- This novel by the multi award-winning author M. John Harrison has been shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize (which will be announced today). I've read a few of the entrants and can confidently say it has no hope of winning. None.
- It's not just mysterious from the word go, it's boring. We're taken to a post-disaster world. Everything has been upturned and discombobulated. What's caused it? We don't know and throughout the novel we're never told. There are hints but they lead nowhere.
- Has AI had a profoundly negative affect on the ordinary lives of individuals and communities? Has the digital revolution across all aspects of society in general been the problem? We're told the 'iGhetti' invaded the planet but Harrison never provides any details. The ‘crisis’ happened decades ago. There’s a tailfin of an Airbus A330-200 airliner in the land nearby. ‘A disaster brought it down’.
- There are two main characters who live in a small town southeast of London - Phillip and his aunty Marnie. Phillip collects artefacts from the sea and sells them. He shouts at one point: 'They took everything and we got this junk in return'. Marnie is a lover of art, museums and galleries, and emerges as central to the novel's story as it proceeds. She has good taste and is well informed. But she's also crazy and quick to solve problems with a gun.
- The final chapters of the novel introduce us to the 'artifact', a robotic entity who has recently emerged from the sea. It helps Marnie cremate Phillip after he dies, and it drives, shops, cleans and cooks. An AI Assistant perhaps?
- For some reason a girl artifact appears at the end. She's immature and annoying. Marnie gets fed up and kills them both.
- The novel ends. Thank god.
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