCP-055 included), I was enjoying my time thoroughly throughout, between pacing, character development and just playing around in the space of antimemetics
As a big fan of the SCP universe overall (SCP-055 included), I was enjoying my time thoroughly throughout, between pacing, character development and just playing around in the space of antimemetics
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Read this in one sitting on the SCP wiki.
I really liked this! It made me feel unsettled and uncomfortable about our reality and what we do not know, which I love. This stands out among other SCP works because intangible foes i.e. ideas that kill you are far more terrifying to me than I don’t know, a really big shark?
Looking forward to the published version (V2) in November!!
I really liked this! It made me feel unsettled and uncomfortable about our reality and what we do not know, which I love. This stands out among other SCP works because intangible foes i.e. ideas that kill you are far more terrifying to me than I don’t know, a really big shark?
Looking forward to the published version (V2) in November!!
*Gordon Ramsay voice*
"Finally some good fucking cosmic horror"
I didn't know this was an SCP book going in, and I'm glad I didn't because I definitely wouldn't have given it the chance it deserves.
There's a complex balancing act that is underway in this book and I don't think it lands it completely successfully, but it sure gets close.
The set-up/payoff for the emotional/human story is perfect. I loved the characters and qntm absolutely nailed their arcs.
At the same time though, this is a high concept plot driven scifi narrative, with one of the strongest and most interesting set-ups I've ever come across. A set-up/thought experiment that's going to be bouncing around inside my head for the rest of my life alongside other info hazards like Roko's Basilisk. This set-up gives this book 5 stars alone. I can't overstate how monumentally into this concept I am.
That said, the payoff was a bit disappointing. I was really hoping for a final third that matched the conceptual density of the opening third, but I don't think it really got there for me. It gave me the emotional catharsis and satisfaction of a well told character drama, but with it being so plot driven I was excited for and anticipating a surprising and/or interesting and/or thought provoking plot resolution and didn't really get that.
I think maybe telling this story within the confines of the SCP universe hamstringed the author a little. Might have gone better with the serial numbers filed off?
Either way, 5 fucking stars. I seriously loved it and am hype for anything qntm puts out in the future.
"Finally some good fucking cosmic horror"
I didn't know this was an SCP book going in, and I'm glad I didn't because I definitely wouldn't have given it the chance it deserves.
There's a complex balancing act that is underway in this book and I don't think it lands it completely successfully, but it sure gets close.
The set-up/payoff for the emotional/human story is perfect. I loved the characters and qntm absolutely nailed their arcs.
At the same time though, this is a high concept plot driven scifi narrative, with one of the strongest and most interesting set-ups I've ever come across. A set-up/thought experiment that's going to be bouncing around inside my head for the rest of my life alongside other info hazards like Roko's Basilisk. This set-up gives this book 5 stars alone. I can't overstate how monumentally into this concept I am.
That said, the payoff was a bit disappointing. I was really hoping for a final third that matched the conceptual density of the opening third, but I don't think it really got there for me. It gave me the emotional catharsis and satisfaction of a well told character drama, but with it being so plot driven I was excited for and anticipating a surprising and/or interesting and/or thought provoking plot resolution and didn't really get that.
I think maybe telling this story within the confines of the SCP universe hamstringed the author a little. Might have gone better with the serial numbers filed off?
Either way, 5 fucking stars. I seriously loved it and am hype for anything qntm puts out in the future.
In terms of writing, 'There is No Antimemetics Division' leaves a lot to be desired. The prose can be pretty amateur, the plot structure was often either tedious or boring, and (in what seems to be typical of the sci-fi genre) characterization is wooden or nonexistent. That's actually fine—this is clearly meant to be a "concept" novel, not a literary one, and I'm more than inclined to evaluate it based on its ideas, not the actual text.
The first third of the book is, in that sense, fantastic. Through a series of loosely interconnected short stories in the same universe (I read this with zero prior knowledge of the SCP Foundation. You just generally assume you're in a universe where there's freaky shit and researchers secretly working on it & it fits anyway), qntm explores the concept of "antimemes"—entities with self-erasing properties. To deal with antimemes, there are whole host of either fascinating technologies—mnestic and amnestic drugs, the strongest of which can completely disable a person's ability to forget / remember and vice versa. Each short story reveals to us a different, terrifying dimension of antimemes—that the antimemetics division might be in a literal loop, that the containment unit on the research site ostensibly designed to contain an antimeme might actually be the only place in the universe where it is not present, that you can feed or attack an antimeme with data, mental proximity, information corrosion, etc. It's really original and I could totally see like, a Westworld-esque HBO show based around the concept of researchers working on antimemes and it would be a fantastic show.
However, it's when the story tries to become a "novel" that it becomes borderline unreadable. qntm tries to blow up the proportions of antimemes to be a whole "war" of human civilization against the ultimate antimeme, and it starts to feel like a teenage guy who's way too into science spitballing about like, the alien apocalypse. We're told that mnestic drugs can actually cause people to be able to see anti-memes that are usually invisible–which leads to a bunch of grotesque descriptions of severed limbs and giant spiders and murderous cowboys that are not particularly interesting. They actually serve to further confuse the conceptual background of the novel–I mean, didn't we established early on that there is some boundary between the physical and the conceptual when it comes to anti-memes?
And actually, the entire idea of an impossibly virulent anti-meme literally killing a human being just seems super random. The antimeme erases itself, it seems the natural concept would be that it renders all humans possessed of it but completely oblivious to its presence. This is kind of explored when qntm writes about how people become "not humans"—but it's just way too overwrought with descriptions about how, with natural antimeme immunity or mnestic drugs you can actually see their true gross form. It would be way more terrifying to write about an entire world filled with people who are all irreversibly changed in some way but completely unable to remember why, going through their lives as if ghosts. Also, why is SCP-3125 (hope that #'s correct) in particular so unable to contain? What does it even mean for it to "pervade" all of reality?
Some of the anomalies the book presented later on—like giantic species that would die if exposed to direct observation, again, the whole severed limbs thing, the massive stone that's the last relic of a civilization that died in an antimeme war—it was just like Uhhhhhhhh, okay bro. The book just tried to do way too much and became kind of like, random/spit-bally and consequently lost all its most interesting implications. It became a typical sci-fi apocalypse story. I basically had to force myself through the last 50 or so pages.
There were some interesting manipulations of the text I quite liked: describing the antimemes through procedural documents (later learned this is the whole premise of the SCP Foundation wiki), mirroring a character's loss of memory with redactions on the text that eventually consume entire pages and leave only certain phrases, that stitch together like incredibly disjointed poetry—that was super super cool. Also, dope cover art.
The first third of the book is, in that sense, fantastic. Through a series of loosely interconnected short stories in the same universe (I read this with zero prior knowledge of the SCP Foundation. You just generally assume you're in a universe where there's freaky shit and researchers secretly working on it & it fits anyway), qntm explores the concept of "antimemes"—entities with self-erasing properties. To deal with antimemes, there are whole host of either fascinating technologies—mnestic and amnestic drugs, the strongest of which can completely disable a person's ability to forget / remember and vice versa. Each short story reveals to us a different, terrifying dimension of antimemes—that the antimemetics division might be in a literal loop, that the containment unit on the research site ostensibly designed to contain an antimeme might actually be the only place in the universe where it is not present, that you can feed or attack an antimeme with data, mental proximity, information corrosion, etc. It's really original and I could totally see like, a Westworld-esque HBO show based around the concept of researchers working on antimemes and it would be a fantastic show.
However, it's when the story tries to become a "novel" that it becomes borderline unreadable. qntm tries to blow up the proportions of antimemes to be a whole "war" of human civilization against the ultimate antimeme, and it starts to feel like a teenage guy who's way too into science spitballing about like, the alien apocalypse. We're told that mnestic drugs can actually cause people to be able to see anti-memes that are usually invisible–which leads to a bunch of grotesque descriptions of severed limbs and giant spiders and murderous cowboys that are not particularly interesting. They actually serve to further confuse the conceptual background of the novel–I mean, didn't we established early on that there is some boundary between the physical and the conceptual when it comes to anti-memes?
And actually, the entire idea of an impossibly virulent anti-meme literally killing a human being just seems super random. The antimeme erases itself, it seems the natural concept would be that it renders all humans possessed of it but completely oblivious to its presence. This is kind of explored when qntm writes about how people become "not humans"—but it's just way too overwrought with descriptions about how, with natural antimeme immunity or mnestic drugs you can actually see their true gross form. It would be way more terrifying to write about an entire world filled with people who are all irreversibly changed in some way but completely unable to remember why, going through their lives as if ghosts. Also, why is SCP-3125 (hope that #'s correct) in particular so unable to contain? What does it even mean for it to "pervade" all of reality?
Some of the anomalies the book presented later on—like giantic species that would die if exposed to direct observation, again, the whole severed limbs thing, the massive stone that's the last relic of a civilization that died in an antimeme war—it was just like Uhhhhhhhh, okay bro. The book just tried to do way too much and became kind of like, random/spit-bally and consequently lost all its most interesting implications. It became a typical sci-fi apocalypse story. I basically had to force myself through the last 50 or so pages.
There were some interesting manipulations of the text I quite liked: describing the antimemes through procedural documents (later learned this is the whole premise of the SCP Foundation wiki), mirroring a character's loss of memory with redactions on the text that eventually consume entire pages and leave only certain phrases, that stitch together like incredibly disjointed poetry—that was super super cool. Also, dope cover art.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated