The Department of What it (Really) Means to be Human (Gold SF)

A near-future real-life society transitions to a post-capitalist, post-climate change reality.

The Department Of What It (Really) Means To Be Human is a thoughtful, optimistic scifi novel set in a near-future Aotearoa New Zealand where an investigator navigates a newly post-capitalist world in their search for a missing artist.

When the world changed, Emerald Hutson closed the door on their old life. Now they’re a freelance investigator for the Grants and Stipends Office, augmenting basic income with cases that are both simple and easily resolved. Until they’re assigned to track down Gen Ecks, a notable installation artist who’s fallen off the map.

When Em finds Gen, she’s under the influence of Moneta, a drug designed to let users experience memories as if they were real. Em’s inclined to declare their case closed and leave Gen to it. Most drug use has been decriminalized, and while Gen’s art might be suffering, there’s no reason to intervene if Gen wants to use Moneta. But the drug isn’t working as expected. Gen’s not just going down memory lane, she’s completely lost, unable to tell past from present. And she may not be the only one.

To help Gen and expose Moneta’s dangers, Em cracks open old doors, beginning with an old colleague who’s been keeping an unsettlingly close eye on them. And in the process Em learns that while they may have been happy to take advantage of the world’s shift to start anew, neither they nor the world can be truly changed until they face the past head on.

M. Darusha Wehm is a Nebula Award winner and Sir Julius Vogel Award winner, the author of Hamlet, Prince of Robots, the game The Martian Job, and over a dozen other novels. Their short fiction has been published widely and their poetry has been a finalist for the Rhysling Award. Darusha is a member of the Many Worlds writing collective and they are a fifth of the writing team Darkly Lem, the author of The Formation Saga which starts with Transmentation | Transience. Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand after several years sailing the Pacific.