{"product_id":"this-weightless-world-9781662601750","title":"This Weightless World","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"It's precisely Soto's refusal to be 'weighted' down by decades of genre tradition, to instead turn the trope on its head and in doing so remind us that no-one but ourselves is coming to save us, that makes \u003ci\u003eThis Weightless World\u003c\/i\u003e such an exciting and radical novel.\" --Ian Monde, \u003ci\u003eLocus\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Set in Silicon Valley and Chicago, \u003ci\u003eThis Weightless World\u003c\/i\u003e considers questions of morality in a world where people feel powerless in the face of formidable systemic forces.\" \u003cb\u003e--Laura Adamczyk, \u003ci\u003eA.V. Club\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA literary debut subverting classic sci-fi tropes set in gentrified Chicago, Silicon Valley, and across the vastness of the cosmos. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the streets of gentrified Chicago, to the tech boom corridors of Silicon Valley, \u003ci\u003eThis Weightless World\u003c\/i\u003e follows a revolving cast of characters after alien contact upends their lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe are introduced to Sevi, a burned-out music teacher desperate for connection; Ramona, his on-again, off-again computer programmer girlfriend; and Sevi's cello protégé Eason, struggling with the closure of his high school; after a mysterious signal arrives from outer space. When the signal--at first seen as a sign of hope--stops as abruptly as it started, they are all forced to reckon with its aftermath. In San Francisco, Sevi fights to find meaning in rekindled love; and Ramona-determined to build an AI to prevent mankind's self-destruction-begins to feel the weight of past mistakes. And in Chicago, Eason measures his commitment to an estranged childhood friend against the chance of escaping neighborhood troubles. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA dazzling deconstruction of science-fiction tropes, \u003ci\u003eThis Weightless World\u003c\/i\u003e looks to the past for a vision of the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdam Soto is a co-web editor at \u003ci\u003eAmerican Short Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is a former Michener-Copernicus Foundation Fellow. He lives with his wife in Austin, Texas, where he is a teacher and a musician. \u003ci\u003eThis Weightless World \u003c\/i\u003eis his first novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50486267937042,"sku":"9781662601750","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c4d098e5-182a-491d-adef-5450c0a8f977.jpg?v=1730422373","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/this-weightless-world-9781662601750","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}