Lifelikeness

The year is 2182, and an apocalyptic earthquake has left the surviving humans and artificial intelligence beings called cyble together in an unstable new world. This is the blistering debut novel from playwright and essayist Alex Lodge. Both satirical and profound, Lifelikeness follows a shallow and self-absorbed human called Hattie Wood, who lives in an insular community of humans in New Seoul. When Hattie is publicly exposed for committing a social faux pas, she is ostracised from her community, and reluctantly learns about the world outside. Initially only going along on the journey to get petty vengeance on the cybon who outed her, Hattie is pulled into a larger story that ultimately takes her to Rotorua, the new cradle of civilisation in the Pacific. Lifelikeness asks why some people cling to the familiar when the world suddenly changes; and whether you can ever really forgive a cyborg for doxing you