WORDS

LIGHT

Haunted by a dream of a mystery woman, burned-out contractor Adam Walker joins an obscure government department overseeing a new system managed by AI.

When a message hidden in a junk email possesses his imagination, Walker enters a labyrinth of coincidence and hidden meaning.

Summoned Upstairs, intergovernmental mandarin Akbal reveals the real reason for Walker’s hire. Like his predecessor, Mu, he has the illlness [sic], a virus transmitted by words.

Attacking the temporal lobes, it alters human identity. Subjects become invisible to the AI. Mu has gone dark. Walker must find him before he broadcasts a sequence of words, triggering a pandemic.

Light refers to spirituality on the one hand, and digital intelligence on the other.

Set in London and Tokyo, LIGHT is at once acerbic satire and rollercoaster dive into human identity.

COVER VERSIONS

Which one jumps off the shelf for you?

All-seeing moon, more sea, a lone figure wading into it.

Flat, with the horseshoe crab as a “light.”

The moon is a recurrent theme in the book. Here it’s reflected in the eye.

A flat treatment, with a hint of lunar eclipse.

selected scenes

  • IT orcs on several grand a day, terabit USB sticks on lanyards...

    Rudely, the narrator slurs heavyweight IT contractors as “orcs.”

  • A cloud hung over everything.

    Just as light plays on digital and spiritual, cloud plays on cloud computing and clouded horizons.

  • VIRUS infographic you could pull out and pin up in the office.

    Light began in 2012 with the idea of a meta virus. Here’s one of Midjourney’s impressions of a newspaper infographic.

  • A car on a bridge, moon eclipsed by the passenger.

    The narrative weaves vivid dreams, temporal lobe seizures and eery coincidences.

  • ...crowding a flashing dashboard at the Doughnut...

    Light anticipates a world surveillled by predictive AI.

  • what had i seen? A camera flash? A reflection? A ghost?

    Chapter by chapter, the narrative segues with an old Shinto prophecy.

  • ...when he slipped from his perch, a crocodile across a lagoon...

    The office “Upstairs” is likened to a tropical lagoon … even though it’s in Elephant & Castle.

  • ...face bluish in the light of the screen...

    Faces and phones are a recurring theme.

  • The cult received a vision of the Dragon Princess in 1973.

    The “cult of the ocean” predict the return of the Dragon Princess.

  • So lined and spotted she reminded me of the wings of a moth

    Our protagonist meets the high priestess of the cult of the sea.

ESSAYS & ARTICLES

From deep contemplations on the nature of viruses to shamanic takes on world affairs, my Subtend block attempts to find meaningful angles between life’s vectors.