The Destructives - Softcover

Matthew De Abaitua

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857664743 ISBN 13: 9780857664747

Publisher: Angry Robot, 2016

Synopsis

Destructives

About this title

About the Author

Matthew De Abaitua lived and worked as Will Self's amanuensis in a remote cottage in Suffolk, after he graduated with an MA in Creative Writing.His short story 'Inbetween' was included in the bestselling anthology Disco Biscuits and adapted as a short film by Channel 4. His first novel The Red Men (Snowbooks 2007, Gollancz ebook 2013) was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. In 2013, the first chapter was adapted as a short film 'Dr. Easy' by directors Shynola (produced by Film4 and Warp) as a precursor to a feature film, currently in development. 'Dr. Easy' currently has had 237k views on Vimeo.Matthew currently lectures on Creative Writing at Brunel University and Writing Science Fiction at the University of Essex.You can find Matthew online at his website: www.harrybravado.com, on Twitter @MDeAbaitua.

Review

"It's a work that doesn't so much subvert expectations as shatter them utterly. It's dense, but it also moves; it's both a breakneck thriller and one of the year's most thoughtful works of science fiction." - B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog; "Matthew De Abaitua Has the knack of delivering the most complex of concepts and diabolical leaps of imagination in a way that first entices then completely draws the reader in. A thrilling book." - Strange Alliances; "A marvellously written book, whose invention and surprises gain momentum until its boggler of an ending." - SFX Magazine; "The story is set against a detailed background that blends creative imagination with intelligent prediction to arrive at a credible future. From designer drugs to shopping malls that double as asylums, from obsessive data tracking to floating offshore habitats for the wealthy, the future depicted here is a credible offshoot of current trends." - Tzer Island; "A distinctive and grand work of the imagination. You don't need a VR headset to appreciate this work of art, just eyes and a brain." - The Generalist; "The Destructives is as successful as its predecessor and together they make one of the most intriguing and disturbing near-future speculations published for some years." - Strange Horizons; "J. G. Ballard does John Varley, or David Marusek by way of M. John Harrison, with frostings of Philip K. Dick and Peter Watts... De Abaitua's novel gives us a portrait of an utterly foreign yet believable future." - Asimov's Science Fiction (print); "The Destructives is well written and of superior construction, and the ideas De Abaitua grapples with in this novel - the nature of artificial intelligence, the endgame of global capitalism, the eternal mismatch between material prosperity and emotional fulfilment - are compelling and attention-worthy. That De Abaitua navigates the often abstruse territory of his particular science fiction without once sacrificing the predominantly literary values of formal coherence or linguistic suppleness is yet more testament to his skill, not just as a writer but as a thinker." - Nina Allan, for The Anglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy

About this edition

• Publisher: Angry Robot
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0857664743
• ISBN 13: 9780857664747
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400