“A mindblowing dispatch from a realm of neurodiverse posthumanity, For the Love of the Cosmos gathers up echoes of Olaf Stapledon’s Sirius, Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä, and Raphael Carter’s great lost tale of the universal network, The Fortunate Fall. The mode is the ‘tragicosmic,’ and Bishop loads it with surprises – unforgettable chase sequences, death scenes, and confessions.”
- jonathan lethem
Graham L. Bishop’s For the Love of the Cosmos is an enchanting science fiction opus in the greatest intellectual traditions of the genre, in addition to being wildly entertaining, charming, and frequently hilarious. The novel’s engagement with themes of transhumanism, gender and sexuality, the promises and perils of artificial intelligence, the dangers of environmental degradation, and much more is terrifically smart and always fascinating. As moving as it is insightful, Bishop’s novel immerses us in a frightening but beautiful world that seems on reflection perhaps not so very different from our own.”
- joel brouwer
PLOT SUMMARY
In Graham L. Bishop's post-apocalyptic adventure debut,
Earth's last humans live beside animals in the Arkology, an artificial island managed by the tyrannical Melampus Corporation. As a puppy, Prince the poodle was proud to be the first user of Melampus's new cross-species telepathy device, the Specter.
Ten years later, though,
Prince is one talking animal among thousands, and his best friend, Dante, a young and idealistic trans man, grows distant in his preparations to become the new Melampus CEO. Dante's attraction to Laura, a compassionate intern from a lower social class, leaves Prince lonely and without purpose.
On an almost tragic research mission,
Prince meets Varuna, a mysterious dolphin whose capacity to "hack" the Specter intrigues him. Varuna offers Prince a dazzling vision: A world where animals can enjoy the same freedoms as humans. To build this world, they get Dante and Laura's help.
But with new friends come new enemies:
The old Melampus guard won't give up power so easily, and our heroes discover a terrible secret that calls the fate of the whole cosmos into question. Prince, meanwhile, learns that his new dolphin paramour has secrets of his own.
