‘What creates space for meaning isn’t the bright dots or the presence of light – for dark constellations, the light is the noise. What matters is the darkness.’

OK, up front honesty: this isn’t generally the kind of book I would read, but I’m also a big fan of world literature and so was keen to read Argentinian author Pola Oloixarac’s second novel. It’s a hard book to pin down; part science fiction, part ‘techno-thriller’, part historical fiction. I’m not totally sure it worked for me, or that I ‘got’ what it was about.

Shifting in time from 1880s explorers in the Canary Islands, to 1980s Buenos Aires, to a techno-hub in southern Argentina in 2024, the book mixes the stories of explorer and botanist Niklas Bruun and Cassio, a tech genius who becomes involved in a company’s efforts in DNA tracking and surveillance. It is primarily a book about ideas, about exploring beyond the boundaries of human knowledge and into worlds of hallucinatory drugs, the dark web and the future of human evolution. It is certainly a big, bold novel full of allusions and nods to various sci-fi authors from the 20th century. Oloixarac’s narrative style is quite detached; there seemed some (deliberate) distance between the reader and the characters and events in the book, and whilst I got used to this, I didn’t quite feel that the book engaged me fully. It’s not really a character-driven story, although we do see Cassio’s development from precocious teenager to forty-something code genius. In many ways the overall arch of the book reminded me of a David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’ with its scope and interweaving of stories.

The final part of the book, set in the near-future, is a troubling vision of the powers of the state and the transformation of human life and identity going forward. The tech company Cassio works for, Stromatoliton, has created sensors to detect DNA, thus enabling the powers that to be to track its citizens at all times. So, for that, it is a timely and ambitious novel. Well-written, certainly, but its style is a little detached, and the characters not really fully rounded enough for me to overly care about them. For those who lap up this kind of novel it will probably blow them away, but it left me a little cold, and more than a little confused at times!

(With thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book.) ( )

Der hochbegabte Cassio, Sohn eines brasilianischen Ingenieurs und einer argentinischen Mutter, legte bereits als 12-Jähriger New Yorker Banken lahm. Ein Genie der Hackerszene, der nach einem Mathestudium sein Talent nicht recht einzusetzen weiß und sexuelle Desaster erleidet. Er trifft eines Tages Max, seinen größten Gegner der Szene wieder. Max wirbt Cassio an, an dem geheimen Projekt "Stromatolithon" mitzuwirken. Ziel ist es, die ungeheure Datenflut aus sozialen Netzwerken mit menschlicher DNA zu verbinden und aus diesem "Datenkumulus" Lebenslinien zu bilden und damit die Herrschaft des Establishments anzugreifen. Der 1. ins Deutsche übersetzte Roman der argentinischen Bloggerin verbindet narrative Passagen mit historischen Ausflügen in die Forschung des 19. Jahrhunderts. Aus Sicht ihres Helden Cassio erlebt der Leser die Entwicklung des Computerzeitalters, gespickt mit unzähligen Anspielungen auf Musik und Filmkunst nach. Illustriert mit Ornamenten, ist der Titel in einem schlichten Cover nur für ein eingeschränktes Publikum zugänglich. Bibliotheken können verzichten. ( )