Cirrus@Austlit

'Even further into the future in ‘Death By Water’ , Grace Chan offers the tale of a bionic archaeologist investigating a bygone disaster on the planet Orpheus – a story whose heartbeat ponders the persistence of the spirit.'

Source: https://clarerhoden.com/from-the-wasteland-the-writers/from-the-waste-land-meet-the-stories/

'In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia.

'Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments. Across the city, in the abandoned 'real' world, Tao-Yi's mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia.

'When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future, or an authentic past.

'Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Murakami surrealism thrown in, this is speculative literary fiction at its best.' (Publication summary)

'11 Stories. 11 Australian authors. One theme: Revolutions.

'While on a remote placement, a teacher gets caught up in a war that changes Australia.

'A bounty hunter pursues a rebel with his sights on taking down the Galactic Council.

'The only thing worse that what the Fortitute's crew discover in the depths of space is their return journey.

'Read about valiant heroes, cyborgs, luddites, and more in this exciting anthology from Australian Speculative Fiction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.